History 82-History of Working People in the United States II
Spring 2015, Section #0739, TTh 11:10-12:35, NEA-128.
Dr. Ellen Joiner, NEA-181, Office Phone: 310-233-4582
e-mail: joinere@lahc.edu
Office hours: 9:30 -10:30 TTh or by appointment
Do You Have an Education Plan? An education plan is essential to completing your
education and to insuring that every class you take counts toward your college
graduation and toward getting a job. If you have not worked out an education plan
with a Harbor College counselor contact the counseling office at
http://www.lahc.edu/studentservices/matriculation/counseling.html and schedule an
appointment.
Course Summary:
“We’ve taught about the Carnegies and the Fords, and all of those millionaires, but
not what working people do.” Dolores Huerta- co-founder UFW
This course studies working people in the history of the United States from
Reconstruction to the present. Issues of class, gender, and race within the context of
work and the influence of organizations and collective action are also examined.
Emphasis is also placed upon the defining role of the American Constitution and its
impact upon labor.
History 82 Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs):
1. Define primary and secondary sources within the context of U.S. labor history and
demonstrate their use in historical research, organization, and writing.
2. Evaluate constitutional issues that impact working people in the 19th and 20th centuries.
3. Trace the chronological development of industrial capitalism and evaluate its impact
on working people.
4. Examine the formation of labor unions, their relationship to working class community,
and to the Populist, Progressive, New Deal, and Cold War eras.
5. Evaluate the intersection of race, gender, and ethnicity within U.S. History and their
influence on American labor.
6. Assess the connection between corporate growth, American global domination, and the
role of labor.
Required Books:
Roy Rosenzweig, et.al.,Who Built America? Working People and the Nation’s History,
vol. 2, 3rd ed., Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008. The textbook will be read and used
extensively in the course so purchase of the book is required. The book may be
purchased from the Harbor College Bookstore or online. Copies are also on reserve in
the Harbor College Library. If you need help paying for books and other college
expenses, contact the Financial Aid Office at http:www.lahc.edu/finaid
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Course Requirements:
1) Textbook reading: Textbook assignments will typically be one chapter/ week.
Each chapter also includes primary source readings. The primary sources (those
will be the readings in gray in the text) are assigned on the syllabus. You are not
required to read all of the primary sources for each chapter just those that are
assigned. We will also discuss primary sources in class so please bring your
textbook with you to each class session.
2) Office Visit and Class Participation: In the first four weeks of the class all
students are required to schedule an office visit with the instructor to discuss
individual progress in the course. The conference may be scheduled during
instructor office hours or at another more convenient time. (10 pts.) Throughout
the semester there will be four graded in-class activities to evaluate class
participation. (20 pts.)
3) Etudes Modules: To help you understand and learn the reading material each
week’s Module lists key terms and individuals from each chapter. You are not
required to write on the Modules. This section is to be used as you are reading the
text in order to help you identify the important terms from your reading. Review
of these terms is also important to prepare for the practice tests and course
examinations.
4) Etudes Practice tests: After reading the text and participating in class
explanation and discussion students will take a practice test that reviews the
chapter reading material. Weekly practice tests are located at EtudesAssignments, Tests, and Surveys. The practice tests are required and the score
counts toward your final grade. The practice tests are for practice so they are open
book and within the one-week time frame you may retake the tests in order to
improve your score. The score on the final time that you take the practice test will
be the score that goes into the grade book and will count toward your course
grade. Practice tests must be completed during the week they are assigned.
5) Essays: Two 4-page analyses of primary sources (40 pts.each) and a 6-page
research paper (60 pts.) are required. Each submission must include an outline,
thesis, essay, and Works Cited. Detailed instructions for each of the essays are
given at Modules. It is very important that you read the essay instructions
carefully. Written assignments will be submitted to turnitin.com where they can
be checked for grammatical errors and plagiarism. According to LACCD and
Harbor College policy, copying another person’s work or ideas without giving
them credit is illegal and will not be accepted. If you have questions about
plagiarism, please see http://www.glendale.edu/library/research/plagiarism.html
or ask me any question you may have.
6) Labor Event presentation: As part of the class research assignment for the end
of the semester, during the first week of class each student will be assigned a
group and an event from the chronology list. This will be the topic for the group
presentation and for the research essay that is due at the end of the course.
Throughout the course, each group will provide a 15 min. presentation of that
group’s assigned event. The type of presentation is to be a group decision. It may
be a historical drama, a short audio or web clip or powerpoint explanation. All
members of the groups must contribute to the organization and presentation of the
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material. The presentation should focus on two issues: (1) Defining and giving
some background to the event (who, what, where, when) & (2) The importance or
significance of the event for working people. If you have questions about the
organization or presentation of your topic I will be glad to help. (20 pts. /student)
7) Examinations: There are three examinations and a final (matching, true-false,
multiple choice, and chronology-50 pts. each). All exams must be taken when
assigned on the syllabus. There are no make-ups on exams.
8) Extra Credit: 15 points of extra credit is available if you choose to complete a
Service Learning civic participation project. The project is explained at Etudes
Modules-Service Learning Project. If you choose to do the project you need to
register for Service Learning 100 by Sept. 12. All History 82 assignments must
be completed in order for you to receive extra credit.
Grades for History 82 are determined on a percentage of the total points. The total points
for the class participation, practice tests, exams, and essays will be available to you at the
Etudes grade book. 90% of the total course points = A, 80%=B, 70%=C, 60%= D.
Week 1
Feb. 10
Feb. 12
Part I- Monopoly and
Upheaval, 1877-1893
Week 2
Feb. 17
Nuts & Bolts of History 82
Themes & Sources of a
Working People’s History
Purchase or rent textbook;
Log onto Etudes &
complete TextBook Tools
quiz; Introduce yourself on
the Discussion Board
Gilded Age capitalism
p.26-41+ Leaves Me in
Poor Circumstances-40;
The Duty of the Man of
Wealth-46
Feb. 19
Great Railway Strike1877
Week 3
Feb. 24
Work in the Gilded Age
c. 1-due Feb. 20
Working Communities
p.77-91
Feb.26
Standard Oil Trust-1881
The Knights of Labor &
Haymarket
c. 2-due Feb. 27 + Eight
Hours for What We Will102
Week 4
March 3
Homestead Strike-1892
Homestead& Pullman
c. 3-due March 6 +An Ulcer
on the Body Politic-132;
Our Condition is Precarious
in the Extreme-146; The
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Colored Citizens Desire that
Some Action be Taken-147
Essay 1 due
March 5
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire1911
Week 5
March 10
Part II War, Depression,
& Industrial Unionism,
1914-46
Reform in the Progressive
Era
c.5 due March 6 +Debs
Attacks the Monstrous
System of Capitalism-247;
It Was a Murder and
Nothing Less-254
Reading c. 4 not required
Exam 1 (c. 1, 2, 3, 5)
March 12
Coming of World War I
pp. 279-292 +
Let the Capitalists Do Their
Own Fighting-286; I Didn’t
Raise My Boy to Be a
Soldier-287.
Week 6
March 17
Steel Strike-1919
World War I & Workers
c. 6 due March 20
March 19
Brotherhood of Sleeping
Car Porters-1925
The “New” Economy
Listen America in the PostWar Era
Reading c. 7 not required
Week 7
March 24
Bonus March-1932
Depression & a New Deal
c. 8 due April 3 + Weren’t
No Use Under God’s Sun to
Treat Colored Folks Like
We Been Treated-412-413;
The Republic is Imperiled428.
March 26
A Second New Deal
p. 445-461
Transforming the Home
Front-WWII
c. 10 due April 14 + You
Can’t Fight All of Them.516
Essay 2 due
Spring Recess
Week 9
April 14
Executive Order 90661942
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April 16
Part III- Cold War
America & After 19462007
Week 10
April 21
Passage of Taft-Hartley1947
April 23
Merger of AFL-CIO-1955
Exam 2 (c. 6-10)
Cold War in Global Context p. 557-573
Race, Ethnicity, and a “Fair
Deal”
c. 11 due April 24 +You
Couldn’t Have Elections569; Asking No Favors574; White People Wake
Up-575.
Work & Civil Rights
p.615-627 + We Were
Prepared-619; I Just Have
To-620
April 30
March on Washington for
Jobs & Freedom-1963
Week 12
May 5
The Great Society
p. 627- 637 Fight Them and
You’ll Get Your Freedom635.
Vietnam & and an Equal
Nation
c. 12 due May 8
May 7
Economic Adversity
pp.683-695 + They Have
Largely Destroyed the Pride
of Craft-689; I Have Very
Little Hope-694
Week 13
May 12
PATCO Strike-1981
The Rise of the New Right
c. 13 due May 15 + You
Don’t Have to Know How
to Cook-716
May 14
A New Economic Order
pp. 735-757 +
You Work Your Hardest,
Then the Next Thing You
Know, You’re on the Street
Looking-744-45; These
Workers Were in Tears751; There is Blood in
Every Dollar I Make-756
Week 11
April 28
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Week 14
May 19
Passage of NAFTA- 1993
May 21
Week 15
May 26
ENRON collapse- 2002
May 28
Week 16 –Finals Week
June 2, Tuesday
Work in the Age of Global
Capitalism
c. 14 due May 29
Economics of post 9/11
America
p.789-801
Research Essay Due
Work in the 21st century
p. 789-806
The global economy of a Tshirt
c. 15 due May 29
Final Exam, 10:30-12:30
Chronology: Throughout the class in order to address SLO#3 which deals with historical
chronology we will be working on the events and dates listed below. In addition to short
group presentations of these events, on each of your exams you will have multiple choice
questions that ask you to identify which of these events came first and which came last.
On the final exam there will be five questions that review over all of the dates again
asking you identify “which comes first” and “which comes last.”
History 82-History of Working People in U.S. –Chronology
Great Railway Strike
1877
Creation of Standard Oil Trust
1881
Homestead Strike
1892
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
1911
Steel Strike
1919
Organization of Brotherhood of Sleeping Car
Porters
1925
Bonus March
1932
Formation of the CIO
1935
Executive Order 9066
1942
Taft-Hartley Act
1947
Merger of AFL & CIO
1955
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom 1963
PATCO Strike
1981
Passage of NAFTA
1993
Enron collapse
2002
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