Prof. Katherine Mellen Charron
Office: 247 Withers Hall
Office Phone: 919.513.1420
Email: kmcharron@ncsu.edu
Office Hours: T 1:00-2:00; W 11:00-12:30
HI 792
Fall 2015
T 10:15-1:00
WI 243
Readings in Twentieth Century U.S. History
Course Description
This readings and discussion seminar offers a one-semester introduction to twentieth
century U.S. history that will familiarize students with the historiography of its major
periods. Students will also examine certain issues in depth as they follow one of four subfields throughout the semester, namely: the U.S. in a global context, economics/labor,
race/ethnicity, and gender/culture. Additionally, students will explore one period in more
depth by identifying the relevant historiographical literature, making a presentation on it
for the class, and leading discussion. Overall, this course intends to assist students in
mastering a body of scholarly works that will enable them: to write a MA thesis, to
supplement their Public History work in other classes, to teach a class in twentieth century
U.S. history, and to help Ph.D. students preparing for preliminary exams.
Structure of the Course
Each week all class members will read one assignment in common (denoted as MAJOR
below) and submit one question on it to the class leader. Every other week, members of
each subfield will read an additional book that complements the MAJOR assignment. Thus,
for 8 weeks of the semester, you will read 1 book a week; for 7 weeks you will read 2.
Every week: All members of the class will post one question on the MAJOR work on the
course Moodle site by 5:00 p.m. on Monday. The class leader will use these to guide
discussion.
Class Leader: Students will sign up to lead class once during the semester on the MAJOR
text that deals with the historical problem of the week. Obviously, you will NOT want to
lead discussion on the day you have a sub-field reading assignment. Each class leader will
need to communicate with me before class to discuss how you will frame the issues for the
week and the relevant historiographical issues that you have identified. You can do this
during my office hours or by email.
The day you lead discussion:
 You will prepare a historiographical presentation, based on roughly 5-10 books and
any significant theoretical, notably paradigm shifting article when relevant.
 You will submit a 5-page review essay on the MAJOR work AND an annotated
bibliography based on your historiographical review. You will use the bibliography
as a guide to discuss the pertinent historiography.
 You will also provide a copy of the annotated bibliography to your colleagues.
2
As class leader: you will present your historiographical overview at the beginning of class
for 20-25 minutes. Following this, the class will hear from sub-field groups who have an
assignment for that week (see below). You will then frame and lead the discussion of the
MAJOR assignment that everyone has read and based on the questions that each seminar
member has sent you.
Sub-Field Presentations: Prior to our first class meeting, you should examine the sub-field
readings list to determine which one you wish to follow across the semester. I encourage
you to select one that is less familiar to you because a main goal of this course is to read
more broadly beyond your specific scholarly interests. You will, after all, read deeply in
these to write your thesis/dissertation, or to prepare your Public History MA portfolio.
Please be aware that our enrollment is limited to twelve and there are four subfields. Each MUST have 2-3 people in it. Thus, it is wise for you to identify a first and
second sub-field choice.
At our first class meeting, you will sign up for your sub-field. Every other week, you will
read the MAJOR assignment and the book listed for your sub-field. You will then meet with
the other members of your group to prepare a brief presentation (10minutes) of your subfield text that compares it to the MAJOR assignment. As a group, you will prepare a
synopsis (2-3 paragraphs) to provide to me and to your colleagues in class.
After the class leader presents on the historiographical problems of the week, your subfield group will offer comments on how your book relates to the MAJOR assignment. Each
member of the group will also prepare a short review (500 words) that summarizes its
argument and places it in the historiography, and submit it to me.
Additional Assignments & Expectations
Twice during the semester: you will submit a formal comparative 5-page book review
that pertains to the MAJOR assignment and your sub-field reading. You may choose the
weeks when you do this.
All of your review essays should have three elements: summary, assessment of
contribution, and critique, with a balance among the three. For good examples of what I
expect from your book review, sample those in the American Historical Review.
End of the semester: There is no final paper due in this class. Instead, each student will
formulate a U.S. twentieth century readings list of 40 books/paradigm-shifting theoretical
articles. You will organize your list chronologically and for each portion, you will identify a
major historiographical question that the works address. Naturally, you do NOT have to
read these. Public History Ph.D. students can use this list for their preliminary exams;
Public and traditional History MA students can use it to inform their research and/or
portfolios. MA students can also have more content articles than Ph.D. students. Your list
is due on Friday 12/4.
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We only meet once a week. Thus, I expect you to attend every class. If you cannot, you
will need to notify me in advance, explain why, and submit additional written work (5-page
paper) that surveys the MAJOR assignment and your sub-field assignment, if relevant,
which the rest of class will cover in discussion. 2 unexcused absences will result in a failing
grade for the course.
For additional information and/or clarification on the University’s absence policy, see:
http://policies.ncsu.edu/regulation/reg-02-20-03
You must submit all written assignments to me in hard copy. They should be in 12point font, double-spaced with one inch margins, and stapled. All assignments must
also be footnoted properly in Chicago style. You can find the Chicago Manual of Style online through the library’s website.
Late assignments will ONLY be accepted if you have an unanticipated emergency and
will be penalized ½ letter grade per day. Written assignments that are more than
one week late WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.
Your writing in this course will be evaluated on both its FORM and CONTENT.
Content refers to your ability to integrate and analyze—not merely summarize—general
themes and ideas of the works you will review in papers. Form refers to the coherence,
logical and chronological, of your writing as well as your grammatical and citation
proficiency. EVERY formal writing assignment that you submit has your name on it, and
thus contributes to your establishing your reputation as a scholar. If I take the time to edit
and comment on things you could do to improve, I expect you to incorporate that into
successive assignments. You could have the most brilliant ideas in the world but if you
cannot express them in writing: who cares? Can you succeed as an historian if you are a
poor writer? Yes. But consider how much bad historical writing you have read and the
difference good writing makes!
Academic integrity is mandatory. You are expected to produce original work on all
course assignments. Plagiarism will result in a failing grade for the course and
possible expulsion from the program.
If you need information on what plagiarism is and how to identify it, see the History
Department’s website: http://history.ncsu.edu/ug_resources/plagiarism_honor_code
See also sections 7-13 in the Code of Student Conduct: http://policies.ncsu.edu/policy/pol11-35-01
All students are responsible for reviewing the NC State University Policies, Regulations, and
Rules located at http://oucc.ncsu.edu/course-rights-and-responsibilities which pertains to
your course rights and responsibilities.
Reasonable accommodations will be made for students with verifiable disabilities.
Students with verifiable disabilities should register with the Disability Services for
Students in order to establish the necessary accommodations. The office is located at 1900
4
Student Health Center, Campus Box 7509. The phone number is 515.7653. For further
information, see: http://policies.ncsu.edu/regulation/reg-02-20-01
Finally, please silence your cell phone before entering class!
Evaluation
Leading Class
Major text review essay:
Annotated Bibliography:
Quality of historiographical presentation:
10%
10%
10%
Subfield Work
Group presentations, handouts, and short review (average of 7):
Review Essays (average of 2)
20%
20%
Participation
Weekly question submission (average of 15):
End of semester readings list (due 12/4):
10%
20%
The grading scale is as follows:






A+ = 98-100
A = 93-97
A- = 90-92
B+ = 87-89
B = 83-86
B- = 80-82
F = Below 60
C+ = 77-79
C = 73-76
C- = 70-72
D+ = 67-69
D = 63-66
D- = 60-62
Texts
The following required texts pertain to the MAJOR assignment only and are listed in the
order that we will read them. They are available at the University Bookstore and on twohour reserve at D.H. Hill Library unless otherwise noted.
Books required for subfield readings are your own responsibility. Alternatives to the
Amazon.com empire include Abebooks.com and Powells.com
+The library does not have this book
*The title is available as an eBook through the library’s website
+Karl Jacoby, Shadows at Dawn: An Apache Massacre and the Violence of History
Kristin L. Hoganson, Fighting for American Manhood: How Gender Politics Provoked the
Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars
*Charles Postel, The Populist Vision
Robert Wiebe, The Search for Order, 1877-1920
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Christopher Capozzola, Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern
American Citizen
Ira Katznelson, Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time
Alan Brinkley, The End of Reform: New Deal Liberalism in Recession and War
Thomas Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit
Ellen Schrecker, Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America
*Charles M. Payne, I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the
Mississippi Freedom Struggle
G. Calvin McKenzie and Robert Weisbrot, The Liberal Hour: Washington and the Politics
of Change in the 1960s
+Kim Phillips-Fein, Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New
Deal to Reagan
Jefferson Cowrie, Stayin’ Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class
Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Schedule of Course Readings & Discussions
Week 1:
8/25
Introduction to the Course & Each Other
If you have not already: Start Reading!
Week 2:
9/1
A Continental Empire
MAJOR: Karl Jacoby, Shadows at Dawn: An Apache Massacre and the Violence
of History
Economics & Labor: Scott Reynolds Nelson, Steel Drivin’ Man: John Henry, the
Untold Story of an American Legend
US & the World: Matthew Frye Jacobson, Barbarian Virtues: The United States
Encounters Foreign Peoples at Home and Abroad, 1876-1917
Week 3:
9/8
An International Empire
MAJOR: Kristin L. Hoganson, Fighting for American Manhood: How Gender
Politics Provoked the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars
Race & Ethnicity: Eric T.L. Love, Race Over Empire: Racism and U.S.
Imperialism, 1865-1900
Gender & Culture: Gail Bederman, Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural
History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880-1917
Week 4:
9/15
Costs of Modernization
MAJOR: Charles Postel, The Populist Vision
Economics& Labor: Thomas G. Andrews, Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest
Labor War
6
US & the World: Daniel T. Rodgers, Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a
Progressive Age
Week 5:
9/22
The Progressive Era
MAJOR: Robert Wiebe, The Search for Order AND Glenda Gilmore,
“Introduction,” Who Were the Progressives? [Posted on Moodle]
Race & Ethnicity: Khalil Muhammad, The Condemnation of Blackness: Race,
Crime and the Making of Modern Urban America
Gender & Culture: Aileen Kraditor, The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage
Movement: 1890-1920
Week 6:
9/29
WWI & 1920s
MAJOR: Christopher Capozzola, Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and
the Making of the Modern American Citizen
Economics & Labor: Lizabeth Cohen, Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers
in Chicago, 1919-1939
US & the World: Mae M. Ngai, Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the
Making of Modern America
Week 7:
10/6
The Great Depression & the New Deal
MAJOR: Ira Katznelson, Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our
Time
Race & Ethnicity: Patricia Sullivan, Days of Hope: Race and Democracy in
the New Deal Era
Gender & Culture: Margot Canaday, The Straight State: Sexuality and
Citizenship in Twentieth Century America
Week 8:
10/13
WWII & End of New Deal
MAJOR: Alan Brinkley, The End of Reform: New Deal Liberalism in Recession
and War
Economics & Labor: Robert R. Korstad, Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco
Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth Century
US & the World: Neil Smith, American Empire: Roosevelt’s Geographer
and the Prelude to Globalization
Week 9:
10/20
Postwar America
MAJOR: Thomas Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and
Inequality in Postwar Detroit
7
Race & Ethnicity: Lilia Fernandez, Brown in the Windy City: Mexicans and
Puerto Ricans in Postwar Chicago
Gender & Culture: Jill Lepore, The Secret History of Wonder Woman
Week 10:
10/27
The Domestic Cold War
MAJOR: Ellen Schrecker, Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America
Economics & Labor: Elizabeth Fones-Wolf, Selling Free Enterprise: The
Business Assault on Labor and Liberalism, 1945-1960
US & the World: Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War: Third World
Interventions and the Making of Our Times
Week 11:
11/3:
The Civil Rights Era
MAJOR: Charles Payne, I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The
Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle
Race & Ethnicity: Carlos Munoz Jr., Youth, Identity, Power: The Chicano
Movement
Gender & Culture: Danielle McGuire, At the Dark End of the Street: Black
Women, Rape and Resistance—A New History of the Civil Rights Movement
from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power
Week 12:
11/10
The New Left
MAJOR: G. Calvin McKenzie and Robert Weisbrot, The Liberal Hour:
Washington and the Politics of Change in the 1960s
Economics & Labor: Pete Daniel, Dispossession: Discrimination against
African American Farmers in the Age of Civil Rights
US & the World: Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman, All You Need Is Love: The Peace
Corps and the Spirit of the 1960s
Week 13:
11/17
The New Right
MAJOR: Kim Phillips-Fein, Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative
Movement from the New Deal to Reagan
Race & Ethnicity: Joseph Crespino, In Search of Another Country:
Mississippi and the Conservative Counterrevolution
Gender & Culture: Lisa McGirr, Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New
American Right
Week 14:
The 70s & 80s*
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11/17
MAJOR: Jefferson Cowrie, Stayin’ Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the
Working Class
Economics & Labor: Bethany Moreton, To Serve God and Walmart: The
Making of Christian Free Enterprise
US & the World: Melani McAlister, Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and U.S.
Interests in the Middle East since 1945
Week 15:
12/1
Most Recent America
MAJOR: Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the
Age of Colorblindness
Race & Ethnicity: Brenda Stevenson, The Contested Murder of Latasha
Harlins: Justice, Gender and the Origins of the L.A. Riots
Gender & Culture: Bryant Simon, Everything but the Coffee: Learning about
America from Starbucks
*On-line class evaluations will be available for students to complete during the last two
weeks of the semester. Students will receive multiple email messages directing them to a
website where they can login and complete evaluations. These reminders only end once
you complete the evaluation. All evaluations are confidential, both in terms of individual
student responses and other students’ ratings of the professor. If you need help, contact the
student help desk: classeval@ncsu.edu
List of Readings by Subfields
Economics & Labor
1. Scott Reynolds Nelson, Steel Drivin’ Man: John Henry, the Untold Story of an
American Legend
2. Thomas G. Andrews, Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War
3. Lizabeth Cohen, Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939
4. Robert R. Korstad, Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco Workers and the Struggle for
Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth Century
5. Elizabeth Fones-Wolf, Selling Free Enterprise: The Business Assault on Labor
and Liberalism, 1945-1960
6. Pete Daniel, Dispossession: Discrimination against African American Farmers in
the Age of Civil Rights
7. Bethany Moreton, To Serve God and Walmart: The Making of Christian Free
Enterprise
US & the World
1. Matthew Frye Jacobson, Barbarian Virtues: The United States Encounters Foreign
Peoples at Home and Abroad, 1876-1917
2. Daniel T. Rodgers, Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a Progressive Age
3. Mae N. Ngai, Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America
9
4. Neil Smith, American Empire: Roosevelt’s Geographer and the Prelude to
Globalization
5. Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making
of Our Times
6. Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman, All You Need Is Love: The Peace Corps and the Spirit of
the 1960s
7. Melani McAlister, Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and U.S. Interests in the Middle
East since 1945
Race & Ethnicity
1. Eric T.L. Love, Race Over Empire: Racism and U.S. Imperialism, 1865-1900
2. Khalil Muhammad, The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime and the Making
of Modern America
3. Patricia Sullivan, Days of Hope: Race and Democracy in the New Deal Era
4. Lilia Fernandez, Brown in the Windy City: Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in Postwar
Chicago
5. Carlos Munoz Jr., Youth, Identity, Power: The Chicano Movement
6. Joseph Crespino, In Search of Another Country: Mississippi and the Conservative
Counterrevolution
7. Brenda Stevenson, The Contested Murder of Latasha Harkins: Justice, Gender and the
Origins of the L.A. Riots
Gender & Culture
1. Gail Bederman, Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race
in the United States, 1880-1917
2. Aileen Kraditor, The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement: 1890-1920
3. Margot Canaday, The Straight State: Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth Century
America
4. Jill Lepore, The Secret History of Wonder Woman
5. Danielle McGuire, At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape and Resistance—
A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of
Black Power
6. Lisa McGirr, Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right
7. Bryant Simon, Everything but the Coffee: Learning about America from Starbucks