HISTORY 138
The Emergence of Modern American Culture, 1870-Present
Prof. Carl Guarneri
Office: Galileo 312 x4592 Email: cguarner@stmarys-ca.edu
Office Hours:
Fall
TTh
Course Description:
This course examines “culture” historically as a group’s shared worldview and lifestyle,
whether the group represents Americans as a whole or a subset of American society.
With major theories about the components of American culture in mind, we will draw on
historical essays and documentary sources that illustrate and dissect American ways of
life from the Victorian 1870s to the present. We will analyze popular novels, movies,
oral histories, art, and social criticism to determine the changing shape of American
culture, the various subcultures that compose it, and the relationship of culture to social
and economic forces. How have Americans’ ways of life changed in an increasingly
diverse, complex, and technological society? What underlying themes or values have
remained relatively constant? Special attention will be given to race, region, class,
gender, and religion as agents of diversity and—in the other direction—the influence of
social mobility, political culture, consumerism, and mass culture in providing shared
themes and values for modern Americans. Students should expect challenging readings
and good discussion. The main written work will consist of two exams and several brief
papers analyzing course sources.
Course Objectives:
History 138 will familiarize students with overarching theories that adopt race, religion,
region, capitalism, and mass culture as organizing frameworks for discussing unity and
diversity in American culture. Students will use these theories as hypotheses or perspectives
for examining a wide range of documentary sources that represent key moments or
transitions in the history of American culture since the second half of the nineteenth century.
Thus our course objectives move between theory and practice as we focus on a particular
time and place: the United States during its transition to modernity. These objectives include
understanding historical theory and methods, learning to interpret historical documents
using such methods, and identifying the changing cultural components of unity and diversity
among Americans as their society evolved from Victorian norms to a more contentious and
free-wheeling pluralism. Students will learn to place cultural expressions within their
historical context and examine a wide variety of written and visual sources, including
novels, films, oral histories, advertisements, and art and architecture. More generally,
students will hone their critical reading and writing skills by focusing on developing
historical interpretations and arguments that marshal evidence persuasively. Finally,
students will learn the complexity and the momentous implications of American diversity by
studying the ramifications of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and religion in Americans’
worldviews and their daily lives.
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Learning Outcomes:
1. Place American culture and society from the 1870s to the present in an accurate and
coherent chronological sequence. (Social, Historical, Cultural Understanding
[SHCU], #1)
2. Identify major social and cultural trends and issues of this period. (SHCU, #1)
3. Identify various theories of “culture” as the shared values and behaviors of national
and subnational groupings. (SHCU, #2; American Diversity)
4. Analyze how social categories such as race, region, class, gender, religion, ethnic
identity, and sexual orientation have shaped individual and collective experience in
the United States. (SHCU, #2; American Diversity)
5. Understand the complexity of historical explanation, including concepts of
causation, contingency, convergence, and individual agency, as they apply to
cultural products and their historical context. (SHCU, #2)
6. Learn how to gather and interrogate documents (primary sources) as evidence about
historical episodes or movements. (SHCU, #3)
7. Examine historical issues/problems within their period-appropriate context, and
from multiple historical points of view. (SHCU, #4)
8. Identify and evaluate an historical thesis or interpretation embedded in an historical
essay or book. (SHCU, #4)
9. Write persuasive and accurately documented historical essays. (SHCU, #3 and 4)
Exams and Other Writing Assignments:
Exams
All exams, including the final exam, will be composed of identification questions and
interpretive essays. They will not be cumulative. Study questions from which the exam
material will be drawn will be distributed in class one week prior to the test dates. These
exams are designed to assess your mastery of learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4 (American
Diversity), 7, 8, and 9.
Paper #1: Individual and Group Success in Booker T. Washington’s Up from Slavery
This four-page paper asks you to analyze Booker T. Washington’s autobiography as an
African-American version of the “Horatio Alger story” describing and prescribing the
rise from rags to respectability. This involves a comparison/contrast with another course
source, Horatio Alger’s novel Ragged Dick. This paper is intended to support learning
outcomes #2-7 and 9, including #3 and 4 regarding American Diversity.
Paper #2: Hard Times: Experiencing (and Remembering) the Great Depression
This four-page paper, based on fifteen oral histories of Great Depression survivors, asks you
to find patterns in the impact of the Depression on a variety of Americans’ lives and their
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social and political views. What responses did Americans share in common, and which
differed according to race, class, gender, or other factors? This paper is intended to
support learning outcomes #2-7 and 9, including #3 and 4 regarding American
Diversity.
Paper #3: With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right
This four-page paper, based on William Martin’s sweeping survey of the growing power of
evangelical Christianity among Americans after 1950, requires you to relate religious trends
to political and social developments in the post-World War II era, and to discuss how
religion has shaped Americans’ views of national, racial, and gender identities. This paper
is intended to support learning outcomes #2-5, 7-9, including #3 and 4 regarding
American Diversity.
Required Texts:
Historical Works:
Colin Woodard, American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of
North America (2011)
Warren I. Susman, Culture as History: The Transformation of American Society in the
Twentieth Century (1984)—Pantheon
Witold Rybczynski, “Waiting for the Weekend”--reprint
William Martin, With God on Our Side (1997)—Broadway Books
Walter LaFeber, Michael Jordan and the New Global Capitalism (2002)—Norton 2nd ed.
Documentary Sources:
Horatio Alger, Ragged Dick (1867)—Simon & Schuster ed.
Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery (1901)—Bedford/St. Martin’s ed.
Thomas Dublin, Immigrant Voices: New Lives in America, 1773-1986—U.of Illinois Press
Lincoln Steffens, Shame of the Cities (1904)—reprint
Charlotte Gilman, Herland (1915)—Pantheon
Studs Terkel, Hard Times--reprint
Claude Brown, Manchild in the Promised Land (1965)—Simon & Schuster
Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1963)—Norton 1997 ed.
Selected reprinted sources to be distributed.
Schedule:
Part One: The Configuration of American Culture, 1865-1915
T Aug. 31 Introduction
Th Sept. 2 The Victorian Value System
T Sept. 7 Discussion: Alger, Ragged Dick (1867), including editor’s introduction
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Th Sept. 9 Outsiders: African Americans
Washington, Up From Slavery (1901), pp. 1-35, 131-151
T Sept 14 Discussion of Up From Slavery (continued), pp. 38-130, 152-193
Th Sept. 16 Regional and National Culture: The North and South
Woodard, American Nations, Introduction, Chaps. 4 and 7
Film: "The Story of English"
T Sept. 21 The American West: Image and Reality
Woodard, American Nations, Chap. 22
Th Sept. 23 Outsiders: Immigrants and the Dilemmas of Assimilation
Dublin, ed., Immigrant Voices, Chs. 4-8
Woodard, American Nations, Chap. 23
T Sept. 28 The Changing Middle Class: Suburbanization and Domesticity
Film: “America By Design: The House”
Th Sept. 30 The Changing Middle Class: Professionalism and Leisure
Witold Rybczynski, “Waiting for the Weekend”--reprint
T Oct. 5 Progressivism and the Reform Tradition
Lincoln Steffens, Shame of the Cities (1904)—reprint
Susman, Culture as History, pp. 86-98
Part Two: Modernism and Mass Culture, 1915-1963
Th Oct. 7 Shifting Frameworks of Thought: Science and Gender
Gilman, Herland (1915)
T Oct. 12 World War I as a Cultural Turning Point
John Dos Passos, “The Body of an American” (1932)--reprint
Excerpts from T. Roosevelt, Bourne, and Kallen--reprint
Th Oct. 14 MIDTERM EXAM
T Oct. 19 A Revolution in Art and Architecture
Readings on the Armory Show (1913)--reprint
Th Oct. 21 Mass Culture Transforms America
Susman, Culture as History, pp. 99-149, 252-270
T Oct. 26 Cultural Collisions in the “Roaring Twenties”
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Documents from The Scopes Trial (1925)--reprint
Th Oct. 28 Radicalism and Reaffirmation in the 1930s: The Great Depression
Studs Terkel, Hard Times, selections--reprint
T Nov. 2 Prosperity, Cold War and Conformity: The 1950s
Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1963)—1997 edition
Chs. 1-4
Part Three: Change, Reaction, and Globalization, 1964-Present
Th Nov. 4 Feminism after the 1950s
Friedan, Feminine Mystique, Chs. 7-10, 14, Epilogue and “Metamorphosis”
T Nov. 9 Black Migration and the “Underclass” Controversy
Brown, Manchild in the Promised Land (1965)
Th Nov. 11 Discussion of Manchild (continued)
T Nov. 16 Global Youth Revolt in the 1960s
Film: “Young Blood, 1968”
Th Nov. 18 The “Culture Wars” and the Rise of the Religious Right
Martin, With God on Our Side, pp. 1-46, 100-143, 191-237
T Nov. 23 Discussion of With God on Our Side
Martin, With God on Our Side, pp. 238-298, 371-392
THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY
T Nov. 30 American Capitalism Goes Global
LaFeber, Michael Jordan, pp. 13-24, 49-164
Th Dec. 2 Globalization and “Americanization”
Guarneri, “Globalization and American Culture Abroad”--reprint
FINAL EXAM: Tuesday, December 7, 11:30-1:30
Grading:
20% Class participation
20% First exam
40% Papers
20% Final Exam
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Grading standards:
Grades for written work will be based on the following:
1. Focus. What is your thesis? Did the topic sentence for each paragraph establish what
the paragraph will argue or demonstrate?
2. Evidence. Did you provide sufficient and convincing evidence for your argument?
Where did your evidence come from? Is it reliable?
3. Development. Did your essay develop the argument logically? Was it organized
coherently from one paragraph to the next? Did each paragraph advance your thesis?
4. Diction and grammar. Was your choice of words appropriate to the subject matter?
Were your sentences grammatically correct?
5. Sophistication and originality. Did your paper have something original to say? Are
the ideas challenging? Is the essay interesting enough for an audience beyond the
professor?
Expectations for paper grades:
A: Excellent: high quality ideas, thoughtful, challenging, original, coherent, clear,
concise, flawless grammar
B: Good: well-argued, conventional ideas, grammatically correct
C: Average: fair argument, rudimentary thesis, requires significant improvement
D: Passing: paper with undeveloped or unclear thesis; serious grammatical problems
F: Fail: paper shows no understanding; or deeply flawed in its argument, ideas,
grammar, thesis
Grades for class participation will be based on five criteria:
1. listening to and interacting with peers
2. preparation for class
3. quality of contributions
4. advancing class discussion
5. frequency and consistency of participation
6. in-class quizzes
Expectations: Class participation deserving of an A grade will be strong in most
categories; Participation that is strong in some categories but needs development in others
will receive a B; a grade of C reflects a need for development in most categories; D work is
typically unsatisfactory in several categories; and F work, unsatisfactory in nearly all.
Attendance Policy:
Students will be allowed three absences during the semester. Absences above that number,
no matter what the reason, may require make-up assignments: you must consult with me
individually on this. More than five absences can result in grade penalties.
Course Moodle site: The course Moodle site will archive copies of the syllabus,
assignment sheets, and exam study guides. As the semester proceeds I will also add
readings, images, and PowerPoint slides seen in class. To access the site, go to the My
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Saint Mary’s login page via the SMC website, then type your SMC email username (the
part before @) as the username) and type your 7-digit SMC ID# as your password. Click
on the GaelLearn (Moodle) icon and then open up the HIST-138-01 course site.
Email: Unless I am replying to an email you sent me from another address, I will always
use your Saint Mary’s email address to contact you or to send an email to the class. If
you prefer to receive my emails and other official SMC emails at your gmail, yahoo, or
other address, you can arrange to have them automatically forwarded. Contact the Saint
Mary’s CaTS help desk for assistance at 631-4266 or helpdesk@stmarys-ca.edu
Academic Honesty: This course operates under the premises of the Saint Mary’s
academic honor code, by which students pledge to do their own work in their own words,
without seeking inappropriate aid in preparing for exams or assignments. Saint Mary’s
College expects every member of its community to abide by the Academic Honor Code.
According to the Code, “Academic dishonesty is a serious violation of College policy
because, among other things, it undermines the bonds of trust and honesty between
members of the community.” Violations of the Code include but are not limited to acts
of plagiarism. For more information, please consult the Student Handbook at
http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/your-safety-resources/student-handbook. I am available to
discuss issues of academic integrity in general as well as specific information about
plagiarism, appropriate citation, and collaboration for this course.
Disability Statement:
Student Disability Services extends reasonable and appropriate accommodations that take
into account the context of the course and its essential elements, for individuals with
qualifying disabilities. Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact the Student
Disability Services Director at (925) 631-4164 to set up a confidential appointment to
discuss accommodation guidelines and available services. Additional information
regarding the services available may be found at the following address on the Saint
Mary’s website: http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/academics/academic-advising-andachievement/student-disability-services.html
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