History/AMST 142
T, Th 9 – 10:20
Fall, 2010
CAMS 1
Claire Bond Potter
Office: CAMS 216
cpotter01@wesleyan.edu
Office Hours: W 4:15-6 (or
by appt.)
The History of Poverty
This seminar will address the history of poverty as a concept and the history of poor
people as subjects in that history. It will use the production, consumption, and
(un)availability of food as a way to examine what it means to be poor, how and why the
poorer classes are connected to wealthier people, and how “the poor” are necessary to
industrial society. We will examine the notion that food, hunger, and nutrition are
political issues that are vital to modernity, to the historical emergence of markets, and to
how states, corporations, and citizens understand their ethical obligations to, and power
over, others.
Readings Available at Broad Street Books and at Olin Reserve:
Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward, Regulating the Poor: the Functions of
Public Welfare
William DiFazio, Ordinary Poverty: A Little Food and Cold Storage
Hasia Diner, Hungering for America: Italian, Irish and Jewish Foodways in the
Age of Migration
Sidney W. Mintz, Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History
Mark Wyman, Hoboes: Bindlestiffs, Fruit Tramps, and the Harvesting of the
West
Upton Sinclair, The Jungle
Luis Urrea, By The Lake of Sleeping Children
William Julius Wilson, More Than Just Race
Articles marked with a * can be found on the Moodle devoted to this class.
Essential Capabilities: Effective Citizenship; Designing, Creating, and Realizing.
Course Requirements
Your final grade in the course will be based on the following:
Students will conceptualize and complete a 15pp. research paper: 50%. The paper will be
completed in three distinct stages, and at each stage, all students will consult with me in
office hours.
Stage one: choose a topic, and consult with a research librarian about the available
sources. Write up an evaluation of what sources you might use, how you will use them,
and what you hope to learn from them.
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Stage two: you will write an 8-10 pp. rough draft. You will attach a one-page reflection
about what central argument your final paper will emphasize, and what supplementary
research you may need to do.
Stage three: you will polish the paper and make a presentation to the class about your
findings.
Each stage of the paper will be graded, with the grade for the completed project carrying
the greatest weight. However, the effort you have made throughout, and the oral
presentation of your findings will also be a factor.
A reading journal: 30%. This can be in the form of free-writing or brief reflections on
the assigned readings; should be typed; and should be turned in at the end of every class
for which there are readings. This is a way of keeping track of your ideas, and what you
think, and as the class progresses, should make connections to your research if possible.
This is ungraded, but it will count against your grade if you fail to turn it in.
Class attendance and participation: 20%. This includes being on time to class, and being
an active discussant. Each student is permitted two absences, but all other absences must
be excused, and repeated absences may jeopardize your final grade. Reasonable excuses
to miss class include illness, religious faith, and unavoidable family business.
Students with Disabilities:
It is the policy of Wesleyan University to provide reasonable accommodations to students
with documented disabilities. Students, however, are responsible for registering with
Disabilities Services, in addition to making requests known to me in a timely manner. If
you require accommodations in this class, please make an appointment with me as soon
as possible [during the nth week of the semester], so that appropriate arrangements can be
made. The procedures for registering with Disabilities Services can be found at
http://www.wesleyan.edu/deans/disability-students.html.
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September 7: Introduction
We’ve All Gotta Eat; Or, How We Are All Connected Through Food
September 9:
Mintz, Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History, xv-73.
September 14:
Mintz, Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History, 74-214.
*Sue Levine, School Lunch Politics, 1-9.
Framing Poverty: Some Theories, Proposals and Case Studies
September 16:
*Oscar Lewis, “The Culture of Poverty” (1966) Anthropological Essays (New York:
Random House, 1970), 67-80.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action,” Office of
Policy Planning and Research, U.S. Department of Labor (Washington, D.C.: GPO,
1965)
September 21:
Piven and Cloward. Regulating the Poor, Introduction and Chapter 1, xv – 41.
Carol Stack, “Swapping: `What Goes Round Comes Round,’” All Our Kin (New York:
Basic Books, 1975), 32-44
September 23:
William Julius Wilson, More Than Just Race, 1-94.
September 28:
Susan Faludi, “Nothing But Big Work: From Shipyards to Space, the Closing of the
American Job,” Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man (New York: HarperCollins,
1999), 51-101
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September 30:
William DiFazio, Ordinary Poverty: A Little Food and Cold Storage, 1-147.
Felicia Kornbluh, “The Goals of the National Welfare Rights Movement: Why We Need
Them Thirty Years Later,” Feminist Studies, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Spring, 1998), 65-78.
October 5:
Part I of research projects due: presentation of project ideas in class
October 7:
Barbara Kopple, American Dream (1992)
Please Note: on this day you must come to class at 8:30 so that we can view the entire
film. You must not be late. In return, I will feed you breakfast.
October 12:
William DiFazio, Ordinary Poverty: A Little Food and Cold Storage, 148-194.
Dana Frank, “Housewives, Socialists, and the Politics of Food: The 1917 New York
Cost-of-Living Protests,” Feminist Studies, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Summer, 1985), 255-285
October 14:
William Julius Wilson, More Than Just Race, 95-155.
Christine Stansell, “Female Work and Poverty,” City of Women: Sex and Class in New
York, 1789-1860 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982) 3-18.
William Finnegan, “New Haven: Work Boy,” Cold New World: Growing Up In A
Harder Country (New York: Modern Library, 1999), 3-92
FALL BREAK
(Re)Discovering and Organizing the Poor
October 21:
Jacob Riis, “Introduction” and “Genesis of the Tenement,” from How the Other Half
Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1890)
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Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, 5-210
October 26:
Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, 211-422.
October 28:
Piven and Cloward, Regulating the Poor, Chapters 2-3, 45-119
James Agee and Walker Evans, “Part II: Some Findings and Comments; Money, Shelter,
Clothing,” Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1941), 99 – 252.
November 2:
Luis Urrea, By The Lake of Sleeping Children
November 4:
Piven and Cloward, Regulating the Poor, Chapters 4-5, 123-180.
Michael Harrington, “The Invisible Land,” chapter 1, The Other America, (New York:
Touchstone Books, 1962, 1-18.
The Working Poor
November 9:
Mark Wyman, Hoboes, 3-139
November 11:
Mark Wyman, Hoboes, 140-276.
November 16:
Film: “The Women of Summer” (Suzanne Bauman and Rita Heller, 1985)
Part II of research projects due in class
November 18:
Hasia Diner, Hungering for America, 1-112
November 23:
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Hasia Diner, Hungering for America, 113 -230
Thanksgiving Break
Conclusions
November 30:
Piven and Cloward, Regulating the Poor, 183-399.
Annelise Orleck, "We Are That Mythical Thing Called the Public": Militant Housewives
During the Great Depression,” Feminist Studies, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Spring, 1993), 147-172
December 2:
Piven and Cloward, Regulating the Poor, 407-466
December 7:
Joel Berg, “Hunger Amidst Plenty” and “Who Is Hungry in America: The Politics of
Measuring Hunger, ” All You Can Eat: How Hungry Is America? (New York: Seven
Stories Press, 2008), 13-44.
December 9:
Presentation and discussion of research
Please Note: class will begin with breakfast at 8:30.
Final papers are due no later than December 16. No extensions, no incompletes.
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Next Stage of the Research Paper:
Draft II, which is now due on November 16, should be made up of the following:
1. A one-paragraph statement of the research project that describes what you
are investigating, why it is important, and the central question (as you
understand it now) that your paper investigates.
2. A one-paragraph description of the central primary source. What is its
nature? Is it a newspaper or other kind of printed primary source? Is it
descriptive “soft” data or is it based on numerical “hard” data? Who
produced this source, and why? And finally, why do you think at this point in
your project that it is a good source for investigating your central question
(from paragraph 1)? This step may involve a second visit to the research
librarian to have that person show you how to use the source effectively.
3. Five - seven pages of writing in which you draw exclusively on your primary
sources. This section of the draft should begin to narrate a story that
responds to your question: it does not necessarily have to answer the
question at this point. But it should be lively, written in an active voice, and
begin to evoke your sense of the world you are writing about – whether that
“world” is a policy discussion (Sydney’s focus on special ed legislation for
example) or community visionaries (Carolena’s “back to the land”
advocates.) The more you write now, the easier your task becomes later.
And remember, this is the fun part.
4. Five-seven secondary sources (work by scholars about your topic), each
followed by two-three sentences saying what this source will contribute to
your paper.
All of this will eventually be re-drafted and integrated into your final paper. Please
remember that you are only receiving one grade for your written work in this course, and
that is because I want to encourage you to take risks and give you room to make mistakes
and fix them. That said, the less you do at this stage, the less chance you have of writing
a good paper and getting the help from me that you need to do that.
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