HIST – 05151-14
U.S. History Since 1865
Spring 2012
Dr. Chanelle Rose
TR: 10:50 a.m. – 12:05 p.m.
Office: Robinson Hall, 216L
Phone: 856.256.4500 x3963
Office hours: TR: 1:00-2:00 p.m. and by
appointment.
T: Education Bldg, 3117
R: Whitney Center CL-202
Email: rosec@rowan.edu
Purpose of Course
This course will introduce students to the major topics, debates, and themes in American history
from Reconstruction to the present. Areas of focus will include important developments ranging
from Western Settlement, Progressivism, the Great Depression and World War II, to the Cold
War, Civil Rights Movement, feminism, the rise of the Religious New Right, and
multiculturalism. We will address a variety of factors that have helped shape American society
such as industrialism, immigration, urbanization, politics, economics, class, race, gender,
religion, ethnicity, and region. The course will cover prominent figures and national events while
examining the experiences of marginalized groups. In effect, we examine the traditional “grand
narrative” of American history to better understand the divergent and multiple perspectives of
interpreting the past. In addition, we will explore the rise of the United States as a global power
along with the impact of its foreign policy at home and abroad. Students will also be asked to
analyze how the shifting conceptions of race, citizenship, and freedom have shaped contested
notions of “Americaness” and U.S. democracy. Design of Course
The class will be a combination of lectures and discussion. In addition to the required text, we
will use film, music, oral histories, and other historical resources to broaden our discussion of the
weekly assigned readings. Students should come prepared to engage in a lively and informed
discussion each week.
Required Reading Available at the Campus Bookstore
Hoffman, Elizabeth Cobbs and Jon Gjerde. Major Problems in American History: Documents
and Essays/Volume II Since 1865. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2007 ISBN: 978061867833-4
Bell, Thomas. Out of This Furnace. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburg Press, 1976. ISBN:
978082295273-2
1 Martin Luther King Jr., Why We Can’t Wait [1st Ed.]. (New York: Harper & Row, 1964) OCLC:
268783
Schneider, Gregory L. The Conservative Century: From Reaction to Revolution (Lanham, Md.
:Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009) ISBN: 9780742542846
Weekly Assignments
The readings from Major Problems in American History contain two parts. The first section is a
series of documents or “primary sources” produced by people who lived during the particular
time. These writings address some aspect of the theme(s) in the historians’ essays. The other
section contains essays written by historians or “secondary sources” on the topic for that week.
Weekly written assignments from Major Problems in American History should be single-spaced,
Roman Numeral 12-point font, and one page in length. Assignments that require typed notes
should be single-spaced, bullets, 12-pont font, and one page in length. You are allowed to miss
two weekly assignments, but additional missed assignments will affect your grade.
Read Both Sections Carefully and Follow These Instructions
In the first paragraph, state only the thesis or argument advanced by the historian(s). Three or
four sentences should be sufficient. In the second paragraph, evaluate the documents or “primary
sources.” After closely reading and thinking about the primary sources, ask if the evidence
upholds the argument(s) of the historian(s). Does a particular author convince you? Why? Do
you think the evidence upholds no author? What do you think the evidence offers instead?
Suggest a possible argument. Could you combine different arguments to create your own
synthesis, based on the sources?
Attendance and Participation
Regular attendance in class is absolutely necessary. During the course of the semester, you are
permitted two class absences without penalty, and no excuse for these two is necessary.
However, each additional missed class will cost you one point from your grade average, and no
excuse will be acceptable. Since emergencies and unexpected circumstances sometimes arise,
you would be wise not to waste your excused absences.
Blackboard
Various assignments and readings will be posted on Blackboard under course content or weekly
assignment. Please check your syllabus regularly to see which information is available. Also,
students must either upload their weekly assignment and/or typed notes as an attachment or cut
and paste them. Students must submit their weekly assignments through Blackboard every
Thursday by 10:00 AM.
Exams
2 Students will receive exam questions two weeks in advance. All exams will be based solely on
the primary and secondary source readings (including Out of This Furnace, Why We Can’t Wait,
The Conservative Century: From Reaction to Revolution), lectures, films/documentaries, and
handouts provided in class. Finally, exams will be taken in class.
Grading
Weekly Writing Assignment
25%
Participation/Attendance
15%
Midterm Exam
30%
Final Exam
30%
COURSE OUTLINE
Week 1
Jan. 17
Introduction to American History & the Cultural Wars Debate
Jan. 19
Handout: Sean Grindlay, “Social Forces” Shaping American University, January 1, 2003;
excerpt from National Standards for History; and David Warren Saxe’s Land and Liberty 1: A
Chronology of Traditional American History (2006), pp. 15-19; James C. McKinley Jr., “Texas
Conservatives Win Curriculum Change,” March 12, 2010.
*Remember, all handouts are posted on Blackboard.
Written assignment: Students should either upload or cut/paste typed
notes on Blackboard and be prepared to discuss them in class.
Week 2
Jan. 24
Reconstruction & the Experiment in American Democracy
Jan. 26
Reading: Chapter 1, Major Problems in American History, including the Preface.
Film: Excerpts from D. W. Griffith, Birth of A Nation, 1915.
Written assignment due: Please follow the instructions provided on page 2 of the syllabus.
Week 3
Jan. 31
Western Settlement, Native Americans & the Frontier
Feb. 2
Reading: Chapter 2, Major Problems in American History.
Written assignment due: Please follow the instructions provided on page 2 of the syllabus.
3 Week 4
Feb. 7
Industrialization & the Rise of Big Business
Feb. 9
Readings: Chapter 3, Major Problems in American History.
Written assignment due: Please follow the instructions provided on page 2 of the syllabus.
Note: Students should have read pp.3-208 from Out of This Furnace by the end of this week.
Week 5
Feb. 14
Workers, New Immigrants & Labor Conflict
30-Minute Documentary: 1877: The Grand Army of Starvation, 1986.
Feb. 16
Reading: Finish Out of This Furnace (pp. 209-413).
Written one-page (single-spaced) assignment due: How do the lives of the main characters
shed light on the social, economic, and political experiences of European immigrants in the
United States? Does Thomas Bell make an argument about the impact of industrialism, labor
rights, and class struggle on American society during this period?
Week 6
Feb. 21
Excerpt: Race: The Power of An Illusion (2003).
The Progressive Era
Feb. 23
-------------------No Class------------------------Note: Students must still complete the readings and assignment!!!!!!
Reading: Chapter 5, Major Problems in American History.
Handout: John Spargo, The Bitter Cry of Children (New York: Macmillan, 1906), 163–165;
posted on Blackboard.
Written assignment due: You should upload or cut/paste typed notes
from Major Problems in American History along with the John Spargo handout
on Blackboard and be prepared to discuss them both in class. Students are not
required to read the two essays by Michael McGerr and Daniel T. Rodgers
this week!
Week 7
Feb. 28
U.S. Imperialism, Manifest Destiny, and World War I
30-Minute Documentary: Savage Acts: Wars, Fairs and Empire 1898-1904
Reading: Chapter 4, Major Problems in American History.
Mar. 1
Reading: Chapter 6, Major Problems in American History.
Written assignment due: Please follow the instructions provided on page 2 of the syllabus for
both chapters.
4 Week 8
Mar. 6
Crossing a Cultural Divide: The Jazz Age
A. Mitchell Palmer, "The Case Against the 'Reds'," Forum 63 (1920).
Mar. 8
Reading: Chapter 7, Major Problems in American History.
Written assignment due: You should upload or cut/paste typed notes from each primary source
from Major Problems in American History along with A. Mitchell Palmer’s essay and provide a
two-paragraph summary of Paula S. Fass and Edward J. Larson’s main arguments.
MIDTERM EXAM ON MARCH 8, 2012 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
March 12-16 Spring Break!
Week 9
Mar. 13
The Great Depression, the New Deal & FDR
Mar. 15
Reading: Chapter 8, Major Problems in American History.
Written assignment due: Please follow the instructions provided on page 2 of the syllabus.
Week 10
Mar. 20
America at War: The Homefront and Abroad
Mar. 22
Reading: Chapter 9, Major Problems in American History.
*Written assignment due: You should either upload or cut/paste typed notes of each primary
source from Major Problems in American History and provide a two-paragraph summary of
John Morton Blum and Alan Brinkley’s main arguments.
Week 11
Mar. 27
The Cold War, Affluence and Anxiety
Mar. 29
Reading: Chapter 11, Major Problems in American History; Gregory L Schneider, The
Conservative Century: From Reaction to Revolution (Introduction and Chapter 1).
*Written assignment due: Students must either upload or cut/paste a two-paragraph summary
of Walter LaFeber and John Lewis Gaddis’s essays from Major Problems in American History
along with a one-paragraph summary of Gregory L. Schneider’s main arguments.
Week 12
5 Apr. 3
The Struggle for Civil Rights and Social Reform
Film: Excerpts from Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years 1954–1964.
Apr. 5
Readings: Chapter 12, Major Problems in American History; MLK, Why We Can’t Wait.
Written assignment due: Please follow the instructions provided on page 2 and upload or
cut/paste notes from Why We Can’t Wait.
Week 13
Apr. 10
The Sixties, Counterculture, and the Vietnam War
Apr. 12
Reading: Chapter 13, Major Problems in American History; Gregory L Schneider, The
Conservative Century: From Reaction to Revolution, Chapter 5.
Documentary: Berkeley in the Sixties (1990).
Written assignment due: Please follow the instructions provided on page 2 and upload or
cut/paste notes from The Conservative Century, Chapter 5.
Week 14
Apr.17
The Rise of the ‘New Right” and President Ronald Reagan
Apr. 19
Reading: Chapter 15, Major Problems in American History; Ronald Reagan: "Radio Address to
the Nation on Domestic Social Issues," January 22, 1983. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T.
Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/.
Written assignment due: Please follow the instructions provided on page 2 of the syllabus.
Week 15
April 26
Cultural Wars Revisited: Multiculturalism, President Barack Obama, and the Occupy
Movement.
Handout: Obama speech: 'Yes, we can change' IOWA, January 26, 2008; posted on Blackboard.
No written assignment due!
All students must bring an article to class that addresses one of the current topics posted on
Blackboard. Articles must come from the following newspapers: New York Times, Washington
Post, Time, Wall Street Journal, Miami Herald, and Huffington Post.
(May 1-5) Finals Week!
FINAL EXAM: TBA!!!!!!!!
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