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U.S. History and Geography, 1865 – Present
E23.1073 – Spring 2007
Wednesdays, 2:00 – 5:20
Professor Joan Malczewski
665 Broadway, Suite 805
212-998-9017
jm186@nyu.edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays 11:00 – 12:00; Monday 2:00 – 3:00, and by appointment
Course objectives:
This course examines select topics and problems in U.S. history and geography, post-Civil War.
It focuses on the development of content knowledge, methodological skills, and appreciation for
changing interpretation of history. It is designed to prepare you for your future work teaching
U.S. history.
The first steps in preparing to teach U.S. history involve developing an understanding of the
nature of history as a critical discipline, clarifying your own philosophy of history and your goals
as well as society’s in teaching history to the next generation. It is essential that you devote time
and energy to learning and/or reviewing U.S. history so that you understand its central themes,
figures, events and controversies and are in a position to bring that history to life in the
classroom. We will explore some pivotal events in American history since 1865 and think about
how to interpret these events and teach them to your students. The course will explore a variety
of sources to illuminate the American past. We will keep in mind the question of how historians
– authors and teachers – gather evidence, analyze and sort documents, and synthesize data into
coherent narratives. We will explore practical and exciting ways to introduce students to the
study of history, with the idea that only by helping them own history will they truly come to love
and appreciate its nuances.
This course does not attempt to cover all events and trends that occurred in America during the
past 150 years. Instead it isolates a particular set of topics and explores these in depth, using a
variety of methodological approaches and seeking to understand the different ways historians
have interpreted the events surrounding these occurrences. We will look at primary source
documents, material culture, ethnography, art, and music as avenues to historical understanding.
We will also use websites, maps, and other approaches to complicate our understanding and
enrich our appreciation of the United States’ past.
COURSE MATERIALS
Required reading for this course consists of a set of texts as noted below, and articles that are
available at the NYU Bookstore in a coursepack, and on Blackboard.
Carr – What is History
Robert Cohen – Dear Mrs. Roosevelt
Arthur Miller – The Crucible
Booker T. Washington – Up From Slavery
W.E.B. DuBois – The Souls of Black Folk
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COURSE REQUIREMENTS
1. Weekly Assignments Related to Readings: You will be required to prepare a series of
written assignment that relate to the assigned readings regularly, as noted in the syllabus.
It is important that you check Blackboard each week for assignments.
2. Mini-Lecture/Lesson Plan: Each week one or two students will help to lead the class
discussion on the topic described in the syllabus for that day. For this assignment,
students should be prepared to present and lead a discussion of the key events, contested
issues, and important perspectives related to the topic. The student should also submit a
lesson plan for that topic.
3. Final Project: There will be a final project that focuses on a particular topic chosen by
each student, excluding those already noted on the syllabus. The project will include: 1)
an analysis of the way in which different textbooks have addressed the topic; 2) a
timeline that provides relevant context; 3) a narrative that discusses the topic in detail,
including historiography; 4) a collection of materials useful for studying and teaching the
topic, including primary sources and maps; and 5) a curriculum plan for the unit. Each
student will be asked to make a presentation on their topic, providing an overview of the
topic and an activity from on the lessons in the curriculum.
4. Class Participation: Students are expected to attend class each week and read the
materials that have been assigned for that week. Any student who will miss a class or be
late for class should notify me by e-mail in advance. In marginal cases, class attendance
and participation will affect your final grade.
GRADING
Weekly projects/papers and class participation: 30%
Mini lecture and lesson plan: 30%
Final Project: 40%
COURSE SCHEDULE
1. January 17: Course Introduction
2. January 24: Presenting and Debating American History: Historiographical Traditions
 Edward Hallett Carr: What is History
 Tom Holt, Thinking Historically, Chapters 1 and 2
 Gerald Grob and George Athan Billias: Interpretations of American History: Patterns
and Perspectives, Introduction
 Linda S. Levstik: “Articulating the Silences: Teachers’ and Adolescents’ Conceptions of
Historical Significance”
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3. January 31: Reconstruction and the Politics of the South
 “Reconstruction: Change or Stasis” in Interpretations of American History, Patterns and
Perspectives: Volume 1, Francis Couvares, Martha Saxton, Gerald Grob, and George
Billias, eds.
 Stammp, Kenneth. “The Tragic Legend of Reconstruction” in The Era of
Reconstruction (coursepack)
 Film and Historical Interpretation – Ken Burns’s The Civil War and Robert B. Toplin,
Ken Burns’s the Civil War: Historians Respond
4. February 7: American Power and “The Quest for Empire”
 Rob Kroes, “American Empire and Cultural Imperialism: A View from the Receiving
End” in Rethinking American History in a Global Age, ed. Thomas Bender (coursepack)
 Loewen, “Watching Big Brother” in Lies My Teacher Told Me, 215 – 237 (coursepack)
 Walter L. Williams, "United States Indian Policy and the Debate over Philippine
Annexation: Implications for the Origins of American Imperialism," The Journal of
American History, Vol. 66, No. 4 (March 1980), pp. 810-831 (Blackboard)
 Walter LeFeber, “Liberty and Power: U.S. Diplomatic History” in The New American
History, ed. Thomas Bender (coursepack)
5. February 14: The South: African American Life in the Jim Crow South
 Booker T. Washington, selections from Up From Slavery and “The Atlanta Compromise”
 W.E.B. DuBois, selections from The Souls of Black Folk and “The Talented Tenth”
 Ida B. Wells-Barnett, “Lynch Law in Georgia” Chapters 1 – 4 (Blackboard)
6. February 21: The Gilded Age in Industrial America: the Many Facets of Progressivism
 McCormick, Richard. “Public Life in Industrial America,” in The New American
History, ed. Thomas Bender (coursepack)
 Jane Addams, “The Subjective Necessity of Social Settlements” (Blackboard)
 Andrew Carnegie, “The Gospel of Wealth” and “A Workingman’s Prayer for the
Masses.” (Blackboard)
 Hofstadter, Richard. “Theodore Roosevelt: The Conservative as Progressive.”
(coursepack)
 Gutman, Herbert. “Work, Culture, and Society in Industrializing America,” in Work,
Culture and Society in Industrial America (coursepack)
7. February 28: Immigration and Urban Life
 Riis, Jacob, How the Other Half Lives
 Visit to the NYC Tenement Museum: 2:00 – 4:30
8. March 7: The Great Depression
 Cohen, Robert – Dear Mrs. Roosevelt
9. March 21: Visual Culture, Propaganda, and War
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Kohn, Richard, “Introduction” and “History at Risk: The Case of the Enola Gay” in
History Wars, edited by Edward T Linenthal and Tom Engelhardt (coursepack)
Young, Marilyn, “An Incident at No Gun Rhi” in Crimes of War (coursepack)
10. March 28: The Cold War, HUAC and Joseph McCarthy
 Arthur Miller, “The Crucible”
 Arthur Miller, Selections from Timebends.
11. April 4: The Civil Rights Movement
 Cohen, Robert. “’Two, Four Six, Eight, We Don’t Want to Integrate’: White Student
Attitudes Toward the University of Georgia’s Desegregation.” (coursepack)
 Weisbrot, Robert. Freedom Bound: A History of America’s Civil Rights Movement,
chapters 1, 2, and 4.
12. April 11: Vietnam
 Young, Marilyn. The Vietnam Wars: 1945 – 1990. Chapters 1, 2, 9, 10, 12 and Epilogue
 Mangold, Tom, and John Penycate. The Tunnels of CuChi. Chapters 2, 4, 5, 9 – 11.
 Loewen, James. “Down the Memory Hole: The Disappearance of the Recent Past,” in
Lies My Teacher Told Me.
13. April 18: America in the 1980’s
 Chafe, William, “America Since 1945” in The New American History (coursepack)
 Gerald Grob and George Athan Billias, “The 1980’s: American Watershed?” in
Interpretations of American History, volume II.
 Robert D. Schulzinger. “The Foreign Policy of Nostalgia,” in American Diplomacy in the
20th Century, 2nd Ed.
14. April 24: Student presentations
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