HST 376 American Social and Cultural History

Instructor: Dr. Brad D. Hume            Office: Humanities (HM) 433             Phone: 93381
Email: brad.hume@notes.udayton.edu    Web: http://academic.udayton.edu/BradHume
Office Hours: Tues. 4:30-5:30, Wed. 2:30-4 and by appointment.

This syllabus is subject to change (and will change).

Course Requirements: The course will be a mixture of discussion, lecture, and some in-class group work. Your grade will be based on participation (15%), three take-home essay exams (45%) and two review essays (40%). See below for an explanation of the review essays.

Participation: NOTE: If you do not participate verbally in class you will NOT receive an A in this course. Keeping up with readings and discussion are crucial to doing well in this course. I will regularly take attendance to monitor participation, because if you are not in class, you certainly cannot participate. I will provide you with a list of general questions to think about as well as providing you with things to look for in specific readings. In many cases we will divide into groups to consider questions and then discuss those same questions in general. I also reserve the possibility of using surprise quizzes to inspire your enthusiasm for reading. Any quizzes would be factored into your participation grade.

Take-home Essays: At the end of each unit I will provide two or three take-home essay questions. For each exam you will choose one question and write an essay, no less than 4 pages and no more than 7, in response. You will have one week to complete the question. The questions will require you to discuss readings covered in class. If you wish to use other sources, please consult with me beforehand. I have tried to make that unnecessary for these essays.

Review Essay: During the course of the semester you will write two review essays, 7-9 pages each.. In consultation with me you will choose two topics related to this course and thoroughly discussed in the readings. You will then gather 2 SCHOLARLY articles and 3-5 GOOD web sites all dealing with the same topic. Sites and articles which disagree with in-class readings are encouraged but must be good arguments based on solid evidence and facts (hint: Michael Moore and Sean Hannity are most definitely not scholars). After reading them you will prepare a review essay on your topic. Reviewers will discuss how authors have debated a particular topic, evaluating use of evidence, methods of analysis, interpretive skills, etc. See the Review Essay Guide for further instructions. 

Grading:
Course Grades by percentage: All assignments except quizzes will be worth 100 points and grades will be based on a standard curve, as follows:

Final Grades will be computed based on points weighted for percentages. For example, if an assignment was worth 30% of your grade and you received an 86, the grade would be computed by taking 86 and multiplying it by .30, or 86 x .30 = 25.8. Grade points with decimals of .5 and above will be rounded to the next whole number. In the above example 25.8 would become 26. In other words 30% at the B level computes to 26 points out of 30 possible in that category and 30 out of 100 total points (for all grade categories contributing to your final grade).

Course Requirements in Particular:

NOTE: I do NOT give extra credit assignments. Please do NOT come to me hoping to be able to bring up your grade with extra work. The requirements below are the only basis for your grade.

Course Policies:

In addition to the Department of History policies, please note the following:

Objectives and General Understanding: This syllabus is designed to give you all the information you need to understand what will happen in this course. You are responsible for reading and understanding this syllabus. I am responsible for making sure that all your questions are answered. Unless you tell me otherwise, I must assume that you have read and understood what we will be doing and how your grade will be determined. You may ask questions at the start of each class, via email, or in my office hours. You are being advised as to major due dates from the very beginning, please be sure to budget your time so that you are not faced with doing last minute work. 

Assignments: Unless I specifically say that you may work with others on your assignments, you should assume that all assignments are to be done by you alone. The student handbook has all the definitions of plagiarism and other infractions against the academic code. Be sure to read and understand them so that you do not make any accidental mistakes. Keep a copy of all assignments (papers, etc.) on your hard drive through the entire semester. If there are any questions about the paper I will request it to examine it on plagiarism programs.  If you have any confusion about an assignment be sure to ask me – not another student! – about it long enough in advance that I will have time to give you a response. I am happy to answer all questions and provide any guidance that I can to help you produce quality work. Office hours are for students and you may visit me during those hours as often as you need to.

Due Dates: All assignments are due in class on the date assigned. Be sure to keep a copy on your computer in case I need an additional copy, but unless I specifically give you permission, do not send papers to me via email. Late papers will be docked 5 points (roughly one-half grade) for each day late (e.g., 3 days late = 15 points off the total points for the assignment; e.g., an 84 would become a 69). Weekend days count.

Attendance: Attendance is required. If you are going to be late, please do NOT come to class. I allow three unexcused absences. In other words, you have three days you may miss without providing me any reasons for doing so. For all other absences I require a formal note of some kind (formal note, third-party email, verifiable phone message). If you are sick, go to the health center and get a record; if you have a family emergency please have a parent or guardian verify it; if you have a crisis, see someone and have that person email, call, or write a note for me. Telling me that you had the flu for two days, but you did NOT go to the health center will mean that you have two unexcused absences. Leaving a message saying that you cannot make it to class because your car broke down means you have an unexcused absence UNLESS you bring in the invoice from the mechanic. The basic formula for assessing unexcused absences is one point off participation. 

Class Materials and Communications: Many materials for this course will be available at my web site but most of it will be found at our Quick Place. Discussion questions and lecture notes will be provided there as long as attendance rates remain above 80%. As soon as attendance drops below 80% twice all lecture notes and discussion questions will be removed from the quick place site and no new ones will be added. You will be asked for a username and password -- your standard Lotus Notes username and password should work. If you have problems accessing the site, please let me know. Each semester I receive an email address that is really a distribution list (all I see is 03_FA_HST_376_02). I will be using that email address to communicate with you. If you do not use Lotus Notes regularly you will need to have your mail forwarded to your preferred address. Go to notes.udayton.edu and follow the instructions at the web site.

Required Texts:  

For the main texts, the books will be referred to by the last name of the only or first author/editor of the volume.

Gerstle = Gary Gerstle,  American Crucible : Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century (Princeton, 2002) ISBN: 0691102775 ($14)

Johnson = Chalmers Johnson, The Sorrows of Empire : Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (Metropolitan Books, 2004) ISBN: 0805070044 ($25)

Ninkovich = Frank A. Ninkovich, The United States and Imperialism (Blackwell Publishers, 2000) ISBN: 1577180569 ($29)

Schlosser = Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (HarperCollins, 2002) ISBN: 0060938455 ($12)

Sinclair = Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (Norton Critical Edition, 2002) ISBN: 039397779X ($12)

Unit 1 Consumers

Don't forget about Annals of American History - in Databases at UD

W1 8/23-8/27

Begin reading Sinclair, The Jungle

W2 8/30-9/3

Sinclair, Read to chapter 18

W3 9/6-9/10

Sinclair, finish the novel (ends on 328), and 365-71 (Russell), 371-374 (Simons), 431-441 (Halpern), 459-465 (Braeman)

W4 9/13-9/17

Schlosser, Intro. & Chs. 1-3
* Horace M. Kallen, The Rise of Consumerism (1936) (Annals)
9/15 Last day to withdraw without record

W5 9/20-9/24

Schlosser, Chs. 4-8
* W. H. Ferry, Problems of Abundance (1960) (Annals)

W6 9/27-10/1

Schlosser, 193-288

Unit 2 Citizens

W7 10/4-10/8

Gerstle, Intro. & Ch. 1
Ninkovich, Ch. 1
* Josiah Strong, The Superiority of the Anglo Saxon Race (Annals)
* W. E. B. DuBois, On Voting, 1906
*  Booker T. Washington, Contra DuBois, 1906
* Jane Addams on Why Women Should Vote, 1915

W8 10/11-10/15

Gerstle, Chs. 2& 3
* LaFollette on Speech and War, 1917
* Lothrop Stoddard, The Crisis of the Ages (1920) (Annals)
* Bruce Bliven, "Flapper Jane," The New Republic, 1925

W9 10/18-10/22

Gerstle, Ch. 4 & 5
* Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, 1933 (Radio recording at Annals)
* Huey Long, Sharing Our Wealth (1935) (Annals)
* Ralph Adam Cram, What is a Free Man (1937) (Annals)
* Asa Philip Randolph, Negro March on Washington (1942) (Annals)
Review Essay 1 is due 10/21

W10 10/25-10/29

Gerstle, Ch. 6
* Racial Discrimination in Washington, D. C. (1947) (Annals)
* Harry S. Truman, Desegregation of the Armed Forces (1948) (Annals)
* Wiliam Faulkner, Speech on Receiving the Nobel Prize, 1950
* Brown et al v. the Board of Education of Topeka (1954) (Annals)

W11 11/1-11/5

Gerstle, Ch. 7
* John F. Kennedy, The African American and the American Promise (1963) (Annals)
* Lyndon Johnson, The War on Poverty (1964) (Annals)
* Malcom X, The Ballot or the Bullet, 1964
* Stokely Carmichael, Black Power (1966) (Annals)
 

Unit 3 Imperial Subjects?

W12 11/8-11/12

Gerstle, Ch. 8 & Epilogue
Ninkovich, Intro. & Ch. 2 (Skim over Chs. 1 for argument points)
* George F. Kennan, The Secret Memo (Policy Memo 23)
* Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) (Annals)
11/10 Last day to withdraw with a record of W

W13 11/15-11/19

Ninkovich, Chs. 3 & 4

W14 11/22-11/26

Ninkovich, Chs. 5 & 6
Johnson, 1-95
11/25 No Class, Thanksgiving Recess

W15 11/29-12/3

Johnson, 97-215

W16 12/6-12/10

Johnson, 216-312
* Max Boot, "The Case for American Empire" (Weekly Standard, 10/15/01)
* Charles S. Maier, "An American Empire?" (Harvard Magazine, Nov.-Dec. 2002)

Review Essay 2 is due 12/9

12/7 Last Day of Class

Final Examinations 12/13-12/17