79-204 Twentieth-Century America
Department of History

Carnegie Mellon University, Fall 2000
Credit: 9.0 Units
Meetings: MWF, 12:30-1:20, Scaife Hall 324

Instructor: David Wolcott, Ph.D.
Office: Baker Hall 240F
Office phone: 268-6871
Office Hours: Mon & Weds, 11:00 - 12:00
Email: dw4m@andrew.cmu.edu

Expectations  Policies    Reserve Readings    Calendar  Timelines  Lecture Notes     Home






Overview

This course examines the history of the United States from the 1900s to the 1990s with an emphasis on how political, economic, and social developments shaped the conditions, attitudes, and values of present-day America. Subjects to be discussed in readings and in class include the Progressive Era, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, Rooseveltís New Deal, World War II, the Cold War, the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, Johnsonís Great Society, the student protest and counterculture movements of the 1960s, and social changes in recent decades.
 

Course Objectives:

ï This course will provide students with a general overview of the events, trends, people, politics, and culture of twentieth-century America. The course will focus on political and social history ó particularly the relationship of state and society ó and will help students place their experiences, their interests, and other history courses in context.

ï This course will develop basic skills in the discipline of history. Primary among these is the skill of shaping, substantiating, and communicating historical arguments.
 
 

Expectations                                                                                                                                                                    Top        Home

The course will be taught by a combination of lecture and discussion. This design requires active learning on your part. The assignments have been designed to help you to engage with the material and to evaluate your learning on that basis.
 

A. Participation and Attendance

Class meets every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday between 12:30 and 1:20 AM in Scaife Hall 324 (unless otherwise noted). You are expected to attend class regularly and on time, to read the material assigned before class, and to participate in discussion in a frequent and substantive manner. You should involve yourselves in class discussion by asking questions, participating in group activities, and contributing your thoughts, interpretations, and ideas.

Obviously, you need to attend class in order to participate. Attendance will be recorded. You will be allowed three absences; subsequent absences will result in the loss of one-third of a letter grade from the "participation" grade for each day missed.
 

B. Reading Credits

On ten randomly chosen days throughout the semester, I will give you a chance to show that you have completed the reading assigned for that day. You will answer a single question drawn from that dayís reading assignment, and will receive one percentage point when you correctly answer the question. The questions will be very simple; if youíve done the reading assignment for that day, you should have not trouble receiving full credit. If you are not in attendance that day of class, you may not make up the reading credit opportunity unless you have an approved and verified excuse (e.g., doctorís note).
 

C. Papers

This course includes two papers, due on September 22 and November 20. You will be asked to answer a thematic question (on topics that will be assigned at least three class sessions before the paper is due) in between 4 and 5 pages. You are expected to base these papers on classroom lectures, discussions, and reading assignments; no extra research is necessary. This paper should make an historical argument, must have a clear thesis statement, and must use evidence to support that thesis. What is an historical argument? Historical arguments are well-defended, original interpretations of historical events based upon evidence. Itís not easy to make your own historical argument; this course will give you practice doing so.

Papers will be due in my mailbox in Baker 240 by 5:00 PM on the dates assigned. For late papers, one letter grade will be deducted for each weekday that they are late. Papers are to be typed, proofread, and double-spaced in a 12-point font.

Paper 1 Topic                Paper 2 Topic

D. Exams

This course will have an in-class midterm exam on October 18 and a final exam on a date to be determined by the registrar. The exams will be in essay format.

Mid-Term Preview            Final Preview



Course Policies                                                                                                                                                            Top        Home

A. Grading

I do all the grading for this course. Please feel free to come to office and discus any question concerning grading that you might have. I grade on a point system; even if I put a "letter" grade on your papers, I will indicate how many point out of the total for that assignment you have earned. At the end of the term, total point out of 100 will be translated into letter grades as follows: 90 to 100 = A; 80 to 89 = B; etc.

Grades will be distributed in the following way:

Attendance & participation       5%
Reading credits                         10%
Paper 1                                     20%
Paper 2                                     20%
Midterm Exam                         20%
Final Exam                               25%
                                               100%

B. Classroom Behavior.

This course is designed to encourage students to develop opinions and arguments concerning history and film. Therefore, it is important that all members of the class feel that they can come to class and express their ideas in a free and accepting environment. Any actions that might tend to limit that freedom of expression is discouraged. Please be considerate of your fellow classmates.
 

C. Academic Integrity

I expect all students to uphold the highest standards of academic integrity. Any violations of university policies regarding cheating or plagiarism, as outlined in the Student Handbook, will not be tolerated.
 

D. Alternative Arrangements

The Office of Equal Opportunity Services provides support services for both physically disabled and learning disabled students. For individualized academic adjustment based on a documented disability, contact Equal Opportunity Services at eos@andrew.cmu.edu or (412) 268-2012.

 

Course Materials

I. Required readings available for purchase at Carnegie Mellon Bookstore

Arthur S. Link and Richard L. McCormick, Progressivism. Arlington Heights, Ill.: Harlan Davidson, 1983. ISBN 0-88295-814-3; 12.95.
 

Frederick Lewis Allen, Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920ís. 1931; reprint, New York: Harper, 1964. ISBN 0060800046; $8.00.
 

Robert McElvaine, Down and Out in the Great Depression: Letters from the Forgotten Man. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983. ISBN 0807840998; $13.95.
 

William Chafe, The Unfinished Journey: America Since World War II. 4th ed. 1986; New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 0195116186; $29.95.
 

Todd Gitlin, The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage, revised edition (1987; New York: Bantam, 1993). ISBN 0553372122; $17.95
 
 

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II. Required readings available as photocopies on reserve at Hunt Library Circulation Desk or on-line [call numbers in brackets].

Jane Addams, Twenty Years at Hull House (New York: Macmillan, 1910), 281-309.
[PH Wolcott - 49]
 

David Brody, "The American Worker in the Progressive Era: A Comprehensive Analysis," in Brody, Workers in Industrial America: Essays on the Twentieth Century Struggle, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 3-47.
[PH Wolcott -50]
 

Carey McWilliams, "What We Did About Racial Minorities" (1946) in While You Were Gone: A Report on Wartime Life in the United States, ed. Jack Goodman (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1946), 89-111.
[PH Wolcott - 51]
 

Ellen Schrecker, The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History With Documents (Boston: Beacon Press, 1994), 210-230.
[PH Wolcott - 52]
 

Elaine Tyler May, "Cold War -- Warm Hearth: Politics and the Family in Postwar America," in The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order, 1930-1980, ed. Steve Fraser and Gary Gerstle. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989.
[PH Wolcott - 53]
 

Thomas J. Sugrue, "Crabgrass-Roots Politics: Race, Rights, and the Reaction Against Liberalism in the Urban North, 1940-1964," Journal of American History 82 (September 1995): 551-578.
[PH Wolcott - 54]
 

Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," in A History of Our Time: Readings on Postwar America, ed. William H. Chafe and Harvard Sitkoff, 5th ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 159-172.
[PH Wolcott - 55]
 

Malcolm X, "Message to the Grass Roots," in A History of Our Time, 173-182.
[PH Wolcott - 56]
 

Estelle Freedman and John DíEmilio, "The Emergence of Gay Liberation," in A History of Our Time, 244-255.
[PH Wolcott - 57]
 

Sara M. Evans, Born for Liberty: A History of Women in America (New York: The Free Press, 1989), 287-314.
[PH Wolcott - 58]
 

Ginia Bellafante, "Feminism: Itís All About Me!" Time (June 29, 1998): 54-62.
[PH Wolcott - 59]
 



Calendar                                                                                                                                                               Top        Home

Monday, August 28 - Introduction
 

Wednesday, August 30 - Tensions of the 1890s
Reading: Link & McCormick, Progressivism, 1-25
 

Friday, September 1 - Turn-of-the-Century Activism
Reading: Addams, Twenty Years at Hull House, 281-309 (RESERVE)
 

Monday, September 4 - No Class; Labor Day
 

Wednesday, September 6 - Progressive-era politics
Reading: Link & McCormick, Progressivism, 26-66
 

Friday, September 8 - Progressive social reform
Reading: Link & McCormick, Progressivism, 67-104
 

Monday, September 11 - World War I on the Home Front
Reading: Link & McCormick, Progressivism, 105-118
 

Wednesday, September 13 - Labor
Reading: Brody, "The American Worker in the Progressive Era" (RESERVE)
 

Friday, September 15 - The 1920s: Return to Normalcy
Reading: Allen, Only Yesterday, 1-72
 

Monday, September 18 - Prosperity, Prohibition, & a Revolution in Morals
Reading: Allen, Only Yesterday, 73-101, 132-154, 204-224
 

Wednesday, September 20 - From Prosperity to Depression
Reading: Allen, Only Yesterday, 225-297
 

Friday, September 22 - Lecture: Race, "Jim Crow," and the Great Migration
Paper 1 due (no reading)
 

Monday, September 25 - Class cancelled due to electric outage in Scaife
 

Wednesday, September 27 - The Great Depression
Reading: McElvaine, Down & Out, 1-19, 33-48
 

Friday, September 29 - The New Deal
Reading: McElvaine, Down & Out, 19-32, 49-65, 79-119
 

Monday, October 2 - Reactions to FDR and the New Deal
Reading: McElvaine, Down & Out, 121-229
 

Wednesday, October 4 - World War II on the Home Front
Reading: Chafe, Unfinished Journey, 3-31
In class video: The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (1987)
 

Friday, October 6 - Discussion: World War II on the Home Front
Reading: McWilliams, "What We Did About Racial Minorities" (RESERVE)
 

Monday, October 9 - The Cold War
Reading: Chafe, Unfinished Journey, 32-78
 

Wednesday, October 11 - Anti-Communism
Reading: Chafe, Unfinished Journey, 79-110
        Schrecker, Age of McCarthyism, 210-230 (RESERVE)
 

Friday, October 13 - Suburbanization and Post-War Prosperity
Reading: Chafe, Unfinished Journey, 111-145
 

Monday, October 16 - The Baby Boom Family: Masculinity, Femininity, & Discontent
Reading: May, "Cold War - Warm Hearth" (RESERVE)
 

Wednesday, October 18 - Midterm Exam
 

Friday, October 20, and Monday, October 23 - No class; mid-semester break
 

Wednesday, October 25 - The ë50s Roots of the ë60s
Reading: Gitlin, The Sixties, 1-77
 

Friday, October 27 - The Kennedy Camelot
Reading: Chafe, Unfinished Journey, 177-205
 

Monday, October 30 - The Civil Rights Movement from World War II until 1960
Reading: Chafe, Unfinished Journey, 146-176
 

Wednesday, November 1 - Massive Resistance in the Urban North
Reading: Sugrue, "Crabgrass-Roots Politics" (RESERVE)
 

Friday, November 3 - The Civil Rights Movement, 1960-1967
Reading: Chafe, UnfinishedJourney, 205-220, 302-320
 

Monday, November 6 - Divisions within the Black Freedom Struggle
Reading: Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (RESERVE)
        Malcolm X, "Message to the Grass Roots" (RESERVE)
 

Wednesday, November 8 - Lecture: Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society
Reading: Chafe, Unfinished Journey, 221-246
 

Friday, November 10 - Lecture: The Vietnam War
Reading: Chafe, Unfinished Journey, 247-301
 

Monday, November 13 - Origins of New Left
Reading: Gitlin, The Sixties, 81-126, 177-188
 

Wednesday, November 15 - The 1960s Counter-Culture & Anti-War Movement
Reading: Gitlin, The Sixties, 195-221, 242-261
Optional reading: Gitlin, The Sixties, 222-241
        Chafe, Unfinished Journey, 320-328, 336-342
 

Friday, November 17 - 1968
Reading: Gitlin, The Sixties, 285-340
Optional reading: Chafe, Unfinished Journey, 343-380
 

Monday, November 20 - Paper 2 due
In class video: Berkeley in the Sixties (1990; selections)
 

Wednesday, November 22, and Friday, November 24 - No class; Thanksgiving
 

Monday, November 27 - Activism, 1969-1974: Decline or Expansion?
Reading: Gitlin, The Sixties, 341-361, 377-419
Optional reading: Chafe, Unfinished Journey, 404-419
 

Wednesday, November 29 - Womenís Liberation and Gay Liberation
Reading: Gitlin, The Sixties, 362-376
        Chafe, Unfinished Journey, 328-336
        Freedman & DíEmilio, "The Emergence of Gay Liberation" (RESERVE)
 

Friday, December 1 - The Nixon Presidency
Reading: Chafe, Unfinished Journey, 381-404; 420-429
 

Monday, December 4 - The End of the Post-War Boom
Reading: Chafe, Unfinished Journey, 439-450
 

Wednesday, December 6 - Women, 1970-1999
Reading: Chafe, Unfinished Journey, 430-439
        Evans, Born for Liberty, 289-314 (RESERVE)
        Bellafante, "Feminism: Itís All About Me!" (RESERVE)
 

Friday, December 8 - The "New Right" and Ronald Reagan
Reading: Chafe, Unfinished Journey, 450-496
 

Monday, December 11 - State and Society in the 1990s
Reading: Chafe, Unfinished Journey, 497-535
 

Friday, December 15, 9:30 - 11:30 AM, Baker Hall A53 -  Final Exam
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