US History II

In our last four class sessions we are looking at recent history–“the history of now”–and how to make sense of our globalized, media-rich, fast-changing social landscape.

On Monday April 25th we’ll discuss, add to, and work from the wiki we’ve been making: it can be found at http://since1989.wikispaces.com. As on Friday, it will be helpful to bring your laptop and/or your textbook to class.

On Wednesday the 27th we will start our last written project in class – you’ll receive a packet of materials to study a recent event in US history and will begin to evaluate and analyze the contents. That project is due on the last day of class, next Monday May 2nd. You’ll get full guidelines and instructions on Wednesday.

For Friday the 29th, please read an 8-part article series published in Slate.com magazine by Josh Levin, titled “How Is America Going to End?” Although historians aren’t in the business of predicting the future, a historically-informed perspective can help us think through hypothetical scenarios like these. Which seem plausible to you? What kind of evidence would you need, and what kinds of evidence does Levin provide?

On Monday the 2nd, we wrap up the course and plan for the final. Your “History Now” project is due in class on this day. You can submit it early, but not late, and it cannot be submitted in electronic form. This means you will need to print it out, and you can’t use “no printer ink” or “printer not working” as an excuse for not turning in your work. Plan ahead. There are no exceptions.
Bring your textbook to class on Monday May 2nd.

Exam #4 will be given during the final exam slot, on Monday May 9th at 8:30 am in our regular classroom. It covers Chapters 31 and 32 and Levin’s article series.

Here’s the link to the class wiki: you will need to “Join This Wiki” which may ask for a username and password. (If you’ve ever used Wikispaces before, you can use the same username/password you’ve already made).

http://www.since1989.wikispaces.com

Remember to bring your textbooks and your laptops on Friday so we can work on this in our groups.

Our last unit will consider the U.S. since the 1970s. Our reading this week is Chapter 31. On Monday 4/11, we will have an in-class screening (of a 1978 M*A*S*H) episode and class discussion to wrap up the Vietnam and Watergate era. On Wednesday 4/13 and Friday 4/15, we will look at highlights and important concepts from 1974-1989.

Next week (Monday is a holiday, no class) will consider Chapter 32 and the end of the Cold War. We live in the “post-Cold War” era, what does that mean? When did it end, and how? What were the consequences both internationally and domestically?

During the week of April 25, you will take on a small project concerned with a recent event in American history. How do historians understand the recent past? What sources, questions, and materials can help students like yourselves understand events which happened in your own lifetimes? How do you set “history” into the context of your own life?

I will be there by the end of class (I think!) so please take attendance on Wednesday 4/6. You can use that class period however you see fit – one big study session, small group work, individual study time, working on your Civil Rights Movement notes page…

I posted Monday’s slides under the “Slides” tab and also under “Resources” on the Course Blackboard.

Also, here is the blank handout from Monday with key terms from the Vietnam War era and from the Watergate scandal and trial, in case you didn’t pick one up in class.

There’s no class today, Friday 4/1 because of snow. I have posted the class lecture notes and slides that we would have used today under the “Resources” tab on the course Blackboard. See you Monday; the reading for Monday is Chapter 30.

Document Duels can be submitted via email or Digital Dropbox.

Just a heads-up – Next Wednesday, April 6th, I will be giving a talk on campus for a large group of Worcester Public High School students at 9 am. I cannot be in class for our whole hour because of that presentation, but I will plan to be there by 10:15 when class ends. My proposal is that you students come to class without me, and use the class period as a group study session (with attendance taken). I will be happy to address any questions on Monday the 4th also. See the previous post (below) for more information about how to prepare for the exam on Friday the 8th.

I’m calling this deep unit “The Long Sixties” because it covers more than just the decade from 1960-1970. We’ll be talking about social and political movements, foreign policy and overseas conflicts that don’t fit neatly into those years – starting in the 1950s and stretching into the 1970s. We are still feeling the domestic and international effects from the turbulence of this era.

The exam on this unit will be on Friday, April 8th, and will cover Chapters 27-30.

Topics in this unit include:

Cold War foreign policy
Cuban Missile Crisis and Foreign Affairs in the Kennedy Years
The Vietnam War
The African-American Civil Rights Movement
Other Civil Rights Movements: the Women’s movement/ Feminism, “Red Power,” and “Brown Power”
Decisions of the Warren Supreme Court
The Anti-War Movement, the Counterculture, and the New Left
The New Frontier (Kennedy’s domestic agenda)
The Great Society (Johnson’s domestic agenda)
The Liberal Consensus
Watergate

Image credit: Gilbert Mercier

Here’s the slides I used on Friday to explain the intricacies of footnotes.

If you need more help with how to make a footnote, or what “Chicago Style” is see Diana Hacker online, or the CMS Quick Guide. If you’re curious about why it’s called “Chicago Style,” well… I’ll just say it has nothing to do with pizza.

Enjoy your spring break!

When you get back, we’ll be doing another quick “sprint unit” on the politics and culture of the Cold War, 1945-1960 (Chapters 27 and 28). If you have time and inclination over the break you would do well to begin reading and studying those chapters.

It will be a busy week because Wednesday 3/23 will be a writing workshop day on the Primary Source Project. Please bring your working draft (outline or complete paper draft or whatever you have) to class that day as a printed paper.

The final version is due on Wednesday, 3/30. I am happy to meet with anyone who would like writing help on the paper; please make use of my office hours or set up an appointment. To give you a checklist as you’re working on this project, the grading rubric looks like this:

In looking at the schedule I had for the Primary Source Project, and since we had to miss a class on Monday, I am thinking that more time may be needed and so I’m going to stretch it out over the month of March instead of trying to fit it all in before the 2nd exam and the Spring break.

Please note that I revised the guidelines and the schedule of deadlines.

The new schedule is:

Mar 4      Choose your documents and formulate your question (in-class workshop Wed Mar 2)
Mar 7      Begin writing a draft of your paper
Mar 23   Rough draft due in class for self and peer review (in-class workshop Wed 3/23)
Mar 30   Final essay is due in class in hard copy (or uploaded by Digital Dropbox BEFORE class).

I will have a paper version of this assignment in class on Wed 3/2. Please still bring your FTR book, we will work on choosing documents and formulating questions.

Also on Wed 3/2 we will wrap up on the 1920s and discuss the Great Depression: its causes, impact, effects, meaning–leading up to the pivotal election of 1932.

Over the next 2 weeks we will be looking at the period from 1930 to 1945. On Wednesday we’ll finish up the 1920s with a discussion based on your worksheet from Friday (which you have no doubt worked on over the weekend). If you were writing the chapter on the 1920s, who would you put at the beginning? Who, for you, exemplifies the spirit of that decade? As you researched the people on the list I gave you (the list is below), what were some new things you learned? We will also go over the stock market crash and the start of the Great Depression (Chapters 24 and 25). I’ll hand back your Document Duels #4 and #5 and share my thoughts on how those weekly assignments are going. I will introduce the Primary Source Project assignment.

On Wednesday of this week, please bring the FTR book to class, because we’ll be starting the Primary Source Project, a paper that compares 2 primary source documents and uses them to build an evidence-based historical argument. The guidelines are also posted under the Assignments tab.