US History II

Links for today’s class:

Over There (vintage audio recording of the war’s most popular song)

Winsor McCay’s 1918 animated mini-documentary film “Sinking of the Lusitania“

In class on Friday, I called this a “lightning round” – we’re covering some quick ground this week to bring us up to the 1930s. There’s a lot more reading this week, and for that reason we’re only hitting the highlights, main points, and big concepts.

On Friday 18th we discussed the Progressive Era and did an in-class exercise to think like Progressives. On your own, study what Progressives did (and did NOT) achieve, now that you know what their goals and methods were. How successful were they? What were some of their legacies? What happened to the Progressive movement, how and why did it end?

On Wednesday 23rd, we will look at World War I. The United States reluctantly (and belatedly) entered the war, sending some 2 million soldiers and nurses overseas, and the war had dramatic political and cultural consequences on the American homefront even though our participation in the conflict was relatively short-lived. Once again we will have an in-class workshop, so read Chapter 23 in preparation for that.

On Friday 25th, we look at the 1920s, sometimes called the “Jazz Age” (and why is that?). Chapter 24 opens with a vignette about the media-savvy California Pentecostal evangelist Sister Aimee McPherson. By coincidence, she was one of the subjects of my research and I have had the good fortune to be part of a documentary film about her, so we will screen a few clips in class. After reading the rest of the chapter, why do you think the editors chose her to represent the “New Era”? Who else might you choose? Our in-class workshop will showcase some of the people that made the 1920s so transformative–and we’ll end class with a huge, traumatic crash in the stock market as the roaring twenties came to a screeching halt in October 1929.

Thomas Nast, “Boss Tweed”

Links for today’s class:

NY Tenement Museum

William Grimes, “Your Tired, Your Poor, and Their Food,” New York Times 8/26/2010

Two videos for our consideration today:

Super Bowl XLV “The Journey” (pirated; hopefully the link will stay live today)

SchoolhouseRock, “Great American Melting Pot“

Click on any marker to see a short explanation of a Gilded-Age labor uprising, strike, or riot.

Gilded Age Industrial Conflicts on Google Maps

View Gilded Age Industrial Conflict in a larger map

Sorry we are not able to meet today, because of the lousy weather and a 2-hour delay. We will get acquainted in person on Friday, but in the meantime the course’s work will still begin. Missing today’s session should not set us back too far, we will keep to the schedule as planned on the syllabus. There’s a link to the syllabus in the left hand sidebar, and also from the Blackboard page.

Please make sure that you do the following –

As discussed in the syllabus, you will be turning in a “Document Duel” each Friday, starting this week. The instructions are under the “Document Duel” tab at the top of this page. In today’s class I had planned to talk about how to approach your first one; here is my slide of suggestions. Just do your best. Please note that all your DDs must be received by me either in class (printed out) or BEFORE class (if you have to upload to Blackboard’s Digital Dropbox for some reason). I cannot accept any DDs after class begins on Fridays. Also, note that you can drop one or skip one without any penalty, so no worries if you choose not to tackle the first one this week.

If you need 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… it has nothing to do with pizza.

This week we look at America in turmoil, practically at the point of civil war – the years 1965-1975. The nonviolent civil rights movement fractured into multiple movements, marked by standoffs, sit-ins, protests, assassinations, violence, riots, and new directions: black/red/brown power, radical feminism, student movements and anti-war protests. By the end of this week, we will witness the United States convulsed by violence, torn by war, and deeply disillusioned by scandal and constitutional crisis in Richard Nixon’s White House. It’s a week to look at some of America’s toughest times.

Monday 11/15 – the reading is documents from FTR (347-362), but you should definitely review the textbook’s coverage of the Vietnam War so that you have the basic outline in your head. We’ll discuss the war under Kennedy and Johnson, and the way it’s been remembered in film and public memorials.

Wednesday 11/17 – Chapter 35 in ANH, “Rebellion and Reaction” – including the tumultuous year of 1968

Friday 11/19 – the Vietnam War in the 1970s, including Nixon’s decision to widen the war to neighboring Laos and Cambodia, the Kent State shooting, and the Watergate crisis

On Friday, we wound down a weeklong “workshop” in which you each had the chance to set individualized learning goals and work towards something that you felt was important for you to learn about the civil rights movement(s). Some folks worked individually, while others collaborated or produced knowledge-sharing artifacts to share with the class as a whole. Take advantage of these resources!

Handout: Key People in the Fight for African American Equality (Emily C.)

Group-authored Timeline on the Civil Rights Movement using Dipity (Karol P.)

Nice work everyone! There may be a few more handouts/timelines trickling in next week; if you made something to share try to get it to me over the weekend or in class on Monday.

Next week our class sessions will return to a more traditional format, but I hope you’ll sustain the energy you felt this week and stay curious about aspects of the 1960s especially where you feel your knowledge might have gaps.

The next three weeks will look at the 1960s (and early 1970s) from three different perspectives. This week, we’ll look at the gaining momentum for school desegregation and the long-overdue but slow dismantling of Jim Crow legislation in the 1950s–and the constitutional conflicts that momentum provoked. On Wednesday and Friday we’ll look at the domestic policy agenda, and mixed achievements, of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. For this week, read Chapters 33 and 34. Since there’s no assigned reading for Friday the 5th, use that as a day to catch up on any missed reading and to review the postwar era so far (Chapters 29-34).

All of this will be essential background and overview for next week, when we look closely at the leaders, organizations, events and strategies of 1960s civil rights movements, and for the week after–a look at the tormented era of the Vietnam War, the turbulent end of the 1960s, and the Watergate crisis that ended Nixon’s presidency (Chapter 35).

The unit exam will be Monday, 11/22, covering Chapters 29-35.

This week gives only the barest flavor of the rich culture, politics, and new developments in postwar America that happened in the late 1940s and the 1950s. On Monday we mapped out some key terms and concepts: Cold War, Containment, (Second) Red Scare, McCarthyism, Fair Deal, and what’s happening in the 1950s with Gender Roles, Labor, Popular Culture, and Literature/Art.

For Wednesday, we’ll explore the influence, look, and emerging technology of the pervasive medium of television in the 1950s. We will likely screen and discuss a number of short clips from this list and you might enjoy checking out the rest on your own:

1951, “Duck and Cover” – not a TV production, but a short educational film that millions of American schoolchildren saw to learn about the threat of nuclear attack (9:15)

“Leave it To Beaver,” Season 1 (1957), Episode 29, introducing the iconic & perfect Cleaver family: the wise parents Ward & June, and the earnest good sons, Wally & “the Beaver” (6:04)

“Somewhere That’s Green,” sung by Ellen Greene, from the feature film musical Little Shop of Horrors (1986), a nostalgic 1980s tribute to sci-fi films of the 1950s; in this scene the main character Audrey (a battered floozy) imagines leaving the dismal city and moving to the suburbs to live a Levittown American Dream as a June-Cleaver-esque housewife. (4:25)

Popular kids shows of the 1950s included Westerns like “The Lone Ranger,” a masked man and his faithful (nonwhite) sidekick fight crime & Indians in the Old West. (2:49)

“Two Ford Freedom” – a 1950s filmed commercial for Ford, in which a housewife explains the ease and benefits of owning a second car. (1:39)

Undated commercial for Brylcreem, a men’s hair product – showing the use of catchy musical jingles in this era. (1:00)

The fabulous, glamorous, ultra-feminine TV star Dinah Shore pitches for Chevrolet (her show’s sponsor) in this 1952 commercial, “See the USA in Your Chevrolet,” that not only advertises the new model of car, but also the gleaming new interstate highway system just being dreamed & built in the 1950s. (1:33)

Speaking of women on television, this unusual game show/ reality show had women competing for the honor of being “Queen for a Day” based on who had the worst, most depressing and most pathetic life. It’s a fascinating look at America’s underclass, argues one scholar, in years when everyone on TV seemed to be white and wealthy. This particular clip also contains a commercial for “Rinso” and was filmed in Kinescope from a live broadcast. (2:49)

Another classic sitcom of the 1950s, “I Love Lucy,” which was innovatively filmed in Hollywood rather than sent out live from New York–which meant it has been successfully syndicated on TV ever since. In this episode, Lucy attempts thrifty housewife skills and (as usual) fails miserably to great comic effect. (4:49)

One unusual TV star of this era was a Catholic bishop from New York named Fulton J. Sheen, whose program, “Life is Worth Living” was a huge surprise hit on Sunday evenings. His “chalk talks” and sermons attracted Protestants and Catholics alike with his easy wit, self-deprecating humor and grand religious regalia. In this clip (filmed before a live studio audience), Sheen rails against godless Communism. (2:51).

Before TV went west to Hollywood, anthology drama series modified Broadway-type plays for the small screen. A classic of this genre, filmed live, was 1953 Philco Playhouse’s “Marty,” about a lonely young working man looking for love in a New York City dance hall. (Part 1 of 7, 8:27)

Talk about a pop-culture mashup: Elvis Presley and Debra Paget on the Milton Berle Show in 1956 – a prime-time variety show which bridged to the old early 20th century live vaudeville entertainment and was a something of a forerunner to the Tonight Show and SNL. (2:32)

A (poor-quality, alas) clip from a 1955 episode of the drama series based on the life of Herbert Philbrick, an FBI agent charged with infiltrating Communist subversive cells, “I Led Three Lives.” (3:57)

Edward R. Murrow’s CBS news program “See It Now” for March 9, 1954 in which the eloquent journalist directly takes on Senator Joseph McCarthy. Film/television scholar Thomas Doherty calls this moment “an act of showstopping oratory” that changed the course of American history. (2:03)

Finally, on Friday the 29th, we’ll follow the politics of the presidential elections of 1948, 1952 and 1956, and trace the development of the “liberal consensus” in American politics and culture, and the emergence of a viable (and permanent) African-American civil rights movement in the 1950s.