US History II

Today’s document workshop focuses on interactions between whites and American Indians in the West, particularly in the upper Plains, Rocky Mountains, and Northwest. Keep in mind that federal policy itself was developing in several different directions over this time, even as greater numbers of people moved to the West from the Eastern U.S. and from Europe in search of opportunity and a new start, making it a constantly changing situation.

If you have your textbook, use the Chapter 15 Document Project

If you don’t have your textbook but you do have a laptop, use the Primary Source set about the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre from the Digital Public Library of America.

If you don’t have either of these, use one of the books at the front of the class.

Reminder: PSA #2 is due on Wednesday, and I recommend you use one of the documents you used in today’s workshop as the basis for your paper.

Today’s class looks at overlapping stories and cultures in the American West in the late 19th century. We will try to define the region (where does the West begin and end?) and map its human, geographic, and mythic landscapes.

To prepare for today, you read Chapter 15 up through page 504 and listened to to the 1-hour episode of the podcast This American Life, “Little War on the Prairie” (November 23, 2018) about the Dakota War of 1862 and how it’s been remembered — and selectively forgotten.

On Monday, Feb 4 we will engage in a Document Workshop about the Chapter 15 documents; here’s a worksheet to help you prepare ahead of time for the workshop. It was handed out in class but I’m also providing it as a Word doc you can download if you prefer to type your responses.

Speaking of mythmaking and memory on the American western prairie, this week I spotted an essay about the return of the “prairie dress” (a popular style in the 1980s) in women’s boho fashion. Lots to think about here….

For lecture / discussion today: Chapter 14 and the multiple, competing, contentious versions of Reconstruction history … and why we’re still living with the legacies of that era (for more on Brian Palmer and Seth Freed Wessler’s work on disparate funding for southern cemeteries, see “The Costs of the Confederacy,” Smithsonian Magazine Dec 2018).

Handout: Transcript and discussion questions for this clip

For Friday: in addition to reading Chapter 15, please listen to the 1-hour episode of the podcast This American Life, “Little War on the Prairie” (November 23, 2018) about the Dakota War of 1862 and how it’s been remembered — and selectively forgotten.

Additional resources:

Civil War Era Maps (University of South Florida)

Freedmen’s Bureau – How Effective? (National Archives DocsTeach)

Freedmen’s Bureau Primary Source Set (Digital Public Library of America)

Freedmen and Southern Society Project (Univ of Maryland)

Black Codes (PBS)

African American Odyssey: Quest for Full Citizenship (Library of Congress)

U.S. History in Context (WSU Library)

Welcome back from Spring Break! This week we will study World War II (Chapter 23), and your Evidence-Based Paper is due on Friday, March 30. Next week we explore how the Cold War began (Chapter 24). The Unit 3 test is on Monday April 9 in Sullivan Room 320.

You don’t need to bring your book to class on our two Document Workshop days – I’ll have documents to hand out in class for us to work from.

Handout: Chapter 23 Questions (World War II)

Handout: Atlantic Charter / Everybody’s War (Mon, March 26) – Link to Film “Everybody’s War“. Link to “The Power of Art” about the Guernica painting

Handout: Executive Order 9066 (Wed, March 28)

Links: 99% Invisible Podcast “Manzanar” on Japanese internment camps; VE Day from BBC (1945, as read in 1995, 10 min); End of WW2 (AP Archive, 3 min); American Experience, “America and the Holocaust” (1.5 hours)

Handout: Chapter 24 Questions (Cold War)

Exam 3 Study Guide – Exam is on April 9 in Room S-320

This week before Spring Break we explore the 1930s — economics, culture, and politics (Chapter 22). You are also completing the second Constitutions Module and making progress on your Evidence-Based Paper. Continue reading →

This week we consider the era of Reconstruction after the Civil War. Please bring your news article to Wednesday’s class to participate in discussion. Bring the textbook on Friday, as we will be working with the Document Project in class. Also, your first SkillBuilder is due Friday, using any document from Chapter 14.
Continue reading →

For Monday, Jan 22

Reading: Hewitt and Lawson, Ch 14 “National Reconstruction” and “Remaking the South.” Also: read / re-read the course syllabus. Constitutions Module #1 is open on Blackboard if you want to get going on that. Continue reading →

In this final unit, we explore recent history. Continue reading →

Links for today’s Culture of the 1930s workshop: Continue reading →