US History II

Enjoy your spring break!

When we come back, we will have magically jumped over World War II and landed in the postwar period to talk about media and popular culture of the 1950s. The online quiz will cover EH Ch 27 on World War II, and that will be open from Monday 3/26 to Friday 3/30.

Here’s how the unit will look – it’s a relatively short one, and in class we’ll be working mainly from Chapters 26 and 28.

Mon 3/26 – From WW2 to the Cold War. Reading: EH Ch 26 p. 740-750 and Ch 27 p. 757-763

Wed 3/28 – McCarthyism. Reading: EH Ch 27 p. 769-772 and 776

Fri 3/30 – Workshop Day. We will be screening clips of 1950s TV shows. Reading: “Television in the Family Circle” (PDF). Due in class: SkillBuilder #4

Mon 4/2 – Suburbia and its Critics. Reading: EH Ch 28 p. 781-792

Wed 4/4 – Rebellion and Space Racing. Reading: EH Ch 28 p. 793-805

Fri 4/6 – Exam #4 in class

Lots of clips for today!

First, some pictures
A kid and his TV https://secure.flickr.com/photos/gbaku/2513320483/
Vintage TV sets on exhibit at San Francisco Airport http://www.flysfo.com/web/page/sfo_museum/exhibitions/terminal3_exhibitions/north_connect/tv/12.html

Commercials
Two Ford Freedom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gkxC5rnbi8
See the USA with Dinah Shore https://www.myspace.com/video/cybotron/dinah-shore-quot-see-the-usa-in-your-chevrolet-quot/5888049
Brylcreem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6F4GtyRfto
Lucky Strike https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUYsAgcPtqU
Twinkies on Howdy Doody https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyfCxrKW3XY
Spic & Span https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrOeRAPJazY

Programs
Lone Ranger https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5xpQ84B30Q
Queen for a Day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggV8Uwhnmq8
Bishop Sheen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVBXzf4eUJg
Elvis on Milton Berle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x0uKy5GfMw
I Led Three Lives https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTaPCSG1-_I
Donna Reed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-uh3XbUMfY
Abbot and Costello do “Who’s on First” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nti08LWtxJI
CBS “See It Now” (this one from 23 Dec 1951) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8rSxsDwjoQ

We’ve talked about the economics and culture of the Depression era (1929-1932). Here’s how the rest of this unit on the 1930s will look.

Wed 3/7 – The New Deal. Reading EH Ch 25 697-706

Fri 3/9 – a peer review day for drafts of your primary source paper. Bring a printed draft of your paper to class, whatever you have, at whatever stage it’s in. For the full guidelines on this project, see the PS Paper tab above.

Mon 3/12 – Popular Culture in the 1930s. Reading EH Ch 25 706-714

Helpful Links:
1939 at the Smithsonian Museum of American History
The New Deal (Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt Institute)
America in the 1930s (University of Virginia)
Popular Music of the 1930s (Songbook blog)
A 1936 episode of Li’l Orphan Annie (and memories of this from A Christmas Story)
WPA Posters from the Library of Congress
FSA-OWI Photograph collection, Library of Congress
Frances Perkins Center, honoring Worcester’s own, the first woman named to a Presidential cabinet (she was FDR’s Secretary of Labor for 12 years)
War of the Worlds on radio (30 October 1938)
Two versions of the 1936 popular song “Pennies from Heaven” – Bing Crosby and Billie Holliday

Wed 3/14 – Exam #3, in class. This one will be closed book/closed notebook. Use the unit’s pretest as a study guide.

Fri 3/16 – Primary Source Project is due in class. We will be screening scenes from an iconic film of the 1930s, The Grapes of Wrath.

Unit 3 will be all about the Depression and the New Deal – EH Chapter 25.

There will be an online quiz open from Monday, 2/27 to Friday 3/2 on Chapter 26. Don’t forget to take it! I had a couple of people who’ve let these slip a little. Please make sure to take the quiz online in Blackboard.

Mon 2/27 our class will combine the culture and economics of the Depression. Reading is EH Ch 25, pp. 687-697. The syllabus had “reading TBA” for Wednesday but we’ll drop that reading because…

There will be no class on Wednesday, Feb 29th. I am taking another class to visit a US Citizenship Naturalization ceremony in Worcester and we have to leave early to get there, so I won’t be in class.

Friday, March 2 will also be a special day: instead of our usual class, we will attend a lecture by a guest professor of Political Science, Alexandra Filindra, at 10:30 am in the Student Center Blue Lounge. She will be speaking about the eugenics movement, a timely topic since we just finished the unit on that. Attendance will be taken, same as if it were a regular class day, and I will collect the SkillBuilder #3 papers due that day at the event.

Because of the lecture, we will push our “Primary Source Workshop” day to Monday the 5th; we’ll meet in our classroom as usual. If you want to get started on that paper before the workshop day, please do so; the guidelines are posted under the “PS Paper” tab above, and the books are all on 2-hour course reserve at the circulation desk in the library.

Monday 2/20: No class, Presidents Day

Wednesday 2/22: Constitutions and Women’s Suffrage. Reading: Amar, “How Women Won The Vote” (PDF)

Friday 2/24: Workshop Day for the 1930s. Reading: EH 680-684 and bring your curiosity!

This week we’re finishing up our unit on the 1920s with class sessions on cultural conflicts and politics of the decade.

Monday 2/13: Read EH Ch 24, 670-676 and 683

Wednesday 2/15: Read EH Ch 24, 677-680

Friday 2/17 = Exam #2 in class, on Ch 22 and 24. Download the study guide here (PDF)

Film clip for Wed: “Two Americas,” from PBS Ken Burns, Prohibition

Watch Hyperpartisan Politics Two Americas on PBS. See more from Ken Burns.

The week of 2/6 we will start a new unit, on the 1920s. Our main focus in class will be EH Ch 22 on Progressivism and Ch 24, “The New Era.” The online quiz for this unit will cover chapters 21 and 23.

Mon 2/6 – Progressivism. Progressivism is a word (like Reconstruction) that encompasses not only a time period but also a complex social movement and political transition. Read EH Ch 22 for background before class.

Also, the next online quiz will open on Monday by noon. It will cover chapters 21 and 23 and be open until midnight on Friday, Feb 10th. As before, you can take it up to three times and Blackboard will record your highest grade.

Here’s a shorter version of the slideshow from Monday. I know some of the text is small in the embedded version, so click on the “fullscreen” icon in the lower right corner of the mini-player to bring it up larger on your screen.

Wed 2/8 – The Roaring Economy. Reading is EH Ch 24 p. 657-665

Fri 2/10 – Workshop Day on the economy and culture of the 1920s. Reading is EH Ch 24 p. 665-670.

Reminder: bring your laptop on Friday to the workshop day.

Monday 1/30: City Life – read EH 545-555. Also Skill Builder #2 is due (see the “Skill Builders” tab above for guidelines and examples).

Wednesday 2/1: City Culture – read EH 555-566

Some links:
Scott Joplin, playing the “Maple Leaf Rag”
Dancers performing ragtime styles (last minute of this clip)
History of Vaudeville
Historic Vaudeville Footage
Want a tutorial on dancing to ragtime music?

Friday 2/3: Unit Exam #1, in class. We will agree on Wed in class what is permissible to bring to Friday’s exam.

Image: Third Avenue in Manhattan, from the New York Public Library Digital Gallery

For our first workshop day on Friday 1/27, please bring your laptops to class. We will be working in pairs or threes and the more laptops we have in class, the better this will go. To prepare, read the section on “Digital Detecting” on EH p. 527. We’ll work with historical photographs, maps and film clips to help us understand the late 19th century urban environment.

NOTE: We have a NEW classroom location, since Sullivan 320 is so cramped. From now on, we will meet in LRC-168. This classroom is on the bottom floor of the library building. The easiest way to find it is to enter on the Student Center side through the sliding glass doors into the lobby with the vending machines. Take your first hallway on the right, and then it’s the first one on your left.

Your next Skillbuilder is due on Monday, 1/30. Please use the tabs above and read the “Skill Builders” page. You may write about any of the “Dueling Documents,” “Historian’s Toolbox” or “After the Fact” sections from *anywhere* and any time period in your textbook. If you would like to go deeper and explore something that’s not in your textbook, I’ve now posted a list of ideas I’m calling “Extreme Skill Builders” – check out the tab above. Feel free to consult with me if you have any questions about these assignments. On the Skill Builders page, I’ve posted a couple of good examples from past semesters so you can see a model of how these work.

Remember, the online quiz (found on Blackboard under “Quizzes”) closes on Friday night at midnight. You can take it up to 3 times; it draws from EH Chapters 18 and 19.

Reminder: the online quiz is now open, until Friday the 27th at midnight. Please take it by going to Blackboard –> Quizzes. You may take it up to three times, and Blackboard will record your highest score.

Reading for Wed: EH Ch 20, pp. 540-545 “A New Urban Age”

What is so new about this “new urban age”?

What were some of the social costs of the growth of industrial cities in the late 19th century?

Who were the “new immigrants” that peopled these cities?