US History II

We’ll begin this last unit with a close look at the Vietnam conflict (Chapter 28) and its reverberations in public memory, politics, and foreign policy. Then after the Thanksgiving break, we’ll discuss history now (Chapter 31) and conduct a final project examining a recent event in American history.

The online quiz for this unit will be after Thanksgiving from 12/4 – 12/11 and the last exam will take place during the final exam slot on Wed 12/11 at 8:30 am. You will have up to 3 hours in which to take it, but it will not be a comprehensive final; it’s the regular exam for Unit 4, covering chapters 28 and 31. Please note, if you are satisfied with the grades on the first three exams, you do not need to take the final one, since I drop the lowest exam grade.

Anti-Vietnam war protesters, 1967, Washington DC

Marchers in a 2007 anti-Iraq war rally in San Francisco

Mon 11/11 – No classes, Veteran’s Day

Wed 11/13 Liberalism and the Great Society. Reading: ACH 28: 848-855

Fri 11/15 The Vietnam War. Reading: ACH 28: 855-864. SkillBuilder #5 is due.

Mon 11/18 Uncivil Wars + MDQ. Reading: ACH 28: 866-875

Wed 11/20 Workshop Day: Hawks v. Doves. Reading: Review ACH Ch 28

Fri 11/22 We will not meet for class (Professor Hangen will be out of town) but SkillBuilder #6 is still due! Email it or drop it off in my mailbox on the door of Sullivan 327D.

Mon 11/25 The 1970s and 1980s + MDQ. Reading: Skim Ch 29 and 30.

11/27 – 12/1 Thanksgiving Break

(…and I’ll post info on the last 4 classes closer to the Thanksgiving holiday)

Fri 11/1 The Civil Rights Movement from 1941-1957. Reading: ACH 27: 817-829. Quiz #3 opens up at 8:30 am, on Chapters 25 and 26 – it will be open until Friday November 8 at 8:30 am (as before – for up to 3 tries and highest score counts).

Mon 11/4 The Protest Phase. Reading: ACH 27: 829-838

Links:
Freedom Riders, “The Tactic” (PBS) – 1961
King, speaking at the March on Washington (1963)
Johnson, speaking to Congress after the Selma March (1965)

Wed 11/6 Multiple Civil Rights Movements: Are We There Yet? Reading: ACH 27: 838-846

Fri 11/8 Exam #3 in class (on Chapters 24 and 27). Quiz #3 closes at 8:30 am. You can bring, as before, 1 8.5×11″ sheet of paper with anything written or printed on either/both sides. Also, the slides from this unit are posted under the “Slideshows” tab in case you want to review them.

Mon 11/1 No School, Veteran’s Day

The voting was a little different for this unit – you voted to emphasize the first and last chapters in this unit, so we’ll be talking about World War II (Ch 24) and then taking a flying leap into the 1960s to focus on the (multiple) movements for American civil rights (Ch 27). The online quiz (opening Friday, Nov 1) will cover the material in between (Ch 25-26). Here’s the schedule for the first part of the unit, dealing with the Second World War and including the submission of your Primary Source-based paper.

For Mon 10/21, the “Road to War” read ACH 24: 724-732 (MDQ likely)

Great link for today: World War II in photographs, the Battle of Britain (The Atlantic online)

Wed 10/23, we’ll take a break from history content to focus on the history writing process. Bring the rough draft of your Primary Source paper to class with you as a printed paper – we will be having a peer writing workshop in class.

Update: we made this handout on proper footnote form using the Fernlund book. Email me or drop by office hours if you have questions. All footnotes from Fernlund’s book should have 2 parts: the original source, and its location within Fernlund’s volume. Click on the image to download a PDF of the handout.

Fri 10/25 – WW2 Mobilization and Life on the Homefront. Reading: ACH 24: 732-745

Mon 10/28 – WW2 Fighting and Postwar Plans. Reading: ACH 24: 754-755

Wed 10/30 – Primary Source paper due in class. Workshop Day on the 1940s and 1950s in film (no reading).

Links:
It’s Everybody’s War (1945)
Duck and Cover (1951)
THEM! (1954)
See the USA in Your Chevrolet (1953)
Two Ford Freedom (1956)

This unit considers the first four decades of the twentieth century, with a special focus on the 1920s and 1930s. Why was it “the American century”? Why and how were Americans “wrestling” with modernity?

Monday, Sept 30: US as a World Power, Imperialism (+ MDQ). Reading: Chapter 21 – read the chapter as a whole but focus on how/why the US became involved in the three main foreign conflicts covered in the chapter, and on the intro and conclusion for an overview of how this textbook FRAMES these conflicts (as continuous with the rest of American history, and if so, how? Or as new/startling developments that the US had to respond to? Or as acts of aggression towards other countries motivated by economics, racism, or some other reason?)

Wednesday, Oct 2: 1920s Politics and Culture. Reading: ACH 22: 665-678

Friday, Oct 4: Boom to Bust. SkillBuilder #3 is due. Reading: ACH 22: 678-687

Monday, Oct 7: Down and Out (+ MDQ). Reading: ACH 23: 690-699. FDR Inaugural Address.

Wednesday, Oct 9: Workshop Day – Culture of the 1930s. Reading: Catch yourself up in ACH 22 and 23, as needed individually.

Friday, Oct 11: New Deal 1.0 and 2.0. SkillBuilder #4 is due. Reading: ACH 23: 700-711. Quiz 2 opens online, on Chapters 20 and 21, it will be open until Friday 10/18.

Monday, Oct 14: No class, Columbus Day holiday

Wednesday, Oct 16: Workshop Day – New Deal Legacy. Bring laptops to class. Reading: ACH 23: 711-722.

Friday, Oct 18: Exam #2 in class. Quiz 2 closes.

Nighttime visitors to the FDR Memorial in Washington DC. Photo: Washington Post

This website serves as the hub for Tona Hangen’s section of US History II US Since 1877 (HI 112) in the Fall 2013 semester at Worcester State University. I teach Section 09 (and H1) MWF at 8:30 am in Sullivan 120.

The textbooks for this course are:

James A. Henretta, America: A Concise History VOLUME 2, 5th edition (Bedford St. Martins 2012) ISBN 978-0-312-64329-4

Kevin J. Fernlund, Documents for America’s History VOLUME 2, 7th edition (Bedford St. Martins 2013) ISBN 978-0-312-64863-3

From this website, you can download the syllabus or access it online, stay up to date with course news and any changes, see the guidelines for the course papers and projects, and follow links to my recommended history and writing resources on the web.

This site is a blog, meaning it updates frequently and you should either bookmark it or subscribe to it using an RSS feed reader (such as Feedly). Please check it often or make sure that you subscribe to its updates to stay on top of our coursework. I leave up the previous semesters’ information as an archive for my past students. You can safely ignore any post not tagged “Fall13.”

If you have questions about the course before we meet in person on Wednesday, September 4th, please feel free to email me, at thangen (at) worcester.edu

Monday 5/6 is our last day of class (Reading is ACH Ch 31 pp. 962-974) – History Now Projects are due IN CLASS. They can also be submitted before the deadline, in my History Office mailbox, if you prefer. Also due on Monday 5/6 is any remaining work, including the extra credit (see below).

Need Extra Credit? You can visit the “From Kennedy to Kent State” exhibit at the Worcester Art Museum and write about the exhibit and/or a particular photograph within it, connecting it to our current unit on the 1960s. Your Worcester ID gets you free admission, so be sure to bring it with you when you go. Same length as a SkillBuilder, and up to 5 points extra credit. Submit by email or bring to class on the 6th.

Update: Unit 4 slides are now posted under the “Slides” tab above to help you study for the 4th exam.

Final Exam Information:
Download the Study Guide here. You may bring two things to the exam: a filled 3×5 card, as with all the other exams AND the Fernlund reader, Documents for America’s History. You have from 8:30 to 11:30 to take the exam, although it is weighted the same as all the others ones we’ve taken. You will get your History Now Project grade at the exam (or by email if I don’t see you there).

8:30 class – your exam is Friday 5/10 at 8:30
9:30 class – your exam is Monday 5/13 at 8:30

Thanks for a great term!

This unit will bring us up to the present, with a special focus on the 1960s and 1970s, and a project that makes you the historian of an event in recent history. The main chapters for this unit are 28 and 31, with the online quiz covering chapters 29-30. There are 2 SkillBuilders and a project in addition to the quiz. The unit exam will take place during the scheduled final exam period, even though it is not a comprehensive final.

Mon 4/15 No Class – Patriot’s Day

Wed 4/17 Liberalism’s High Tide and War in Vietnam. Reading ACH Ch 28 p. 848-863.

Fri 4/19 Days of Rage, 1968-1972. Reading ACH Ch 28 p. 863-870. SkillBuilder #7 due.

Mon 4/22 Watergate. Reading ACH Ch 28 p. 870-876.

Wed 4/24 Workshop Day – the Sixties. Review ACH Ch 28 & bring the Fernlund book to class.

Fri 4/26 Search for Order in an Era of Limits. Reading ACH Ch 29 (skim). Quiz #4 opens online (Chapter 29-30, closes on 5/3). SkillBuilder #8 due.

Mon 4/29 History Now Project Workshop. No assigned reading.

Wed 5/1 End of the Cold War and Globalization. Reading ACH Ch 30-31 p. 931-949.
Useful link: Maps of the World (University of Texas Libraries)
Also: Happy May Day – it’s a BIG DEAL around the world!

Fri 5/3 – no class today – make sure you’ve taken the online quiz before it closes 9:00 am

Mon 5/6 In Our Century. Reading: ACH Ch 31 p. 962-974. History Now Project Due.
Useful link: What’s your “Bubble” Score?

Exam #4: 5/10 8:30 am for the 8:30 class, and 5/13 8:30 am for the 9:30 class

I will be on campus for my regular office hours today but class is cancelled.

Please review Chapter 26 in preparation for our workshop on Wednesday 4/10. The Exam 3 study guide is here.

Also remember that the online Quiz (Chapter 27) is open now on Blackboard, and closes on Friday morning 4/12. Since that’s our exam day, you want to make sure you take care of it early in the week so it doesn’t interfere with your exam studying.

Thanks, and see you Wednesday!
Prof. Hangen

In this unit we study World War II (both abroad and at home) and the transition to the Cold War (both abroad and at home) and end with middle-class culture of the 1950s. We’re drawing mainly from Chapters 24 -26. During this unit you’ll have two workshops, two SkillBuilders, an online quiz (on Chapter 27) and an exam. Some of you were given the option to revise your Primary Source papers – if so, the revision packets are due back to me on Mon, April 1st.

Mon 3/25 – Road to War, Organizing for Victory. Reading ACH Ch 24 p. 724-739. Handout: Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” speech, January 1941

Today’s link: Simon Schama, “The Power of Art: Picasso’s Guernica” (on Youtube, in 4 parts – we watched a bit of Parts 1 and 4 in class, but the whole show is terrific)

Wed 3/27 – Life on the WW2 Homefront. Reading ACH Ch 24 p. 739-745. Handout on Gordon Hirabayashi

Links for today:

“It’s Everybody’s War” (1945) – 15 minute OWI promo showing homefront civilian commitment to the war effort, narrated by Henry Fonda

NPR Fresh Air interview with Lynne Olsen, author of a new book on the America First committee and the debate over whether the US should enter WW2 1939-1941 (3/26/13)

Fri 3/29 – Fighting and Winning the War. Reading ACH Ch 24 p. 745-756. SkillBuilder #5 due. Handout: Adam Kirsch, “Is World War II Still ‘The Good War’?” (NYT, 5/27/11)

Mon 4/1 – Cold War America. Reading: ACH Ch 25 (skim/take notes on entire chapter) 

Wed 4/3 – Workshop Day: McCarthyism. Review ACH Ch 24-25 – BRING LAPTOPS, please

Fri 4/5 – The Middle Class Triumphant. Reading ACH Ch 26 p. 787-806. Quiz opens up, on Chapter 27. SkillBuilder #6 due.

Mon 4/8 – Gender, Sex and the Family in the ’50s. Reading: ACH Ch 26 p. 807-815

Wed 4/10 – Workshop Day: the Suburbs. Review ACH Ch 26

Fri 4/12 – Exam #3 in class. Online Quiz closes at 9:00 am.

(Photo credit: from here)

This week we’re reading and working with the material in Chapter 16 of both the textbook and the reader.

General News: The new correct books are now in stock at the bookstore! To exchange, you’ll need to bring BOTH parts of the bundle you bought there, along with your receipt, and you can get the new set (same reader + 5th edition of the textbook) for a mere $4.51 more. You can’t just bring the textbook and swap it out for the new one, you need to return the entire bundle and get a new bundle in its place.

Also: in class I handed out the updated syllabus page 6, with all the due dates, readings, and topics for the whole semester, based on your votes. I’ve linked to it in the sidebar in case you need another copy at some point during the term. I also handed out a page of advice about the SkillBuilder assignments.

Monday 1/28 – Reading = ACH Ch 16 p. 475 – 484

Wednesday 1/30 – Reading ACH Ch 16 p. 484 – 494. Workshop Day on the “Wild West” – please bring your laptops to class.

Friday 2/1 – SkillBuilder #2 due – if you don’t yet have the reader, please use one of these alternative documents. Reading = ACH Ch 16 p. 494 – 505. Also on this day, an online quiz will open up in Blackboard on Chapter 19 (which we are not covering in class). It will be open until Friday, Feb 8 at 9:00 am and during that time you can take it up to three times. Please remember to take it!