US History II

Our final exam will be on Wednesday, December 14th 12:30 – 3:30 pm in the LRC-327 classroom.

How to prepare:

What to bring:
You may bring ONE sheet of 8.5×11 paper with notes (or anything) on it. You can use the front and back; put as much or as little on it as you like.

Thanks for a great semester! — Prof H.

Our Unit 4 exam will be on Monday, Nov 21. I am out of town presenting at a conference (the AAR in San Francisco) but Dr. Lisa Boehm from Urban Studies will be there in my place to give out and collect the exam. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving break and I’ll see you on the other side of the turkey and pie.

On Friday in class, I wrote a list on the board of 11 reasons former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (whose resignation is covered in your book) thought — in retrospect — that the United States had blundered in Vietnam. Here is the list, and for you snorkelers/divers, you can read excerpts on Google Books from the original if you like. Think about whether you agree with this list and what evidence you can think of to support or refute McNamara’s statements.

• We misjudged North Vietnamese and Viet Cong’s geopolitical intentions and exaggerated their dangers
• We viewed South Vietnam in terms of our own experience instead of theirs
• We underestimated the power of Vietnamese nationalism
• We didn’t have enough trained advisors for Asia in positions of responsibility in the military and the State Department, and had too few well-informed senior diplomats
• It was high-tech warfare v. low-tech people and failed to win their hearts and minds
• Didn’t involve Congress and public debate enough
• Didn’t retain popular support at home, were too secretive
• We have no “God-given right to shape every nation in our image”
• It was a unilateral action and all unilateral actions are doomed
• Although the US is powerful and rich, it can’t solve every problem in every nation
• It proved too hard to sustain a long-term effort and momentum over many different presidential administrations at the top levels of the military

My recommendations for studying: review Chapter 30 closely. Be able to identify, list or discuss events that happened during the Vietnam Era both in the US and in the region of Vietnam. Have a working understanding of how the conflict began, how it progressed, and how it ended. Be able to distinguish among anti-war organizations and talk about the rise & fall of a protest movement and some of its main events. Consider your notes from the M*A*S*H episode and what cultural productions like that program add to our historical understanding of the era. Re-read Theriault’s article and be prepared to discuss the contradictions and complexities of the Vietnam Memorial, and of the wall’s role in American public memory about the war.

Today in class we decided that the exam this coming Wed, Oct 19th (which deals with material in Chapters 25 and 26) will be open-book, open-note as before. Laptops and smart phones are prohibited.

Resources to help you prepare –

Today’s handout: Exam 2 Study Guide
Today’s practice quiz: Mini-Quiz on Unit 2
Also handed out today: excerpt from Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” speech (6 January 1941)

And the last slide from today – these are not all the possible answers to how the Second World War transformed the US, but it’s enough to get you thinking about how you might answer such a question if asked (also consider what evidence you would use).

Note: New tab above, “Exam Advice” – to help you improve your exam skills, based on what I’m seeing from in-class writing exercises

Resources for today’s class:

(Click for larger image)

Web resources:
Custer Battlefield Museum http://www.custermuseum.org/ (note this is a private for-profit museum; the battlefield’s name has changed)
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument Website http://www.nps.gov/libi/index.htm
The Battle of Little Bighorn on PBS – The West http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/six/bighorn.htm (resource page from a 2001 PBS series)
Battle of the Little Bighorn on Eyewitness to History http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/custer.htm (a commercial site, note the ads)
Website for groups involved in Little Bighorn Annual Re-enactments http://www.littlebighornreenactment.com/
Little Bighorn Photo Gallery http://www.mohicanpress.com/battles/ba04002.html (an amateur/commerical site, note, site has automatic music)
Friends of the Little Bighorn Battlefield http://www.friendslittlebighorn.com/ (fundraising organization for the monument)
Little Bighorn Associates http://www.thelbha.org/ (scholarly society dedicated to history of the battle)
“How the Battle of Little Bighorn was Won” http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/How-the-Battle-of-Little-Bighorn-Was-Won.html (online article from Smithsonian Magazine)
Gallery of images at History.com http://www.history.com/topics/battle-of-the-little-bighorn/photos (a commercial site)

Online Historical Newspaper/Periodical Archives
Making of America (Cornell University)

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection (1859-1923) – same kind of search engine as the Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Library of Congress “Chronicling America” historic newspapers (1880-1922)

California Digital Newspaper Collection

Quincy, Illinois Historical Newspaper Archive (1835-1919)

The Harvard Crimson (starts in 1873)

Sioux County, Nebraska, Newspaper Archives (1872 to the present)

Wyoming Newspaper Project

The last exam was curved 12 points for everyone. If you are interested in picking up your exam, let me know and I will arrange for you to get it from me before you leave for summer, or when you come back in the fall.

Thanks, everyone, for a very productive and interesting semester!

One last thing: If anyone would like to donate your copy of Experience History, I would gratefully accept it so I could have a reserve copy for the library in the fall.

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.

The exam next Friday, April 8th will cover Chapters 27-30, and will be closed-book but “open note” for the portion that covers the civil rights movement. I would like each of you to make notes about the civil rights movement, either in the form of a TIMELINE or in the form of a CONCEPT MAP. You can bring those notes to the exam, and you’ll staple it to your test when you turn it in (your notes will become part of your exam grade).

What you put on it is entirely up to you. You can make it as detailed or simple as you like: this study tool is to help you, so you should design it in whatever way works best for you. I am envisioning something that fits on 1-2 sheets of paper, there’s no need to get more elaborate than that.

Please note: Although it’s fine to collaborate with others while you study or work on your notes, each person needs to bring his or her own unique note sheet to the exam. Any 2 or more timelines or concept maps that are exactly the same as each other will receive no credit.

Our first exam will be Wednesday, February 16th. It will cover the material in Chapters 17-21 of Experience History. It will be an open-book test. You can bring and use both the Experience History textbook and the For the Record reader (but no notes).

The format will include multiple-choice questions, a timeline, short identifications and an essay question that will ask you to use one or more documents in the FTR reader.

Do not assume that because it is open book that you will not need to study. Open-book exams are considerably harder than closed-book ones, I assure you. I am not providing a “study guide”; let the book be your guide – you are responsible for anything that is covered in the textbook. You should study the textbook thoroughly, including the review & timelines at the end of each chapter. Remember that you can also take advantage of the free self-tests, flash cards, quizzes and other review materials at the Norton StudySpace, and using the resources in their Chapters 18-23 will allow you to study the material that this first unit has covered.

Earlier versions of the syllabus incorrectly listed the “final” exam (Exam #4) for Friday the 17th of December.

The correct date & time is WEDNESDAY, Dec 15 at 8:30 am.

I have corrected both the course Google calendar and the syllabus PDF.