US History II

Exam #1 will be on Wed Feb 19th (the next time we have class, since there is no school on Monday the 17th, so enjoy your long weekend!). Reminder: if you haven’t already, today is the deadline to complete the online Constitutions module #1 in Blackboard.

Friday Feb 21 will begin our second unit, with a workshop/discussion day on Progressivism (Chapter 19). Bring your textbook to class. The 3rd SkillBuilder will still be due that day, so that we don’t get too far behind the syllabus. For SkillBuilder #3 you can use any two documents from Chapters 14-19 that you haven’t already written about.

Update: I have posted our class slides (Chapter 14) under a new “Slides” tab, above. Also – if you need examples of footnotes for the SkillBuilder, check the “SkillBuilders” tab, where I’ve put a couple of sample ones.

Our first unit on post-Civil War America begins with a look at Reconstruction’s mixed legacy and the multiple meanings of freedom in the postwar South (Chapter 14). We will then turn to other regions of the country, including the West (Chapter 15), North (Chapter 16) and MidWest (Chapter 17).

Mon 1/27 Frontier Encounters. Reading: Ch 15

Wed 1/29 Workshop Day. Bring your textbook to class (if you have an e-book, bring your laptop or tablet), we will be working with the Documents in Chapters 14 and 15.
Link: Library of Congress Primary Source Analysis Tool

Fri 1/31 The Age of Organization: Industry. Reading: Ch 16. SkillBuilder #1 due in or before class.

Mon 2/3 The Age of Organization: Farmers, Workers. Reading: Ch 17

Wed 2/5 Workshop Day. Bring your textbook to class (if you have an e-book, bring your laptop or tablet), we will be working with the Documents in Chapters 16 and 17.

Update: if class is cancelled due to snow, we will do the workshop on Friday, so bring your textbooks then.

Fri 2/7 Discussion Day Document Workshop. Bring your textbook to class, review Chapters 14-17. SkillBuilder #2 due in or before class.

Mon 2/10 Cities, Immigrants & Nation. Reading: Ch 18

Wed 2/12 Discussion Day. Bring your textbook to class, review Chapters 14-18

Fri 2/14 Exam #1 in class (Chapters 14-18). Complete the online Constitutions module quiz by this date. Download the exam study guide here.

See the post below this one for the course basics if you are just adding in, or if you missed Day 1. For everyone else, here is what we’re up to this week:

• Read the syllabus
• Read your textbook, Ch 14 “Emancipations and Reconstructions”
• Use the document you got in class on Wednesday to write a “Pre-SkillBuilder.” This is not graded but will give me a chance to see what your baseline skills are in analyzing primary sources and using history’s writing conventions (including footnotes). Guidelines for SkillBuilders are found on page 4 of the syllabus, and guidelines for correct use of Chicago Style are in the left sidebar links on the course website. Your document may have very little bibliographic information, but just do your best with citing it given what you have.
• If you missed class but would like to submit the paper on Friday anyway, use one of the documents in Chapter 14 of the textbook.

This website serves as the hub for Tona Hangen’s section of US History II US Since 1877 (HI 112) in the Spring 2014 semester at Worcester State University. I teach Section 12 (and H12) MWF at 9:30 am in Sullivan 123.

The textbook for this course is:

Nancy A. Hewitt and Stephen F. Lawson, Exploring American Histories: A Brief Survey with Sources Vol 2 Since 1865 (Bedford St Martins, 2013) ISBN-13: 978-0-312-41001-8

You will need your own copy of this book starting Day 1. Please purchase it from the college bookstore or online (paper or e-book, your choice), in time to have it for the first week of class.

UPDATE: I have gotten several queries from students about whether you need the textbook’s online access code (which lets you into a fancy thing the publisher created, called LearningCurve), since the code apparently does not come with rented textbooks. The answer is NO. Feel free to rent or buy used, we will *not* need the online access.

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 “Spr14.”

If you have questions about the course before we meet in person on Wednesday, Jan 22nd, please feel free to email me, at thangen (at) worcester.edu

In our last 4 classes, we’ll be talking about recent history and our contemporary era (Chapter 31 in the Henretta text), focusing on what it means to “think historically” and why that is an important skill in our complex world. The “History Now” project allows you to apply the skills you have developed throughout the entire term and showcase your learning in this course. As you focus on one single event in great depth, you will make use of fundamental historical concepts we’ve learned including primary source analysis, chronology, sourcing, and historical context.

Mon 12/2 – “History Now Workshop” It is VERY IMPORTANT that everyone be in class that day. You will receive a packet of sources and the instructions for your last project and will begin to work on the project in class. Bring a laptop, you will find it helpful.

Wed 12/4 – Globalization. Reading: ACH 31: 942-960. Quiz 4 opens up at 8:30 am, on Chapters 29 and 3 and will stay open (3 attempts, as usual), until 8:30 on Wed 12/11 when our last exam begins.

Fri 12/6 – Clinton, Bush and Obama. Reading: ACH 31: 958-972.

Mon 12/9 – The World We Live In. Your History Now Projects are due in class; there is no electronic submission. As we review for the exam, we will be talking about historically significant events and trends in our current moment, and how Americans record and tell the stories of our own time. How will historians of the future study 2013?

The last exam will be Wed 12/11 at 8:30 am in our classroom. It is not designed to be a 3-hour exam; it will be comparable to the other exams we have taken. If you are thrilled with your grade on all previous exams, you do not have to take the last one, since your lowest exam is dropped; however I always recommend that students take it. You’ll receive your History Now project evaluations back when you submit your exam.

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)

Reminder – Monday, Oct 14: No class, Columbus Day holiday

*Please note* – this unit’s classroom Powerpoint slides are available under the “Slideshows” tab above; they make great study aids!

Online quiz #2 is now open on Blackboard under “Quizzes.” You can take it up to three times before it closes on Friday, Oct 18th at 8:30 am, so please make sure you do that this week!

Wednesday, Oct 16: Workshop Day – New Deal Legacy. Reading: ACH 23: 711-722. Bring the ACH book to class with you for the workshop. Laptops will be helpful too, although everyone doesn’t have to bring their own.

Link for today: Google doc for group work

Friday, Oct 18: Exam #2 in class. As with last time, you may bring ONE 8.5×11″ sheet of paper, decorated on either/both sides with anything you choose.

Links for Class Discussion

“Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” (NPR)
“I’ve Got a Pocketful of Dreams” (Bing Crosby)
“Pennies from Heaven” (Billie Holliday)
“Somewhere Over the Rainbow” (Wizard of Oz, 1939)

“Remember My Forgotten Man” from the film Gold Diggers of 1933

Links for Group Work

1) New Deal Network
2) Hoovervilles in Washington State
3) Hoovervilles: Primary Sources & Other Resources from Gilder Lehrman Institute
4) New Deal: Library of Congress Primary Source Set
5) Bonus Army: “Occupying” Washington, 1932
6) WPA Posters: Colorful Messages in Dark Economic Times (Library of Congress)
7) Voices from the Dust Bowl: Migrant Worker Collection (Library of Congress)
8) Remembering the Flint Sit-Down Strike of 1937 (HistoricalVoices.org)
9) Dear Mrs. Roosevelt
10) My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt
11) Documents regarding migrant labor and “Okies”
12) Voices from the Thirties: Life Histories from the Federal Writers’ Project