US History II

Thanks for a great semester, everyone!

–Prof. Hangen

If you missed class, please drop by my office (S327-B) to pick up a packet ASAP

Project instructions (PDF)

NOTE: when you submit the project on Dec 8th, also return the packet folder. Don’t mark on the packet or its materials in any way, because these will be re-used from semester to semester. Treat them as valuable archival primary sources, and leave them pristine for the next group to look at.

Here’s the worksheet for your packet, in Word document form. Just open the document, type into it, and save it.

Stories on the WikiLeaks release of hundreds of thousands of classified diplomatic cables, what one journalist called “the 9/11 of diplomacy”

Peter Kornbluh reflects on what it all means, on PRI’s “The World” (11/30/10) 4:25

Monday 28th coverage on NPR All Things Considered “Damage Control by the State Department” 4:00

UK’s Guardian newspaper website on the US Embassy cables

This week we look at America in turmoil, practically at the point of civil war – the years 1965-1975. The nonviolent civil rights movement fractured into multiple movements, marked by standoffs, sit-ins, protests, assassinations, violence, riots, and new directions: black/red/brown power, radical feminism, student movements and anti-war protests. By the end of this week, we will witness the United States convulsed by violence, torn by war, and deeply disillusioned by scandal and constitutional crisis in Richard Nixon’s White House. It’s a week to look at some of America’s toughest times.

Monday 11/15 – the reading is documents from FTR (347-362), but you should definitely review the textbook’s coverage of the Vietnam War so that you have the basic outline in your head. We’ll discuss the war under Kennedy and Johnson, and the way it’s been remembered in film and public memorials.

Wednesday 11/17 – Chapter 35 in ANH, “Rebellion and Reaction” – including the tumultuous year of 1968

Friday 11/19 – the Vietnam War in the 1970s, including Nixon’s decision to widen the war to neighboring Laos and Cambodia, the Kent State shooting, and the Watergate crisis

On Friday, we wound down a weeklong “workshop” in which you each had the chance to set individualized learning goals and work towards something that you felt was important for you to learn about the civil rights movement(s). Some folks worked individually, while others collaborated or produced knowledge-sharing artifacts to share with the class as a whole. Take advantage of these resources!

Handout: Key People in the Fight for African American Equality (Emily C.)

Group-authored Timeline on the Civil Rights Movement using Dipity (Karol P.)

Nice work everyone! There may be a few more handouts/timelines trickling in next week; if you made something to share try to get it to me over the weekend or in class on Monday.

Next week our class sessions will return to a more traditional format, but I hope you’ll sustain the energy you felt this week and stay curious about aspects of the 1960s especially where you feel your knowledge might have gaps.

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.

The next three weeks will look at the 1960s (and early 1970s) from three different perspectives. This week, we’ll look at the gaining momentum for school desegregation and the long-overdue but slow dismantling of Jim Crow legislation in the 1950s–and the constitutional conflicts that momentum provoked. On Wednesday and Friday we’ll look at the domestic policy agenda, and mixed achievements, of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. For this week, read Chapters 33 and 34. Since there’s no assigned reading for Friday the 5th, use that as a day to catch up on any missed reading and to review the postwar era so far (Chapters 29-34).

All of this will be essential background and overview for next week, when we look closely at the leaders, organizations, events and strategies of 1960s civil rights movements, and for the week after–a look at the tormented era of the Vietnam War, the turbulent end of the 1960s, and the Watergate crisis that ended Nixon’s presidency (Chapter 35).

The unit exam will be Monday, 11/22, covering Chapters 29-35.

This week gives only the barest flavor of the rich culture, politics, and new developments in postwar America that happened in the late 1940s and the 1950s. On Monday we mapped out some key terms and concepts: Cold War, Containment, (Second) Red Scare, McCarthyism, Fair Deal, and what’s happening in the 1950s with Gender Roles, Labor, Popular Culture, and Literature/Art.

For Wednesday, we’ll explore the influence, look, and emerging technology of the pervasive medium of television in the 1950s. We will likely screen and discuss a number of short clips from this list and you might enjoy checking out the rest on your own:

1951, “Duck and Cover” – not a TV production, but a short educational film that millions of American schoolchildren saw to learn about the threat of nuclear attack (9:15)

“Leave it To Beaver,” Season 1 (1957), Episode 29, introducing the iconic & perfect Cleaver family: the wise parents Ward & June, and the earnest good sons, Wally & “the Beaver” (6:04)

“Somewhere That’s Green,” sung by Ellen Greene, from the feature film musical Little Shop of Horrors (1986), a nostalgic 1980s tribute to sci-fi films of the 1950s; in this scene the main character Audrey (a battered floozy) imagines leaving the dismal city and moving to the suburbs to live a Levittown American Dream as a June-Cleaver-esque housewife. (4:25)

Popular kids shows of the 1950s included Westerns like “The Lone Ranger,” a masked man and his faithful (nonwhite) sidekick fight crime & Indians in the Old West. (2:49)

“Two Ford Freedom” – a 1950s filmed commercial for Ford, in which a housewife explains the ease and benefits of owning a second car. (1:39)

Undated commercial for Brylcreem, a men’s hair product – showing the use of catchy musical jingles in this era. (1:00)

The fabulous, glamorous, ultra-feminine TV star Dinah Shore pitches for Chevrolet (her show’s sponsor) in this 1952 commercial, “See the USA in Your Chevrolet,” that not only advertises the new model of car, but also the gleaming new interstate highway system just being dreamed & built in the 1950s. (1:33)

Speaking of women on television, this unusual game show/ reality show had women competing for the honor of being “Queen for a Day” based on who had the worst, most depressing and most pathetic life. It’s a fascinating look at America’s underclass, argues one scholar, in years when everyone on TV seemed to be white and wealthy. This particular clip also contains a commercial for “Rinso” and was filmed in Kinescope from a live broadcast. (2:49)

Another classic sitcom of the 1950s, “I Love Lucy,” which was innovatively filmed in Hollywood rather than sent out live from New York–which meant it has been successfully syndicated on TV ever since. In this episode, Lucy attempts thrifty housewife skills and (as usual) fails miserably to great comic effect. (4:49)

One unusual TV star of this era was a Catholic bishop from New York named Fulton J. Sheen, whose program, “Life is Worth Living” was a huge surprise hit on Sunday evenings. His “chalk talks” and sermons attracted Protestants and Catholics alike with his easy wit, self-deprecating humor and grand religious regalia. In this clip (filmed before a live studio audience), Sheen rails against godless Communism. (2:51).

Before TV went west to Hollywood, anthology drama series modified Broadway-type plays for the small screen. A classic of this genre, filmed live, was 1953 Philco Playhouse’s “Marty,” about a lonely young working man looking for love in a New York City dance hall. (Part 1 of 7, 8:27)

Talk about a pop-culture mashup: Elvis Presley and Debra Paget on the Milton Berle Show in 1956 – a prime-time variety show which bridged to the old early 20th century live vaudeville entertainment and was a something of a forerunner to the Tonight Show and SNL. (2:32)

A (poor-quality, alas) clip from a 1955 episode of the drama series based on the life of Herbert Philbrick, an FBI agent charged with infiltrating Communist subversive cells, “I Led Three Lives.” (3:57)

Edward R. Murrow’s CBS news program “See It Now” for March 9, 1954 in which the eloquent journalist directly takes on Senator Joseph McCarthy. Film/television scholar Thomas Doherty calls this moment “an act of showstopping oratory” that changed the course of American history. (2:03)

Finally, on Friday the 29th, we’ll follow the politics of the presidential elections of 1948, 1952 and 1956, and trace the development of the “liberal consensus” in American politics and culture, and the emergence of a viable (and permanent) African-American civil rights movement in the 1950s.

From now until Thanksgiving break, we’ll be looking at the period of the 1940s-1960s (Chapters 29-35)

This week, we explore the Second World War – first on Monday 10/18, at the rise of totalitarianism in Europe and the American shift from isolation to neutrality to a declaration of war in December 1941. Chapter 29 covers a lot of ground as it traces American foreign policy between the wars. You should focus on the terms and “isms” listed in the Chapter 29 Review on pp. 1154-1155.

On Wednesday 10/20, your Primary Source project is due, and we’ll look at life on the US homefront during World War II. (Chapter 30)

Friday 10/22 you have a Document Response due, and we’ll look at the immediate postwar world and America’s new role within it (Chapter 31). Links of the day: Changing European borders; Trailer for THEM! (1954). I know it’s a three-chapter week with 2 papers due, so I’ll go easier on the daily quizzes (we’ll still have them, but they won’t look as much like mini-exam questions since I know you have a lot on your plates this week).

On Wednesday 10/6, we investigate the causes and effects of the Great Depression on ordinary Americans and consider what Hoover could have, should have, or was able to do as president to mitigate the dire consequences and to turn around the American economy. As we have seen in our current recession, this is no easy or quick task – and there’s not always agreement among economists, advisors and policymakers about how to respond in an economic crisis. So don’t be too hard on Hoover – no one knew in advance how long it would last, and no one had faced an economy that appeared so strong but was so weak in its underlying structure – and Hoover wasn’t working with a cooperative Congress, either. The idea that government should prevent/solve/fix the economy was new, remember, and wouldn’t take real shape until the FDR administration – that wasn’t the idea on anyone’s mind in the late 1920s.

For Friday – the New Deal. Links: FDR’s First Inaugural Address (1933) – first 3:45

Today we focused on how your historical knowledge can be tested, such as on an exam. We brainstormed a long list of types of test questions.* We discussed how different kind of questions elicit different kinds of thinking, from simple recall of memorized material or recognition of a statement’s accuracy, to more complex thinking (explain, re-tell, synthesize, or in the case of an essay: develop points using evidence, empathize or think like a person in the past, etc). A good exam will do more than ask you to produce “lower order” or basic-level thinking – it will require you to do more with your brain. Research shows that when you use more of your brain, you learn better and retain more.

So, as a workshop, we divided up Chapters 25 and 26 into the book’s sections and split it up among the class so each person had one section. Each of you became experts on your section and then taught it to a partner. I would love to hear feedback on how you thought that went (I enabled comments on this post, if you’d like to comment), but from my perspective it seemed like that went very well – I saw lots of eye contact, close listening, nodding, asking of questions, give-and-take. In other words, you didn’t zone out on each other, doodle, text, stare off into space, or act disengaged. If only all lectures could be one-on-one! Hmm…

Then, once you had taught each other, I asked you to condense your knowledge (re-formulate, re-process) into a different format: something I call “8 Things.” For each section, I asked you to select or come up with 2 adjectives, 2 nouns, 2 verbs and 2 numbers. We recorded those on a wiki-page, which can be found here.

Finally, although we ran out of time for it, I had planned to have you write an exam question based on your section. I hope I get them via email from each of you sometime today, and I do promise to use the good ones on our next test. (“Good” = they involve different skills or parts of your brain; well-written; they don’t just focus on trivia but invite reflection, connection or critical thought).

*Our list of question types = multiple choice, true-false, fill-in-the-blank, essay, short answer, definition, identification, matching, map, timeline or chronological order, photograph/cartoon/visual image, correction, document-based-question, case study. Did I leave anything out?
Types of exams: in-class v. take-home; self v. professor-graded; open v. closed book.