US History II

The University is closed today, Monday 10/31/11 so there will be no class today. I will make the following adjustments to the syllabus: The exam will be FRIDAY of this week (11/4/11), not this Wednesday. Then we will make some alterations to the schedule and timing of the next unit and I will have that printed and the electronic version will be updated when we next meet on Wednesday, Nov 2.

For Wednesday please read a short 6-page essay by Terry Tempest Williams, entitled “The Clan of One-Breasted Women” (PDF), also posted on the course Blackboard under “Documents”.

Handouts so far:
Unit 3 overview + atomic bomb documents (4 pages)
Kennan Telegram + NCS-68 excerpt (2 pages)

Powerpoint slides for Monday, 10/24 lecture on the origins, key documents, politics, and foreign policy strategies of the early Cold War (1945-1952)

Useful links:

Interactive map of Europe in the 20th century (BBC)
George Kennan’s “Long Telegram” from Moscow in 1946 (full text online)
Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech, delivered March 1946
Economic Recovery Act of 1948, aka “The Marshall Plan”
The Truman Doctrine speech, 1947
NSC-68, 1950 top-secret policy report, declassified in 1975 (see the full page-by-page scan at the Truman Library)
Digital History, Cold War (online textbook)
Cold War Museum

This is a short unit, dealing with America in the early Cold War, the atomic age, and the era of McCarthyism. The online quiz will open on Monday by classtime and close on midnight Friday Oct 28 and will be drawn from Chapter 28 of your textbook.

Fri, Oct 21: Dawn of the Atomic Age, with film clips (see below). Reading to do prior to class: EH 27 750-769.

Mon, Oct 24: The Cold War; please have read EH 27: 757-769 before coming to class.

Wed, Oct 26: Workshop Day, bring laptops to class; no assigned reading but review your previous readings

Fri, Oct 28: Who was McCarthy and how did he become an “ism”? Skill Builder 5 is due. Please read EH 27: 769-777

Mon, Oct 31: Americans and the Bomb, or the Atom in popular culture. Please read an essay by Terry Tempest Williams, “Clan of the One-Breasted Woman” (PDF)

Wed, Nov 2: Exam #3 in class. The exam will use material from our class sessions and Chapters 27 and 28. It will NOT be open book or open note.

Nuclear Bomb Test images (Retronaut)

Video links for class on Friday 10/21:
“Atomic Attack” 1950 film/ NYC attack, family bomb shelter (46:00)
“Duck and Cover” 1951 civil defense film for children (9:15)
“Survival Under Atomic Attack” 1951 civil defense film (8:45)
“A is for Atom” 1953 film cheerleading peaceful uses of atomic energy (14:26)
“Operation Cue” 1955 nuclear test film (15:00) – this film depicts the “Apple-2” test shot from the “Teapot” series on 5 May 1955 in Nevada
“Nuclear Test Film #55” civil defense film (15:00, wonky soundtrack)

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).

American experiences in wartime – some multimedia resources

American Indian veterans
True Whispers, The Story of the Navajo Code Talkers (PBS)

Zoot Suit Riots, Los Angeles 1943
PBS documentary/resources
What is a zoot suit? See “Chucos Suaves” (YouTube)
Related to jitterbugging Lindy dancers of the era: e.g. “Whitey’s Lindyhoppers”

Japanese-American Internment
See the well-designed digital archive, JARDA (Japanese American Relocation Digital Archive)

Small town homefronts
Office of War Information promotional film (1945) “It’s Everybody’s War,” narrated by Henry Fonda (courtesy of Internet Archives)

Last Friday, we brainstormed some questions – things we were curious about & wanted to know about World War II. On Wednesday the 12th I have arranged for some activities to help us get at those questions.

There will be 4 “stations” set up during our class time. We will all start in the classroom together and then break into groups. You’ll have the chance to visit 2 stations on Wednesday in class, and if we want to keep the workshop going we can repeat it or extend it onto Friday so you can visit 1 or 2 more.

The stations will be:
–working with one of our reference librarians to answer your own questions about the war (“open inquiry”) so you’ll need your laptops for that one
–listening to radio programs, radio commercials, and/or popular music of the war on CD
–viewing newsreels and/or wartime-era cartoons
–working with archival documents from the time period

You will choose 2, one for the first half of the class and one for the second half of the class.

Bring your curiosity and your laptop! See you in class.

This unit focuses on American experiences during World War II (1941-1945). Chapter 25 is background, on the Depression and the New Deal and the changes in the economy and the structure of government, society and culture that preceded the entry of the United States into the Second World War. Chapter 26 concerns both the progress of the war on its fronts overseas and at home.

Wednesday, Oct 5 we will begin by asking questions and mining documents about the beginning of the war: the attack on Pearl Harbor, mobilization, and the internment of Japanese Americans living on the West Coast. Reading: EH 725-737

Friday, Oct 7 is an overview of the war. It is, of course, a very complex 5-year event around the globe, so this will be fairly basic to give you a sense of the chronology of this era. Reading: EH 737-742, and also use this online interactive resource (made by History.com, the History Channel): http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/interactives

Monday, Oct 10 – no class, Columbus Day

Wednesday, Oct 12 is a second in-class “workshop” day – we will use a variety of primary sources from the World War II era, including documents, posters, photographs, music, and newsreels and/or cartoons.

On Friday, Oct 14 we will look at portrayals of the Second World War in film, and your 4th Skill Builder is due.

Monday, Oct 17: a discussion of the end of the war; Reading is EH 742-749.

The Unit 2 exam is Wednesday, Oct 19.

Here’s the clip we watched in class today, and here’s a link to more clips of the film, including its original trailer and some of the other big Broadway-type numbers embedded into the story – which concerns efforts to stage a successful play in hard times. The actress is Joan Blondell, and the wonderful African-American blues singer is Etta Moten. If you’re interested in more on the culture (literature, art, film and radio) of the 1930s, I highly recommend Morris Dickstein, Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression (Norton, 2009).

Two clips I will be using in class as we talk about Constitutional amendments 13-19:

Martin Luther King, “I Have a Dream” (1963)

Ken Burns, “Prohibition: The Time is Now”

I have some good news; I was able to get a new copy of the Experience History textbook from the publisher, and I have placed it on course reserve for the benefit of those who don’t yet have access to the book because the bookstore is sold out or for any other reason.

You can ask for it at the library circulation desk as Davidson, Experience History, on reserve for HI 112-01. It can be checked out for 2 hours at a time.