US History II

Thanks to all who submitted SkillBuilder #1 today either in paper or via email. If you sent it by email you will get it back by email, by Tuesday of next week. Make sure you got an email confirmation that I received it, otherwise – I didn’t get your paper. Papers submitted in hard copy during class will likely be returned on Monday. Remember you have another one due on Friday, February 1 and for those who don’t yet have the reader I will expand the alternative/online source options over the weekend.

You might want to fill in the rest of the note page that we began in class today as you complete and review the readings from Chapter 15 (if you missed class, here’s the notes page).

The voting is in! The most popular chapters were 16, 23, 24 and 28. On Monday I’ll distribute an updated syllabus page with all the details about what to read and where our deeper focus will lie in each of the course’s four units. During Unit 1, we’ll be using Chapters 16 and 17 most. For Monday please read Henretta ACH Ch 16 p. 474-484. Those pages are posted as a PDF on Blackboard if you are still awaiting a 5th edition of the textbook.

Take the Quiz Online! Also, I’ve put up a short quiz on Blackboard that should be available now until Monday at noon. You can take it up to three times (15 minutes per attempt) and I’d recommend that you try it more than once so you get a feel for how the online quizzes and re-takes work on Blackboard. Your score will show up in My Grades (so I can check the automatic score reporting functions) but will not count towards your grade.

PS – Got 11 minutes? Listen to this podcast from NPR’s Planet Money on how (and when) we got the dollar bill. It may surprise you. In your reading for Monday, Henretta mentions on p. 478 that the Republicans, now firmly back in power in Congress and the White House after the end of Reconstruction, developed a national banking system – but there’s much more to the story. The clip’s too long to play in class but it’s worth a listen.

(a Civil War-era 2 dollar note from a New York Bank)

I’ve posted some links to online primary sources suitable for use in the first SkillBuilder, in case you don’t yet have the documents reader – just click on the SkillBuilder1 tab above. Hopefully that will get us started while we’re all waiting for the replacement texts to arrive.

Thanks to everyone who participated in our investigation groups in class today! Here’s what to do before we next meet on Wednesday, 1/23.

1) Read the syllabus. You got a paper version in class, or click in the left sidebar for a full-color PDF or online flipbook version.

2) Read Chapter 15 pages 446 to 466 in Henretta, America: A Concise History 5th edition. Your books should look like this:

If you have the 4th edition of the Henretta text instead, then read pages 437-456. If your book is still shrink-wrapped, you might want to leave it that way for easier return to the bookstore. I have contacted them to let them know their mistake and to ask how we can resolve it, and I will let you know their answer as soon as I find out what the options are.

If you do not have the textbook yet, I’ve made a PDF of the first reading assignment and put it on Blackboard, so check there.

3) Take this poll to see what topics we’ll look at in greater detail this semester.

4) If you have the Documents book, you can begin on your first SkillBuilder assignment which is due Friday, Jan 25. This assignment is explained in the syllabus on p. 4 or under the “SkillBuilders” tab above.

This website serves as the hub for Tona Hangen’s two sections of US History II US Since 1877 (HI 112) in the Spring 2013 semester at Worcester State University. Section 01 meets MWF at 8:30 am and Section 11 (and Honors H1) meets MWF at 9:30 am, both in Sullivan Room 104.

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 Google Reader). 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 “Spr13.”

If you have questions about the course before we meet in person on Friday, January 18th, please feel free to email me, at thangen (at) worcester.edu