Over the course of the
semester you
must answer 5 sets of
questions. These will
be graded on a pass/fail
basis. Your answers to
each of the five sets of
questions should
be 1.5 pages. These
are due in class on the day
that the reading
is assigned.
Additionally, students will
write one major (4-5
pages) and one minor (1.5-2
pages) book review.
Book reviews will
be based on the supplemental
books. (Review
questions and a guide
to writing reviews will be
placed on the web.)
Graded on a 1-100
scale, reviews must be
handed in during class on
the day they are due.
SCHEDULE
OF READINGS
(All readings are to be
completed on the day they
are listed.)
WEEK 1
THUR, 1
SEPT: Course intro
WEEK 2 -
THE RECONSTRUCTION ERA
TUES, 6
SEPT: Faragher, Out of
Many, 434-444. (Last day
to register, add a
class, or change/audit.)
THUR, 8 SEPT: Faragher,
445-49; “Reconstruction
and Free Plantation
Labor,” in The Way We
Lived, 3-21, course pack
(CP).
Set
1:
Choose two questions
from section A and two
from section B.
Section
A:
1.
Is the system that
historian Peter
Kolchin describes any
different than
slavery? Why or
why not? How
free were freedmen?
2. Why
were
freedman and white
planters first
attracted to the
sharecropping
system?
3.
What
were
the Black Codes in
Louisiana designed to
do?
Section
B:
4.
What do the Kolchin
essay and the
documents indicate
about the goals of
the newly freed
African-Americans?
5.
What
actions
did the freedmen take
to achieve their
objectives and what
sorts of
obstacles
did they face?
6. In
"A Letter
to Master"� a freedman
agrees to work for his
former master if his
master
would give him back
pay for all the work
he and his family had
done.
Considering how
devastating and
soul-crushing slavery
actually was,
would
reparations for
African-Americans be
an effective tool to
right a
horrible
wrong?
WEEK 3 -
RECONSTRUCTION & THE
WEST
TUES, 13
SEPT: Faragher, 450-59;
Claude G. Bowers, The
Tragic Era: The
Revolution after Lincoln
(1929), pgs 306-10 (CP);
Henry T. Thompson,
Ousting the Carpetbagger
from South Carolina
(1927), pgs 32-35 (CP).
(Last day to drop/add a
class.)
Set 2:
Answer all questions.
1.
According to Claude
Bowers, who wrote in
the 1920s, what role
did the
Klan
play during
Reconstruction?
Why did the KKK
exist?
2.
What
is
Henry Thompson's
view about the
Recontruction
governments in South
Carolina?
Why do both Bowers
and Thompson
describe this period
as a "tragic era"?
3.
What
criticisms
might historians
today have of
Bowers' and
Thompson's
interpretations?
THUR, 15 SEPT: Faragher,
455-63; Eric Foner and
LaWanda Cox, “Was
Reconstruction a ‘Splendid
Failure,’” in Taking
Sides, pgs 391-410 (CP).
Set 3: Answer
all questions.
1. Why does
Columbia
University historian
Eric Foner find
Reconstruction
to have been a
"spendid"
failure? What
evidence does he use
to
support his
case?
2. LaWanda Cox
counters
Foner.
Why does she find
Reconstruction
to be a failure that
not even Lincoln,
had he lived, could
have made
into a success?
3. Which argument
seems more
persuasive?
Why?
WEEK 4 -
RECONSTRUCTION & THE
WEST
TUES, 20
SEPT: Faragher, 466-486;
“The Last Frontier” and
“Indian Schools:
‘Americanizing’ the Native
American,” in The Way We
Lived, 36-43, 56-62
(CP).
Set 4: Answer
one
from section A and
one from section B.
Section
A:
1.
The first selection
is by Samuel
Clemens, later known
as Mark
Twain.
Clemens often
employed witty
sarcasm and bighting
irony in his
work.
What sorts of
ironies does he note
about the mining
town of Virginia
City,
Nevada? How is
the system he
describes like the
dot com boom of
the
1990s?
2.
How
does "A Montana
Cowtown, 1899" by
future president
Teddy Roosevelt draw
on
the
myths of the
American West?
How does this
contrast with the
realities
of the West?
Section
B:
3.
What did the white
writers of the
document "Rules for
Indian Schools"�
think
of Native American
youth? What
can you conclude
from this
document
about the long term
goals of Indian
education? Did
educators at such
schools
want what was best
for Indian
children?
4.
In
the late
19th and early 20th
centuries many white
American
intellectuals
believed
that the human kind
could be divided
into superior and
inferior
races.
This modified
Darwinian theory is
evident in the
selection "A
Government
Official Describes
Indian Race and
Culture,
1905."� What
evidence
does the author
offer to support his
claims about Indian
peoples?
Does this differ
significantly from
what people now
think about race
and
culture?
THUR, 22
SEPT: Read Justin Martin,
Genius of Place: The Life
of Frederick Law
Olmsted (Da Capo Press,
2011), pgs 6-20; and
211-405, and turn in short
reaction paper or
four-page review essay.
See on-line guide for more
details:
www.enc.edu/history/cr_writing.html
If you are completing
either your short of long
review answer one of
the following
questions. Make sure
to indicate which question
it
is that you are answering.
1.
Reviewing Justin
Martin's biography of
Frederick Law Olmsted in
the Wall Street
Journal,
Michael J.
Lewis writes:
Frederick
Law Olmsted was
America's first
landscape architect (a
term he
invented), and Central
Park was his first great
work. After designing
it in 1858, he would go
on to create many of the
country's loveliest
parks, including
Chicago's Riverside
Park, Brooklyn's
Prospect Park,
the Boston Fens, and
(posthumously, from his
proposals) Yosemite
National Park. Somehow
the visitor senses that
these landscapes aspire
to more than splendid
scenery and skillful
planning, and that
Olmsted
asked them to perform
tasks that nobody had
ever previously asked of
landscape.
According to Martin, how
did Olmsted make
landscapes speak to larger
concerns? What does
Olmstead's view of place
and space tell us
about America in the late
19th century?
2. Frederick Law Olmsted
was many things--a
landscape architect, head
of the Civil War sanitary
commission, a gold mine
overseer, an editor,
proto-environmentalist and
more. He was also a
tireless
reformer. How did
Olmstead hope to change
society for the
better?
3. To what extent did
hardship alter Frederick
Law Olmsted's life and
career? Looking at
Olmsted's life as an
example, how do
Americans deal with
adversity now compared to
how they dealt with it
over 100 years ago?
WEEK 5 -
THE WESTERN FRONTIER
TUES, 27:
Faragher, 487-497; Owen
Wister, “When you call me
that,
smile!”, in Wister, The
Virginian: A Horseman of
the Plains (1902) (CP).
Set 5: Answer
all
questions.
1. In many
ways Owen Wister
is the father of the
modern
Western.
How believable is his
tale of the
"Virginian"?
2. Why do you think
Wister's novel
appealed to so many
Americans
in
the early 20th
century?
3. Is Wister's tale
similar or
different than modern
Westerns?
Why or why not?
(History Department
Lecture: WED, 28 SEPT,
6pm: Edward Blum [San
Diego
State University], “What
Humor Tells Us about Race
and Jesus in
America”)
THUR, 29 SEPT: Exam 1. Studyguide.
WEEK 6 - INDUSTRIALIZATION
& THE GILDED AGE
TUES, 4
OCT: Faragher, 500-523;
Sean Dennis Cashman,
“Industrial Spring:
America in the Gilded
Age,” in Leon Fink, ed.,
Major Problems in the
Gilded Age and the
Progressive Era, pgs. 2-7
(CP); and Donald Fleming,
“Harvard’s Golden Age?” in
Glimpses of the Harvard
Past (1986) 77-94
(CP). This latter
chapter covers the rapid
growth of Harvard
under president Charles
Eliot. Student life
figures prominently
in this piece.
Set 6: Answer two
questions in
each section.
Section A
1. According to Sean
Dennis
Cashman, what was the
meaning
of
Mark Twain's use of the
term "Gilded Age"� to
describe the era of the
late
19th century?
2. What
features of the Gilded
Age
does Cashman find in
three
later
periods of American
history? What does
this, then, say about
the
Gilded Age?
3. How
would the Industrial
Revolution alter
American
society?
Section B
4. Describe
the ways Harvard was
growing in the years
1880-1910. Why was
that growth taking
place? What
changes did the
institution undergo as a
result?
5. What was
the average student at
Harvard like? Who
went to Harvard in these
years?
6. What
was life like for the
typical undergraduate?
THUR, 6 OCT: Faragher,
526-546. Selection from
Michael Lesy, Wisconsin
Death Trip (1973) (CP),
recording the effects of
the 1893 economic and
psychic depression in
Wisconsin.
WEEK 7 -
MASS PROTEST
TUES, 11
OCT: “Thomas E. Watson”
and Tom Watson, “The Negro
Question in the
South,” in Charles E.
Wynes, ed., Forgotten
Voices: Dissenting
Southerners in An Age of
Conformity, pgs 57-72,
(CP); “Women’s Sphere:
Women’s Work,” in The Way
We Lived, 63-65, 77-82,
(CP).
Set 7: Answer
any 1 from
section A and any 2 from
setion B.
Section
A
1.
What did the Georgia
populist Senator Tom
Watson argue was the
answer
to
the so-called "Negro
Question"?
2.
According
to Watson, what
role would the
"People's party"
play in the South?
Section
B
3.
In 1844,
Massachusetts
secretary of
education Horace
Mann thought
women's
status would change
in the years
ahead. Why did
he think
this?
4.
Judging
from the first
document, "Only
Heroic Women Were
Doctors Then
(1865),
1916,"�
how did the
perception of a
separate place for
women within the
medical
profession change
between 1865 and
1916?
5.What
kinds
of
challenges did Dr.
Anna Manning
Comfort
face? Do
women in
today's
workforce confront
similar
challenges?
6.
In "Women's
Separate Sphere,
1872," Supreme
Court Justice
William Bradley
upheld an
Illinois decision
barring women from
the legal
profession.
How
ddi
Bradley make his
case? What
does this reflect
about popular
conceptions
of gender
following the
Civil War?
THUR, 13 OCT: Faragher,
547-553; Document 20-25,
William McKinley,
“Decision on the
Philippines (1900)” and
answer questions (from CD
that
comes with Faragher text).
(History Department
Lecture: FRI, 14 OCT,
3:30pm: David Hempton
[Harvard Divinity School],
“Godless Europe, Religious
America:
Comparative
Secularization,
1750-2000,” Donald S. Metz
Lecture in
American Christian
History)
WEEK 8 -
AMERICAN IMPERIALISM
WEEK 9 -
THE PROGRESSIVE IMPULSE
TUES, 25
OCT: Faragher, 558-571;
Document 21-6, Jane
Addams, “Twenty Years at
Hull House (1910)” and
answer questions (from CD
that comes with
Faragher text).
(WED, 26 OCT: Last day to
withdraw, or change a
course to pass/fail.)
THUR, 27 OCT: Exam
2. Studyguide.
WEEK 10
- WORK & POPULAR
CULTURE
TUES, 1 NOV: Faragher,
571-577; “Life and Labor
in Industrial America,”
in The Way We Lived, 83-98
(CP).
Set 11:
Answer all three of the
following.
1.
According to Bonnie
Mitelman's article,
"Rose Schneiderman
and the
Triangle
Fire," what were
working conditions
like at the Triangle
Shirtwaist
Factory
before the
fire? How had
workers responded to
these
conditions?
What did management
do about it?
How could workplace
conditions
be
so bad? In
what ways did the
Triangle fire change
both public
opinion
and the relationship
of employees to
management?
2.
Looking
at America in the
distant past and in
the present, can you
think of
other
large-scale
catastrophes that
led to sweeping
reform or major
changes
in
society?
3.
After reading
"An Italian
Bootblack's Story,"
describe the
hardships newcomers
faced at
the
turn-of-the-century.
If working and
living conditions
were so
bad,
why did so many
immigrants stream
into the US during
this period?
THUR, 3 NOV: “Consumer
Culture and Commercialized
Leisure,” in Leon
Fink, ed., Major Problems
in the Gilded Age and the
Progressive Era,
pgs. 325-346 (CP).
Set
12: Answer two
questions from one section
and one from the other.
Section A
1. In the introduction
to this chapter on
consumer culture, Leon
Fink
writes: “Collapsing
older social divisions
based on region,
ethnicity,
class, and sex, the new
mass leisure and
commercialization
empires
exercised a powerful
nationalizing force
within the
culture.” In
specific terms, how did
this transition occur?
2. What does the poor
country girl in Theodore
Dreiser’s novel make of
the department store and
its customers?
3. Explain Charlotte
Perkins Gillman’s
critique of
consumerism.
Are such critiques still
applicable today?
Section B
4. According to the
author of document 4,
how could movies be a
democratizing force?
5. What was the
“carnival spirit”
Frederic Thompson hoped
to create in
the selection from 1908?
6. How did baseball help
Americans cope with the
onslaughts of
industrialization and
social change?
TUES, 8
NOV: Read John F. Kasson,
Amusing the Million: Coney
Island at the Turn
of the Century and turn in
short reaction paper or
four-page review
essay. See on-line guide
for more details:
www.enc.edu/history/cr_writing.html
Set
13: Answer both
questions if you are doing
a discussion
set. Answer only one
if you are doing your
short or longer book
review.
IMPORTANT:
Indicate the question(s)
you will answer at the top
of your
paper
and note whether your
assignment is the short or
longer paper or the
discussion set.
1. According to John F.
Kasson, Coney Island
symbolized the rise of the
new mass culture.
Write a review essay
describing what exactly
was "new" about the new
mass culture. How
did the new mass
culture challenge the
values of
Victorianism? What
role did this
amusement park play within
traditional society?
Be sure to offer
specific examples to back
up your argument.
2. Write a review essay
describing how Coney
Island often served as an
attractive escape for
individuals from all
classes. How does
John
F. Kasson argue that Coney
Island served as a social
leveler?
(History Department
Lecture: TUES, 8 NOV, 6pm:
Maura Jane Farrelly
[Brandeis University] and
Eileen McNamara [Brandeis
University],
“Writing Op-Eds: Print and
Broadcast Perspectives”)
THUR, 10
NOV: Faragher 577-589;
“The Triumph of Racism,”
in The Way We Lived,
99-114 (CP).
Set
14: Answer all
four.
1. "The
Birth of 'Separate but
Equal'": How did the
Supreme Court's decision
in
Plessy v. Ferguson
conclude that
segregation did not
violate the
Fourteenth Amendment,
which should guarantee
equal protection under
the
law? How would
this case shape race
relations in the South?
2. "A United States
Senator Defends
Lynching, 1907": What
did the
southern Senator Ben
Tillman think was the
cause of white on black
violence, specifically
lynching? How did
he argue his case?
3. "A Call for Equality,
1905": What did W.E.B.
Du Bois offer as a
solution to racism?
4. "I Want to Come
North, 1917": Given the
fact that race relations
were at such a low point
in the early twentieth
century South, did it
have make sense for
African Americans to
flee to the urban
North?
Would you have left the
region if you had faced
the kind of
circumstances they
faced?
WEEK 12
- RACE, IMMIGRATION, &
REFORM
TUES, 15
NOV: Thomas J. Schlereth,
Victorian America:
Transformations in
Everyday Life, 1876-1915
(1991), pgs. 7-18 (CP).
Set
16: Answer all
four.
1. Why
did immigrants leave
their homelands and
travel thousands of
miles to
America?
2. How did Americans
react to the new wave of
immigration in the late
1800s and early 1900s?
3. On page 12 Thomas
Schlereth titles one
section “Resettling and
Migrating.” What
does he mean by those
two words? Why did
a
“fairly substantial
‘floating proletariat’
drift in and out of
American
cities in these years”?
(17)
4. Did any of your
relatives experience
something similar to
what
Schlereth describes?
THUR, 17 NOV: Read Martha
A. Sandweiss, Passing
Strange: A Gilded Age
Tale of Love and Deception
Across the Color Line and
turn in short
reaction paper or
four-page review essay.
See on-line guide for more
details:
www.enc.edu/history/cr_writing.html
Set 18:
Answer two from each
section if you are doing a
discussion
set. Answer only one
from Section
B if you are
doing your short or longer
book
review.
IMPORTANT:
Indicate the question(s)
you will answer at the
top of your
paper
and note whether your
assignment is the short
or longer paper or the
discussion set.
Section A
1. There are very few
cases of reverse
passing, or whites
passing as
blacks.
According to Martha
Sandweiss, what
motivated an
individual like King and
others to cross the
color line from the
other
direction?
2. King’s closest
friends—Henry Adams, Jim
Gardiner, John
Hay—thought
of King as a tragic
figure. Is
he? And, if so,
how?
3. After King’s death,
and as legal and
financial problems
plagued his
family, the press became
fascinated by the story
of Ada and her
children. Why do
you think the media paid
so much attention?
Section B
4. Martha Sandweiss
reveals that there is
very little surviving
material on Ada
Todd/King, and not all
that much material
concerning
Clarence King’s
relationship with Ada
Todd. What
challenges might
that have posed for
Sandweiss as she wrote
the book and how did she
deal with these?
5. Some might argue that
Clarence King is such an
odd individual and
that his life is such an
anomaly that it tells us
little about the
larger trends of the
Gilded Age. How
would you respond to
that?
6. What does this book
tell us about the
complicated world of
race
relations in Gilded Age
America?
WEEK 13
- THE GREAT WAR
TUES, 22
NOV: Faragher, 592-597;
“America Goes to War,” in
The Way We Lived,
115-116, 129-133 (CP).
Set
17: Answer all
three.
1.
"Letters From Mennonite
Draftees, 1918." How
were Mennonite
conscientious objectors
treated by military and
legal authorities?
2. Most people today
would agree that they
suffered horrible
abuse. Yet should
conscientious objectors
have faced any
punishment by the
federal
government? Should
they have served
prison time, for
instance, for refusing
to fight? Would
you apply
for CO status if the US
reinstated the draft?
3. "Racism and the Army,
1918." Judging
from this document, what
did French officials
think about the US
military's race
policy?
Why did US officials
issue these demands?
THUR, 24 NOV: Thanksgiving
break, NO CLASS.
WEEK 14
- CONCLUSION
TUES, 29
NOV: Faragher, 598-606.
THUR, 1 DEC: Faragher,
606-621.
WEEK 15
- Final Exams
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