HIS102E Modern US History, 1877-present Instructor: Gary Kroll Office Phone: 518 564-2738 Office Address: Champlain Valley

Hall 323 Office Hours: MW 12-1, T 9-10 or by appointment E-mail: gary.kroll@plattsburgh.edu

Course Description What is freedom? What is liberty? Are these things actually inalienable rights? If so, who grants these rites, and who takes them away? Can a government free a people? Or does the quest for freedom lie in the hands of individuals, families, or other social groups? Does one have to die for freedom? Or are there other ways to go about it? These are important matters to ponder today. We too often hear about the "spreading" of freedom, as if it were a U.S. made brand of peanut butter that can be spread over the bread of the world. In my mind, this assumption demands that we, as citizens, look anew to the history of freedom in the United States. This survey is designed to concentrate on the social and cultural history of modern America. In the process, we will have to move quickly across immense political and intellectual terrain. The focus throughout will be to observe some of the major struggles that Americans have engaged in to win their freedom. While freedom may be a right, it is rarely freely given. There is a broader goal of this class as well, and I put it to you as a challenge. The goal is to learn how to think historically to see the present world as a product of history. This is much more difficult than it sounds. Much depends on this. Formal Objectives Skills: read with comprehension communicate effectively in written and spoken English filter, analyze, and critique information and experience Appreciate: the complexity of the world in which we live the arts and aesthetics the great ideas of humanity the nature of society the moral responsibilities of the individual the continuity of history and the changes influenced by historical processes General Education objectives: Courses in this category expand students understanding of common institutions in American society and how they have affected different groups and their understanding of Americas evolving relationship with the rest of the world. Students must also demonstrate knowledge of a basic narrative of American history (SUNY Required Learning Outcomes). Courses will include aboriginal concerns, immigration, inequality, growth, colonialism, the environment, and issues of power and conflict, especially in a North American context. Courses focus on developing in students an understanding and appreciation of the complexity of our world, the nature of society, the moral responsibility of the individual, and the continuity of history and the changes influenced by historical processes (Plattsburgh General Education Objectives). Courses reinforce the students ability to read with comprehension, to communicate effectively in written and spoken English, and to filter, analyze and critique information and experiences (Plattsburgh General Education Objectives). Required Books There are required books. They are at the College Bookstore.

Text: Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty!: An American History Vol 2 Seagull Edition (New York: W. W. Norton & Co.) Third Edition Document Reader: Eric Foner (ed.), Voices of Freedom: A Documentary History Vol 2 (New York: W. W. Norton & Co.) Third Edition

We will also be using the campus Moodle Course Management System to distribute information and for online quizzes. You can log on at http://moodle.plattsburgh.edu and then find our course, "HIS 102." I'll be discussing this in class.

Suggested Text Please note that your text book, Give Me Liberty! comes with access to some extraordinary online resources. The site is not password protected. You will find things like chapter outlines, discussion questions, practice quizzes, flashcards, multiple primary sources for further edification, audio files of historical interest, a bunch of movie clips, and some commentary by this semester's patron saint, Eric Foner. I promise, he's a treat. I will be using some of this material during class, and I may assign certain parts of it. If so, you will receive advanced warning. In general, however, this is an optional resource for your benefit. Course Requirements Time Commitment: You should plan on spending an average minimum of 6 hours for reading, thinking, and writing outside of class every week. It may be helpful for you to block off study periods a few days or nights before class. If you can not make this commitment, you should think about whether or not you want to be in the class, and by all means, come to me to talk about it. Attend classes, bring reading material for the day and take notes, always. You are permitted three absences. Beyond that, your final grade will be reduced. You will be responsible for having thoughtfully and critically read all the materials on the date that they are assigned. I will talk about this more in class, but in brief, it is not enough to simply read an assignment as if it was a morning newspaper. You need to actively make notes in your journal of your thoughts on the argument, point of view, and evaluation of readings. You will also want to note any difficulties you may have had while reading. Bring your questions in to class. You should consider yourself "prepared for class" when you have completed this exercise. Also, and I feel strongly about this, you should plan on devoting a portion of your journal to unfamiliar words that you look up. For some reason, many students have forgotten to use dictionaries. Make sure you have one while you are reading. Bring all your notes and readings to every class. Take quizzes Contribute to class discussion Complete 2 primary source essays Complete the midterm and final exam Activate your campus email account. If you are using alternative accounts, please have your mail forwarded. I will be making periodic announcements via email. You will need to have frequent access to an online computer. If you do not have a personal computer, you will be required to use one of the many computers in the many computer labs on campus. Please let me know if this is an issue. Quizzes, Tests, and Papers Almost all quizzes will need to be completed before Monday mornings class. So, for instance, you should have the second online quiz completed before coming to class on February 4. You can take each quiz twice and Ill count the highest. Unannounced quizzes may also be given in class. Ill be dropping the lowest quiz. Midterm and final exams will be a combination of objective and essay questions. Two essays will be due as per the syllabus. They will be based on our primary source readings. Details will posted in Moodle. Schedule Date and Topic January 27: Once again, what is history?: The

Reading

Due

Dynamics of HIS 102 January 29: Reconstruction 1865-1877 January 31: Reconstruction

Give Me Liberty, Chapter 15

Online Quiz 1 -practice

Voices of Freedom "Colloquy with Colored Ministers" (1865) Petition of Committee on Behalf of the Freedmen to Andrew Johnson (1865) The Mississippi Black Code (1865) A Sharecropping Contract (1866) Elizabeth Cady Stanton, "Home Life" (ca. 1875) Frederick Douglass, "The Composite Nation" (1869) Robert B. Elliott on Civil Rights (1874) Online Quiz 2

February 3: America's Gilded Age February 5: America's Gilded Age

Give Me Liberty, Chapter 16 Voices of Freedom: Chief Joseph, An Indians View of Indian Affairs (1879) William Graham Sumner on Social Darwinism (ca. 1880) A Second Declaration of Independence (1879) Voices of Freedom Henry George, Progress and Poverty (1879) Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward (1888) Walter Rauschenbusch and the Social Gospel (1912) Give Me Liberty, Chapter 17 Voices of Freedom: The Populist Platform (1892) John Marshall Harlan, Dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson (1986) Ida B. Wells, Crusade for Justice (ca. 1892) Frances E. Willard, Women and Temperance (1883) President McKinley on American Empire (1899) Emilio Aguinaldo on American Imperialism in the Philippines (1899) Rudyard Kipling, "The White Man's Burden" (1899) Give Me Liberty, Chapter 18 Voices of Freedom: Manuel Gamio on a Mexican- American Family and American Freedom (ca. 1926) Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Women and Economics (1898)

February 7: America's Gilded Age

February 10: Freedom's Boundaries February 12: Freedom's Boundaries

Online Quiz 3

February 14: Freedom's Boundaries

February 17: Progressive Era February 19: Progressive Era

Online Quiz 4

 February 21: Progressive Era

John A. Ryan, A Living Wage (1912)

Voices of Freedom: The Industrial Workers of the World and the Free Speech Fights (1909) Margaret Sanger on "Free Motherhood," from Women and the New Race (1920) Carlos Montezuma, "What Indians Must Do" (1914) Woodrow Wilson and the New Freedom (1912) The Progressive Party Platform (1912) Give Me Liberty, Chapter 19 Voices of Freedom: Woodrow Wilson, A World "Safe for Democracy" (1917) A Critique of the Versailles Peace Conference (1919) Carrie Chapman Catt, Address to Congress on Women's Suffrage (1917) Voices of Freedom Eugene V. Debs, Speech to the Jury (1918) Randolph Bourne, "Trans- National America" (1916) W. E. B. Du Bois, "Returning Soldiers" (1919) Marcus Garvey on Africa for the Africans (1921) John A. Fitch on the Great Steel Strike (1919) Give Me Liberty, Chapter 20 Voices of Freedom Andr Siegfried on the "New Society," from the Atlantic Monthly (1928) The Fight for Civil Liberties (1921) Bartolomeo Vanzetti's Last Statement in Court (1927) Voices of Freedom Congress Debates Immigration (1921) Meyer v. Nebraska and the Meaning of Liberty (1923) Alain Locke, The New Negro (1925) Elsie Hill and Florence Kelley Debate the Equal Rights Amendment (1922) Give Me Liberty, Chapter 21 AND Voices of Freedom: Letter to Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins (1937) John Steinbeck, The Harvest Gypsies (1936) Voices of Freedom: Steel Workers Organizing Committee, a New Declaration of Independence (1936)

February 24: World War I February 26: World War I

Online Quiz 5

February 28: World War I

March 3: Transforming Business March 5 Transforming Business

Online Quiz 6

March 7 Transforming Business

March 10: The New Deal

Online Quiz 7

March 12: The New Deal

 March 14: Midterm March 17-21 March 24: World War II March 26: World War II

Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Greater Security for the Average Man" (1934) Herbert Hoover on the New Deal and Liberty (1936) Norman Cousins, "Will Women Lose Their Jobs?" (1939) Frank H. Hill on the Indian New Deal (1935) W. E. B. Du Bois, "A Negro Nation within a Nation" (1935)

Spring Break Give Me Liberty, Chapter 22 Voices of Freedom: Franklin D. Roosevelt on the Four Freedoms (1941) Henry R. Luce, The American Century (1941) Henry A. Wallace on "The Century of the Common Man" (1942) Voices of Freedom F. A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (1944) World War II and Mexican- Americans (1945) African- Americans and the Four Freedoms (1944) Justice Robert A. Jackson, Dissent in Korematsu v. United States (1944) Give Me Liberty, Chapter 23 Voices of Freedom Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (1945) The Truman Doctrine (1947) NSC 68 and the Ideological Cold War (1950) Voices of Freedom Walter Lippmann, a Critique of Containment (1947) The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) President's Commission on Civil Rights, To Secure These Rights (1947) Joseph R. McCarthy on the Attack (1950) Henry Steele Commager, "Who Is Loyal to America?" (1947) Give Me Liberty, Chapter 24 Voices of Freedom: Richard M. Nixon, "What Freedom Means to Us" (1959) Clark Kerr, Industrialism and the Industrial Man (1960) The Southern Manifesto (1956) Voices of Freedom Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom

Online Quiz 8

March 28: World War II

March 31: The Cold War April 2: The Cold War

Online Quiz 9

April 4: The Cold War

April 7: Affluent Society April 9: Affluent Society

Online Quiz 10

April 11: Affluent Society

April 14: The 60s April 16: The 60s

April 18: The 60s

April 21: Triumph of Conservatism April 23: Triumph of Conservatism

(1962) C. Wright Mills on "Cheerful Robots" (1959) Allen Ginsberg, "Howl" (1955) Martin Luther King Jr. and the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955) Give Me Liberty, Chapter 25 Voices of Freedom: James Baldwin on Student Radicals (1960) The Sharon Statement (1960) Barry Goldwater on "Extremism in the Defense of Liberty" (1964) Lyndon B. Johnson, Commencement Address at Howard University (1965) Voices of Freedom The Port Huron Statement (1962) Paul Potter on the Antiwar Movement (1965) The National Organization for Women (1966) Csar Chavez, "Letter from Delano" (1969) The International 1968 (1968) Give Me Liberty, Chapter 26 Voices of Freedom Redstockings Manifesto (1969) Barry Commoner, The Closing Circle (1971) Jimmy Carter on Human Rights (1977)

Online Quiz 11

Online Quiz 12

April 25: Triumph of Conservatism

Voices of Freedom Jerry Falwell, Listen America! (1980) Phyllis Schlafly, "The Fraud of the Equal Rights Amendment" (1972) James Watt, "Environmentalists: A Threat to the Ecology of the West" (1978) Ronald Reagan, Inaugural Address (1981) Online Quiz 13

April 28: Globalization April 30: Globalization

May 2: Globalization

May 5: September 11 and the Next American Century May 7: September 11 and the Next American Century

Give Me Liberty, Chapter 27 Voices of Freedom: Bill Clinton, Speech on Signing of NAFTA (1993) Declaration for Global Democracy (1999) Voices of Freedom The Beijing Declaration on Women (1995) Puwat Chaukamnoetkanok, "Triple Identity: My Experience as an Immigrant in America" (1990) Bill Clinton, Remarks at the "America's Millennium" Celebration (1999) Give Me Liberty, Chapter 28 Voices of Freedom: The National Security Strategy of the United States (2002) Robert Byrd on the War in Iraq (2003)

Online Quiz 14

May 9: September 11 and the Next American Century

Second Inaugural Address of George W. Bush (2005) Voices of Freedom Archbishop Roger Mahoney, "Called by God to Help" (2006) Anthony Kennedy, Opinion of the Court in Lawrence v. Texas (2003) Security, Liberty, and the War on Terror (2008) Barack Obama, Speech to the Islamic World (2009)

Final: TBA

Grading Policy Grade Breakdown 20% Quizzes both online and in class. You will be permitted to drop 1 online quiz. 30% 2 Historical analysis papers (15% each) 20% Midterm Exam 30% Final Exam Grading Criteria for Historical Analyses and Exam Essays Grading will be on a point system to facilitate the management of final grades. When you convert your points to a percentage, say for an assignment or test, the breakdown is as follows: 90-100% Excellent use of sources. Demonstrates a careful reading of materials and a high level of critical thought. Everything is clear, concise, and well organized. Students generally will spend a minimum average of 6 hours a week reading, writing, and thinking outside of class. 80-89% Good use of resources. All of the above applies, but the assignment/test may have vague and unexplained points in need of more precise exposition and analysis. Students will generally spend a minimum of 4 hours a week reading, writing, and thinking outside of class. 70-79% Adequate use of resources. Demonstrates a passing effort to complete assignments/tests. Less precision and accuracy than above. Students will generally spend a minimum average of 3 hours a week reading, writing, and thinking outside of class. 60-69% Minimum passing effort. Adequate, but poor, understanding of reading materials. Students here will generally be missing classes and cram for tests at the last minute. -59% Demonstrates a complete lack of commitment to the class. Final grades will be letter grades, using pluses and minuses. Historical Analysis Papers Im still sweating out the details, so more will be forthcoming. But I can tell you that there will only be two; minimum of 1,000 words; first due before the midterm, the second after; and they will be centered on your primary sources (Voices of Freedom). Details to follow. Attendance Policy Attendance is mandatory Absences that lead to missed quizzes and missed information are the responsibility of the student. I do make accommodations for life, but there are limits. 4 absences results in the reduction of your final grade by one half letter (5%), 6 absences leads to a drop of 10%, etc. Structure of Class I change this every year, not because Im fickle, but Im always uneasy trying to figure out how to make the best use of our time. This semester, Ive decided to spend far more time in guided discussion. This means tha t you are all on the spot and will be expected to contribute to class discussion. It also means that youll have to come to class prepared and ready to talk. Ideally, you should get more out of the class than in previous semesters. So heres how it works:

This is a heavily structured class. We have two books. One is a text book ( Give Me Liberty), and the other is a source book (Voices of Freedom). The two travel as a set, and they are broken into chapters and we cover a chapter a week. The text book is just a text book, but its a good one. The source book is full of historical documents most of which are true gems that every American citizen should Before coming to Mondays class, you will need to have o Read the appropriate chapter in Give Me Liberty (as per the syllabus) o Taken the online quiz for the chapter Before coming to Wednesday and Friday class, you will need to have o Read the appropriate sources in Voices of Freedom (as per the syllabus) o It is very tempting to just skip this reading. If I find that the class is not prepared, I will begin using pop-quizzes on Wednesdays and Fridays. We will spend our time in guided discussion about the sources. No powerpoints, very little lecture. I will be asking for volunteers to speak, but I will also be going through the roll randomly to ask questions. Its a little intimidating, but it actually should be fun. But what about the lecture??? Ah, if you want it, you can still have itits in Moodle, and Ill point it out in class. Academic Integrity If any problems arise, either academic or personal, that might jeopardize your performance in the course, you must inform me of the problem as soon as possible (phone, e-mail, office hours, smoke signals). Last minute, and afterthe-fact, pleas and appeals are always already problematic. I am an understanding human, but if a contingency should arise, you must get in touch with me. Any student in this course who has a disability that may prevent him or her from fully demonstrating his or her abilities should contact me personally as soon as possible so that we can discuss accommodations necessary to ensure full participation and facilitate your educational opportunities. It is the policy of the College that any student requiring accommodations of any kind to fully access this course must be registered for accommodations with the Student Support Services office located in the Angell College Center. If you need any accommodations for this course, please contact Student Support Services at 518/564/2810. The University's policies on academic misconduct in the Plattsburgh State University of New York Student Code of Responsibility and Conduct are, as always, non-negotiable and fully enforced in this course. Plagiarism of any kind is prohibited and will likely result in an E for the class, and notification to the Dean of Student Affairs. It is expected that all students enrolled in this class support the letter and the spirit of the Academic Honesty Policy as stated in the College Catalog. When using the ideas or words of other people, published sources must be cited. If you have any doubt about whether or not a source should be cited, you should always ask me. And while I encourage you to discuss class readings and assignments amongst your peers, all assignments and quizzes should be individually composed. If you are ever in doubt about whether or not you are doing something even marginally illicit, please call me and ask.