Tuesdays & Thursdays – 8-920 a.m – Plumb Hall 408

Professor Ron McCoy
PH 411E – 341-5538 – mccoyron@emporia.edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays – 11 a.m-1 p.m. (and by appointment)

Introduction

This is a survey course. History majors take it, but you need not be one to do well in the class.

The approach in this class tends more to the broad-brush stroke than the fine line.  If you come to class, pay attention, take notes, keep up with the readings, do the assignments, and study for the exams you should do well.

As a teacher, I believe it is my job to try and make success in the class something that is well within the reach of anyone who has a desire to succeed.  If you “don’t get it,” let me know.  I will not assume it is because you “can’t get it”; absent evidence to the contrary, I’ll assume it’s because I need to find a way to make the material more interesting and relevant to your own learning style and experience.

During the run of this course I hope you will become aware of some ideas about what history is and what it isn’t; of what historians do, and how they do it; and, of course, some of the significant developments that have affected America (and those it, in turn affects) between the period 1877 to the present.

If you have any questions along the way—about this syllabus, about what we’re going over, about what we’ve gone over, whatever—please ask those questions.

 There are no textbooks in this class, which is not the same as saying there are no texts.  Readings are found on the Internet.

 You need to be able to access the Internet, where the course’s readings are located.  There are numerous sites on campus where computers that are hooked up to the Internet can be found and used without charge.

 This is an outcomes-based class in which students are expected to show that they:

• Know what a primary source is
• Can tell the difference between primary and secondary sources
• Are able to analyze evidence by working with written, numeric, graphic, and pictorial information to arrive at conclusions
• Understand the role of revision in the study of history
• Understand the concept of “presentism”
• Realize the significance played by interpretation in the study of history
• Can identify some of the salient features and significant episodes of American history since 1877

 In practical terms, “assessment” means “grades.”  These are arrived at by evaluating your performance on:

 Exam #1      50 points
 Exam #2      50 points
 Exam #3      50 points
 Primary Source Exercise #1   10 points
 Primary Source Exercise #2   10 points
 Let’s Talk Exercise    10 points
 Primary Sources on a Continuum Exercise 20 points
 Total points possible            200 points

 The 100-point final exam is optional

You will be informed of your grade on Exam #3 on the final day of class.  At that point, you will know what your final grade is.  With that knowledge, you may elect to take the optional 100-point final exam.  (You may also elect not to take the final, in which case your grade will remain whatever it happens to be at that point.)

The optional final exam is a cumulative test, covering ground gone over in the previous exams.

 If you take the optional final the number of points used as the basis for calculating your grade will be 300 points, not 200.

If your score on the final exam improves you grade, it will be counted in order to accomplish that task.  If, however, your marks on the final exam do not improve your grade—perhaps even undermine the existing grade—the final exam will not be counted.

There are no make-ups for any of the exams.  If you miss one of the first three exams, you must take the final exam in order to recoup the points missed.

The only exception to this rule is if you are a participant in an ESU-sponsored activity (member of a team, instrumentalist in the band, etc., as opposed to a member of the crowd.)  Or if the (documented) situation in which you're involved is of such a catastrophic nature that a reasonable person could not possibly expect you to be in class.  Broken alarm clocks, late nights out, spats with significant others do meet the threshold of “catastrophic.”

Also, with respect to the “Primary Source” and “Primary Sources on a Continuum” exercises, if you receive a grade of “C” or less you may redo the assignment.  The redone assignment will need to be turned in (with the original attached) at the beginning of the class session after the one at which it was returned to the class.  (If you miss the class session at which the papers were returned you will not be able to redo the assignment.)

The grade scale in this class is based on what percentage of the total points possible you end up with.  If you do not take the final, the total points possible is 200; if you take the final, it’s 250.  The scale is as follows:

    100% - 89% = A
    88% - 79% = B
    78% - 69% = C
    68% - 59% = D
    58% and lower = F

 In calculating grades I round the figures.  This means 58.5% comes in at 59% or “D,” while 58.4% remains an “F.”  Similarly, any total between 88.0% and 88.4% is an 88% “B,” while anything between 88.5% and 88.9% is an 89% “A.”

 The exams feature various types of questions: true-false, multiple-choice, analyzing graphs, working with photographs and maps.

I’m not interested in springing surprises on you—being more interested in letting you know what it is I want you to know, rather than punishing you for not knowing what you do not know.  So I’ll let you know exactly what areas will be covered.

For this reason, you will be given a study guide for each exam no later than one week prior to the exam.  Experience indicates that these study guides are very helpful to students—they can be worked with on an individual basis or in groups, whatever’s best for you and your own style of learning.

There will be no essays on the three exams.  Your writing will be evaluated through the “Primary Source,” “Primary Sources on a Continuum,” and “Let’s Talk” assignments.

 Historians go about their business by engaging in research, typically with materials they call “primary sources,” and then communicating what they’ve learned.  If you understand something about primary sources, you’ll be in a better position to understand “doing history.”

Chances are, you may not know what a primary source is.  No problem; we’ll be going over this—and you’ll find that you really already do know what primary sources are.

Each of the two “Primary Source” exercises follows the same pattern:

First, you are given an area in which, for purposes of this assignment, you are conducting research.  (Remember, the area is provided for purposes of the assignment only; you are not expected to adopt the topic as your life’s work.)

Second, you identify and reproduce a primary source that would be appropriate for that area of research.  This might be a document, photograph, advertisement, object, etc.

Finally, in one paragraph—one that has a basic statement at the beginning, supporting statements following, and summary statement at the end—you explain: (a) what the topic of research is, (b) what the exhibit is, (c) its source, and (d) why this exhibit is a primary source.

The paragraph must be single-spaced, typed in 12-point font, and appear on a page with your name at the top right-hand corner.  In addition, there will be a title page arranged like this:

The title page, exhibit and page with the paragraph must be attached to one another with a folder, paperclip, or staples.  If the pages are not attached to one another, the assignment will not be accepted.  (Likewise, the assignment must be a physical object handed in at the beginning of the class session on which it is due—assignments sent by email do not qualify.)

If you are going to be out of class on the day the assignment is due, you may turn it in early.  Late assignments lose one full grade for each day or portion of a day they are late (including weekends).

Although I am more interested in the content you generate than the punctuation, etc., a quarter-point will be deducted for every misspelled word, sentence fragment, and improper use of punctuation or incorrect word usage.  (In other words, “there” for “their”—and vice versa—or “alot” for “a lot,” or “exercise” for “exorcise,” or “affect” for “effect,” etc.)  If you are uncertain about spelling and usage, use another word.  If you’re unsure about punctuation, use shorter sentences.  Factors taken into account for purposes of grading include, but are not limited to: neatness, clarity of expression, relevance.

 This assignment uses the same template as the one specified above—for example, single-spacing, title page, sourcing, attaching pages together, and so forth.  In this instance, you’ll be assigned an area of research such as ethnicity, technology, transportation, smoking/drinking, entertainment, or the role/status of women.  You will come up with three primary sources—each separated in time by at least one decade (ten years)—that illustrate change over time.  Using no more than a single page, you will compare and contrast the exhibits—explaining what they tell you about change over time.

For example, if the area you were assigned is “changes in fashion,” you might look at advertisements for men’s or women’s clothing from the 1890s, 1920s, 1950s, and today.  If you notice that sizes have changed considerably—which they have—you’d point this out and conclude (reasonably enough) that people have gotten bigger (or smaller, or whatever).  In doing so, you’d have used primary sources to draw conclusions about change over time.

The “Let’s Talk” involves you deciding which person associated with American history during the period under review—1877 to the present—you would like to have dinner with.  The term “dinner” encompasses more than the meal itself, providing you with a social situation in which you and the individual can engage in private conversation.

In a written exposition (not longer than one single-spaced page, with a title sheet) you will identify the individual, explain why you would want to spend an evening engaged in conversation with this person, and list no fewer than three questions/topics you would like to see covered during that meeting.

 What follows is the intended schedule for the course.  The dates are listed by the week of classes and the session: “1.1” means first week, first session; “2.2” means second week, second session.

It may happen that we will move more slowly through some areas, but this is the basic blueprint.  I’ve listed a few of the early readings assignments (a more complete list will be distributed in class).

The readings need to be completed by the date with which they are listed.  There is a brief title/description of the subject/nature of the reading assignment, with the Internet address at which it is located listed below that title/description. I will assume that you are familiar with the assigned material when class starts.  If you are not familiar with that material by that time, you may find the presentation a bit confusing.

1.1 January 16 Introduction…US to 1877
 

2.1 January 21 US to 1900

Read about the Compromise of 1877…there’s a vote total for the 1876 presidential election, the click on “Compromise of 1877” to see what happened
www.U-S-history.com/pages/h221.html
Explore the tensions involving the labor movement during the Gilded Age by examining the causes, results, and abuses of justice associated with the Haymarket Riot of 1886 at “The Dramas of Haymarket,” a prologue, five acts and an epilogue at
www.chicagohs.org/dramas
The significance of the 1892 Homestead Strike at
www.geocities.com/Heartland/4547/homestead.html
Also the Pullman Strike of 1894 at
www.cc.ukans.edu/kansas/pullman/index.html
Check out the background of poet Emma Lazarus and her poem “The New Colossus,” which is enshrined at the base of the Statue of Liberty
www.jwa.org/exhibits/lazarus/el9.htm www.xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/LIBERTY/lazarus.html
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/LIBERTY/lazaruspoem.html
For immigration, check out the Ellis Island History site and click on “overview,” “experience,” “passage,” “inspection,” and “closing,” located at
www.ellisisland.com/indexHistory.html
Learn about the famous “Gibson Girl” at the following two sites
www.geocities.com/gibsongirls2001/paarticle1.html
www.toledo-bend.com/fdutton/gibson1.html
Read Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” (1894) (make sure you also read the biographical information on her—she’s the author of The Awakening, which will be briefly discussed in class)
www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/chopin.html
What happens to the woman at the center of “The Story of an Hour”?  Why?  What does this tell you about Chopin’s opinion of the “proper” role and life for a woman in the Gilded Age?
It would be difficult to find another person who better represented the burst of interest in “progress” and the sense that “science” could solve most problems than Thomas Edison
The sinking of the US battleship Maine, which triggered the Spanish-American War
http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/remember.html
“The World of 1898: The Spanish-American War”
http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/intro.html
The role of “Yellow Journalism” in the Spanish-American War
http://www.pbs.org/crucible/journalism.html
An overview of the Spanish-American War
http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/trask.html
Inventor Thomas Edison personified the spirit of “progress” that played such a pivotal role in Gilded Age America
http://www.nps.gov/edis/edbiography.htm

2.2 January 23 Focus: Nellie Bly
See what the Ghost Dance was about
www.ibiscom.com/knee.htm
And what Alfred Mahan had to say about sea power
www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/protected/alfred.htm
Then, what Frederick Jackson Turner had to say about the frontier
www.blackhills-info.com/quinn/Frontier.html
There’s a very interesting treatment of “Theodore Roosevelt: Icon of the American Century” at a website maintained by the National Portrait Gallery
www.npg.si.edu/exh/roosevelt/
Information on the muckrakers can be found at
www.infoplease.com/ce6/society,A0834319.html
Make sure you click on the links to “Steffens,” “Tarbell,” and “Sinclair”
Check out Jacob Riis, immigrant photographer, at
www.inforplease.com/ce6/people/A0841914.html
Read an excerpt from Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle—a novel that sparked federal regulation of the meatpacking industry—“Living and Dying in Packingtown” (“Packingtown” was a nickname for Chicago, the hub of the meatpacking industry)
http://courses.smsu.edu/ash254f/hst_122.readings.htm
There’s another link on that page you should explore, one dealing with Rose Schneiderman and the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

3.1 January 28 World War I era
You can learn a great deal about the causes of World War I at this British site
www.schoolhistory.co.uk/lessons/wwi/objectives_wwi.html
Proceed through the quiz at that site—you won’t be graded, it won’t count—but you’ll learn a few things.  Then move along to “The Road to War” at
www.swil.ocdsb.edu.on.ca/SWLCanMu/RoadWWI.html
The US nearly went to war against Germany when a German submarine sank the British passenger linter Lusitania in 1915 (roughly 10% of those killed were American citizens)
http://campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/USA/Lusitania.html
There’s a photograph of the Lusitania, the German U-boat (submarine) captain, and the advertisement the Imperial German Embassy ran in papers to warn people from sailing on ships of nations with which it was at war…read the text as well, since it asks you to arrive at a judgment about the incident
http://www.warships.net/commentaries/lusitania.htm
In 1915 US artist Fred Spear produced a poster designed to encourage people to enlist in the military services.  Take a look at the poster and ask yourself what emotions Spear was playing to through the illustration
http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/LostPoets/Enlist.html
The same poster appears with another (a British one) at
http://www.historywiz.com/lusitania.htm
The Zimmermann Telegram is covered at
www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/zimmermann_telegram/zimmermann_
telegram.html
Make sure you click on the “decoded text” option
On World War I propaganda (information that is disseminated to support a particular position—it may be true, partially true, or an outright lie).  Click to keep moving through the pages, and stop when you come to the bit about the “America First Party”
http://www.propagandacritic.com/articles/ww1.drift.html
George Creel on the selling of the war
http://web.mala.bc.ca/davies/H324War/Creel.SellingWar.1920.htm
Posters played a big role in the government’s attempt to motivate people…take a look at these and ponder what sort of emotions they appealed to
http://www.library.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/amposter.htm
For some insight into the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act passed into US law during World War I go to
http://www.polytechnic.org/faculty/gfeldmeth/ww1civlib.html
Big change brought about during World War I: The Russian Revolution
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/modern/russia/russihtm.htm
There’s a brief introduction to The Communist Manifesto (the Communists eventually won control during the Russian Revolution)—a small book by German political philosopher Karl Marx—a volume that had tremendous impact on the world in the 19th and 20th centuries.  Check out the sections titled “Summary,” “Context,” and “Terms”
http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/communist/
Outline about Communists (the Bolsheviks who came to power during the Russian Revolution were Communists): examine section “B” on Communist theory
http://nimbus.ocis.temple.edu/~bstavis/lectcom1.htm

3.2 January 30 Focus: Influenza, 1918
Go to the American Experience website that deals with the program’s episode on the Influenza epidemic of 1918 and click on the links to “Timeline” and “Maps”
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/influenza/

4.1 February 4 The Jazz Age

4.2 February 6 Roaring Twenties fade to Dirty Thirties
 PRIMARY SOURCE EXERCISE #1 DUE (10 POINTS)

5.1 February 11 Focus: The Dust Bowl
5.2 February 13 FIRST EXAM (50 POINTS)

6.1 February 18 World War II
6.2 February 20 World War II

7.1 February 25 Focus: Iwo Jima
7.2 February 27 Focus: Creation of an Icon
 PRIMARY SOURCE EXERCISE #2 DUE (10 POINTS)

8.1 March 4 Atomic Age – Cold War – Korea – McCarthyism
8.2 March 6 The US in the Fifties

9.1 March 11 Cold War Brinkmanship: The Cuban Missile Crisis
9.2 March 13 SECOND EXAM (50 POINTS)

March 18 SPRING BREAK
March 20 SPRING BREAK

10.1 March 25 The Civil Rights Revolution
10.2 March 27 The Civil Rights Revolution (continued)
PRIMARY SOURCES ON A CONTINUUM EXERCISE DUE (20 POINTS)

11.1 April 1 The Space Race
11.2 April 3 JFK’s Assassination – Vietnam

12.1 April 8 Vietnam
12.2 April 10 Sixties: Protest, Counterculture, Upheaval

13.1 April 15 Faith Eroded: Watergate
13.2 April 17 Confidence Challenged: The Iran Hostage Crisis
 LET’S TALK ASSIGNMENT DUE (10 POINTS)

14.1   April 22        Reagan and the Conservative Resurgence –Iran-Contra
14.2   April 24        A New World Order?

15.1   April 29 Gulf War
15.2   May 1 9-11-02

16.1   May 6  THIRD EXAM (50 POINTS)
16.2   May 8 Final session

“Academic dishonesty, a basis for disciplinary action, includes but is not limited to activities such as cheating and plagiarism (presenting as one’s own the intellectual or creative accomplishments of another without giving credit to the source or sources).” (ESU’s policy on academic dishonesty, which can be found at www.emporia.edu/biosci/dishbiol.htm)
Plagiarism and cheating runs so dramatically against academic norms and expectations that, according to ESU’s policy on this, “The faculty member in whose course or under whose tutelage an act of academic dishonesty occurs has the option of failing the student for the academic hours in question.”

Be assured: Any student who is found to have engaged in cheating or plagiarism in this course will receive a grade of “F” for the entire course.  A report of this action will be forwarded to the chair of the Social Sciences Department, and I will feel free to pursue any and all other avenues ESU provides for dealing with academic dishonesty.  It is not sufficient, for the purpose of avoiding plagiarism, to provide a source for a passage lifted (without quotation marks) from another’s work.  Nor is it sufficient to change a few words and present paraphrasing of another’s work as one’s own (whether or not the original work is cited).

Please study the information on the following website “(Avoiding Plagiarism): http://sja.ucdavis.edu/avoid.htm

In addition, I have provided information below on this subject.  It is taken from a site maintained by Professor Dwight Moore (ESU-Biology) at http://www.emporia.edu/biosci/genetics/papegene.htm#plagiarism
 

You should pay very close attention to the following excerpt from the "Random House Handbook" (Crews, Frederick, 1984, Random House Publ., pp. 405-406).

Consider the following source and three ways that a student might be tempted to make use of it:

Source: The joker in the European pack was Italy. For a time hopes were entertained of her as a force against Germany, but these disappeared under Mussolini. In 1935 Italy made a belated attempt to participate in the scramble for Africa by invading Ethiopia. It was clearly a breach of the covenant of the League of Nations for one of its members to attack another. France and Great Britain, as great powers, were bound to take the lead against Italy at the League. But they did so feebly and half-heartedly, because they did not want to alienate a possible ally against Germany. The result was the worst possible: the League failed to check aggression, Ethiopia lost her independence, and Italy was alienated after all.1

1 J.M. Roberts, History of the World (New York: Knopf,1976), p. 845.

Version A: Italy, one might say, was the joker in the European deck. When she invaded Ethiopia, it was clearly a breach of the covenant of the League of Nations; yet the efforts of England and France to take the lead against her were feeble and half-hearted. It appears that those great powers had no wish to alienate a possible ally against Hitler's rearmed Germany.

Comment: Clearly plagiarism. Though the facts cited are public knowledge, the stolen phrases aren't. Note that the interweaving of the writer's own words with the source's do not render the writer innocent of plagiarism.

Version B: Italy was the joker in the European deck. Under Mussolini in 1935, she made a belated attempt to participate in the scramble for Africa by invading Ethiopia. As J.M. Roberts points out, this violated the covenant of the League of Nations.1 But France and Britain, not wanting to alienate a possible ally against Germany, put up only feeble and half-hearted opposition to the Ethiopian adventure. The outcome, as Roberts observes, was "the worst possible: the League failed to check aggression, Ethiopia lost her independence, and Italy was alienated after all."2

1 J.M. Roberts, History of the World (New York: Knopf, 1976), p. 845.
2 Roberts, p. 845.

Comments: Still plagiarism. The two correct citations of Roberts serve as a kind of alibi for the appropriating of other, unacknowledged phrases. But the alibi has no force: some of Roberts' words are again being presented as the writer's.

Version C: Much has been written about German rearmament and militarism in the period 1933-39. But Germany's dominance in Europe was by no means a foregone conclusion. The fact is that the balance of power might have been tipped against Hitler if one or two things had turned out differently. Take Italy's gravitation towards an alliance with Germany, for example. That alliance seemed so very far from inevitable that Britain and France actually muted their criticism of the Ethiopian invasion in the hope of remaining friends with Italy. They opposed the Italians in the League of Nations, as J.M. Roberts observes, "feebly and half-heartedly because they did not want to alienate a possible ally against Germany."1 Suppose Italy, France, and Britain had retained a certain common interest. Would Hitler have been able to get away with his remarkable bluffing and bullying in the later thirties?

1 J.M. Roberts, History of the World (New York: Knopf, 1976), p. 845.

Comment: No plagiarism. The writer has been influenced by the public facts mentioned by Roberts, but he hasn't tried to pass off Roberts' conclusions as his own. The one clear borrowing is properly acknowledged.

Absences cut you off from information and may result in missing deadlines for assignments (which can be costly in terms of your final grade).

I try to avoid History Lite—so sanitized into comfortable acceptability that it lacks either spirit or real meaning.  Occasionally, you may encounter images and/or language some folks find offensive or disturbing.  If you remain in class after receiving this syllabus, I will take that as an expression of your willingness to be exposed to topics and/or forms of expression that might be viewed by some as politically or culturally sensitive.

If you want or need to tape lectures, please feel free to do so.

Posted policies specify no eating or drinking in Plumb Hall classrooms

Please turn off beepers, pagers, cell phones, and alarm clocks during class time.  If there’s an emergency that requires you to be electronically connected to the outside world, let me know about it.

If I’m up a the front of the room, talking, when you come in—meaning, you’re late—please do not come up to the front to retrieve a terms guide.  Wait in your seat until class is over, and then get it.

Any student who disrupts the flow of the classroom experience (for example: repeatedly arriving late) may be asked to withdraw from the course.  A student who does not withdraw from the course at that point may be subject to an instructor-initiated withdrawal.

The Graduate Teaching Assistant, Mr. Childers (with whose contact information you’ll be supplied), keeps the grade book.  If you have any question relating to the grade book, please contact him.

Mr. Childers also keeps the terms guides, so if you miss one you should seek him out the next class session and he’ll provide you with a copy.

ESU’s policies on academic dishonesty will be enforced.  You can find the foundation of that policy at   http://www.emporia.edu/biosci/dishbiol.htm

Any incident involving cheating or plagiarism will result in a student receiving a grade of “F” for the entire course.  Additional avenues for disciplinary action will also be taken.
 

“Emporia State University will make reasonable accommodations for persons with documented disabilities.  Students need to contact the Director of Disability Services and the professor as early in the semester as possible to ensure that classroom and academic accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion.  All communication between students, the Office of Disability Services, and the professor will be strictly confidential.”
(Excerpt from a policy passed by ESU’s Faculty Senate in April 2002)

If you have a documented disability that will interfere in any way with your work in this class, or impede your speedy exit from the room in the event of an emergency, please let me know about it as soon as possible so appropriate measures may be taken.

The office of the Director of Disability Services is located in 242 SE Morse Hall (directly north of Plumb Hall).  The phone number of the Office of Disability Services is 341-6637.