1493sylfal99

History of the U.S. Since 1877 1493 Syllabus History Dept. U.C.O.

A. Course Description
A survey of American history from the conclusion of the Civil War to the present.

B. Text
The text for this course will vary.

C. Objectives
   I. Attitudinal
1. To enable the student to recognize myth from fact.
2. To enable the student to develop empathy for all classes and types of individuals comprised in American history.
3. To develop a reverence for the basic human rights outlined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
4. To develop a specific awareness of the lives and accomplishments of average, as well as uncommon women and men, an awareness and appreciation of the numerous cultures which comprise American society, and a knowledge and tolerance for races and ethnic groups other than just Anglo-Saxons.
II. Skills
1. To develop the ability to read and comprehend.
2. To develop the ability to analyze cause and effect.
3. To develop balanced judgement and the ability to express such in written and oral communication.
III. Learner Objectives
1. Analyze the effects of the Industrial Revolution on the growth of industry and commerce in the U.S. between 1870 and 1920; analyze the growth and importance of labor unions.
2. Analyze the impact of various inventions or discoveries on industry, commerce, and society between 1870 and 1920.
3. Analyze the role of government in relation to business between 1870 and 1920 (e.g. Sherman Antitrust Act, Interstate Commerce Act).
4. Analyze the causes and effects of political reforms and party struggles between 1870 and 1920.
5. Identify the key personalities and events of the Progressive Era.
6. Analyze the impact of U.S. influence and involvement in world affairs between 1870 and 1920.
7. Identify the causes and consequences of U.S. involvement in World War I.
   8. Identify the key personalities and events associated with U.S. involvement in World War I.
9. Analyze the political and intellectual characteristics of the 1920's (e.g., Red Scare, conservatism, disillusionment).
10. Analyze the social and economic issues of the 1920's.
          11. Analyze issues involving women between 1877 and the present; suffrage, equal pay for equal work, abortion rights, etc.
12. Identify the causes of the Great Depression.
13. Analyze the economic and social effects of the Great Depression (e.g., stock market crash, unemployment).
14. Identify the functions and/or effects of various recovery programs under the New Deal (e.g., Civilian Conservation Corps, alphabet agencies).
15. Analyze the effects of the New Deal on U.S. government (e.g., welfare state).
16. Identify the characteristics and/or effects of U.S. foreign policy between World War I and World War II (e.g., neutrality, isolationism).
17. Analyze the major causes of U.S. involvement in World War II.
18. Identify major U.S. personalities and events of World War II (e.g., the Holocaust).
19. Analyze the political, economic, and social effects of World War II.
20. Identify the characteristics and/or goals of U.S. postwar policies regarding international relations (including the Cold War).
21. Identify important personalities, events, and political issues in the U.S. during the 1950's (e.g., McCarthyism).
22. Identify the causes and effects of U.S. involvement in Asian conflicts (e.g., Korea, Vietnam).
23. Analyze the major issues, political movements, and events which characterized the social upheaval of the 1960's in the U.S. (e.g., civil rights).
24. Identify the factors contributing to economic developments in the U.S. since 1970.
25. Analyze the significance of recent scientific, technological, and environmental developments or issues in the U.S.
26. Identify specific American foreign policy positions and/or their effects under various administrations since 1970.
27. Identify the role and/or the policy position of the U.S. in various world crises during the 1970's (e.g., Angola, South Africa, Iran, Israel, Ireland).

D. Course Outline
1. New South and the Last West
A. Policies in the New South
   1. The Redeemers
   2. White and black Americans in the New South
   3. Subordination of freedmen: Jim Crow
B. Southern economy; colonial status of the South
   1. Sharecropping
   2. Industrial stirrings
C. Cattle kingdom
   1. Open-range ranching
   2. Day of the cowboy
D. Building the Western railroad
E. Subordination of the Native American (Indian):
   dispersal of tribes
F. Farming the plains; problems in agriculture
G. Mining bonanza

2. Industrialization and Corporate Consolidation
A. Industrial growth: railroads, iron, coal,
   electricity, steel, oil, banks
B. Laissez-faire conservatism
   1. Gospel of Wealth
   2. Myth of self-made man
   3. Social Darwinism; survival of the fittest
   4. Social critics and dissenters
C. Effects of technological development on worker/
   workplace
D. Union movement
   1. Knights of Labor and American Federation
    of Labor
   2. Haymarket, Homestead, and Pullman

3. Urban Society
A. Lure of the city
B. Immigration
C. City problems
   1. Slums
   2. Machine politics
D. Awakening conscience; reforms
   1. Social legislation
   2. Settlement houses: Jane Addams and Lillian
    Wald
   3. Structural reforms in government

4. Intellectual and Cultural Movements
A. Education
   1. Colleges and universities
   2. Scientific advances
B. Professionalism and the social sciences
C. Realism in literature and art
D. Mass culture
   1. Use of leisure
            2. Publishing and journalism
5. National Politics, 1877-1896: The Gilded Age
A. A conservative presidency
B. Issues
   1. Tariff controversy
   2. Railroad regulation
   3. Trusts
C. Agrarian discontent
D. Crisis of 1890's
   1. Populism
   2. Silver question
   3. Election of 1896: McKinley versus Bryan

6. Foreign Policy, 1865-1914
A. Seward and the purchase of Alaska
B. The new imperialism
   1. Blaine and Latin America
   2. International Darwinism: missionaries,
    politicians, and naval expansionists
   3. Spanish-American War
    a. Cuban independence
    b. Debate on Philippines
C. The Far East: John Hay and the Open Door
D. Theodore Roosevelt
   1. The Panama Canal
   2. Roosevelt Corollary
   3. Far East
E. Taft and Dollar Diplomacy
F. Wilson and Moral Diplomacy

7. Progressive Era
A. Origins of Progressivism
   1. Progressive attitudes and motives
   2. Muckrakers
   3. Social Gospel
B. Municipal, state, and national reforms
   1. Political: suffrage
   2. Social and economic: regulation
C. Socialism: alternatives
D. Black America
   1. Washington, Du Bois, and Garvey
   2. Urban migration
   3. Civil rights organizations
E. Women's role: family, work, education, unionization, and suffrage
F. Roosevelt's Square Deal
   1. Managing the trusts
   2. Conservation
G. Taft
   1. Pinchot-Ballinger controversy
   2. Payne-Aldrich Tariff
H. Wilson's New Freedom
   1. Tariffs
   2. Banking reform
   3. Anti-Trust Act of 1914
8. The First World War
A. Problems of neutrality
   1. Submarines
   2. Economic ties
   3. Psychological and ethnic ties
B. Preparedness and pacifism
C. Mobilization
   1. Fighting the war
   2. Financing the war
   3. War boards
   4. Propaganda, public opinion, civil liberties
D. Wilson's Fourteen Points
   1. Red scare
   2. Labor strife

9. New Era: The 1920's
A. Republican governments
   1. Business creed
   2. Harding scandals
B. Economic development
   1. Prosperity and wealth
   2. Farm and labor problems
C. New culture
   1. Consumerism: automobile, radio, movies
   2. Women, the family
   3. Modern religion
   4. Literature of alienation
   5. Jazz age
   6. Harlem Renaissance
D. Conflict of cultures
   1. Prohibition, bootlegging
   2. Nativism
   3. Ku Klux Klan
   4. Religious fundamentalism versus modernists
E. Myth of isolation
   1. Replacing the League of Nations
   2. Business and diplomacy

10. Depression, 1929-1933
A. Wall Street crash
B. Depression economy
C. Moods of despair
1. Agrarian unrest
2. Bonus march
D. Hoover-Stimson diplomacy; Japan

11. New Deal
A. Franklin D. Roosevelt
   1. Background, ideas
   2. Philosophy of New Deal
B. 100 Days: "alphabet agencies"
C. Second New Deal
D. Critics, left and right
E. Rise of CIO; labor strikes
F. Supreme Court fight
G. Recession of 1938
H. American people in the Depression
   1. Social values, women, ethnic groups
   2. Indian Reorganization Act
   3. Mexican-American deportation
   4. The racial issue

12. Diplomacy in the 1930's
A. Good Neighbor Policy: Montevideo, Buenos Aires
B. London Economic Conference
C. Disarmament
D. Isolationism: neutrality legislation
E. Aggressors: Japan, Italy, and Germany
F. Appeasement
G. Rearmament; Blitzkrieg, Lend-Lease
H. Atlantic Charter
I. Pearl Harbor

13. The Second World War
A.   Organizing for war
1   Mobilizing production
2.   Propaganda
3.   Internment of Japanese-Americans
B.   The war in Europe, Africa, and the Mediterranean; D Day
C.   The war in the Pacific: Hiroshima, Nagasaki
D.   Diplomacy
1.   War aims
2.   War-time conferences: Teheran, Yalta, Potsdam
E.   Postwar atmosphere; the United Nations
14. Truman and the Cold War
A.   Postwar domestic adjustments
B.   The Taft-Hartley Act
C.   Civil rights and the election of 1918
D.   Containment in Europe and the Middle East
1.   Truman Doctrine
2.   Marshall Plan
3   Berlin crisis
4.   NATO
E.   Revolution in China
F.   Limited war: Korea, MacArthur
15. Eisenhower and Modern Republicanism
A.   Domestic frustrations; McCarthyism
B.   Civil rights movement
1.   The Warren Court and Brown v. Board of Education
2   Montgomery bus boycott
3.   Greensboro sit-in
C.   John Foster Dulles's foreign policy
1.   Crisis in Southeast Asia
2.   Massive retaliation
3.   Nationalism in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America
4.   Khrushchev and Berlin
D.   American People: homogenized society
1.   Prosperity: economic consolidation
2.   Consumer culture
3.   Consensus of values
E.   Space race
16. Kennedy's New Frontier: Johnson's Great Society
A.   New domestic programs
1.   Tax cut
2.   War on poverty
3.   Affirmative action
B.   Civil rights and civil liberties
1.   Black Americans: political, cultural, and economic roles
2.   The leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr.
3. Resurgence of feminism
4.   The New Left and the Counterculture
5.   Emergence of the Republican party in the South
6.   The Supreme Court and the Miranda decision
C.   Foreign Policy
1.   Bay of Pigs
2.   Cuban missile crisis
3.   Vietnam quagmire
17. Nixon
A.   Election of 1968
B.   Nixon-Kissinger foreign policy
1.   Vietnam: escalation and pullout
2.   China: restoring relations
3.   Soviet Union: detente
C.   New Federalism
D.   Supreme Court and Roe v. Wade
E.   Watergate crisis and resignation
18. The United States since 1974
A.   The New Right and the conservative social agenda
B.   Ford and Rockefeller
C.   Carter
1.   Deregulation
2.   Energy and inflation
3.   Camp David accords
4.   Iranian hostage crisis

D.   Reagan
1.   Tax cuts and budget deficits
2.   Defense buildup
3.   New disarmament treaties
4.   Foreign crisis: the Persian Gulf and Central America
E.   Society
1. Old and new urban problems
2. Asian and Hispanic immigrants
3. Resurgent fundamentalism
4. Black Americans and local, state, and national politics

E. Methodology
Varies, but lecture and class discussion predominate. Various films and filmstrips are occasionally used.

F. Requirements
1.   Multiple choice quizzes
2.   Major exams
3.   Analyses of outside readings
4.   Essays

G. Grading
Grading policies will follow requirements established by the Board of Regents. A fuller explanation is attached.