FALL CLASSES BEGIN 9/2/08

UNITED STATES HISTORY
History 17B Online (3 units)
Sections 63656, 63657

WELCOME!!!

Don't know much about American history but fed up with the conventional ways of learning it?  Well then you've come to the right place.  Who says history has to be boring?  You will embark on a fascinating exploration of the making of modern American society.  Through multi-media web lectures, readings, e-mail discussions, music, posters, and film clips, this course will investigate the post-Civil War years of American history by examining a wide variety of topics, including racial and ethnic politics, popular culture, reform movements, and diplomatic history.

History 17B is a survey of the political, economic, social and cultural development of the Unites States from Reconstruction to the present.  Topics covered include Reconstruction, Native American culture and western settlement, Industrialization, the Progressive Era, World War I, the Twenties, the New Deal, and World War II.  Also covered are domestic, social, and foreign policy issues of the post-World War II period from the 1950s through the 1990s,  including reform movements, Vietnam, the Civil Rights and other ethnic movements, the Feminist Movement, popular culture, and post-Cold War foreign policy.

Required Texts

James A. Henretta, et. al., America's History:  Volume 2, Since 1865 (6th Edition, Bedford's/St. Martins, 2008)
Ellen Schrecker, The Age of McCarthyism (2d edition, 2001)

You will also have additional reading materials (documents and web pages) that are online.

General Course Policies

1. Print out this syllabus as evidence for transfer to a four-year institution.
2. Participation on the group discussion board and COMPLETING THE ASSIGNED READING by the beginning of each topic are essential to passing this course.
3. Tutoring is available at no charge at Tutorial Services.  It is provided by qualified, trained students who have been recommended by the faculty.  Contact Tutorial Services in the Library Building or call 741-2038.
4. CREDIT/NO CREDIT option will only be granted if the student e-mails the Instructor before the end of the sixth week to request the option.  
5. ***Plagiarism/cheating will be treated as automatic failures for the course and offenders will be referred to the CSSO for disciplinary action.  Familiarize yourself with the campus policy on cheating detailed in the College Catalogue under Student Conduct Code, 5.8.19 Policy on Cheating.  (You will find examples of what plagiarism is and how to avoid it at http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html.)***
6. West Valley College makes reasonable accommodations for persons with documented disabilities.  College materials will be available in alternate formats (Braille, audio, electronic format, or large print) upon request.  Please contact the Disability and Educational Support Program at (408) 741-2010 (voice) or (408) 741-2658 (TTY) for assistance.

Credit/No Credit Option

Students wishing to take this class with the Credit/No Credit grade option must inform the instructor in writing no later than the end of the SIXTH WEEK.  Requests for this option WILL NOT be accepted after that time.  See the WVC Catalog under "Academic Regulations and Standards" for more information about this option.  

In addition, students who wish to be dropped from the course are responsible for doing this on their own.  I will not do this for you.  If you stop logging on to Angel but your name is on my roster at the end of the semester, you will receive an "F" in the class with no opportunities to change this to a "W."

Quizzes and Exams

You are required to take 12 quizzes (2 of which will be counted as Extra Credit), a midterm, and a final.  ALL QUIZZES AND EXAMS ARE CONDUCTED ONLINE. 

Your Midterm and Final exams will be multiple choice and/or essay format and will be explained in Study Guides posted on the lecture web page.

Quiz questions will be drawn from the assigned reading (both in the text and online) for the week.  Questions for the Midterm and Final exams will be drawn from both the lectures and the readings.  You can take practice quizzes at the publisher's web page for the assigned chapters at http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/henretta6e/default.asp?uid=0&rau=0 (you will need to register at the web page, but registration is free!)

Extra Credit

Two of your 12 quizzes will be added on to your total score as Extra Credit.

Paper

You will write and submit one 3-4 page paper on Ellen Schrecker's book The Age of McCarthyism.  More details about the paper can be found on the Lecture page.

Threaded Discussions

Every one to two weeks a threaded discussion will be posted. Click on the Discussions icon on the Angel page under Lessons, read the topic statement, and then post your comments. You may respond to the instructor's statement or any other comment made by other students.  You must participate in each of these discussions in order to receive credit for your participation.  More instructions are posted on Angel.

How to Read the Lectures

Week 1  (Sept 2 - Sept 6) 

Introduction:  What is History?
Race and Segregation in Post-Civil War America

Readings:  Text, Chs. 15, 19 (pp. 595-599), 20 (pp. 624-626);  Online:  Wells-Barnet, "A Red Record"; Washington, "The Atlanta Exposition Address"; DuBois, "Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others"

Week 2  (Sept 7 - Sept 13)

How the West Was Won (and Lost)
Progress and Conflict in the New Industrial Order

Readings:  Text, Chs. 16, 17; 19 (587 [Ideology of Individualism] - 588)

Week 3  (Sept 14 - Sept 20) 

Coming to America:  The New Immigration, 1880-1924
The Conflict Between Urban and Rural America

Readings:  Text, Chs. 18, 19 (592 - 595; 599-608);  Online:  Sinclair, "Living and Dying in Packingtown, Chicago"

Week 4  (Sept 21 - Sept 27)

Progressivism and the Reform Impulse in America
Expansion and Imperialism:  The Rise of an American Empire

Readings:  Text, Chs. 20, 21 (pp. 641-648, 652-666), 22 (pp. 694-702)

Week 5   (Sept 28 - Oct 4)

The Roaring Twenties
The Great Depression

Readings:  Text, Chs. 23;  Online:  Steinbeck, "The Grapes of Wrath"

Week 6  (Oct 5 - Oct 11)

A New Deal for America
MIDTERM (includes Week 6 Lecture and Chapter 24)

Readings:  Text, Ch. 24

Week 7  (Oct 12 - Oct 18)

America and the Second World War
The Good War:  WWII and American Society

Readings:  Text, Ch 25; Online:  "African Americans and WWII:  A Fifth Column?"

Week 8  (Oct 19 - Oct 25)

America, the Holocaust, and the Atomic Bomb:  A Racial Perspective
Cold War Containment

Readings:  Text, Ch. 26; Online:  "Truman's Decision to Drop the Bomb"; "A Survivor's Account of the Hiroshima Blast"; "Hiroshima:  Was It Necessary?"; Kennan, "The Long Telegram"; 

Week 9  (Oct 26 - Nov 1)

A Cold War Home Front

Readings:  Schrecker, pp. 1-133,  pp. 262-274; Online:  McCarthy, "Communists in Government Service"

Week 10  (Nov 2 - Nov 8)

"A Date with the Family":  Postwar Prosperity in America
War of the Generations:  Rock 'n' Roll in the 1950s and Adult Opposition To It

Readings:  Text, Ch 27 Online:  Coontz, "'Leave it to Beaver' and 'Ozzie and Harriet':  American Families in the 1950s"; "Up From the Potato Fields"; Friedan, "The Problem That Has No Name"

SCHRECKER  PAPER DUE - SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8

Week 11  (Nov 9 - Nov 15)

The Era of Reform:  New Frontiers and Great Societies
The Civil Rights Movement

Readings:  Text, Ch. 28 (pp. 861-877); Online:  King and Malcolm X Readings

Week 12 (Nov 16 - Nov 22) 

The Tragedy of Vietnam          
Coming Apart at Home:  America's Youth Rebellion  

Readings:  Text, Ch. 28 (pp. 877-893);  Online:  "Peasant Experiences in the Vietnam War"; "The My Lai Massacre"; "The Port Huron Statement"

Week 13   (Nov 23 - Nov 29)  

The Paranoid Style of American Conspiracy History
The Age of Disillusionment:  America in the Seventies

Readings:   Text, Ch. 29; and skim through the info on the following web site:  The Kennedy Assassination <http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/home.htm>

Week 14  (Nov 30 - Dec 6)

The Reagan Revolution
Race and Ethnicity in Modern America

Readings:  Text, Ch. 30; Online:  "40th President Rode Boundless Optimism"; Cooper and Goldin, "Some People Don't Count"; Davis, "Las Vegas"

Week 15  (Dec 7 - Dec 13)

Clinton and the Culture Wars
America and the World

Readings:  Text, Chs. 31 & 32; Online:    President Bush's Address to Congress after 9/11; Fisk, "Mr. Bush is Walking Into a Trap"