FALL CLASSES BEGIN 1/28/13

UNITED STATES HISTORY
History 17B Online (3 units)
Sections 24979, 24980

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

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. PASS/NO PASS 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.

Pass/No Pass Option and Dropping

Students wishing to take this class with the Pass/No Pass 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 16 quizzes (the two lowest scores being dropped and added back into your total as Extra Credit), a midterm, and a final.  ALL QUIZZES AND EXAMS ARE CONDUCTED ONLINE.  You will have 15 minutes to complete 10 questions (once you begin the quiz, you must complete it within 15 minutes by 11:55 pm of the due date).  You MAY NOT make-up a missed quiz.

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

Quiz questions will be drawn from the assigned textbook 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 http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073385468/student_view0/index.html.  Once you take the quiz, the system will give you an immediate score; however, you can only fully review your quiz for the correct answers once the quiz period is complete (i.e., at the end of the week).

IF A PROBLEM OCCURS:  Students are encouraged not to wait until the last day to take a quiz (which will be available for the entire week).  If a problem occurs with the system or your computer (and let's face it - such problems DO occur from time to time), contact me ASAP.  I will help you solve the problem.  If, however, you wait until the final day (or worse, the final hours) and a problem arises, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to help you before the deadline (you take that risk upon yourself by waiting so long to take the quiz).

Extra Credit

Your two lowest scored quizzes (which includes a missed quiz scored as zero) that are dropped will be added back into your total score as Extra Credit.  The incentive here is to take ALL of the quizzes (not just the 14 required) and do the best you can on them all.  

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 Lectures 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  (Jan 28 - Feb 2) 

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

Week 2  (Feb 3 - 9)

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

Week 3  (Feb 10 - 16)

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

Week 4  (Feb 17 - 23)

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

Week 5   (Feb 24 - March 2)

The Roaring Twenties
The Great Depression

Week 6  (March 3 - 9)

A New Deal for America
MIDTERM (includes Week 6 Lecture AND reading)

Week 7  (March 10 - 16)

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

Week 8  (March 17 - 23)

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

Week 9  (March 24 - 30)

A Cold War Home Front

March 31 - April 6 - SPRING BREAK 

Week 10  (April 7 - 13)

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

SCHRECKER  PAPER DUE - SATURDAY, April 13

Week 11  (April 14 - 20)

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

Week 12 (April 21 - 27)

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

Week 13   (April 28 - May 4) 

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

Week 14  (May 5 - 11)

The Reagan Revolution
Race and Ethnicity in Modern America

Week 15  (May 12 - 18)

Clinton and the Culture Wars
America and the World