History 6325
Twentieth-Century America
Irby 116, T 6:00-9:00
Instructor:
Dr. David Welky
404 Irby Hall
450-5634
dwelky@uca.edu
Office Hours: TTh 9:15-12:15, Th 5:00-6:00, and by appointment
Course Description and Goals: This graduate seminar is designed to serve as an introduction to the scholarly literature on late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century America, or roughly from 1890 to 1941. The approach here, within those chronological boundaries, is eclectic, as we will consider topics in political, social, cultural, intellectual, and military history. The purposes of this course are many, as it aims not only to expand your familiarity with the content of this period, but also to improve your skills as a historian. That is to say, you must do more than absorb information to do well here. You must also demonstrate your ability to grapple with how historians construct the past—how they assemble themes, evidence, sources, and arguments into a (one hopes) cohesive whole.
Texts:
-all texts available at the university bookstores
Casey, Steven. Cautious Crusade: Franklin D. Roosevelt, American Public Opinion, and
the War Against Nazi Germany. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Cohen, Lizabeth. Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939. New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s. New
York: Hill & Wang, 1995.
Goodwyn, Lawrence. The Populist Moment: A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in
America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.
Hoganson, Kristin. Fighting for American Manhood: How Gender Politics Provoked the
Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 2000.
Jacobson, Matthew. Special Sorrows: The Diasporic Imagination of Irish, Polish, and
Jewish Immigrants to the United States. Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1995.
Keith, Jeanette. Rich Man’s War, Poor Man’s Fight: Race, Class, and Power in the
Rural South during the First World War. Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, 2003.
Knock, Thomas. To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World
Order. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.
McGerr, Michael. A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement
in America, 1870-1920. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Mettler, Suzanne. Dividing Citizens: Gender and Federalism in New Deal Public Policy.
Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998.
Rolinson, Mary G. Grassroots Garveyism: The United Negro Improvement Association
in the Rural South, 1920-1927. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
2007.
Rubin, Joan Shelley. The Making of Middlebrow Culture. Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press, 1992.
Class Policies:
Please refer to your Student Handbook for academic and sexual harassment policies. The University of Central Arkansas adheres to the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. If you need an accommodation under this Act due to a disability, please contact the UCA Office of Disability Services, 450-3135.
Course Requirements and Procedures:
This course will heavily stress class discussion. I see myself as more of a moderator than a leader here. It is my job to get the discussion started, poke and pry at your observations, offer my own interpretations (which you may either embrace or ignore), and generally try to keep things moving in a productive direction. Beyond that, I will do my very best to keep quiet. It is your job to identify key questions, chart the line of inquiry, and come to terms with the conversations historians have through their writings.
Discussions are collective enterprises that require input from all members of the seminar. Everyone is of course different, but discussion involves skills that are essential to a true graduate education. You must learn how to listen to others’ ideas, constructively respond to and build upon their arguments, develop and articulate your own positions, and analyze how and why historians have constructed their arguments. Weekly discussion should therefore serve as opportunities for everyone to exchange ideas about the topics under study, sharpen your critical tools, and work toward new understandings that are more penetrating and satisfying that those you might have had before.
Failure to participate in discussion will of course result in your doom.
Grading:
As a teacher of eager graduate students, I expect you all to excel in this class. Good grades should comes almost as a matter of course. As a realistic person, I know that this is not always true. Some will soar, some will struggle to maintain level flight, and some will crash and burn. Your final grade will be determined by the following formula:
-Four book précis: 20%
-12-15-page review essay: 30%
-Attendance and participation: 50%
-NOTE: I will give you a written report at mid-term so that you will be aware of your overall performance to that point.
Schedule:
-all articles available in Torreyson library
January 10 Organization
17 Discuss Goodwyn, The Populist Moment; Martin Ridge, “Populism Redux:
John D. Hicks and the Populist Revolt,” Reviews in American History 13
(March 1985): 142-154; William F. Holmes, “Populism: In Search of
Context,” Agricultural History 64 (autumn 1990): 26-58
24 Discuss Hoganson, Fighting for American Manhood
31 Discuss Jacobson, Special Sorrows
February 7 Discuss McGerr, A Fierce Discontent; Peter G. Filene, “An Obituary for ‘The
Progressive Movement,’” American Quarterly 22 (Spring 1970): 20-34;
Daniel T. Rodgers, “In Search of Progressivism,” Reviews in American
History 10 (December 1982): 113-132
14 Discuss Keith, Rich Man’s War
21 Discuss Knock, To End All Wars
28 Discuss Dumenil, The Modern Temper; Burl Noggle, “Doing History by the
Decade: A Pattern in American Historiography, 1930-1980,” The History
Teacher 16 (May 1983): 389-416
March 6 Discuss Rolinson, Grassroots Garveyism
13 Discuss Rubin, The Making of Middlebrow Culture
20 Discuss Mettler, Dividing Citizens; Jerold S. Auerbach, “New Deal, Old
Deal, or Raw Deal: Some Thoughts on New Left Historiography,”
Journal of Southern History 35 (February 1969): 18-30
27 NO CLASS—Spring Break
April 3 Discuss Cohen, Making a New Deal
10 Discuss Casey, Cautious Crusade
17 NO CLASS—work on papers—I am available for individual consultation
24 Review essays due
Assignments:
Book Précis: Each student will write four 200-250-word book précis. A précis is simply a brief summary of a book’s main argument, evidence, and sources. It is not a book review, nor is it intended to evaluate the author’s argument.
Review Essay: Each student will write a 12-15 page essay that addresses 4-5 books within a specific area or subfield or that consider a similar theme. No more than one of the books used can come from the assigned reading list. All books used must have been published within the last 30 years through a university press (there may be some exceptions on this last point, but see me before using any non-university press book).
For examples of excellent review essays, see:
-Aram Goudsouzian, “‘My Impact Will Be Everlasting’: Wilt Chamberlain in History
and Memory,” Journal of Sport History 32 (summer 2005): 235-248.
-Charles E. Neu, “Vietnam: The War That Won’t Go Away,” Reviews in American
History 32 (September 2004): 431-438.
All papers should be written in 12-point, Times New Roman font with one-inch margins and should conform to the footnoting style explained in the history department’s style guide, located at http://www.uca.edu/divisions/academic/history/ (which is identical to the form used in Turabian and Chicago).
Papers that are either entirely or partially plagiarized will not be tolerated. Handing in a plagiarized paper will result in either a lowered grade on the paper, a failing grade on the paper, or expulsion from the class. All students should refer to the definition of plagiarism given at http://www.plagiarism.org/learning_center/what_is_plagiarism.html