US History II

Two clips I will be using in class as we talk about Constitutional amendments 13-19:

Martin Luther King, “I Have a Dream” (1963)

Ken Burns, “Prohibition: The Time is Now”

I have some good news; I was able to get a new copy of the Experience History textbook from the publisher, and I have placed it on course reserve for the benefit of those who don’t yet have access to the book because the bookstore is sold out or for any other reason.

You can ask for it at the library circulation desk as Davidson, Experience History, on reserve for HI 112-01. It can be checked out for 2 hours at a time.

Here’s the slide I showed in class today, explaining how to format a Chicago Style footnote, what to include, and what order to put things in. (Click on it for a larger view)

For further information, see the Diana Hacker guide to Research and Documentation in History in the left hand sidebar.

If you’re curious about why it’s called “Chicago Style,” well… I’ll just say it has nothing to do with pizza.

Note: New tab above, “Exam Advice” – to help you improve your exam skills, based on what I’m seeing from in-class writing exercises

Resources for today’s class:

(Click for larger image)

Web resources:
Custer Battlefield Museum http://www.custermuseum.org/ (note this is a private for-profit museum; the battlefield’s name has changed)
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument Website http://www.nps.gov/libi/index.htm
The Battle of Little Bighorn on PBS – The West http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/six/bighorn.htm (resource page from a 2001 PBS series)
Battle of the Little Bighorn on Eyewitness to History http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/custer.htm (a commercial site, note the ads)
Website for groups involved in Little Bighorn Annual Re-enactments http://www.littlebighornreenactment.com/
Little Bighorn Photo Gallery http://www.mohicanpress.com/battles/ba04002.html (an amateur/commerical site, note, site has automatic music)
Friends of the Little Bighorn Battlefield http://www.friendslittlebighorn.com/ (fundraising organization for the monument)
Little Bighorn Associates http://www.thelbha.org/ (scholarly society dedicated to history of the battle)
“How the Battle of Little Bighorn was Won” http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/How-the-Battle-of-Little-Bighorn-Was-Won.html (online article from Smithsonian Magazine)
Gallery of images at History.com http://www.history.com/topics/battle-of-the-little-bighorn/photos (a commercial site)

Online Historical Newspaper/Periodical Archives
Making of America (Cornell University)

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection (1859-1923) – same kind of search engine as the Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Library of Congress “Chronicling America” historic newspapers (1880-1922)

California Digital Newspaper Collection

Quincy, Illinois Historical Newspaper Archive (1835-1919)

The Harvard Crimson (starts in 1873)

Sioux County, Nebraska, Newspaper Archives (1872 to the present)

Wyoming Newspaper Project

Based on the class’s voting last Friday, the syllabus for the rest of the course is now set and will be handed out in class. It has also been added to the electronic versions of the syllabus posted on Blackboard and in the left-hand sidebar of this site. You may also download the new syllabus table as a 2-page PDF document.

This week will be one of the semester’s busiest. Your reading includes parts of 2 chapters for our in-class discussions and work, and 2 others for the online quiz. In addition, your second Skill Builder is due on Friday the 16th. See the new “Skill Builders” tab (above) for more information on that assignment.

The online quiz #1 is now open, until midnight on Friday the 16th. You can take it multiple times. Each time you take it, you will have 20 questions to answer, but each re-take may have different questions since there are more than 20 all together. Total points possible are 22 points. You have 15 minutes for each attempt. At the close of the quiz availability period, Blackboard will automatically record your highest-scoring attempt. The questions are drawn from Chapters 20 and 21 of your textbook. You may use your textbook as a resource for the quiz, but you will still need to study it well before taking the quiz.

The week at a glance:

Mon 9/12 – discussion of the textbook & its resources; introduction to our unit on the American West.

Wed 9/14 – Read Chapter 19 before class. Come prepared to discuss what the US was like in the 1870s: technologically, economically, politically, and culturally.

Fri 9/16 – Skill Builder 2 is due. Recommended topics: either the Dueling Documents on p. 452, or the Historian’s Toolbox on p. 465. Before class, please read Chapter 18, pp. 471-472 (which is a slight correction from the syllabus) and pp. 480-490. Be able to define the term “frontier” and explain what it means in context of the American West in the late 19th century.

Instructions for Skill Builder 1, due Friday Sept 9

The remaining skill builders in this semester will be based on historical evidence from your textbook, but this first one asks you to look at, evaluate, and draw conclusions from a website.

Navigate to: http://www.chicagohistory.org/wetwithblood/

Investigate the different parts of this website.
Consider the evidence presented.

Write a 2-page (no more, no less) double spaced paper that addresses at least some of these questions:

• What is a historical question this website asks? What kind of question is it (a question of fact, of interpretation, or of something else?)
• What kind(s) of evidence does this website discuss?
• In your view, what is a reasonable answer to the historical question?
• What are the methods of historical investigation in this case?
• Examine the references for this website. How well researched is it?
• Discuss the chosen display design (a Flash Player “e-book”) – how well did it fit this topic?
• What did you find most intriguing, interesting, or useful in exploring this website?

Give your paper a title (not “Skill Builder #1)

Cite the website using a footnote with the proper citation format (Chicago Style), as follows:
Author/creator, Title in italics, year, URL, date of access.

e.g.

Chicago Historical Society and the Trustees of Northwestern University, Wet With Blood: The Investigation of Mary Todd Lincoln’s Cloak, 2000, http://www.chicagohistory.org/wetwithblood/ (accessed September 6, 2011).