US History II

This unit considers the first four decades of the twentieth century, with a special focus on the 1920s and 1930s. Why was it “the American century”? Why and how were Americans “wrestling” with modernity?

Monday, Sept 30: US as a World Power, Imperialism (+ MDQ). Reading: Chapter 21 – read the chapter as a whole but focus on how/why the US became involved in the three main foreign conflicts covered in the chapter, and on the intro and conclusion for an overview of how this textbook FRAMES these conflicts (as continuous with the rest of American history, and if so, how? Or as new/startling developments that the US had to respond to? Or as acts of aggression towards other countries motivated by economics, racism, or some other reason?)

Wednesday, Oct 2: 1920s Politics and Culture. Reading: ACH 22: 665-678

Friday, Oct 4: Boom to Bust. SkillBuilder #3 is due. Reading: ACH 22: 678-687

Monday, Oct 7: Down and Out (+ MDQ). Reading: ACH 23: 690-699. FDR Inaugural Address.

Wednesday, Oct 9: Workshop Day – Culture of the 1930s. Reading: Catch yourself up in ACH 22 and 23, as needed individually.

Friday, Oct 11: New Deal 1.0 and 2.0. SkillBuilder #4 is due. Reading: ACH 23: 700-711. Quiz 2 opens online, on Chapters 20 and 21, it will be open until Friday 10/18.

Monday, Oct 14: No class, Columbus Day holiday

Wednesday, Oct 16: Workshop Day – New Deal Legacy. Bring laptops to class. Reading: ACH 23: 711-722.

Friday, Oct 18: Exam #2 in class. Quiz 2 closes.

Friday, Sept 27 will be our Exam #1, drawing from the readings in Chapters 18-19 and our workshop class sessions during this first unit of the course. Remember – your lowest exam gets dropped, so if you miss this one just let it go, as there are no make-ups on exams.

What to bring to the exam: you may bring ONE 8.5×11″ sheet of paper and it can have anything printed or written on it (both sides OK). Also bring two pens or pencils (good to have an extra, in case). The exam will be closed-book, closed-note except for the one piece of paper.

Also – please make sure you take the online quiz (Blackboard –> Quizzes) before Friday’s class. Once it closes, it’s gone, and none of the quizzes gets dropped: they are all required.

One of the concerns of many literate, reform-minded Victorians was to document–and then improve–their industrialized urban surroundings. This was true for Americans of all races; today’s digital workshop provides some examples. These people included so-called “muckrakers,” investigative journalists, literary realist authors, artists, musicians and public intellectuals, and their work shows us not only the strenuous efforts of urban reformers, but also their assumptions and values about American social classes, race, gender, immigration, and poverty. Historians can learn a lot about reformers AND the targets of their reforms by using sources like these to better understand life in American cities at the turn of the twentieth century.

Instructions: Use our classtime to explore one or more of these sources (or collection of sources), using your best primary source analysis skills. Take good notes. This workshop is a good way to study the concepts and people in Chapters 18 and 19 in greater depth, and you should be prepared to discuss today’s evidence in detail on Friday’s exam! Don’t worry about getting to all of them – quality is better than quantity.

Read a 1913 broadside (i.e. a paper flyer) by Jane Addams, founder of Chicago’s landmark Hull House settlement house, titled “Women and Public Housekeeping”

Examine Jacob Riis’s photographs of working-class neighborhoods in New York

Or Lewis Hine’s haunting images documenting the extent of child labor in the 1900s and 1910s

Study oil paintings by John French Sloan (1871-1951)

Or oil paintings by Robert Henri (1865-1929)

Explore the “Exhibit of American Negroes” assembled by W. E. B. DuBois for the Paris Exposition, 1900

Read an excerpt from Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel The Jungle

If you want to try your hand at finding your own muckraking photographs, try one of these image-search tutorials from author Ann Bausum, to find pictures or stereoscopes of meatpacking, stockyards and other grisly industrial jobs

Read about “charity meals” in turn of the century New York, and then locate some restaurant menus from the period 1890-1910 to get a feel for food and prices of the time period

Got headphones? Try listening to some ragtime records from this period; are these “ashcan artists” too?

Delve into the history — and primary sources — of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire

In our first unit, as you voted, we’ll explore aspects of American culture from 1880 to the end of World War I. We particularly focus on gender (i.e. social constructions of mens’ and womens’ roles), the idea and experience of “the modern,” and the rise and reform of industrial cities. Here are the readings and workshops for this unit:

Friday, Sept 13: Men and Women in the Victorian Age. Reading = ACH 18: 538-549. SkillBuilder #2 due in or before class.

Monday, Sept 16: Public Spheres, Sacred Spaces. Reading = ACH 18: 549-566. Remember there is an MDQ (Monday Daily Question) on Mondays as class begins. Great links for today: “America on the Move” (Smithsonian Institution) on the Pullman Cars (and lots more!), and this site on the 1913 Armory Show

Wednesday, Sept 18: Workshop Day – Who Were the Victorians? Reading: Review ACH Chapter 18. Please bring the Fernlund documents book to class.

Friday, Sept 20: The New Metropolis. Reading = ACH 19: 569-583. Online Quiz #1 opens this morning on Blackboard under “Quizzes”; it will draw from ACH Chapters 15-17 and will be open until Friday, Sept 27. You can take it up to 3 times.

Monday, Sept 23: City Government and City Reform (+ MDQ). Reading = ACH 19: 583-596

Wednesday, Sept 25: Workshop Day – Muckrakers and Ashcan Artists. Reading = Review ACH Chapter 19. You may want to bring your laptop to class today.

Friday, Sept 27: Exam #1, drawing from the readings in Chapters 18-19 and our workshop class sessions. Remember – your lowest exam gets dropped, so if you miss this one just let it go, as there are no make-ups on exams.

Thanks for everyone for voting! The results were:

Chapter 16 = 9 votes
Chapter 17 = 11 votes
*Chapter 18 = 19 votes
*Chapter 19 = 16 votes

Chapter 20 = 1 vote
Chapter 21 = 17 votes
*Chapter 22 = 20 votes
*Chapter 23 = 19 votes

*Chapter 24 = 15 votes
Chapter 25 = 13 votes
Chapter 26 = 11 votes
*Chapter 27 = 15 votes

*Chapter 28 = 16 votes
Chapter 29 = 13 votes
Chapter 30 = 15 votes
*Chapter 31 = 19 votes

The starred/bolded chapters will be our main focus in each of the 4 units and will be the subject for the workshops and unit written exams. The other chapters you will be mainly responsible for reading on your own, at your own pace, and you will take open-book online quizzes on them during each unit. You will get a complete syllabus page on Monday with all the details.

Your reading assignment for Monday is from Chapter 16 (Intro, Conclusion, and pp 484-500 only) and Chapter 17 (Intro, Conclusion, and pp 510-527 only) of Henretta, America: A Concise History or ACH as it’s called on the syllabus.

Have a great weekend, enjoy the sunshine!

For Friday’s class:

Read the syllabus thoroughly. I handed it out in class, but you can also access it anytime from the sidebar of this site or from Blackboard as a downloadable full-color PDF or view it online as a flipbook.

Read the handout I provided summarizing each of the Henretta textbook’s chapters (here’s the handout if you need it again). Decide on TWO for each unit that you are most interested in. Bring the handout back on Friday with your favorites marked.

Read ACH (the smaller red/brown textbook, America: A Concise History) Chapter 15 and be prepared to talk about different possible meanings for the word “Reconstruction.”

And lastly, write your first SkillBuilder paper (SB #1) using the document you received in class on Wednesday. Detailed instructions for these papers are found in the syllabus and under the “SkillBuilders” tab on this website (also head to that page if you missed class on Wednesday and didn’t get a document). Review the SB guidelines carefully for length, format, and how to submit them!