US History II

From now until Thanksgiving break, we’ll be looking at the period of the 1940s-1960s (Chapters 29-35)

This week, we explore the Second World War – first on Monday 10/18, at the rise of totalitarianism in Europe and the American shift from isolation to neutrality to a declaration of war in December 1941. Chapter 29 covers a lot of ground as it traces American foreign policy between the wars. You should focus on the terms and “isms” listed in the Chapter 29 Review on pp. 1154-1155.

On Wednesday 10/20, your Primary Source project is due, and we’ll look at life on the US homefront during World War II. (Chapter 30)

Friday 10/22 you have a Document Response due, and we’ll look at the immediate postwar world and America’s new role within it (Chapter 31). Links of the day: Changing European borders; Trailer for THEM! (1954). I know it’s a three-chapter week with 2 papers due, so I’ll go easier on the daily quizzes (we’ll still have them, but they won’t look as much like mini-exam questions since I know you have a lot on your plates this week).

On Wednesday 10/6, we investigate the causes and effects of the Great Depression on ordinary Americans and consider what Hoover could have, should have, or was able to do as president to mitigate the dire consequences and to turn around the American economy. As we have seen in our current recession, this is no easy or quick task – and there’s not always agreement among economists, advisors and policymakers about how to respond in an economic crisis. So don’t be too hard on Hoover – no one knew in advance how long it would last, and no one had faced an economy that appeared so strong but was so weak in its underlying structure – and Hoover wasn’t working with a cooperative Congress, either. The idea that government should prevent/solve/fix the economy was new, remember, and wouldn’t take real shape until the FDR administration – that wasn’t the idea on anyone’s mind in the late 1920s.

For Friday – the New Deal. Links: FDR’s First Inaugural Address (1933) – first 3:45

Today we focused on how your historical knowledge can be tested, such as on an exam. We brainstormed a long list of types of test questions.* We discussed how different kind of questions elicit different kinds of thinking, from simple recall of memorized material or recognition of a statement’s accuracy, to more complex thinking (explain, re-tell, synthesize, or in the case of an essay: develop points using evidence, empathize or think like a person in the past, etc). A good exam will do more than ask you to produce “lower order” or basic-level thinking – it will require you to do more with your brain. Research shows that when you use more of your brain, you learn better and retain more.

So, as a workshop, we divided up Chapters 25 and 26 into the book’s sections and split it up among the class so each person had one section. Each of you became experts on your section and then taught it to a partner. I would love to hear feedback on how you thought that went (I enabled comments on this post, if you’d like to comment), but from my perspective it seemed like that went very well – I saw lots of eye contact, close listening, nodding, asking of questions, give-and-take. In other words, you didn’t zone out on each other, doodle, text, stare off into space, or act disengaged. If only all lectures could be one-on-one! Hmm…

Then, once you had taught each other, I asked you to condense your knowledge (re-formulate, re-process) into a different format: something I call “8 Things.” For each section, I asked you to select or come up with 2 adjectives, 2 nouns, 2 verbs and 2 numbers. We recorded those on a wiki-page, which can be found here.

Finally, although we ran out of time for it, I had planned to have you write an exam question based on your section. I hope I get them via email from each of you sometime today, and I do promise to use the good ones on our next test. (“Good” = they involve different skills or parts of your brain; well-written; they don’t just focus on trivia but invite reflection, connection or critical thought).

*Our list of question types = multiple choice, true-false, fill-in-the-blank, essay, short answer, definition, identification, matching, map, timeline or chronological order, photograph/cartoon/visual image, correction, document-based-question, case study. Did I leave anything out?
Types of exams: in-class v. take-home; self v. professor-graded; open v. closed book.

For Wednesday, 9/29 – Chapter 25. It’s only in retrospect, of course, that we refer to the war in 1914-1918 as “World War I.” At the time, and until 1941, it was simply “The Great War.” What made it “great”? What was horrifically new about the way this war was conducted? What began with the Great War; what did it end?

If there was one popular song of the war, it was patriotic songster George M. Cohan’s catchy tune, “Over There.” You can listen to the audio here, or see some newsreel/army film clips and hear a poorer-quality rendition on this Youtube video. Even the title (Over There) suggests the emotional distance many Americans had from the conflict, and the lack of national unity with which we entered the war. You can see that as well in Wilson’s effort to convince the Congress that American participation would make the world “safe for democracy.” Did it?

On Friday 10/1, we’ll look at nativism and efforts to Americanize people living within the borders of the US during this era in Chapter 26, “The Modern Temper.” Were those efforts an outgrowth of Progressivism, or do they have their genesis somewhere else in American culture? Who was affected? How successful were Americanization campaigns?

This week, we’re looking at three big themes in America at the turn of the last century: imperialism, progressivism, and conflicts over suffrage. Read and study Chapters 23 and 24 in the “blue book,” and the documents between pp. 104 and 152 in the “red book.” We will have our first exam on Monday the 27th, covering chapters 19-24. As you study for your exam, focus especially on the review questions, terms, and concepts that are highlighted at the end of each chapter; and don’t forget you have free access to all of the study resources on the textbook’s Norton Study Space also (that link is in the left sidebar).

On Monday 9/20, we will discuss the expansion of American territory and military power in the last years of the 19th century, including the Spanish-American War and other “police actions” overseas (ANH, Ch 23 and FTR 104-121). As we will see, not everyone agreed that this was a good idea – but often for quite different reasons. Think about how public opinion lines up now for & against overseas military intervention. How was it the same or different in the 1890s?

For Wednesday 9/22, we see the legacy of the Populist movement and cultural responses to urban growth and political stalemate in the rise of Progressivism (ANH, Ch 24 122-132 and 136-152). What does the term “Progressive” mean today? Is it a positive or negative word? What did it mean in the 1880s-1920s? Who were Progressives, and would they even have agreed that they were all part of one movement?
Links for today’s discussion: Bell CA, Progressivism Concept Map

On Friday 9/24, there’s no particular reading assigned from the ANH chapter, but it will help if you go back and review the sections in our previous chapters that have dealt with voting rights – for African-Americans and for women. The reading is just FTR, pp. 133-135. In class we will look at campaigns for/against the expansion of suffrage in the late 19th century and up to the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. What’s happening with the right to vote in this time period; is it expanding, or contracting? How can we explain high voter turnout even though not all Americans were permitted to vote? Who do you think should be allowed to vote? Do we have too many or too few today? And have you registered to vote yet, and are you planning to participate in the midterm elections in a few weeks? If you are eligible to vote but you are not planning to, does that mean that the people who fought for your right to vote did so in vain?

There is a lot of reading this week: the second half of Chapter 19, and all of Chapters 20-22. This week is probably the fastest-paced of the entire semester. Remember to use the study resources on Norton Study Space to get more out of the textbook, and to keep up with the reading even though we cannot cover everything in class.

The week begins with a look at the region of the American West and at the profound social, political, economic, and physical transformations from 1865-1900. Then we’ll discuss the rise of big business and organized labor (labor unions), and the emergence of American cities and urban reform. On Friday, we’ll discuss national politics of the late 19th century and the rise of protest and populist movements.

This era is often called the “Gilded Age.” Consider why it got the nickname, and be looking for signs of not only incredible growth and prosperity, but also incredible destitution and suffering. How did the “American dream” fare during this period, and who was able to achieve it? You won’t catch every detail of all the reading and the primary documents, but see if you can glean big patterns, see commonalities among the primary sources, or see what kinds of issues they argue over. What were the fault lines in this turbulent era? And how can we use our sources to explore it?

We’re starting our semester where we’ll finish – at the end. For Wednesday 9/8, please read Josh Levin’s article for Slate.com magazine, titled “How is America Going to End?” It was published about a year ago, and reflects on several different scenarios for the “end of America,” whatever that might mean. It’s several essays bundled together – so look at at least a few of them. Levin postulates the nation will be radically altered by climate change, or fracture into several smaller nations, or fall under totalitarian rule. Are these likely, in your view? Where do you think the nation is headed? What strikes you as the greatest threat to our nation’s stability or security?

And (here’s the kicker) – how do you think studying the American past can help you make sense of your present and your future? In other words, FOR YOU, what parts of the American past do you most want to know about, or think are the most valuable for understanding where we are and where we’re headed?

You don’t need to print the articles, but you should have read them and be able to access them (or your notes on them) so you can speak intelligently about them in our class discussion.