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Home , Progressive Era, Roaring Twenties

DRAFT

History 75300: to World War II, 1900-1940: The Contours of Reform

Professor Thomas Kessner Wed 11:45-1:45

This course focuses on topics in U.S. social, political and cultural between 1900 and 1940. In this first half of the 20th century (“the ”) the economy took on a global aspect, foreign policy turned isolationist, roles for women expanded and the U.S. was transformed from a largely agricultural and rural nation to one that was urban and metropolitan. Northern racial ghettoes formed and erupted, was restricted, radicals were deported and the capitalist market surged, only to tank into depression. The U.S. responded with uncertainty toward the rise of totalitarian governments in Europe and offered no haven to those seeking refuge. At the same time the succession of progressive politics, World War, prosperity and depression shaped a reform political regime that redrew the contours of the American . We also look at and the multifaceted cultural transformations that marked these years.

Readings will include a sample of classic works along with a selection of more recent monographs and interpretive studies.

Expected outcomes:

 A critical understanding of key texts regarding U.S. history, 100-1940;  An understanding of the role of politics, , social forces, culture and technology in shaping early 20th century U.S. society;  An understanding of broad trends in reform and social policy and their roles in redefining the contours of ;  Read monographs regarding the Progressive- period critically and analytically and lead class discussion on assigned topics;  An appreciation for the complexity of historical experience and examples of the influence of prime variables like race, gender, class, culture and economics on American history;  Write a well defined, carefully researched and cogently argued paper.

Weekly Assignments: Reading selections will be drawn from the following assigned books and articles.

S Scan available; E Electronic version available from Library *Suggested Reading

I. Definitions and Debates Peter G Filene,. “An Obituary for ‘The Progressive Movement’" American Quarterly, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Spring, 1970), 20-34.

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Daniel T Rodgers,. "In Search of ," Reviews in American History Vol. 10, No. 2 (December 1982), 113-32. Elizabeth Israels Perry, “Men Are from the , Women Are from the Progressive Era,” Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jan. 2002), 25-48. Robert D. Johnston, “Re-Democratizing the Progressive Era: The Politics of Progressive Era Political Historiography,” Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jan. 2002), 68-92. Steven J Diner, “Linking Politics and People: The Historiography of the Progressive Era,” OAH Magazine of History, Vol. 13, No. 3, (Spring, 1999), 5-9.

II. and Reformers: Society In Need of Improvement

Ida Tarbell, “The History of the Companies” Mclure’s Vol XX, Nov., 1902 Chapters 10,13,17-18 https://archive.org/details/historyofstandar01tarbuoft/page/n10 Steve Weinberg, Taking on the Trust: How Brought Down John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil (2008), 177-228; 259-274. Samuel H. Adams, “The Great American Fraud,” Collier’s (1912) https://books.google.com/books?id=tdf8na3fqNUC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summ ary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false You may require a Google login to download this item. If you do not have that, try this "Download PDF" James H. Cassedy, “Muckraking and Medicine: Samuel Hopkins Adams,” American Quarterly Vol. 16, No. 1 (Spring, 1964), 85-99 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2710829 Allen Davis, Spearheads for Reform: The Social Settlements & the Progressive Movement, (1967), 40-59; 84-102; 123-147; 170-218. . Twenty Years at Hull-House: With Autobiographical Notes, 1910, online at A Celebration of Women Writers online at Harvard Library OR http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/addams/hullhouse/hullhouse.html John Spargo, The Bitter Cry of the Children, 125-217. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/57125/57125-h/57125-h.htm *Frances Kellor, “Out of Work” https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044020509055;view=1up;seq=16 or https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https- 3A__archive.org_details_outworkastudyem01kellgoog&d=DwIBAg&c=8v77JlHZOYsR eeOxyYXDU39VUUzHxyfBUh7fw_ZfBDA&r=vl9fXfFok4ho4W4fFmmeKCAaYUzv YRiD9GUBU9ClbYA&m=GWt_tlmPSw3VlMr1190Hnc8GCWLFvyT- 9PFKKiujENY&s=kRxoZhZRIOxsnD8HrI4uXqVsjXR7aLJ9dwPdXRMnTOg&e= *, “Other People’s Money And How The Bankers Use it” viii-x

2 https://archive.org/stream/otherpeoplesmone00bran/otherpeoplesmone00bran_djvu.txt *Burton Hendrick, “The Story of Life Insurance,” McClure’s Nov.,1906 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Life_Insurance. *Gustavus Myers, History of the Great American Fortunes (1907). http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30956

III. Major Trends in Progressive Reform

Daniel T. Rodgers, Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a Progressive Age (1998), 33-111; 209-317. Michael E. McGerr, A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920 (2003), 77-220. Maureen Flanagan, A. America Reformed: Progressives and Progressivisms, - (2007), 3-160. Martin J. Sklar, The Corporate Reconstruction of American Capitalism, 1890-1916: The Market, the Law, and Politics (1988),179-332 David Huyssen. Progressive Inequality: Rich and Poor in New York, 1890-1920 (2014) , 1-30; 49-62; 123-134; 181-272. Leon Fink. The Long Gilded Age: American Capitalism and the Lessons of a New World Order, Intro 1, 3-5. *. : From Bryan to FDR. (1955),131-271. *Michael Kazin, American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation (2011), 4-5 *Dawley, Alan. Struggles for Justice: Social Responsibility and the Liberal State (1991), 17-138

IV. Presidential Progressivism

Martin J. Sklar, The Corporate Reconstruction of American Capitalism, 1890-1916: The Market, the Law, and Politics (1988), 333-430. , The Promise of American Life. (1909). pp. 100-214 (Ch. V-VI, VIII, XIII) https://archive.org/details/promiseamerican00crolgoog John Milton Cooper, The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow and . (1983), 69-228. Gail Bederman, Manliness & Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880-1917 (1995), 170-216. S *Link, Arthur S. and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917 (1954), 54-80; 197-282. * Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography. (1913-1916), 379-540. S

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* John Milton Cooper, Woodrow Wilson: A Biography (2009). Robert D. Johnston, “Long Live Teddy/Death to Woodrow: The Polarized Politics of the Progressive Era in the 2012 Election.” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 13(3), 2014, 411-443. doi:10.1017/S1537781414000279

V. The Progressives and the War

John Milton Cooper, The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt. (1983), 266-345. Adam Tooze, The Deluge: The Great War, America and The Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931 (2014), 3-32; 193-193-254. Thomas J. Knock, To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order. (1995), 48-105, 123-193; 246-270. Michael E. McGerr, A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920 ( 2003), 279-314. David M. Kennedy, Over Here: The First World War and American Society (1980), 45-190; 296-347. Ronald Schaffer, America in the Great War: The Rise of the War- State (1991), 31-74; 109-126. The Journal of American History: “Interchange on WWI,” September, (2015), 463-499. W.E. Burghardt DuBois, "An Essay Toward a History of the Black Man in the Great War," The Crisis, vol. 18, no. 2 (June, 1919), pp. 63–87. * Jennifer D. Keene, "Remembering the “Forgotten War”: American Historiography on ." Historian 78, #3 (2016), 439-468. * John Milton Cooper, "The World War and American Memory." Diplomatic History (2014), 38, #4, 727-736. * Alan Dawley, Struggles for Justice: Social Responsibility and the Liberal State. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Press, (1991), 172-217.

VI. : What Happened to the Progressive Movement?

Arthur S. Link, "What Happened to the Progressive Movement in the 1920's?" The American Historical Review, Vol. 64, No. 4 (July, 1959), pp. 833–851. John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925(1954), 131- 330.

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Mae M. Ngai, “The Architecture of Race in American Immigration Law: A Reexamination of the ,” Journal of American History, Vol. 86, No. 1 (Jun., 1999), 67-92. Frederick Lewis Allen, Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s (1931). Frank Stricker, Affluence for whom?—another look at prosperity and the working classes in the 1920s Labor History Volume 24, 1983 - Issue 1. http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=07cb54d4-254d-4c0f-a7ad- 8dc7b4ec3088%40pdc-v-sessmgr05 Jessica Pliley, Policing Sexuality, The and the Making of the FBI (2014), 32-83;159- 206. Maureen A. Flanagan, America Reformed: Progressives and Progressivisms, 1890s-1920s (2007), 181- 198; 261-282. * Beverly Gage, The Day Exploded a Story of America in Its First Age of Terror. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press (2009), 11-124; 309-328 *Paul A. Kramer, “Review Essay: The Geopolitics of Mobility: Immigration Policy and American Global Power in the Long Twentieth Century,” American Historical Review, (April, 2018), 393-438. *Aristide Zolberg, A Nation by Design: Immigration Policy in the Fashioning of America (2009), 243-267. *William R. Leach, Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture (1993), 263-322; 349-378.

VII. Emerging Agendas: State, Labor and Class

Karen L. Walloch The Antivaccine Heresy: Jacobson v. Massachusetts (2015), Ch. 3-5, 8-9. Nancy Unger, Beyond Nature’s Housekeepers (2012), 3-13; 75-137. Kriste Lindenmeyer, A Right to Childhood (1997), 9-29; 108-138. Lisa McGirr, The War on Alcohol: and the Rise of the American State (2015), 3-38; 67-121; 157-230. Irving Bernstein, The Lean Years, (1960), 47-143; 190-244. Lizabeth Cohen, "Encountering Mass Culture at the Grassroots: The Experience of Workers in the 1920s," American Quarterly, 41 (1989), pp. 6-33. Sheldon Stromquist, Reinventing the People (2006), 13-106. Adam Tooze, The Deluge: The Great War, America and The Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931(2014), 232-352. *Sarah Phillips, This Land, This Nation: Conservation, Rural America and the New Deal (2007), 21-73.

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VIII. Emerging Agendas: Gender and Race

Ronald Schaffer, America in the Great War: The Rise of the War- (1991), 75-94. Maureen A. Flanagan, America Reformed: Progressives and Progressivisms, 1890s-1920s (2007), 243-260. Sheldon Stromquist, Reinventing the People, (2006), 107-190 Estelle B. Freedman, “The New Woman: Changing Views of Women in the 1920s,” Journal of American History Vol. 61, No. 2 (Sep., 1974), 372-393 Angus McLaren, “Illegal Operations: Women, Doctors, and Abortion, 1886-1939, Journal of Social History, Vol 26, No 4 (Summer 1993), 797-816. George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture and the Makings of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (1994), 179-330. Margot Canaday, The Straight State: Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America (2009), 55-90. Gilbert Osofsky, Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto. (1963), 127-178 Locke, Alain. (1925) “Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro,” Survey Graphic 6(6) (March 1925). Cheryl Hicks, Talk with You Like a Woman, 1890-1945, (2010), 23-52; 125-158; 182-236. Marcia Chatelain, South Side Girls: Growing up in the Great Migration (2015), 19-95. *David Levering Lewis, When Harlem was in Vogue (1979). *Lynn Dumenil, The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s (1996), 98- 144, 321-25 * Lynn Dumenil, “The New Woman and the Politics of the 1920s,” 22 OAH Magazine of History • July 2007. https://www.trumanlibrary.org/educ/betweenthewars/Reinterpreting1920s.pdf *Cornelia H. Dayton and Lisa Levenstein, “The Big Tent of U.S. Women’s and Gender History: A State of the Field,” Journal of American History (December 2012), 793-838. *Orleck, Annelise. Common Sense and a Little Fire: Working Women and Working-Class Politics in the United States, 1900-1965. (1995), Ch 3,4,6 *Stein, Judith. The World of Marcus Garvey: Race and Class in Modern Society (1986). *Michael Klarman, From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality (2004), 61-170. *Eric Arnesen, “No ‘Graver Danger’: Black Anticommunism, the Communist Party, and the Race Question” and responses, Labor: Studies in Working-Class 3, No.4 (winter, 2006), 13-52.

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IX. Crash

John Kenneth Galbraith, The Great Crash 1929 (1955), 43-197. Maury Klein, Rainbow's End: The Crash of 1929 (2003),190-278. Joan Hoff Wilson, , Forgotten Progressive (1992), 79-167. Tooze, J. Adam.. The Deluge: The Great War, America and The Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931 (2014), 353-373. Colin Gordon, New Deals (1994), 35-128. Kiran Patel, The New Deal: A Global History (2016), 10-44. *Robert Chiles, The Revolution of ’28: , American Progressivism, and the Coming of the New Deal (2018), 133-206.

X. The New Deal and the Depression

Irving Bernstein, The Lean Years, (1960), 247-286 William Leuchtenberg, FDR and the New Deal: 1932-1940 (1963), 1-94. Colin Gordon, New Deals (1994), 128-279. Kiran Patel, The New Deal: A Global History (2016), ch. 2. *Michael Hiltzik, The New Deal: A Modern History *Anthony J. Badger, The New Deal: Depression Years. *Michele Landis Dauber, The Sympathetic State: Disaster Relief and the Origins of the American Welfare State (2013) *Franklin Delano Roosevelt, First Inaugural, March, 1933. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX_v0zxM23Q&feature=related; http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/froos1.asp.

XI: Beyond First Efforts - New Deal Reform

William Leuchtenberg, FDR and the New Deal: 1932-1940 (1963), 95-196. Colin Gordon, New Deals (1994), 204-279. Kiran Patel, The New Deal: A Global History (2016), 190-260. Lisa McGirr, The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State, (2015), 231- 256. Daniel T. Rodgers, Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a Progressive Age. (1998), 409-484.

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Sarah Phillips This Land, This Nation: Conservation, Rural America and the New Deal (2007), 74-149. (TVA) *Daniel Worster, The Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s (1979), chs. 1,3,4, 5 *Marcia Chatelain, South Side Girls: Growing up in the Great Migration (2015), 96-129. *Maher, Neil M. Nature's New Deal: Franklin Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American (2006). 17-76; 181-226

XII. Try Again…

Allan Brinkley, End of Reform New Deal in Recession and War. Vintage (1996). Kiran Patel, The New Deal: A Global History (2016), ch. 4. Colin Gordon, New Deals, (1994), 5-34; 280-307. Aristide Zolberg, A Nation by Design: Immigration Policy in the Fashioning of America (2009), 267-292. Robert H. Zieger, The CIO, 1935-1955 (1995), 22-140. Ira Katznelson, Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time (2013), 29-275. Harvard Sitkoff, A New Deal for Blacks: The Emergence of Civil Rights as a National Issue (1978) 34-190. Kim Phillips-Fein, Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade Against the New Deal (2010), 3-24. Jennifer Klein, For All These Rights: Business Labor, and the Shaping of America’s Public- Private Welfare State (2003), 16-52; 78-116. Jefferson Cowie, Nick Salvatore et al., “The Long Exception: Rethinking the Place of the New Deal in American History,” International Labor and Working Class History. Vol. 74, No. 1, Sept, 2008, 3-69; *Susan Ware, Beyond Suffrage: Women in the New Deal (1981). *Kirstin Downey, The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life… Frances Perkins (2007). * of the 1930s: Roaring Twenties (1939); My Man Godfrey (1936); Gabriel Over the White House (1933); Grapes of Wrath (1941).

XIII. Global and Urban Perspectives Wolfgang Schivelbusch Three New Deals: Reflections on Roosevelt's America, Mussolini's Italy, and Hitler's Germany, 1933-1939, 49-184. Ira Katznelson, Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time (2013), 276-357. Present Research Papers.

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COLLATERAL ASSIGNMENTS:

The assignments in this course are designed to train students for research, writing and teaching. Reading, leading class discussions and participating in them are integral to successfully completing the work for this class.

Each session will have a discussion leader who will prepare a short synopsis of the reading to be presented and then e-mailed to participants after the class discussion of the readings. The presentation should focus on major historical issues and pose interpretive/ analytic questions to promote a discussion of pivotal issues. How is the study structured? What is the evidence base; how solid is the argument? Where does it fit in the historiography The major burden of the discussion leader is to lead a conversation around the topic of the day. The thing to avoid is the presentation of questions that are really another form of lecture. Questions should not be convoluted, complicated, or able to be answered by a yes or no. They should be open ended and they should be part of a well thought out organized presentation. Asking good questions is critical not only for doing good research but also for running good classes.

Each topic will also have a second reader whose function will be to read an additional book on the topic and present a brief summary of the related reading, as well as a selection of reviews.

Writing Assignments: The assignments are keyed to specific sessions.

Session 4. Select a monograph on “presidential progressivism” and write a 4 page review that: within a critique of the book, summarizes the central argument and discusses the methodology and sources.

Session 5. Submit a proposal for your paper. 1 page: topic, sources, approach

Session 7. Go back to year 1920 for your birthday and look up the NY Times (or other daily) for that day. Read it in its entirety, including reviews and ads. Write a three page description of the day and what you find historically noteworthy. Then select a single theme from the 1920 paper and compare its treatment in 1930 and then in 1940. Four pages. You may compare treatments of workers, women, immigrants, race issues, politics, urban growth projects, business, culture, reform, entertainment, or even at the changes in advertising strategy and format. Do not use any sources beyond the paper. Total seven pages.

Session 12. Submit a 12-15 page historiographic paper on an approved topic.We will discuss the number of books and articles and other relevant issues for this paper in class. OR Define a topic in 1900-1940 American history and based upon research in contemporaneous newspapers and magazines/journals write a documented analytic essay approximately 15 pages in length.

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The paper will obviously be limited in scope. But you can look at an issue as it was reported - recognizing that errors often do creep into reports when an observer writes against a deadline, is forced to depend upon random testimony; and often it lacks context. Do not settle upon a single circumstance or event; build a base of information that relates thematically to your topic.

Your paper should be based exclusively on what can be learned from the primary research. You may use secondary sources to provide context your information should come from the primary sources. Footnote your material with brief citations.

Start early. Reserve a good bit of time to organize and write the paper.

By the fifth session you will need to hand in a brief outline of your subject and your secondary sources for approval. The paper will be due the last week in November. There is a one week grace period. If you hand in your paper late your grade will reflect the tardiness.

Please consult with me about any problems or questions.

N.B.: Keep copies of everything you submit. Your papers should be your own work and reflect your own research. Where you have relied on outside sources for material make sure that this is noted. Quotes should be marked off to indicate they are not your words and they should be footnoted. Do not use previously submitted papers, purchased material or any other form of work that is not your own. The consequences of plagiarism can be serious. Enough said.

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