1 PRELIMINARY SYLLABUS – SUBJECT to CHANGE US History
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PRELIMINARY SYLLABUS – SUBJECT TO CHANGE US History 1914-1945 Professor David S. Foglesong 512:305 Office: Van Dyck Hall 215 Rutgers University, Fall 2014 Office hour: TBA T/Th 1:10-2:30 PM, Murray 211 [email protected] Course Description Between the start of the First World War in Europe and the end of the Second World War in Asia, the boundaries between the United States and the rest of the world were blurred by migration, military intervention, transnational social and political movements, and the global circulation of ideas. During this period, perhaps more intensely than in other eras, Americans disagreed about what it meant to be American, who belonged in the nation, who was “un-American,” and what was the proper role of the United States in the world. We will concentrate on those issues in this course. Some of the specific questions we will explore are: How could Socialists and Communists present themselves as “good Americans”? How did anticommunism come to be a central element of American national identity? How did Americans define the United States in relation to Europe? Did many Americans think of the United States as an empire in an era when the U.S. military occupied a number of countries in Latin America? Why did African American intellectual and activist W.E.B. Du Bois come nearer to feeling himself “a real and full American” during the First World War? How did immigrants who had tended to cling to their homeland’s cultural traditions come to think of themselves as Americans and come to be accepted as Americans by people who had been born in the United States? How did involvement in the Communist Party alter black working people’s self-definitions and worldviews? How did business leaders promote images of an “American Way” to counter challenges from labor leaders and New Deal reformers? Why did some Japanese American young men in internment camps during the U.S. war against Japan volunteer to serve in the U.S. military while others renounced their U.S. citizenship? Learning Goals In this course students can expect to develop or enhance their ability to: (1) express ideas clearly in writing; (2) think critically about historical issues, such as the changing and contested meaning of “Americanism”; (3) conduct biographical research. 1 Teaching Methods Our class meetings will involve extensive examination of visual materials that reflect how Americans thought and felt about the meaning of Americanism, the role of the United States in the world, and the inclusion or exclusion from the body politic of specific racial or ethnic groups. Since movies were among the most powerful influences on such questions, we will watch part or all of a number of Hollywood films and you will be asked to write essays about some of those movies. We also will watch several documentaries that include valuable visual evidence, such as newsreel footage of parades or pageants. Lectures will present many images from political cartoons, propaganda posters, and advertisements that illustrate how journalists, propagandists, and corporations sought to shape popular attitudes or government policies. Requirements 1. Attendance at lectures. Attendance will be recorded on a sign-in sheet available before the beginning of class. Late arrivals and early departures are disruptive. Students who arrive after the beginning of class will not be allowed to sign the attendance sheet. Students who leave before the class ends will be marked absent unless they have explained before the beginning of class why they need to leave early. If you expect to miss a class, use the university’s absence reporting website https://sims.rutgers.edu/ssra/ to indicate the date and reason for your absence. Absences will be excused when they are due to illness or to death in the family. Absences will not be excused because of weather conditions if the campus is open and class is not canceled. Each student will be allowed three unexcused absences. Beyond that, each unexcused absence will result in a deduction of 2% in the final course grade. Students will be expected to comply with the Classroom Etiquette Policy (see http://history.rutgers.edu/undergrad/policy.htm). Cell phones must be switched off and meals must be eaten before the start of class. Laptops and other electronic devices may not be used for purposes unrelated to the class. 2. Active, informed participation in class discussions, based on completion of the assigned reading. This will count for 20% of your grade for the course. 3. Five short essays (approximately 1000 words or about three pages) on assigned topics (see document with detailed guidelines and topics). Students will be expected to be familiar with the History Department’s statement on plagiarism available on its web site (see 2 http://history.rutgers.edu/undergraduate.) Essays that contain plagiarism (unacknowledged use of others’ words or ideas) will not be accepted. The essays will be due at the first class meeting following the related lecture, documentary showing, or film screening. Each essay will count for 10% of your course grade. Essays may not be submitted by e-mail. 4. One biographical essay about an individual who had a significant impact in the United States between 1914 and 1945. The essay should address some of the following questions: What did the individual think were the most important defining characteristics of the United States that differentiated it from other nations? What did the individual think needed to be changed or preserved in the United States? How did the person attempt to promote change, defend against change, or recover something from the past? How successful was the person and the groups or organizations in which he/she was involved? How did the individual and/or the group in which she/he worked use symbols, images, and memories to assert his/her/their rights or ideas? Did the individual feel fully an American? Was the person accused of being “un-American”? Due: at the last class meeting. Length: 2000 to 3000 words (between seven and ten pages). The essay will count for 30% of your course grade. For suggestions of biographies to read, see the list of biographies on the course’s sakai site and see the biographies listed as supplemental reading on this syllabus. You must inform the professor of your choice of biography by e-mail no later than November 2. Extra Credit Option You may choose to make a fifteen-minute Powerpoint presentation to the class about your biographical subject during the last two weeks of the semester. Depending on the quality of the presentation, this could add up to 10% to your grade for the course. If you wish to do this, you must meet with Professor Foglesong in his office on November 18 or November 20 to discuss your planned presentation. 3 Required Reading The following books have been ordered through the Rutgers University Bookstore: Higham, John. Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925 (second edition, 1988) Kelley, Robin D. G. Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression (University of North Carolina Press) Kennedy, David M. Over Here: The First World War and American Society (Oxford University Press) Langley, Lester D. The Banana Wars: United States Intervention in the Caribbean, 1898-1934 (Scholarly Resources, 2002) Wall, Wendy L. Inventing the “American Way”: The Politics of Consensus from the New Deal to the Civil Rights Movement (Oxford University Press, 2008) These books also have been placed on two-hour reserve at Alexander Library. Additional required reading will be available on electronic reserve. To access these readings, go to www.libraries.rutgers.edu , click on “Find Reserves,” put “Foglesong” in the search field, then select 512:305. Schedule of Lectures and Reading Assignments SEPTEMBER 2: INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE SEPTEMBER 4: AMERICANISMS: CONSERVATISM, LIBERALISM, AND SOCIALISM IN THE PROGRESSIVE ERA [Change in designation of class days: Monday class on Thursday] Required reading: Nick Salvatore, Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist (1982), Introduction, Chapter 9, and Epilogue [E-reserve] Thomas Knock, To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order (1992), Preface and Chapter 2: “The Age of Socialistic Inquiry” [E-reserve] Gary Gerstle, “Theodore Roosevelt and the Divided Character of American Nationalism,” Journal of American History, Vol. 86, No. 3 (December 1999), 1280-1307. [Access article in periodical online at libraries.rutgers.edu.] Supplemental reading: Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform Daniel Rodgers, Atlantic Crossings: Social Politics in a Progressive Age Patrick Allitt, The Conservatives: Ideas and Personalities (2010) 4 SEPTEMBER 9: EMPIRE AND REVOLUTION: AMERICANS AND MEXICO IN THE WILSON ERA View part of “The Storm that Swept Mexico” (PBS documentary) Required Reading: Langley, The Banana Wars, Introduction and Chapters 7-9 John Reed, Insurgent Mexico (1914), Chapter IV: “ La Tropa on the March” [E-reserve] William Randolph Hearst, editorial, New York American, June 19, 1916 [E-reserve] Recommended Reading: Robert Rosenstone, Romantic Revolutionary: A Biography of John Reed (1975), esp. Chapter 10 (pages 149-169). David Nasaw, The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst (2000) John Mason Hart, Empire and Revolution: The Americans in Mexico since the Civil War (2002) F. Katz, The Life and Times of Pancho Villa (1998), esp. Chapter 14 SEPTEMBER 11: RACE AND NATION: BLACKS, WHITE SUPREMACY, AND AMERICANISM IN THE WILSON ERA View part of “The Birth of a Nation” (1915) Required reading: [Access articles online: www.libraries.rutgers.edu , search periodical title.] Lloyd E. Ambrosius, “Woodrow Wilson and The Birth of a Nation: American Democracy and International Relations,” Diplomacy and Statecraft, Vol. 18 (2007), 689-718. M. Ellis, “’Closing Ranks’ and ‘Seeking honors’: W.E.B.