History 101: US History, 1865-present

http://www.albany.edu/history/h101f2004

COURSE INTRODUCTION:

Surveying the last 140 years of this nation's history, this course will highlight some of the more important social, economic, cultural, and political transformations that have given rise to contemporary America. We will look at industrialization, science and technology, immigration, racial and ethnic conflicts, imperialism, consumerism, bureaucracy, social movements, economic crises, and much more - exploring both key events and personalities. We will also examine history as a process of discovery, in which interpretations are generated and contested; how do you determine the "best" and most compelling one? How do historians reconstruct the past and why do they often disagree?

We will use a variety of sources to probe America's history, from rare archival recordings and films (collected by the instructor at the National Archives and other archival repositories), to novels, photographs, documentaries, and primary source documents of all kinds. Because passive listening (lectures) is not always the most effective means of achieving certain learning goals, particularly honing critical skills, I will be incorporating many opportunities for more active involvement by students. Every week we will pause to discuss some of the topics introduced in the readings and lectures.

Grades will be based on a midterm and a final exam. Students enrolled in the writing intensive section of this course will be expected to write two 10-12 page essays from a list of topics handed out by the instructor (see detailed information on grading below).

Academic Dishonesty. The following statement of policy is required by the University at Albany: It is assumed that your intellectual labor is your own. If there is any evidence of academic dishonesty, including plagiarism, the minimum penalty will be an automatic failing grade for that piece of work. Plagiarism is taking (which includes purchasing) the words and ideas of another and passing them off as one's own work. If another person's work is quoted directly in a formal paper, this must be indicated with quotation marks and a citation. Paraphrased or borrowed ideas are to be identified by proper citations.

Required Books/Videos:

1. Victoria Bissell Brown and Timothy J. Shannon, Going to the Source: The Bedford Reader in American History, Vol. 2: Since 1865 (Boston Bedford/St. Martin's, 2004).
2. Pauline Maier, et al., Inventing America: A History of the United States, Vol. 2 (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003).
3. Errol Morris, The Fog of War (Documentary Film/VHS/DVD), 2004.
4. Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward: 2000-1887(Signet, 2000).
On-line editions:

* http://eserver.org/fiction/bellamy/
* http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/BELLAMY/front.html

5. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland (Signet, 2000)
On-line edition: (Pantheon Books, New York, 1979):

* http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/GilHerl.html

Audio and Video on the WWW: Please note that you will periodically be referred to audio or video files linked off of this syllabus. Most are encoded in RealMedia, Windows Media, or Quicktime. In some cases, you will need to install a free plug-in to listen or view these files. Contact Prof. Zahavi or Rick Clarkson for instructionson on installing these plug-ins if you have problems and/or are unfamiliar with the process of installing plug-ins.

Class Listserv: An electronic discussion list will be created soon after the start of class; you will automatically be added to it. It is for your benefit. Use it to share your thoughts about topics presented in your readings and in lecture. Consider it a 24/7 discussion group! Your participation on the list will also be considered in final grading decisions. In bordeline cases, where a grade falls between two others, it will result in a raised grade.

Examinations and Grades: Final grades will be awarded on the basis of performance on a mid-term (40%) and a final examination (60%). Class participation--both in class and on the course Listserv--will also be considered in cases of bordeline grades and will help raise your grade. You will get more details on the nature of the exams a few weeks before each one. We will be scheduling review sessions before each examination. Students enrolled in the writing intensive (History 101Z) section of the course will be graded as follows: papers: 40%, midterm: 30%, final: 30% (class participation will also be utilized as a grading factor in cases of borderline grades).

GenEd Designation: The General Education Program (GenEd) at the University at Albany consists of a set of knowledge areas, perspectives, and competencies considered by the University to be central to the intellectual development of every undergraduate. The Program is divided into three areas: Disciplinary Perspectives, Cultural and Historical Perspectives, and Communication and Reasoning Competencies. This course is designated as a "US Historical Perspectives" course within the GenEd Cultural and Historical Perspectives area. It focuses on specific narratives or themes in the historical unfolding of the United States, including political, economic, social, cultural and/or intellectual dimensions. It is chronologically arranged, and deals with topics of national, as opposed to regional or local, import. Students should expect to 1) acquire knowledge of the basic narrative of American History (political, economic, social and/or cultural) 2) obtain an understanding of representative institutions of American history and how they have been shaped by different groups 3) gain insights into the relationship between America and the rest of the world, and 4) be introduced to the tools and approaches used in interpreting US hisory.

Writing Guides: for History 101Z and other interested students:

1) General pointers on writing papers

2) Footnoting, Style, and Grammar Guides:

a) For proper citation of electronic documents, see Maurice Crouse's Citing Electronic Information in History Papers.

b) A good general guide to footnoting, including information on citing archival sources, was prepared by Professor Catherine Lavender for courses taught in The Department of History, The College of Staten Island of The City University of New York: How to Cite, Using Footnotes: Using the Chicago Manual of Style.

c) Here is a succinct guide to English style, grammar, and punctuation: Perdue University On-Line Writing Guide.

Monday, August 30: Introduction: History as an Act of Discovery

Wednesday, Sept. 1: Race, Class, and Economic Development in the Post-Civil War South: Reconstruction, the Frustrated Revolution [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Inventing America, 535-560.
* Going to the Source, chapter 1 (pp. 1-25)
* Listen to: America's Reconstruction [select previous highlighted text to listen to a RealMedia version of the documentary]. This documentary, produced by Curtis Fox, examines the Era of Reconstruction, from 1865 to 1877, looking closely at the radical transformation of race relations during that period. Leonard Lopate talks with historian Eric Foner; archival recordings of African-American spirituals and actor readings of freedpeople testimonies inform and enlarge their conversation. To download an MP3 version of this documentary, right click on the following link and save file to your PC or Mac hard drive: MP3 version / America's Reconstruction.

Monday, Sept. 6: LABOR DAY / NO CLASS

Wednesday, Sept. 8: The Birth of Jim Crow [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Inventing America, 580-582 ("The Center and the Periphery: The South"); 597-599 ("The Jim Crow South"); 702-703 ("Race and the Nation")
* Going to the Source, chapter 5 (pp. 94-115).

Recommended WWW Resources:

* Birth of a Nation. Film Plot Summary by Tim Dirks. <http://www.filmsite.org/birt.html> A copy of the film is available at IMC.
* For selective short scenes from Birth of a Nation available on line, go to <http://www.uno.edu/~drcom/Griffith/Birth/CW.html>
* Black Protests of Birth of a Nation: <http://chnm.gmu.edu/features/episodes/birthofanation.html>
* The History of Jim Crow
<http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/history/history.htm>
* On the work of Oscar Micheaux, and his response to D. W. Griffith and Birth of a Nation,, see Gerald R. Butters Jr., "From Homestead to Lynch Mob: Portrayals of Black Masculinity," in http://www.albany.edu/jmmh.
* A Sharecropper Contract
* Organization and Principles of the Ku Klux Klan, 1868
* Booker T. Washington's Views on Race, Economics, and Social Progress
B. T. Washington's Atlanta Exposition Address (1895) and selections from Up from Slavery (1901)
* Up From Slavery. The complete text of Booker T. Washington's autobiography.
* Mary Church Terrell on African-American Women in the Post-Reconstruction Era (1898)
"The Progress of Colored Women," by Mary Church Terrell, President, National Association of Colored Women. An address delivered before the National American Women's Suffrage Association at the Columbia Theater, Washington, D.C., February 18, 1898.
* Selections from W. E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folks, 1903
* Voices from the 1930s (The WPA Life Histories Collection) The Life Histories Collection is part of the U.S. Work Progress Administration Federal Writers' Project and Historical Records Survey.
* "Reminiscence of a Negro Preacher" (1939). One item from the above collection.
* Rural Blacks in Post-Reconstruction South Carolina: Mattie Hammond Harrell's Story (1938). Another selection from the Life Histories Collection.
* A Black North Carolina Tenant Farmer's Life (1938). Yet another selection from the WPA Life Histories Collection.
* Audio -- 8 1/2 minutes. Interviews on sharecropping and tenant farming. (1984) Charles Hardy III interviews with Minnie Whitney, William Robinson, and Hughsey Childes (selections). Source: Atwater Kent Museum (Philadelphia), 1984.

Monday, Sept. 13: The Rise of Corporate Capitalism: Ideology and Organization [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Inventing America, 563-625 (you've already read 580-582 and 597-599).

Recommended WWW Resources:

* Horatio Alger. Links to on-line books.*
* Horatio Alger's Ragged Dick.
* "Re-Assessing Tom Scott, the 'Railroad Prince', A Paper for the Mid-America Conference on History, September 16 1995," Written by Dr. T. Lloyd Benson and Trina Rossman, Furman University.
* Michael Kazin, Ph.D., Georgetown University, on the political and economic power of the railroads. Video from "Major Political Issues of the Gilded Age: Railroad Transportation," from Illinois in the Gilded Age site, http://dig.lib.niu.edu/gildedage/about.html, a Northern Illinois University Libraries digitization project.
* Andrew Carnegeie, "Wealth," North American Review (1889). <http://alpha.furman.edu/~benson/docs/carnegie.htm>

Wednesday, Sept. 15: NO CLASS

Monday, Sept. 20: Class, Labor, and Immigration in Industrializing America [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Inventing America, pp. 627-638.
* Going to the Source, chapter 3 (pp. 51-72)

Recommended WWW Resources:

.* Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto (1848). From the Marx and Engels Internet Archive.
* Haymarket Affair Digital Collection. Primary sources on the Haymarket Affair of 1886, from the Chicago Historical Society.
* The Pullman Strike of 1894. Source: Univ. of Virginia.

Wednesday, Sept. 22: The Incorporation of the American West [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Inventing America, pp. 640-655.
* Going to the Source, chapter 2 (pp. 28-50).

Monday, Sept. 27: Reformers and Revolutionaries in Late 19th-Century America [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward (have the whole book read by this class).

Wednesday, Sept. 29: Politics and Empire in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Inventing America, 657-684 (chapter 21).

Recommended WWW Resources:

* The Writings of Alfred T. Mahan. From the Imperialism in the Making of America Web site. An index of articles from American magazines and journals online in the Making of America sites at the University of Michigan and Cornell University.
* Listen to an NPR interview with Warren Zimmerman, author of First Great Triumph: How Five Americans Made Their Country a World Power. Zimmerman focuses on "how five friends -- President Theodore Roosevelt, naval strategist Alfred T. Mahan, Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge, Secretary of State John Hay and corporate lawyer-turned-colonial administrator Elihu Root -- created a new U.S. foreign policy of political expansionism overseas." (7:30)
* Early 1900s Pro-Imperialist Cartoon
* Albert J. Beveridge's March of the Flag Speech (1898)
* Anti-Imperialism, 1865-1935. An excellent collection of primary sources on the anti-imperialist tradition in America, covering the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
* Links to on-line sources on American Foreign Policy, 1898-1914. Edited by Vincent Ferraro, Mount Holyoke College.

Monday, Oct. 4: The Varieties and Limits of Progressive Reform [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Going to the Source, chapter 4 (pp. 73-93).
* Inventing America, 638-640; 687-715 (chapter 22).

Recommended WWW Resources:

* Films and Audio: Theodore Roosevelt. An interesting collection of resources on Theodore Roosevelt. Includes many of his 1912 campaign speeches.

Wednesday, Oct. 6: World War I and Imperial Progressivism [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Inventing America, 717-728.
* Going to the Source, 116-135 (chapter 6).

Recommended WWW Resources:

* World War I Document Archive. An extensive collection of primary source documents pretaining to World War I.
* World War I Web Links. Extensive listing of WWW links on World War I.
* 1918 Sedition Act. Selections from the May 1918 sedition act, an amendment to Section 3 of the Espionage Act of June 15, 1917.
* 4-Minute Men Pamphlet. Committee on Public Information publication.
* Recordings from World War I. Recordings from World War I. From the Library of Congress.
* World War I Posters. World War I Posters (many produced by the Committee on Public Information).

Monday, Oct. 11: The Struggle for Women's Suffrage and Women's Rights [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herstory (have the whole book read by this class).
* Listen to "Linda Lumsden on the Life and Times of Inez Milholland." Part 1: Real Media.| MP3. Time: 23:30; Part 2: Real Media | MP3. Time: 25:14. Inez Milholland, according to her biographer, Linda Lumsden, was "one of the most glamorous suffragists of the 1910s and a fearless crusader for women's rights. . . . She epitomized the New Woman of the time." Gerald Zahavi and Linda Lumsden explore the career and achievements of Milholland in tis interview, recorded for the radio show Talking History on August 24, 2004 -- two days before the anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment. Linda Lumsden is Associate Professor of Journalism and Broadcasting at Western Kentucky University and the author of the recently published Inez: The Life and Times of Inez Milholland (Indiana University Press, 2004

Recommended WWW Resources:

* A Suffragist Pickets the White House. Ernestine Kettler was one of the suffragists who was arrested for picketing the White House with the National Woman's Party. She served time at the Occoquan Work House, where she participated in the strikes launched by the suffragist prisoners to be recognized as political prisoners. Shortly after this, Kettler went west, where she worked initially with the I.W.W. (Industrial Workers of the World) and later for various trade unions in both San Francisco and Los Angeles. From the Virtual Oral/Aural History Archive at California State University, Long Beach.
* Charlotte Perkins Gilman,Women and Economics: The Economic Factor between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution (1898. From the A Celebration of Women Writers Web site.

Wednesday, Oct. 13: Black Scare, Red Scare [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Inventing America, 728-731.
* Listen to Sacco and Vanzetti. This documentary, produced by Curtis Fox, is the second in his new history documentary series titled The Past Present. Here is his summary of the program: "Almost everyone has heard of [Nicola] Sacco and [Bartolomeo] Vanzetti, two Italian-born anarchists who were executed in 1927 for a crime they probably didn't commit--a payroll robbery and double murder in South Braintree, Massachusetts. What most people don't know, however, is that Nicola Sacco and Bartholomeo Vanzetti were part of a group of revolutionaries that conducted a bombing campaign against government officials, including Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. Historian Nunzio Pernicone discusses the anarchist background of Sacco and Vanzetti. Then Pernicone, joined by historian Richard Polenberg, examine the world-famous case that tore this country apart in the 1920s. The program includes historical audio of men involved in the case, Italian anarchist songs, Woody Guthrie ballads, and actors Joe Grifasi and Spiro Malas reading from Sacco and Vanzetti's Moving prison letters."

Recommended WWW Resources:

* Red Scare: An Image Archive. Here is "an image database about the period in the history of the United States immediately following World War I. The dates are approximately from the Armistice in November of 1918 to the collapse of hyper-inflation in mid-1920. Within these two dates the country witnessed--not so much in rapid succession as concurrently--a deadly flu epidemic, a strike wave of unparalled proportions, harsh suppression in some cases of those strikes, race riots, hyper-inflation, mass round-ups and deportations of foreign born citizens, expulsion of duely-elected officials from various offices in government, an incapacitated president, espionage laws, sedition laws and, of course, the advent of Prohibition and women's suffrage."
* The Trial of Sacco and Vanzetti. Lots of details on the trial of Sacco and vanzetti, including excellent interviews with scholars -- from Court TV's Web site.

Monday, Oct. 18: Modernism, Anti-Modernism, and the Culture Wars of the 1920s [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Inventing America, 731-749.

Wednesday, Oct. 20: Mid-Term Examination

Monday, Oct. 25: Capitalism in Crisis: The Coming of the Great Depression [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Inventing America, 751-785.

Recommended WWW Resources:

* Studs Terkel's Hard Times (the oral interviews). Here are the recordings that Studs Terkel utilized in his oral history of the Great Depression, Hard Times. "Terkel interviewed hundreds of people across the United States for his book on the Great Depression of the 1930s. In 1973, he selected several interviews that were included in his book to be broadcast in eleven parts on the Studs Terkel Program on WFMT radio (Chicago, IL). This gallery includes the interviews in those programs. Terkel questions people about their recollections of employment problems, the crash of 1929, organized labor issues, 'farm holidays' where crops were destroyed, and U.S. President Franklin Delanor Roosevelt’s New Deal programs. He asks them how they managed financially and personally through the economic slump and what personal qualities surfaced as a result. In particular he seems interested in exploring the relationship between their personal plight and values and their awareness of national issues and society’s values."

* Studs Terkel's interview of Oscar Heleen (1971) . The interview with Oscar Heleen, a farmer, focuses on farm depression, farm holidays and repossesion. It comes from the above on-line collection. Here are two audio file versions of the interview. To download the MP3 version, right click on the highlighted "MP3" option and save the file to your PC or Mac hard drive: Real Media.| MP3.

* The Crash of 1929 (PBS Film Web Site). Resources related to the recently released (2004) WGBH / American Experience documentary on the 1929 stock market crash.

Wednesday, Oct. 27: The New Deal as Policy and Culture [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Going to the Source, 159-179 (chapter 8).
* Listen to "The Civilian Conservation Corps In New York State: An Aural Narrative. "Historians depict the Civilian Conservation Corps as one of F.D.R.’s most successful New Deal programs. Roosevelt’s CCC camps were a home to almost three million undernourished victims of the Depression. After several months in the camps, most of these 'CCC boys' emerged as healthy, skilled workers. Through archival sounds and oral testimonies, Mark Wolfe tells us about life in some of the CCC camps in New York State. This was Mark's final project for the Producing Historical Documentaries course, spring 2001.

Recommended WWW Resources:

* New Deal Network. A comprehensive on-line archive of documents, photographs, and other resources from the New Deal era.
* A New Deal for the Arts. A wonderful resource page from the National Archives. "During the depths of the Great Depression of the 1930s and into the early years of World War II, the Federal government supported the arts in unprecedented ways. For 11 years, between 1933 and 1943, federal tax dollars employed artists, musicians, actors, writers, photographers, and dancers. Never before or since has our government so extensively sponsored the arts."
* Interrogation of Hallie Flanagan by the Special Committee on Un-American Propaganda Activities in the United States (Dies Committee). "Hallie Flanagan was selected in 1935 by Harry Hopkins to head the Federal Theatre Project as part of the New Deal's Works Progress Administration. In the following excerpt, she is questioned by Chairman Martin Dies (Texas) and Congressmen Joe Starnes (Alabama) and J. Parnell Thomas (New Jersey)." For more information on the Federal The
* America in the 1930s. America in the 1930s is a fine gateway to many rich resources on 1930s America (including radio and film). It was created by the American Studies Program at the University of Virginia.
* FDR's First Fireside Chat, March 12, 1933: Real Media | MP3. Roosevelt explains what he intends to do to repair the nation's devastated banking system. For more information on FDR's Fireside Chats, see teh Museum of Broadcasting Communications' Web site at: http://www.museum.tv/mbcfdr.shtml
* WPA Slave Interviews. "Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938" is a project of the Library of Congress. The collection contains "more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA)."
* Madrigal Singers - Recording from WPA's Federal One/Federal Music Project Collection. Real Media | MP3.
Here is a selection from the archives of the Federal Music Project. The Federal Music Project, headed by Nikolai Sokoloff, director of Cleveland Orchestra and a Yale School of Music graduate, was created in 1935 as part of the Federal One of the WPA. Its goal was to provide work relief for unemployed musicians. This recording is part of over 265 radio broadcasts aired bwetween 1937 and 1942, and feature established and lesser-known musicians. This reproduction was made at Archives II of the National Archives (College Park, Maryland) in October of 2003 for use by Talking History/University at Albany.
* For a fine site on The Cradle Will Rock, a WPA/Federal Theater Project production -- and the recent film by Tim Robbins about it, go to: http://fsweb.wm.edu/amst370/2001/sp4/home.html.

Monday, Nov. 1: The Left and the Right in the Depression Decade [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Listen to this excerpt from a speech delivered on Feb. 20, 1939 by Fritz Kuhn, head of the German-American Bund: Real Media | MP3. Time: 12:19. For more background on the German-American Bund, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German-American_Bund and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Kuhn_(Nazi). This 1939 Bund Rally speech by Kuhn comes from the Office of Alien Property Custodian records, National Archives.
* Father Charles E. Coughlin -- selection of his April 11, 1937 radio broadcast. Real Media | MP3. Time: 18:51. Father Charles E Coughlin (1891-1979) was one of the most influential personalities on American radio in the 1930s. At the height of his career as a "radio priest" -- in the early 1930s -- he had more than 30 million listeners. This is a long excerpt from one of his broadcasts, from April 11, 1937.
* Listen to this selection from They Shall Not Pass, part 4 of the six-part oral history documentary series Grandma Was An Activist: Real Media | MP3. [audio not yet ready]

Recommended WWW Resources:

* German American Bund (Surveillance Report). Surveillance report on a German American Bund meeting in Portland, January 20 1939 . Source: Washington State Univeristy Library.
* Huey Long Explains his "Share Our Wealth" Program (audio) . Real Media | MP3.

Wednesday, Nov. 3: The Coming of the "Good War" [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Inventing America, 787-810 (chapter 25).
* Listen to Charles A. Lindbergh at an America First rally. Real Media | MP3. Time: 22:42. This is a recording of a speech made by Charles Lindbergh on May 23, 1941 at an America First rally in Madison Square Garden. The America First Committee, in which Lindbergh was quite active, was founded in September of 1940. It grew quickly to become one of the nation's most vocal and powerful isolationist groups, drawing a membership which surpassed 800,000. For more information on Charles A. Lindbergh and America First, see http://www.charleslindbergh.com/americanfirst/index.asp.

Recommended WWW Resources:

* FDR's "Quarantine" Speech (Chicago, October 5, 1937).
Audio: Real Media | MP3. / Text: Quarantine Speech.
* The Nye Committee Report (1936).

Monday, Nov. 8: The War Abroad and at Home [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Inventing America, 813-844 (chapter 26).
* Going to the Source, 180-200 (chapter 9).
* Listen to Dan Collison's Port Chicago 50. Dan Collison produced The Port Chicago 50: An Oral History in 1994. It aired on dozens of public radio stations around the country. It's the story of the worst homefront disaster of World War II and its aftermath -- an act of resistance by fifty African American munitions loaders. In late March of 1999, a docu-drama based on the Port Chicago incident -- titled The Mutiny -- was aired by NBC.
* Listen to "The WASPs: Women Pilots of WWII." Producer Joe Richman/Radio Diaries (Dec. 2002). Real Media | MP3. "In the early 1940s, the US Airforce faced a dilemma. Thousands of new airplanes were coming off assembly lines and needed to be delivered to military bases nationwide, yet most of America's pilots were overseas fighting the war. To solve the problem, the government launched an experimental program to train women pilots. They were known as the WASPs, the Women Airforce Service Pilots." This is their story.

Guest Speaker: Helen Quirini on women at General Electric during World War II. For more information about Helen Quirini, go to the following WWW site: http://www.albany.edu/history/histmedia/Hq.html

Wednesday, Nov. 10: "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been . . . ": The Second Red
Scare [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Inventing America, 847-879 (chapter 27).

Recommended:

* The Truman Doctrine: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/trudoc.htm.
* Winston S. Churchill's "Iron Curtain Speech", March 5, 1946:
      http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/churchill-iron.html | Audio Selection: RM
* "For Us the Living," (1941) - Labor Problems During World War II: Real Media | MP3. Time: 12:16. This is a short radio drama produced during World War II by the Office for Emergency Management, Office of Civilian Defense. It features James Cagney and Edward Arnold.
* "Paul Robeson Testifies in the Senate about the Mundt-Nixon Bill (May 31, 1948)". Real Media. MP3. Time: 32:04. This is a lengthy selection from Paul Robeson's Senate testimony on the Mundt-Nixon Bill. The main provision of the Bill was the requirement that all members of the Communist Party of the United States register with the government. Robeson's testimony took place on May 31, 1948, after the bill had already passed the House (on May 21, 1948) by a vote of 319 to 58. The bill died, however, because the Senate never took action. Two years later, nonetheless, the bill was re-introduced with substantial modifications.
Senator Karl Mundt from South Dakota was an important driving force behind the Bill; he was one of Robeson's interrogators. The original Mundt-Nixon Bill was made part of the Internal Security Act of 1950 (also known as the McCarran Act). The central provisions of the McCarran Act included the following: "Communist-action" organizations and communist “front” organizations were required to register with the U.S. Attorney General (and submit names of officers, funding sources, and their membership lists); such organizations were denied income tax exemptions; members of these organizations were prohibited from being employed by the federal government; “aliens” affiliated with these organizations were deportable without a hearing; detention lists were created by the Dept. of Justice in anticipation of a possible future declaration of war, invasion, or other "internal security emergency" (anyone suspected of subversive activities could then be detained without trial); the Smith Act of 1940 was revived and reinforced -- making it illegal for anyone to advocate or belong to a group that advocates for the overthrow of the government. For more information about this audio recording, contact Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD.

Monday, Nov. 15: The Widening Cold War [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Inventing America, 881-913 (chapter 28) & 922-931.

Recommended:

* Going to the Source, 202-226 (chapter 10).
* News Announcement of the Hiroshima Bombing (8-7-1945). Real Media. MP3.
* "Henry Wallace Resignation as Secretary of Commerce (1946)."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 4:28. Secretary of Commerce Henry Wallace explains his differences with President Truman, differences that led to his departure from the Truman administration and his growing involvement with a third party campaign culminating in his run for the presidency in 1948 as the Progressive Party's candidate.
* Joseph McCarthy and Truman. From the History Matters Web site.
* Senator Joseph McCarthy Responds to and Criticizes Pres. Harry S. Truman in a Lincoln, Nebraska Speech (August 24, 1951).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 14:19. Senator Joseph McCarthy replies to a speech made by Pres. Harry S. Truman before the American Legion on August 14, 1951. McCarthy spoke in Lincoln, Nebraska on August 24, 1951 (from NARA and Talking History / University at Albany).
* Senator Joseph McCarthy delivers a radio address in Chicago on October 27, 1952, attacking Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson. Real Media. MP3 (from NARA and Talking History / University at Albany).
* Duck and Cover. Famous U.S. Federal Civil Defense Administration 1951 film produced for children and instructing them on proper defense procedures in case of nuclear attack. (From the Prelinger Archives).
* Survival Under Atomic Attack (1951). Another classic civil defense film from the Federal Civil Defense Administration.
* The Execution of Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg (1915-1953) and Julius Rosenberg (1918-1953). Real Media . MP3
* CNN Cold War series. Excellent on-line resources on the Cold War.

Wednesday, Nov. 17: Society and Culture in Post-War America [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Inventing America, 915-922 (chapter 29, part).
* Going to the Source, 273-301 (chapter 13).

Recommended:

* The Literature & Culture of the American 1950s. An excellent gateway to scores of on-line resources on the 1950s.
* Nixon-Khrushchev Kitchen Debate, Moscow, July 24, 1959. Real Media. MP3.
* "Allen Ginzberg's Howl and the Making of the Beat Generation."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 25:00. This is a conversation between Mimi Rosenberg and Ken Nash, producers of the WBAI radio showBuilding Bridges, and Jonah Raskin, author of American Scream: Allen Ginsberg's Howl and the Making of the Beat Generation (University of California Press, 2004). Raskin is the Professor and Chair of Communication Studies at Sonoma State University. For a short biography, bibliogaphy, and the full text of Howl, go to: http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=8.
* "What About Juvenile Delinquency?" (1955) One of many films produced in the 1950s focusing on the growing problem of juvenile delinquency. From the Prelinger Archives.
* "Age 13" (part 1) and "Age 13" (part 2). A classic 1950s film by Arthur Swerdloff on the fragility of childhood in the 1950s. Summary: "The inner life of an 'at-risk' teenager, told in an idiosyncratic and often surreal manner. A key film by Sid Davis, who is beginning to emerge as one of the great unsung talents of educational filmmaking. Shot in working-class Inglewood, Hollywood and other parts of the Los Angeles basin." From the Prelinger Archives.
* "Who's Boss?" (1950). Alexander Hammid's social guidance film on marital relationships in the post-WWII era. Summary: "Husband and wife struggle to attain a balance of power in their marriage." From the Prelinger Archives.
* "This Charming Couple" (1950). Summary: " Marriage training film dramatizing a partnership too fraught with conflicts to survive. Produced as part of a post-World War II initiative to make marriages more sustainable in the face of postwar dislocation. An unusually literate, neo-realist film produced by a talented group of documentarians. A series of films based on the textbook "Marriage for Moderns," by Henry A. Bowman. Director: Willard Van Dyke. Writer: H. Partnow (pseudonym for blacklisted screenwriter Millard Lampell). Cameraman: Peter Glushanok. Editor: Aram Boyajian. Production Manager: Howard Turner. Producer: Irving Jacoby. With Ken McCannon (Ken) and Nancy Todd (Winnie). Produced on the campuses of Stephens College and the University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo., and in the surrounding country." From the Prelinger Archives.
* A History of Rock'n' Roll. D. K. Peneny's excellent survey of the history of Rock 'n' Roll. Includes David Townsend's unpublished history of Rock 'n' Roll as well as samples of 1950s and 1960s Rock. To listen to some of Rock's classics, go to: http://history-of-rock.com/wurlitzer.htm.

Monday, Nov. 22: The Return of Reformism and the Rise of the Modern Civil Rights Movement [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Inventing America, 931-946 (chapter 29, part).

Recommended:

* The Kennedy-Nixon Debate (1960), Part 1 and Part 2. From the Prelinger Archives.
* http://www.jfklibrary.org/refdesk.htm. Collection of materials from the JFK Presidential Library, including transcripts
and sound files of major speeches, photographs, and funeral-related material.
* Lyndon Baines Johnson Speeches.
* LBJ Presidential Library - speeches and conversations of LBJ.
* Dan Collison's "Freedom Summer." A look back at one of the most famous summers of the 1960s Civil Rights movement. RealMedia: 28.8 | 56.
* (From Talking History / University at Albany): "The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963." PART 1: Real Media. MP3. Time: 33:07. PART 2: Real Media. MP3. Time: 26:56. The National Educational Radio Network (NERN) was a consortium of college and non-commercial radio stations that shared educational and cultural programming with each other in the 1950s and 1960s. The consortium was the predecessor of National Public Radio. Back in late August of 1963, American University's NERN affiliate, WAMU-FM, covered the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom live for an entire day. This one-hour compilation of that day's recordings (August 28, 1963) was later produced for distribution through NERN. For more information on this audio recording, contact Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD.
* History of the EEOC.
* (From Talking History / University at Albany): This is a sampling of the audio tracks of television campaign commercials from the 1964 US national election, suggesting just how important the emotive use of media became in 1964, when Lyndon Baines Johnson and Barry Goldwater confronted each other and offered voters a clear choice between liberalism and conservatism. The campaign featured one of the most powerful political commercials of the past half-century, Johnson’s "Peace Little Girl (Daisy)" ad, created by Tony Schwartz. For more information on the use of television advertising in the campaign, see the 1964 Campaign Web page featured on The Living Room Candidate, a wonderful Web site featuring the video of many of the advertisements that aired in 1964. For more information about the work of Tony Schwartz, go to Tony Schwartz's Web Site. The commercials featured here are widely available on the WWW and are archived (along with other campaign materials) at the LBJ Presidential Library/NARA in Austin, Texas and in the Barry Morris Goldwater papers at Arizona State University's Hayden Library, Tempe, AZ. Real Media. MP3. Time: 17:23.
* (from Talking History / University at Albany): "The Freedom Ride: Elsa Knight Thompson interviews James Farmer (1961)." Real Media | MP3. Time: 26:01. James Farmer, former director of C.O.R.E., was interviewed by Pacifica's Elsa Knight Thompson in early 1961. The two discussed CORE's development and efforts to desegregate the Southern transportation system with a program of freedom rides. It was originally produced and broadcast by KPFA in Los Angeles. For more information on this audio recording, contact Talking History/University at Albany, the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD, or the Pacifica Foundation.
* (from Talking History / University at Albany): "Black and Whites Together - Birmingham, 1963. (Segment 6)" [part 1] Real Media | MP3. Time: 25:33 / [part 2] Real Media | MP3. Time: 32:27. Begun as a community service of Riverside Church of New York City in 1961, WRVR was transformed into a Jazz station in the 1970s. But before that it was part of the Eastern Educational Radio Network (EERN), an affiliate of the National Educational Radio Network, a consortium of college and non-commercial radio stations that shared educational and cultural programming with each other in the 1950s and 1960s. Back in 1963, WRVR produced a six-part look at the civil rights struggle in Birmingham, Alabama. This is part 6 of the series.

Wednesday, Nov. 24: NO CLASS

Monday, Nov. 29: Vietnam [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Inventing America, 949-955.
* Watch Errol Morris, The Fog of War (DVD Movie, 2004). Copies are available at the bookstore and at local video rental outlets.
* Going to the Source, 249-272 (chapter 12).

Recommended:

* The Fog of War film Web site. <http://www.sonyclassics.com/fogofwar/>.
* Time Line - Vietnam. From the Vietnam Online Wb site, developed to accompany Vietnam: A Television History, the award-winning television series produced by WGBH Boston.
* Errol Morris on Fog of War. Errol Morris' Web site includes a full transcript of the film.
* Maps of Vietnam. From the University of Texas at Austin's Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection.
* Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) Today. A tourist destination.
* (from Talking History / University at Albany) "Pre-Trial Conference. Lieutenant William Calley Court Martial for MyLai Massacre (November 10, 1970)". Real Media | MP3. Time: 5:06. Here is a selection from the pretrial arguments in the court martial trial of Lieutenant William Calley. Calley was court-martialed for his involvement in the My Lai Massacre. For more information on Calley, his court martial, and the events that transpired in My Lai, Vietnam in March of 1968, go to the following Web sites: 1) http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/mylai.htm
2) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/trenches/mylai.html
3) BIBLIOGRAPHY: http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~eemoise/mylai.html
From Record Group 153: Records of the Office of the Judge Advocate General (Army), 1692 - 1981, National Archives (Archives II). For more information about this audio recording, contact Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD.
* (from Talking History / University at Albany) "Recording of the First Vietnam-Era Draft Lottery Drawing (December 1, 1969)." Real Media | MP3. Time: 33:00. This is a half-hour selection from a four-reel, two hour recording of the first Vietnam-era draft lottery drawing (the first since 1942) held on December 1, 1969, at the Selective Service National Headquarters in Washington, D.C. According to the Selective Service System's Web site (http://www.sss.gov/lotter1.htm), "This event determined the order of call for induction during calendar year 1970, that is, for registrants born between January 1, 1944, and December 31, 1950. Reinstitution of the lottery was a change from the "draft the oldest man first" method, which had been the determining method for deciding order of call. There were 366 blue plastic capsules containing birth dates placed in a large glass container and drawn by hand to assign order-of-call numbers to all men within the 18-26 age range specified in Selective Service law. With radio, film and TV coverage, the capsules were drawn from the container, opened, and the dates inside posted in order. The first capsule - drawn by Congressman Alexander Pirnie (R-NY) of the House Armed Services Committee - contained the date September 14, so all men born on September 14 in any year between 1944 and 1950 were assigned lottery number 1. The drawing continued until all days of the year had been paired with sequence numbers." For more information about the audio recording, part of Record Group 147 (Records of the Selective Service System), contact Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD.
* Sources on the Vietnam War(s) (from The Wars for Vietnam: 1945-1975 Web site, developed around Robert Brigham's senior seminar on the Viet Nam War at Vassar College):

The Geneva Peace Accords, July 21, 1954
The final declarations of the Geneva Conference, formally concluding the war between France and Viet Nam; The American Response to the Geneva Declarations, 3 July 21, 1954. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles's official response to the Geneva Peace Accords; Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), September 8, 1954 Protocol to the SEATO Treaty; President Eisenhower's Letter of Support to Ngo Dinh Diem, October 23, 1954. Eisenhower's offer of American aid to support Diem in "developing and maintaining a strong, viable state" ; Law 10/59, May 6, 1959. Excerpts from Law 10/59, Diem's repressive legislation against suspected Communists; Duong Loi Cach Nang Mien Nam [The Path of Revolution in the South], 1956. The southern Communists' statement of opposition to the U.S.-Diem regime and commitment to armed violence; National Liberation Front (NLF) Statement of the goals of the NLF, the united front that brought together Communists and non-Communists to liberate Viet Nam from foreign control; Rusk-McNamara Report to Kennedy, November 11, 1961. Excerpts from the November 1961 "White Paper" advocating an increase in military, technical, and economic aid to South Viet Nam; Phone Conversation between Ngo Dinh Diem and Henry Cabot Lodge, November 1,1963. Lodge's implied withdrawal of support for Diem's regime; The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, August 6-7, 1964. Excerpts from the Senate debate on the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, authorizing (with two dissenting votes) an escalation of U.S. involvement; McGeorge Bundy Memo to President Johnson, February 7, 1965. Excerpts from Bundy's memo to Johnson, advocating "sustained reprisal against North Vietnam" in response to the NLF attack on two U.S. army installations; Thu Vao Nam [Letters to the South], 1965. The Hanoi Politburo's letter to the Communist Party in the South, outlining the Party's commitment to a protracted war strategy; National Security Action Memorandum Number 328, April 6,1965. Memo signed by McGeorge Bundy and addressed to the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, documenting Johnson's approval of a 20,000-man increase in U.S. military support for South Viet Nam; Excerpts from Speech Given by President Johnson at Johns Hopkins University, April 7,1965. Johnson's justification of U.S. involvement in Viet Nam; Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara's Memo to President Johnson, July 20, 1965. A summary of McNamara's memo advocating further increases in the number of combat troops committed to Viet Nam; Democratic Republic of Vietnam Peace Proposal, June 26, 1971. Hanoi's peace proposal, presented at the Paris talks in 1971; Peace Proposal of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Viet Nam, July 1, 1971. The Southern Communists' peace proposal, presented at the Paris talks in 1971; President Nixon's Speech to the American Public, November 3, 1969. Nixon's "Vietnamization" plan; President Nixon's Speech to the American Public, April 30, 1970. Nixon's justification of the offensive in Cambodia; The Paris Accords, January 27, 1973
Excerpts from the Paris peace agreement, formally concluding the war between the United States and North Viet Nam.

Wednesday, Dec. 1: Rebellion and Reaction in the 1960s and Early 1970s [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Inventing America, 956-981.
* Listen to "Remembering Kent State, 1970."When thirteen students were shot by Ohio National Guard Troops during a war demonstration on the Kent State University Campus on the first week of May 1970, four young lives were ended and a nation was stunned. . . . Those thirteen seconds in May, 1970 still remain scorched into an Ohio hillside. Through archival tape and interviews, Remembering Kent State tracks the events that led up to the shootings." Produced by Mark Urycki and first aired on WKSU-FM on May 5, 2002. Part 1: Real Media. | MP3. Time: 26:40. Part 2: Real Media | MP3. Time: 29:20

Recommended:

* Port Huron Statement. SDS.
* FBI Files on the Weather Underground. Chicago Office of the FBI, 1976 summary of activities.
* Documents from the Women's Liberation Movement. An On-line Archival Collection, from the Special Collections Library, Duke University.
* Free Speech Movement. Digital Archive (U.C. Berkeley).
* Valerie Solanas' The SCUM Manifesto (1967).
* Vietnam Veterans Against the War Statement by John Kerry to the Senate Committee of Foreign Relations (April 23, 1971).

Monday, Dec. 6: Conservative Resurgence [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Inventing America, 983-1011 and 1013-1040 (chapters 31 and 32).

Recommended:

* Roe V. Wade Decision, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), Docket Number: 70-18. From the <oyez.www.org> Web site.
* NPR Interview with Conservative publicist Richard Viguerie (2004). NPR's Renee Montagne speaks to Richard Viguerie, co-author of America's Right Turn: How Conservatives Used New and Alternative Media to Take Power.
* Excerpts from Richard A. Viguerie,The New Right: We're Ready to Lead (Falls Church, VA: The Viguerie Company, 1981), pp. 3-5, 78, 90-98.
* Ralph Reed talks about the Christian Coalition With Ray Suarez (1996) on NPR's Talk of the Nation.
* Chicano! History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement. Review from the Journal for MultiMedia History.
* Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales'I am Joaquin.
* "Remembering Stonewall." Real Media | MP3. Produced in 1989 by David Isay to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots In New York City, this documentary marked the 20th anniversary of the riots and is the first documentary--in any medium--about Stonewall. An excerpt from the Sound Portraits WWW site notes: "On Friday, June 27, 1969, eight officers from the public morals section of the first division New York City Police Department pulled up in front of the Stonewall Inn, one of the city's largest and most popular gay bars. At the time, the vice squad routinely raided gay bars. Patrons always complied with the police, frightened by the prospect of being identified in the newspaper. But this particular Friday night at the Stonewall Inn was different. It sparked a revolution, and a hidden subculture was transformed into a vibrant political movement. What began with a drag queen clobbering her arresting officer soon escalated into a full-fledged riot, and modern gay activism was born."

Wednesday, Dec. 8: Culture Wars, Uncertainty, and Terror in a Post-Cold War World [OUTLINE]

Assignment:

* Inventing America, 1043-1086 (chapters 33 and Epilogue).
* Listen to "History and September 11th," Part 1, from Talking History.
Historians Joanne Meyerowitz, Talking History's Fred Nielsen, and Melani McAlister, author of the essay, "A Cultural History of the War Without End" discuss the meaning and significance of 9/11 Real Media. | MP3. Time: 21:07.

FINAL EXAMINATION: Friday, Dec 17, 1-3 pm in LC 6.