131B Sp13 Syllabus.pdf - Department of History, UC Berkeley

History 131B: U.S. Social History Since 1865
Instructor: Dr. Jane J. Cho
Spring 2013
MWF 2-3, 277 Cory
Office: 2326 Dwinelle
W 3:15-4:15 or by appt.
janecho@berkeley.edu
Readers: Patrick Clark clarkpe@berkeley.edu
Margaret Tillman margaret.tillman@gmail.com
Allison Weiss Alison.weiss814@googlemail.com
Course Description
This course will explore contours of social relations and cultural practices that have both united and
divided Americans. Using the end of the Civil War as our starting point, we will move through the
chronology of American social history. From multiple perspectives, we will examine who had been
included and excluded in taking part in the “American Dream.” We will address the trends, conditions,
and events that contributed and reflected the tenor of a multiethnic America. In particular, we will
examine how people influenced the structural changes that both promised and limited their liberty and
equality. What was the American Dream? How was freedom and equality understood and exercised by
different groups of people in the United States? Among the subjects that will be discussed include: the
emergence of new educational and social institutions, rise of mass culture and consumer culture,
immigration and ethnicity, changing gender and sexual norms, and the role of technology in the American
society.
Course Objectives and Requirements
This course seeks to provide a general overview of the social history of the United States since the end of
Civil War to the 1990s. An important component of this class is to build the skill set required to critically
think, read, and evaluate the written and visual sources that inform our understanding of American
history. You are expected to form and support your arguments based on evidence. I have selected a wide
range of texts for you to critically read and think about. My goal is for you to understand the past and the
people who inhabited it on their own terms by placing them within their historical context. I also hope
you will reflect on how your views of the past are also shaped by the place and time you inhabit.
Moreover, you will be asked to investigate competing interpretations from multiples sides, and to reflect
upon your own participation in a historical moment. To this end, you are expected to attend lectures,
finish all assignments, and to actively participate in the course.
Texts
All required books are on reserve at the Moffitt Library. All editions of the books are acceptable. Aim to
finish the readings by the date indicated. Some of the books are long and unless indicated, you should
have read the entire book. You may want to begin the readings well in advance of the date listed.
The following books are required reading for the course. The six required texts are supplemented by
documents available as full-text electronic documents. Links can be found on the class bspace.
Books available for free through an electronic source (ebrary, JSTOR, etc.) is denoted with **.
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Chan, Chinese American Transnationalism**
Cross, All Consuming Century
DeParle, An American Dream
Gregory, The Southern Diaspora
Lassonde, Learning to Forget **
Takaki, Double Victory
Optional: This class has no reader or conventional textbook, but students may find Eric Foner’s Give Me
Liberty! and Alan Brinkley’s The Unfinished Nation (any edition) to be helpful.
Grades
30% Midterm 1 F Feb. 22
30% Midterm 2 F April 5
40% Final Exam M May 14, 1130-2:30pm
Midterm Examination
There will be two components to the midterm:
40% IN-CLASS identification and significance
60% TAKE-HOME open-ended question, where assigned readings must be incorporated
Prompts for the take-home exam will be posted on the course bspace one week prior to the in-class
midterm exam dates. You will choose one prompt and write one essay. Turn in a hard copy of your
essay in class, on the listed day for the midterms.
These midterm exams are not cumulative. The first midterm covers lectures 1-11, and the second covers
lectures 12-23.
Final Examination
You will be asked to write two essays based on open-ended questions.
Film
We will watch two films in this course. These viewing will begin during the regularly scheduled class
hour, and will extend beyond the allotted time. If prior engagement conflicts with the viewing, you can
also watch the movie at the Media Resources Center in the Moffitt Library.
Academic Honesty
Use of material and/or ideas of others without acknowledgment is plagiarism. If you need clarification as
to what constitutes plagiarism, please come see me.
Notes
If you need disability-related accommodations in this class, if you have emergency medical information
you wish to share with me, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated
please inform me. Please see me after class or in my office hours.
Remember to turn off or silence your mobile phones, alarms, and other distracting devices during
lectures. No recordings permitted during lectures.
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Class Schedule
[Subject to change without notice.]
Date Lecture Required Readings
W 1/23
1. Introduction
F 1/25 2. American Characteristics
M 1/28
W 1/30
3. Reconstruction: the South
Optional: Leon Litwack, Been in the Storm So Long**
4. Regions: the NE and the West
Reading: Lassonde (chps, Intro to 3)**
A NEW WAY OF LIFE
F 2/1 5. Farmers/Populism
M 2/4
W 2/6
6. Enterprise to Corporation/Industrialization
Optional: Carnegie, “The Gospel of Wealth”**
7. Immigration
Reading: Chan (chps 1, 2, 5, 8)**
F 2/8 8. Cities
M 2/11
W 2/13
9. Cities (cont.)
10. Mobility
Reading: Gregory (Intro and ch. 1, 4, 5)
F 2/15 11. Mass Production/Automobile
M 2/18
W 2/20
NO LECTURE
FILM: “Modern Times”
F 2/22 Midterm #1
INTO THE MODERN
M 2/25
12. WWI/Red Scare
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Optional: “Introduction” by Anthony W. Lee in Lynching Photographs by Dora Apel
and Shawn Michelle Smith (Berkeley: UC Press, 2008) at
http://www.ucpress.edu/content/chapters/10777.intro.pdf
Optional: Browse “Without Sanctuary: Photographs and Postcards of Lynching in
America” at www.withoutsanctary.org
W 2/27
13. Roaring Twenties
F 3/1 14. Intolerant Twenties
Reading: Lassonde (ch. 4-6)**
M 3/4
W 3/6
15. Great Depression
Reading: Lassonde (chp 7 and Conclusion)**
Browse “America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the
FSA and OWI, c. 1935-1945” at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsowhome.html
16. New Deal
F 3/8 17. WWII
M 3/11
W 3/13
18. WWII
Reading: Takaki (all)
19. Nuclear Age
F 3/15 20. Containing Communism Abroad
M 3/18
W 3/20
21. Containing Communism at Home
22. Race for Space and Changes in Education
F 3/22 NO CLASS
M 3/25 SPRING BREAK
W 3/27 SPRING BREAK
F 3/29 SPRING BREK
M 4/1
23. Civil Rights Movement
Reading: Mary L. Dudziak, “Desegregation as a Cold War Imperative” in Stanford Law
Review, vol. 41, no. 1 (Nov. 1988): 61-120.**
Reading: Lassonde (chp 7)**
Optional: Full text of speeches and sermons by Martin Luther King, Jr. can be found at
http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/multimedia.contents
W 4/3 FILM: “All the President’s Men” (1976)
F 4/5 Midterm #2
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DEFINING THE “AMERICAN”
M 4/8
W 4/10
24. Anti-War/Vietnam
Optional: Sucheng Chan (ed.), The Vietnamese American 1.5 Generation: Stories of War,
Revolution, Flight, and New Beginnings (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006)**
25. Environmentalism/Interdependence
Optional: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (any edition)
F 4/12 26. The Consumer Age
Reading: Cross (all)
M 4/15
W 4/17
27. Gendered Society
28. Adulthood and Communities
Reading: Robert Putnam, “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social capital” in
Journal of Democracy vol. 6, no. 1 (January 1995), 65-78. Also available at
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~pmclean/mcleanp_01_920_01_putnam.bowling.pdf
Reading: Gregory (chp. 8, 9)
F 4/19 29. Immigration
M 4/23
W 4/25
30. Sexuality
31. Social Welfare
F 4/27 32. Working Poor/Health Care
Reading: DeParle (all)
M 4/30
W 5/1
33. Innovations
34. Conclusion: An American Identity
F 5/3 35. Review Session
M 5/14
FINAL EXAM, 11:30-2:30 pm
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