AMERICA BETWEEN THE WARS, 1919-1941
 
 
HIST 380C
Spring 2006
M W F 9:40 - 10:40am
SW 231
 
  Professor: Sarah Boyle
Email: sboyle@binghamton.edu
Office: TBA
Hours: M 4:00 - 5:30, W 2:00 - 3:30



 
 


This course is an exploration of American society and culture during the the interwar era. 

Classroom Decorum: Come to class on time.  Turn off all cellphones and pagers before class begins.  Do not carry on private conversations during class.  This course will combine lectures with classroom discussion and, occasionally, films.  Classroom participation is 20% of your grade, so come prepared to contribute each week.

Written Work: There will be three written assignments in this course: two papers and one midterm exam. 

Paper #1: Every student will be responsible for delivering a lecture to the class.  For this assignment, you will be grouped into teams of four or five.  You may divide the work amongst you any way you see fit, but every student is responsible for the following: a 10-15 minute presentation and a 5-7 page paper on the required topic.  The paper is due one week after the lecture is given.

Paper #2: The 1920s and 1930s had a succession of sensationalistic trials that captured the popular imagination.  In a 5-7 page paper, you will analyze how ONE of these trials relates to one or more of the themes of the course.  Transcripts and information on these trials can be found at http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/ftrials.htm.  Other outside sources are acceptable, but they must be cleared with me at least one week in advance.  The second paper is due at the beginning of class on May 12th.

Midterm exam: The midterm will be a take-home essay exam.  You will receive the exam questions one week before the exam is due.  Completed exams must be submitted to me at the beginning of class on March 10th.

Make Ups and Extensions: There will be no extensions for written work  Late work will be marked down accordingly. 

Plagiarism:  I will go over the proper way to cite sources in class.  If you improperly cite a source after I have reviewed the procedures with you, I will mark you down for it.  If you flat-out submit any work that is not your own (e.g. printing something off the web or using a friend's paper), and I discover it, you will fail the course, and I will report you to the Academic Honest Committee.

Grading
:
  • Papers: 10% each
  • Midterm: 25%
  • Final: 25%
  • Discussion: 20%
Texts:  There are three required texts, all of which are available at the campus book store.  They are:
Goldberg, Discontented America: the United States in the 1920s
Gordon, Major Problems in American History, 1920-1945
Terkel, Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression
In addition to these texts, you are also responsible to material on the web.  Web sites listed with an asterick (*) should be printed out and brought to class.  Websites without the asterick do not need to be printed out, but you are still responsible for the material therein.


 
  Week 1   Week 2   Week 3   Week 4   Week 5   Week 6   Week 7      
Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15 Week 16  




  WEEK 1 January 23 - 27: OVERVIEW OF COURSE


   
Assignments: Major Problems, chapter 1

 
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  WEEK 2 January 30 - February 3: THE RED SCARE
 

 

Assignments: Discontented America, 41-44
*"Robert Benchley on 'The Making of a Red'"
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4982
*Emma Goldman on her deportation
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/15
*The 1919 Steelworkers' Strike (look over all the documents, and print out two or three that you think are most relevant.  Be prepared to explain your choices)
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/7
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/8
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/9
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/10
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/11
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/12
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/106

 
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  WEEK 3 February 6 - 10: FROM THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS TO THE POLITICS OF BUSINESS
 

   
Assignments: Discontented America, chapters 2 and 3
Major Problems, 36-45, 219-229

 
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  WEEK 4 February 13 - 17: THE FATE OF LABOR AND THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT
 

   

Assignments: Discontented America, chapter 4
Major Problems, chapter 3
*"How Did Women Peace Activists Respond to 'Red Scare' Attacks During the 1920s?" (Print otu the introduction to the project and 3-5 documents that you found especially interesting/informative/relevant)
http://womhist.binghamton.edu/wilpf/intro.htm

 
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  WEEK 5 February 20 - 24: NATIVISM IN THE 1920S
 

   
Assignments: Major Problems, pp. 153-159, 165-180
Discontented America, chapters 6 and 7
*Immigration Quotas, 1925-1927
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5078
*A Congressman Denounces Quotas
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5079
*A Senator Speaks for Immigration Restrictions
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5080
*White Sheets in Washington, DC
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6689

 
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  WEEK 6 February 27 - March 3: BLACK AMERICA: RESISTANCE AND RENAISSANCE  

   
Assignments:  Major Problems, 128-135
Discontented America, chapter 5
*The First Pan-African Congress, 1919
http://members.tripod.com/~DuBois/pan19.html
*“If You Believe the Negro Has a Soul: ‘Back to Africa’ with Marcus Garvey”
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5124
*“Let Us Reason Together: W. E. B. DuBois Defends Black Resistance”
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5128
*“We Thought the Street Would Be Heaven Itself: Black Migrants Speak Out”
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5337
*“Don’t Have to Mister Every Little White Boy: Black Migrants Write Home”
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5339
*“The Chicago Daily Tribune Reports the Chicago Race Riot, 1919”
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4975
*“The Chicago Defender Reports the Chicago Race Riot, 1919”
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4976
*Zora Neale Hurston's first story
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5131
*Advertisement from the NAACP's anti-lynching campaign
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6786

 
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  WEEK 7 March 6 - 10: FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIANITY MIDTERMS DUE!
 

   
Assignments: Write midterm

 
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  WEEK 8 March 13-17: HAVE A GOOD BREAK!  


  WEEK 9 March 20 - 24: THE JAZZ AGE AND MODERNIST SENSIBILITIES  

   
Assignments:  Major Problems, chapter 4
*A Modern Marriage
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5081
*Robert Benchley Satirizes Science
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5098
*Debating Bobbed Hair
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5117
*The flapper on Life magazine
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6684

 
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  WEEK 10 March 27 - 31: A CONSUMER CULTURE
 

   
Assignments:  Major Problems, chapter 9
Print out one of the first four documents:
Model Kitchens
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6665
Automobile Advertisement
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6666
Cigarette Advertisement
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6667
"Music and Milking Time"
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6668
*"Kissing Valentino"
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/21
*"Movie Dreams and Movie Injustice"
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/23
*"From Cowboys to Clara Bow"
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/22
*The Rise of a Baseball Fan
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5087

 
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  WEEK 11 April 3 - 7: RURAL AMERICA
 

   
Assignments:  Major Problems, chapter 5

 
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  WEEK 12 April 10 - 14: CRASH!
 

   
Assignments: Major Problems, chapter 7

 
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  WEEK 13 April 17-21: FDR AND THE NEW DEAL
 

   
Assignments:  Terkel, Hard Times, books 3-5
Major Problems, 315-336

 
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  WEEK 14 April 24-28: VOICES OF DISSENT
 

   
Assignments: Terkel, Hard Times, books 1 and 2
"Trio: Father Coughlin, Huey Long, and Upton Sinclair; Voices for the Disaffected in 1930s America"
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA01/Kidd/thesis/index.html

 
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  WEEK 15 May 2 - 5: THE RE-BIRTH OF LABOR
 

   
Assignments: Major Problems, chapter 12

 
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  WEEK 16 May 8 - 12: RACE IN 1930S AMERICA

   
Assignments:

 
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