This course covers American history from the end of "Reconstruction" of the South to the American War in the Middle East and the election of Barack Obama. The central themes are (1) the emergence of America as an international power; (2) the growth in the power of government and the creation of the "welfare state;" and (3) the struggle for individual rights, especially those of women and black Americans. Topics will include:  the making of an industrial economy (Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller), the immigrant experience - that brought the great grandparents of some students from Europe to America between 1880 and 1917; the birth of a consumer culture (the movies, baseball, Atlantic City, flappers); the United States rise to world power (the Philippine War, Spanish American War, World War I); The Great Depression, the New Deal, and the creation of the Modern Welfare State; World War II; the 1950s (from Elvis to Kinsey, rock to sex); the Civil Rights Movement; Vietnam; 1968 ("Coming Apart");  Nixon; women's and gay liberation; Watergate; Reagan, the Persian Gulf War; Clinton, Bush II, the War in the Middle East, the election of 2008.  The course includes discussion sections which take the place of regular lectures about every other week.

Each student will be required to:

1. Complete the weekly reading assignments according to the schedule below.  The textbook for the course is Liberty, Equality, Power, Enhanced Concise Fifth Edition, Volume II: Since 1863 (Cengage, ISBN 9780495903833).  You can substitute the 4th edition if you wish.   Your quizzes and exams will be based on the text.

2. Write two short papers (3-8 pages) on the assigned books (30% of grade): - Great Expectations and Warriors Don't Cry.

3. Take the mid-term (March 22^nd) and the final examination (May 12^th, 12-3pm)  (together 40% of grade). The mid-term will include an open-book question from Discovering the American Past, Vol. II (listed as DAP). 

4. Attend discussion sections on specified Mondays or Wednesdays (starting the week of Monday, February 8^th) and in place of that week's Monday lecture. You must participate in the discussion of documents from Discovering the American Past (DAP), and other texts. For discussion sessions, your instructor may ask you to submit a short statement (1 page) on the reading.  Discussion is graded.  Participation in class discussion and the short responses to DAP count as 15% of the grade). 

5. Quizzes: you will have two types of quizzes.  You will have four quizzes on the textbook.  Each is listed on the syllabus below and you will be given a set of study questions before each quiz.  The quizzes will require you to write a one-page response to a question based on textbook chapters you have been reading before the date of the quiz.  These will count 15% of your grade. 
        You will also have multiple choice quizzes on the text (Liberty, Equality, Power) -- these will count only for extra credit and to check attendance.  

6.  Attend class. Beginning Monday, February 1^st , yOn writing your paper:

1. Proofread.  You should write a draft, edit it, and rewrite the paper.  Do not wait until the night before to get started.  Using a “spell check” is not proofreading.

2. Use complete paragraphs: four or five sentences long with a strong topic sentence.

3. Pay attention to grammar: do not splice clauses together with commas (rather than conjunctions), use parallel construction, make sure subjects and verbs agree, etc.

4. Be careful with word choice – if you are not sure the word means exactly what you want it to mean, check the dictionary or ask someone else to read the sentence you used it in.

5. All quotes must be in quotation marks.  For quotes from May, you need only list the page number in parenthesizes immediately after the quote.  For quotes from the case, simply use quotation marks (as the case itself will be attached).  If you use any other web source, go to http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/cite.html for a guide to internet citation.  It is NOT enough merely to cite the web address of the source.  If you use any other printed source, provide the full citation in a footnote.  Please note the statement on plagiarism that is linked to main course page..

ou are expected to sign-in before class and attend the entire class. More than three unexcused absences will lower your grade one letter grade. Six unexcused absences from lecture and discussion will result in failure. Excused absences (for medical, legal, family emergencies, or, intercollegiate athletic competition with written documentation; or religious observances) do not count in this total.  Three late arrivals will count as an absence.  Signing in and leaving early (without notifying your instructor) is a triple absence.  You will have frequent multiple choice quizzes at the end of lecture to check attendance; these quizzes will only count as extra credit and for attendance, and will be based on the current textbook chapter (Liberty, Equality, Power).  STUDENTS WHO ATTEND EVERY CLASS (except for excused absences) WILL GET A BONUS ON THEIR FINAL EXAM, enough to raise a B- to a B, for example, or a B+ to an A-.

Liberty, Equality, Power, Enhanced Concise Fifth Edition, Volume II: Since 1863 (Thompson/Wadsworth, ISBN: 9780495903833). New book and unlikely to be available less expensively on-line, but you can probably find less expensive copies of the Fourth Edition.. 

Students have the option of purchasing the lecture outlines and documents/maps for $3.00.  Lecture outlines can be downloaded from the class webpage for no cost, but if you purchase them, we will have them available on the day of the lecture.

Final Examination: Final Examination: - Wednesday, May 12th, 12-3pm   [Link to previous exam, example only)

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SECTIONS 

Every other week we hold sections INSTEAD of the Monday lecture. These sections may be held on either Monday or Wednesday. Those with a Wednesday section attend both lecture and discussion on that Wednesday, but have no class on that Monday. You register for your section when you register for the class. These sections are:

Section Number	Building Room	Meeting Day	Instructor	First Meeting
Section 8	SC-219	Monday, 1:10-2:30 (4th)	Adam Zalma	Monday, Feb. 9th
Section 9	Van Dyck 211	Monday, 2:50-4:10 (5th)	Paul Clemens	Monday, Feb. 9th
Section 10	CA - A3	Monday, 2:50-4:10 (5th)	Steven McGrail	Monday, Feb. 9th
Section 11	Murray 204	Monday, 2:50-4:10 (5th)	Adam Zalma	Monday, Feb. 9th
Section 12	HH - A6	Monday, 2:50-4:10 (5th)	Matt Roth	Monday, Feb. 9th
Section 13	Scott 115	Monday, 4:30-5:50 (6th)	Matt Roth	Monday, Feb. 9th
Section 14	Scott 207	Wednesday, 1:10-2:30 (4th)	Steven McGrail	Wednesday, Feb. 11th

Schedule of Assignments, Discussions and Lectures (NOTE: Reading Assignments are listed immediately after the class by which they must be completed. Students are responsible on quizzes for any material listed on or before the date of the quiz.)   The Discovering the American Past  (DAP) assignments are for section and are summarized here.  The dates given are for Monday discussion sections (those of you in section 14 will have discussion on Wednesday, two days later).

February 8 (Monday): DAP, Ch. 2,  "The Road to True Freedom"
February 22 (Monday): DAP, Ch. 4, "Progressives and the Family"  
March 8 (Monday): DAP, Ch. 8, "Going to War with Japan"
March 29 (Monday), DAP, Ch. 9, "Separate but Equal"
April 12 (Monday), DAP, Ch. 10 "A Generation in War" 
April 26 (Monday), DAP, Ch. 11: "Nation of Immigrants"   

Note: other readings will be assigned for discussion (usually one of the three additional books you are reading for the course.)

1. January 20 (Wednesday): Introduction

            Liberty, Equality, Power, Chapter 17 (Reconstruction)

Liberty, Equality, Power, Chapter 18 (Transformed Nation)

Liberty, Equality, Power, Chapter 19 (Corporate America)
Great Expectations, Introduction, Chapters 1-4.

Liberty, Equality, Power, Chapter 22 (Becoming a World Power)
Great Expectations, Chapters 5-6.

Liberty, Equality, Power, Chapter  21 (Progressivism)

PAPER DUE: Great Expectations    See also: New Jersey Divorce Cases

Warriors Don't Cry, Introduction and Chapters 1-7

          Liberty, Equality, Power, Chapter 24 (1920s)

12. March 1: The 1920s- The Jazz Age

Warriors Don't Cry, Chapters 8-13
QUIZ #2

Liberty, Equality, Power, Chapter 25 (Great Depression and New Deal)

        Warriors Don't Cry, Chapters 14-21

15. March 10:  World War II    

Liberty, Equality, Power, Chapters 26 (America during the Second World War)

                                SPRING RECESS, March 13^th - March 21^st

16. March 22 (Monday): Mid-term Examination (example only)

                  
17. March 24:  1950s: Baby Boomers in the Age of the Bomb

Liberty, Equality, Power, Chapter 27 (Containment)

Liberty, Equality, Power, Chapter 29 (America during Its Longest War)

Rumor of War, Part Two: The Officer in Charge of the Dead

25. April 21: After the Sixties: Nixon to Carter  

        QUIZ #3

        Liberty, Equality, Power, Chapter 30 (Power and Politics)

27. April 28:  The Reagan Years to Bush I

Liberty, Equality, Power, Chapter 31 (Late 20th Century)

Final Examination: - Wednesday, May 12th, 12-3pm

Updated   05-05-2010