HST 204 D United States from 1865 to the Present
Telecom
Dr. W. Furdell wfurdell@ugf.edu and renman43@hotmail.com
406-791-5338
I. This course surveys American history from the end of the Civil War through the present.
II. Texts:
The Enduring Vision, by Paul Boyer et al
III. There are two open book examinations consisting of three essay questions to be completed within the time allotted.
During the online sessions we will have oral discussions relating to the subject matter. Students should be able to discuss any of the material referenced on the study guide, but will be particularly well versed on points to which they have been specifically assigned. Be sure to read the material and take notes prior to the online sessions. Do not hesitate to ask questions about the material. Participation is important—so check your mic to be sure it works.
Your ability to apply critical and analytical thinking both in online discussions and in responses to essay questions on exams will be enhanced to the extent that you have studied the material in advance.
IV. BOOK REVIEWS
Each student will also prepare TWO book reviews relating to some topic or personality relevant to American history. The first book will relate to some aspect of American history that is covered prior to midterm. The second book relates to some aspect of American history that we cover after the midterm.
Selected books will be approved by the instructor. Titles listed in our text and/or on the list provided containing works available in the UGF Library will generally be approved, but you must still submit the title and author for approval. Let me know where you located the title.
Other books not listed may or may not be approved, but require that you give me information about the author’s credentials along with the title, publisher, and date of publication. Be sure to initiate the approval process in a timely fashion.
DUE DATES FOR THE TITLE APPROVAL AND REPORT SUBMISSION AS WELL AS OTHER DUE DATES ARE LISTED BELOW. BEGIN LOOKING FOR THE FIRST BOOK RIGHT AWAY.
Reviews are to be three to five pages typed and double-spaced. The author, title, publisher, and publication date should be indicated on the cover sheet. The review will include a brief summary of the content and comment upon the main interpretive themes and ideas developed in the book. In addition to summarizing the work, the reviewer will discuss such matters as the quality and character of research, organization, points of view, and other aspects relevant to evaluating the book. Your own ideas and your own words are the essential aspects of your work. Plagiarism can result in course failure, and you must not submit work that copies the words and/or the ideas produced by someone else.
V. Grading:
(90%-99% = A- or A, 80%-89%=B-,B, orB+, 70%-79%=C-,C,or C+, 60%-69%=D-,D or D+, Below 60%=F)
FIRST BOOK REVIEW 50 POINTS TITLE APPROVED BY JAN 23
REVIEW DUE FEB 13
MIDTERM EXAM 100 points EMAILED FEB 27
EXAM DUE March 1
Participation to midterm 50 points
SECOND BOOK REVIEW 50 points TITLE APPROVED BY MARCH 19
REVIEW DUE APRIL 9
Part. After midterm 50 points
FINAL EXAM 100 points EMAILED APRIL 23
DUE April 26
Total 400 points = 100%
VI. Regular attendance and participation are basic requirements.
Be sure to keep up with your work. Right at the beginning of the semester you should select the first book to read and review. Also, you should begin reading the Enduring Vision, and take notes on the items under Roman Numeral I on the study guide. By beginning promptly, and proceeding according to the week to week schedule you will find the work both manageable and rewarding, and your success will be reflected by your enjoyment of the subject and the good grade you will have earned. Best wishes for a most successful semester.
VII. Instructions for submitting assignments via email:
THIS IS IMPORTANT!!! Please save and EMAIL your work as attached FILES either as HTML, WORD, or Rich Text. Use single words in naming your files. THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!! I may have trouble opening other types of files.
Attach the file to an email message. If I do not acknowledge receipt within twenty-four hours, contact me via email or telephone. Email your work to both of the following addresses to be certain that I receive it. wfurdell@ugf.edu and renman43@hotmail.com
(406) 791-5338
Study Guide
Hist 204, United States History from 1865 to the Present
This study guide is geared to the lectures and to the Enduring Vision text.
a. Examine Lincoln's and Johnson's Reconstruction Plans.
b. Note the Black Codes and their symbolic importance.
c. Look at the contest between Johnson and Congress re the Freedmen's Bureau, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the congressional elections of 1866.
d. Study Congressional Reconstruction, the Reconstruction Act of 1867, the Tenure of Office Act, and the effort to impeach Andrew Johnson.
e. Look at the chart on the Reconstruction Amendments (p. 477).
f. Note the "new electorate" and the role played by Republican Governments in the South.
g. Study the vigilante-type "counter-attacks" and the collapse of Reconstruction.
h. Look at Grant's election and administration, the Panic of 1873, the election of 1876, and the Compromise of 1877.
II. Chapter 17 – The Transformation of the Trans-Mississippi West
a. Read about the Plains Indians and the impact of the destruction of the buffalo.
b. Examine the work and intentions of Helen Hunt Jackson and other reformers intent on "saving" the Indians. Focus particularly on the Dawes Severalty Act.
c. Note the impact of the transcontinental railroads, and read about the coming of homesteaders.
d. Look at the mining frontier and the cattle frontier.
e. Read about the “frontier legend,” and note how the myth diverged from reality.
Chapter 18 - The Rise of Industrial America
f. Look at Andrew Carnegie's fantastic success story, and the industrial and managerial methods he pioneered.
g. Read about Rockefeller, Standard Oil, and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
h. Look at the “Gospel of Success,” and the Horatio Alger stories. How accurate was his portrayal of social mobility?
III. The Rise of Industrial America (ch 18 continued)
a. Develop the history of organized labor with particular reference to Samuel Gompers and the AFL.
b. Look at the Pullman and Homestead Strikes.
c. Analyze the conservative Social Darwinist thought of William Graham Sumner and the liberal ideas of Lester Frank Ward.
Chapter 19 – Immigration, Urbanization, and Everyday Life, 1860-1900
d. Study the characteristics of the "old immigrants" and the "new immigrants."
e. Read about machine politics, the new approaches to social work, the moral purity campaign, and the settlement house movement
f. Read the section on “public education as an arena of class conflict.”
Chapter 20 – Politics and Expansion in an Industrializing Age.
g. Look at the patterns of party strength. What was the GAR?
h. Examine the issues relating to “Greenbacks and Silver.”
IV. Politics and Expansion in an Industrializing Age (ch 20 continued)
a. Look at the spoils system and civil-service reform
b. In "The Stakes of Politics" note the expectations people had or did not have with reference to the role of government.
c.Study the elections of 1884 and 1888. Note the issues and events associated with these elections.
d. Read about the panic of 1893, and note Cleveland's efforts to defend the gold standard. Study the contest between William Jennings Bryan and William McKinley in 1896. In particular note the issues involved.
e. Study the roots of expansionism, Hawaii, Cuba, the Spanish American War, and the Philippines.
Chapter 21 - The Progressive Era, 1900-1917
f. Study the section entitled "the many faces of Progressivism." Particularly note the role of the middle class.
g. Read about the new social views as manifested in the ideas of Herbert Croly, Jane Addams, John Dewey, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
h. Note the work of such "muckrakers" as Lincoln Steffens, Maria Van Vorst, and Ida Tarbell.
V. The Progressive Era (ch 21 continued)
a. What were some of the reforms in the political process that emerged during the Progressive Era?
b. Note the aspects of Immigration restrictions, eugenics, and racism during the Progressive Era.
c. Read about "National Progressivism - Phase I: Roosevelt and Taft." Focus upon the circumstances of TR's rise to the presidency, his Trust-busting activities, consumerism, and conservation.
d. Study Taft's presidency and the problems relating to a "Divided Republican Party."
e. Read about "National Progressivism - Phase II: Woodrow Wilson." Focus on the election of 1912, the Underwood-Simmons Tariff, the Federal Reserve Act, the FTC, the Clayton Act, pro-labor legislation, farm legislation, and the Federal Highway Act.
f. Look at the Open Door and China.
g. Read about the Panama Canal
h. Study "the Perils of Neutrality" and the U.S. entrance into the war.
VI. Global Involvements and World War I (ch 22 continued)
a. Note the efforts to raise an army and the problems associated with the early IQ tests.
b. Read about Bernard Baruch and the War Industries Board. Also, look at Herbert Hoover and the Food Administration.
c. Read about the "AEF in France," and the turning of the tide. (Note—the casualty figures in the text appear to be incorrect.)
d. Note the work of George Creel and the Committee on Public Information.
e. Look at the aspect of suppression of dissent with reference to the Sedition Amendment to the Espionage Act.
f. Read about "Wilson's Fourteen Points," the "Fight Over the League of Nations."
g. Note the aspects of "Racism and the Red Scare," at the end of WWI
h. Discuss the election of Harding in 1920, and his call for a “return to normalcy.”
MIDTERM EXAM (Roman numerals I through VI on the study guide)
VII. Chapter 23 The 1920s
a. Read the section on "Stand Pat Politics in a Decade of Change."
Also,look at the section on, “Cities, Cars, and Consumer Goods.”
b. Read about the “jazz age and the post-war crisis of values.”
c. Read about the Scopes Trial, the KKK, and Prohibition.
d. Study the election of 1928, and note “Hoover’s Social Thought.”
Chapter 24 The Great Depression and the New Deal
e. Read about the stock market crash and the onset of the Depression.
f. Study Hoover's response to the Depression, and look at the election of FDR in 1932.
g. Study the nature and character of the legislation and programs of the "hundred days." Particularly note the Emergency Banking Act, FDIC, HOLC, CCC and the Federal Emergency Relief Act.
h. Study the two most important measures of the Hundred Days - the Agricultural Adjustment Act and the National Industrial Recovery Act.
VIII. The Great Depression and the New Deal (ch 24 continued)
a. Note the establishment of the Securities Exchange Commission. Also, note the “failures and controversies” that plagued the early new deal.
b. Look at the challenges from the Right and the Left including the American Liberty League, Charles E. Coughlin, Francis Townsend, and Huey Long.
c. Study the changing course of the New Deal in 1935 and 1936 including the WPA, REA, National Labor Relations Act, the Social Security Act, and the Revenue Act of 1935.
d. Note the election of 1936, the "court-packing" controversy, and the "Roosevelt Recession."
Chapter 25 Americans and a World in Crisis, 1939-1945
e. Read about the European war, the destroyers for bases deal, lend-lease, and Pearl Harbor.
f. Read the section entitled "Triumph and Tragedy,1945.”
g. Read about "Demobilization and Reconversion," and "Truman's Domestic Program."
h. Study the beginnings of the Cold War and George F. Kennan's ideas leading to "containment." Note the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan.
IX. The Cold War Abroad and At Home (Chapter 26 continued)
a. Read about the Korean War.
b. Study the Eightieth Congress, the civil rights issue, and the election of 1948.
c. Read the section on “the anti-communist crusade” and "Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs." Study the phenomenon of McCarthyism, and look at the election of Eisenhower in 1952.
Chapter 27 America at Midcentury
d. Note the downfall of Joseph McCarthy.
e. Read about the interstate highway system.
f. Read about Little Rock in 1957.
g. Look at the sections titled "Ike and Dulles," and “The Vietnam Domino.”
h. Read about Sputnik and its impact in America.
a. Study the Kennedy Presidency with particular reference to the election of 1960, the Bay of Pigs, the October 1962 missile crisis, and the involvement in Indochina.
b. Read about LBJ's election in 1964, and the “Triumph of Liberalism.”
c. Study the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.
d. Read about the “second feminist wave” and “Women’s Liberation.”
e Look at the Vietnam War, 1961-1968.
Chapter 29 A Time of Upheaval, 1968-1974
f. Read about "The Youth Movement with reference to the New Left, the SDS, and Kent State.
g. Examine the Tet offensive and the elections of 1968 and 1972.
h. Look at "the Watergate Upheaval," and “a President Disgraced.”
XI. Chapter 30 Conservative Resurgence, Economic Woes, Foreign Challenges, 1974-1989.
a. Read about “the caretaker Presidency of Gerald Ford.”
b. Discuss “the outsider as insider: President Jimmy Carter.”
c. Study the “Background of the Reagan Revolution” and “Reaganomics.”
d. Review the section entitled “Assessing the Reagan Years”
Chapter 31 Beyond the Cold War: Charting a New Course, 1988-2000
e. Look at the election of 1988, and the end of the Cold War.
f. Read about “Operation Desert Storm.”
g. Note the Supreme Court’s move to the right.
h. Look at the “Clinton Agenda,” and the “sharp right turn” in 1994.
a. Look at the Clinton’s second administration, the scandals, and the attempt to remove him from office.
b. Read about the Balkans, Russia, and Eastern Europe in the post-Soviet era.
c. Note the question of “a New World Order.”
d. Examine the Bush-Gore election of 2000, and the Florida situation.
Chapter 32 Global Dangers, Global Challenges, 2001 to the Present
e. Note the conservative turn in domestic politics, and the “go-it-alone” foreign policy of George Bush’s administration.
f. Discuss the results of September 11 with respect to the war on terrorism abroad, and security at home.
g. Comment upon the origins and course of the war in Iraq.
h. Discuss the Bush-Kerry election of 2004, and the subsequent directions of American politics and society as we move further into the twenty-first century.
FINAL EXAM (VII through XII)