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What is a nation? is a course about the history of the United States from 1877 through 1914. The class will explore how the U.S. rose from a nation shattered by civil war  to an imperial power experimenting with a managed economy.

Through the quarter we’ll cover the main themes of this period: the class wars of the late-19th century; populism, socialism, and the Utopian ideas of Henry George and Edward Bellamy; the rise of the modern corporation; the impetus for the Spanish American war and the debate over imperialism;  the emergence of progressivism, Jim Crow racism, and political feminism. The class will also explore how thinking about sexuality changed over these years.

Contact the instructor, Matthew Lasar, here.  Contact Chrislaine Pamphile Miller here. Contact Jeff Sanceri here.

Time/place:

Tuesdays and Thursdays 2:00 PM – 3:45 PM Kresge Classroom 327

Requirements

This course has five basic requirements: a mid-term, a final examination, two quizzes, five section papers, and a term paper. The nature of the term paper is explained here.

Exams
The mid-term and final examinations will be the almost same. You will be offered an array of essay questions and will have to answer one of them. Then you will be offered an array of identifications (10 for the mid-term; 7 for the final), and have to describe seven of them in paragraphs of three or four sentences each for the mid-term, and all of them (7) for the final. I will put a short study guide on this web page before each exam so that you can focus your studying.

In these essay questions I’m hoping that you will offer information in the context of analysis and stories. That means that I’m less interested in your capacity to memorize dates than I am in your understanding of context.

What does this mean? Suppose that I ask you to describe the impact of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act on U.S. unions. What I want to see is if you can explain this legislation’s significance in a larger context. I’m not concerned if you get the date of the act wrong by a year.

Quizzes
Two in-lecture hall quizzes will be held during the quarter at the beginning of class. You will have 15 minutes to complete each quiz. They will each consist of 10 multiple choice questions, based upon your textbook, Standing at Armageddon. If you have read the book, the quizzes will be very easy.

Sections
You will be required to submit a two to three page double spaced paper answering five out of the classes section questions. These papers will be graded pass/fail by your Teaching Assistant. You may choose which section response questions to take on. We encourage you to come to the first section with a paper so you can get a sense of your TA’s expectations.

The mid-term will be worth 20 percent of your grade, the final 25 percent, and the paper 25 percent. Your quizzes will be worth 5 percent of the class grade each. Your section work (participation and papers) will be worth the remaining 20 percent. Students who miss more than two sections without explaining why will not pass the class.

Special circumstances
If you have any symptoms of flu, please do not come to class or section. If you cannot come to class, please contact me via email. If you cannot come to section, please contact your TA.

Books
Nell Irvin Painter, Standing at Armageddon: The United States, 1877-1919
W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk
Lawrence Levine, Highbrow / Lowbrow: The Origins of Cultural Hierarchy in America
Lawrence Goodwyn, The Populist Moment: A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America
Rebecca Edwards, Angels in the Machinery: Gender in American Party Politics from the Civil War to the Progressive Era
Michael McGerr, A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America

Schedule

Week 1: September 24
Introduction to the class

Week 2 (September 29 and October 1): Stretched to the limits
Painter, Introduction and Chapter 1, “The Tocsin Sounds”

W.E.B Du Bois, “The Forethought” and Chapters 1 and 2 of Souls of Black Folk
Goodwyn, Part I
Question: When W.E.B. DuBois wrote his brief history of Reconstruction in The Souls of Black Folk, he challenged certain assumptions and stereotypes about the period that were common in the early 20th-century United States. What do you think they were?

Week 3 (October 6 and 8): 1877 and its Consequences
Painter, Chapter 2, “The Great Upheaval”
Levine, Chapters 1 and 2

SECTIONS BEGIN. Section question: Describe Lawrence Goodwyn’s framework for why people under certain circumstances collectively stand up for their rights. Can you think of other historical periods besides the populist revolt that might fit into this model?

Reconstruction slides

Week 4 (October 13 and 15): Remedies and Cures
Painter, Chapter 3, “Remedies”
Goodwyn, Part II
Section question: To what extent do you think that Lawrence Levine’s “Highbrow/Lowbrow” dichotomy still applies today?

“Upheaval” slides

Week 5 (October 20 and 22): The Crisis of the 1890s
Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, Chapters 1 though 5
Painter, Chapter 4, “The Depression of the 1890s”
Goodwyn, Part III
Section question: The process by which America became an industrial society was, by most accounts, a socially costly process. What were the costs? Who paid them? How did the nation’s industrial leaders justify them? Were they right?

October 22, Fifteen minute quiz at start of class. Will cover Painter chapters one through three.

“Remedies” slides; Sacralization slides

Week 6 (October 27 and 29): The conquest of the western United States
Painter, Chapter 5, “The White Man’s Burden”
Section question: Why couldn’t the populists last past the election of 1896? What does this say about the fate of Third Parties in the United States in general?

Week 7 (November 3 and 5): The conquest of Cuba and the Philippines
Continue with Painter, Chapter 5, “The White Man’s Burden” and Chapter 6 “Prosperity”

White man’s burden slides

Mid term examination November 5; study guide here

Week 8 (November 10 and 12):Progressivism
Levine, Chapter 3 and Epilogue
McGerr, Fierce Discontent, Chapters 1 through 5
Section qustion: Do the “New Imperialism’s” economic assumptions remain with U.S. foreign policy today?

Progressivism slides

Week 9 (November 17 and 19): Progressivism and Racism
W.E.B. Du Bois, rest of The Souls of Black Folk
McGerr, Fierce Discontent, rest of book
Painter, Chapter 7, “Race and Disenfranchisement”
Section question: What, to your mind, was the essence of “progressivism?”

Racism slides

Quiz on Thursday, November 19. Painter, chapters 5, 6, and 7.

Week 10 (November 24 and 26): Class on Tuesday. Happy holidays on Thursday

Week 11 (December 1 and 3): Feminisms, the Great War, and Charlie Chaplin
Painter, Chapters 8 through 10
Edwards, Angels in the Machinery, rest of book
Section question: In what ways do W.E.B. DuBois’s ideas about leadership and identity speak for all of us to some degree? Do we all have dual identities? Does America need a talented tenth?

Victoria era and suffrage slides

Term paper must be handed in on the last day of class, December 3, within the first twenty minutes of class. Everything else is late, and late papers will be docked a full grade for each missed day.

Final exam: Tuesday, December 8, 12:00–3:00 P.M. Alternate exam dates only given in event of family/health emergency; no exceptions, especially no exceptions for poorly planned holidays and vacations.