United States History since 1865

Douglas Egerton

LE MOYNE COLLEGE Department of History
United States History since 1865
Prof. Douglas Egerton
HST 212-01-02 (Spring 2001)
Office: RH 403, 445-4471
Office hours: MWF 11:30 to 12:20 and by appointment

Required readings:

Murrin/Johnson, Liberty, Equality, Power, 2nd ed.

Robert Utley, The Lance and the Shield: The Life and Times of Sitting Bull

Stuart Miller, Benevolent Assimilation: The American Conquest the Phippines, 1899-1903

Ellen C. DuBois, Harriot Stanton Blatch and the Winning of Woman Suffrage

Stephen B. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound: This Life of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Students will read all four monographs, which will be discussed in class on the dates indicated below. Students are also expected to keep up in the Murrin text for the purposes of day-to-day class participation. Because of this, students with or more unexcused absences will receive an automatic F grade for the course. Discussion is ten percent of the course grade. There will also be two brief book quizzes on discussion days: each are worth five percent of the course grade.

Course requirements:

A ten page interpretive essay on any topic, person, or event pertinent to the course (1865-1980). A bibliography and endnotes drawn from at least ten sources must be included. The format presented in John Langdon's A Handbook for Historians, which is available in the bookstore, must be used. The due date is Wednesday, April 11; papers will be penalized one full grade for every day they are late. The paper is worth twenty percent of your grade and will be returned on the day of the final with comments and a grade. Students are strongly encouraged to consult with me both on a topic and on progress.

There will be one midterm and a noncumulative final. Final grades will be computed as follows:

Schedule of lectures and assignments

Jan
17 Introduction to course

19 Reconstruction (Murrin, 583-595)

22 Impeachment and Trial (Murrin, 595-598)

24 The Grant Presidency, 1869-1877 (Murrin, 598-610)

26 Westward Movement (Murrin, 615-629)

29 Native Americans (Murrin, 620-627)

31 Discussion: Utley, Lance and Shield

Feb
2 Southern Agriculture (Murrin, 627-631, 649-656) 5 Rise of Jim Crow (Murrin, 629-630, 712-713)

7 Urbanization and immigration (Murrin, 638-649, 659-667, 670-680)

9 The Gospel of Success (Murrin, 667-670)

12 Rise of Labor (Murrin, 680-689)

14 Gilded Age Politics, 1877-1884 (Murrin, 631-634)

16 Cleveland and Harrison, 1884-1893

19 Crash and McKinley

21 Spanish-American War (Murrin, 733-746)

23 Pacific Imperialism (Murrin, 746-760)

26 Discussion: Miller, Benevolent Assimilation

28 Midterm!

Mar
2 Progressive Spirit (Murrin, 695-712)

12 Roosevelt and Taft, 1901-1912 (Murrin, 714-722)

14 Wilson (Murrin, 722-729)

16 America in the Great War (Murrin, 763-781)

19 War at Home and the Red Scare (Murrin, 782-796)

21 Discussion: DuBois, Harriot Stanton Blatch

23 (No class)

26 1920s: he Politics of Complacency (Murrin, 799-809)

28 1920s: Culture and Dissent (Murrin, 812-832)

30 Hoover and the Crash (Murrin, 809-812, 837-842)

Apr
2 The New Deal, 1933-1936 (Murrin, 842-857)

4 Climax of the New Deal (Murrin, 857-874)

6 World War II (Murrin, 879-898)

9 War at Home (Murrin, 898-915)

11 Truman and the Cold War (Murrin, 919-949); Paper-CL-Due.

18 Eisenhower and Civil Rights (Murrin, 949-982)

20 (No class)

23 The New Frontier (Murrin, 982-986)

25 Civil Rights in the 1960s (Murrin, 986-991)

27 Discussion: Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound

30 A Great Society at War (Murrin, 995-1012)

May
2 Presidency in Crisis: Nixon (Murrin, 10.12-1026)

4 The 1970s (Murrin, 1031-1078)

7 Concluding Thoughts and Class Evaluation