HI310—United States History: Syllabus Part III

Department of History, Philosophy, Religion, and Social Sciences

Choate Rosemary Hall

Wallingford, Connecticut

History 310

UNITED STATES HISTORY

Hypertext Course Syllabus, Part III

Spring 2008 term

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Goals of the Course
Daily Preparation
Classroom Work
Written Work
Texts and Course Materials
Program and Workload
Schedule of Meetings and Assignments

Contact Information
Memorial House #114, 697-2340
Johnson Athletic Center #105, 697-2418
preferred e-mail:

[Three Flags]
Jasper Johns, "Three Flags" (1938)

"Each age will re-write the history of the past anew . . ."
- Frederick Jackson Turner

Reading Materials

This text for the course—available at the school bookstore—should be purchased by all students immediately:

Gary B. Nash et al., The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006. Brief 5th edition. [hereinafter referred to as "Nash"]

Program and Workload

This course will be orthodox in its presentation: in general, you'll read something before each class meeting, and in class we'll discuss what you've read—what I call "Socratic discussion." You'll be expected to write short yet demanding papers, take period tests and a departmental final examination, and participate regularly in class.

Every effort has been made to keep the length of daily assignments manageable. Many worthwhile assignments were abbreviated or scrapped from the syllabus altogether. It's important, therefore, that you commit yourself now to keeping up with what is included among the assignments below; you'll be expected to complete the assigned homework before each class.

What follows is what we'll try to cover during the term. It may be adjusted from time to time for any number of reasons. The homework for the next class is always the next assignment unless you are told differently. You'll find each entry on the schedule below contains some instructive questions and ideas you should consider in preparing for class; get into the habit reading the syllabus carefully each night as you begin your homework.

Schedule of Meetings and Assignments

1. Course Organization.

No assignment. We'll spend the time in this class getting to know one another.

U.S. HISTORY, PART III: "America's Rise To Globalism "

In this final part of the course, our goals are: (1) to complete our survey knowledge of the history of the Republic from the end of the 1800s through the beginning of the 21st century; and (2) to explore a thematic understanding of this period in American history as a rise to globalism. We'll focus on foreign policy for the most part, but will spend considerable time examining the Civil Rights Movement and other important social, political, and economic developments on the domestic front.

82. The War of 1898.

Read B&K, pp. 628–648. Trace the "seamless web" of American expansionism down to 1898 from the Proclamation Line of 1763. Mark down the important moments in your notes. What were the motives that drove the U.S. to war in 1898? Had diplomacy failed to achieve the nation's goals? How successful were American arms? Why or why not were they successful? Who was Mahan, and what role did he play?

83. Empire.

Read Norman A. Graebner, "American Imperialism" u. All read the article and the bold-faced headings for all the documents. Preparing to tell the others about what you read, odd numbers read the odd-numbered documents, and evens read the evens. You can count on a quiz. Should the U.S. have annexed the Philippines? What happened in 1941 that is relevant? Which argument—the imperialists' or the anti-imperialists'—looked better in 1898? In 1941? Today?

84. World Power?

Read B&K, pp. 650–665. Would you have supported TR's foreign policy? Suppose someone had called his bluff? What was his most important accomplishment in foreign policy? Do you see the paradox between his policy in Panama and his peace efforts at Portsmouth? If anything, what does this reading have to do with industrialization?

85. Progressivism and World Power.

Read B&K, pp. 698–709. Recall the Monroe Doctrine; what happened to its main elements between 1823 and 1917? Remember the reasons for America's entry in the War of 1812 and compare events then to those of the 1915–1917 period. Know Wilson's "rules of war," and the British and German responses to his demands. Was Wilson realistic? Was he neutral? Was he right? Learn cold the events involving the Zimmerman note, the ships Lusitania and Sussex, and the campaign positions taken by both parties in 1916.

86. World War I and Aftermath.

Read B&K, pp. 710–732. How did Wilson's "moral diplomacy" trip him up? Of what reneges was he guilty? What political mistakes did he make? What should he have done otherwise? Can you see that both the way the U.S. organized for the war and the way that Wilson hoped to ensure future peace were progressive? What disadvantages did Wilson have as compared to the other Allied leaders at Versailles? Was the Treaty, as given to the Senate, the best possible thing under the circumstances? Who killed it?

87. Period Test #6.

Covering all material studied since the last period test, and reaching back before then more generally.

95. "The Big One" I.

Read B&K pp. 814–836. Do you think the Nazis and the Japanese were real threats to the U.S.? Be ready to prove your answer; we may debate it in class. Why did FDR have to tread such a narrow diplomatic line during the 1930s? If the Axis powers were such threats, why did he not treat them so? If they weren't such threats, why did he bother with them? How important to ustoday has been the legacy of Munich? How important to us today has been the legacy of Pearl Harbor? Couldwe have avoided war? Should we have? What, in retrospect, were the biggest mistakes made by Tojo and Hitler in December 1941?

96. "The Big One" II.

Read B&K, pp. 837–865. What social and economic changes did the war bring to America? Can you feel how close most Americans thought the enemy was in 1942? Did America follow the correct strategy overall? In Europe? In the Pacific? Why, if the goal was "unconditional surrender," did we spend all that time in Africa and Italy? Distinguish on the map on p. 851 the operations in the Pacific that were led by MacArthur from those led by Nimitz. Should we have used the atomic bomb?

97. Period Test #7.

Covering all material studied since the last period test, and reaching back before then more generally.

98. The Cold War I.

Read Barnet, "The United States and the Cold War" u including the accompanying documents. As in the section on industrialization, we begin here with analysis instead of data. Don't be boggled by the references you're unfamiliar with; we'll fill in the details later. But do try to get the sense of Barnet's article. It is an example of Cold War revisionism. That is, the author belongs to a school of historians who think the American leaders did not give fair consideration to Soviet interests between 1945 and 1949 such that those Americans are to be blamed for the Cold War. Compare closely documents 34.2 and 34.3. Does Wallace's argument make sense to you? Does the fact that he shocked most Americans when he made it tell you anything about them?

99. The Cold War II.

Read B&K, pp. 867–892. Note how the Cold War flowed from the hot war of 1941–1945. Work hard in the next few days to try to understand how the Soviets may have seen things. Did they want peace in the wake of WWII? If so, why did the Cold War happen? Whatever your answer, have evidence. What part of the Truman policies during this period was based on pure self-interest? What part on humanitarianism? Know about the Berlin Airlift, the Marshall Plan, COMECON, Czechoslovakia in 1948, NATO, containment, and how all these things caused the next. What caused the Korean War? Who was right on American policies there: Truman or MacArthur? Remember Nicholas Trist? (If not, refer back to the Polk Administration.)

100. Postwar Prosperity.

Read B&K, pp. 894–898 and 902–915 (omitting the sections on civil rights developments). What do you make of Joseph McCarthy? Who was better at dealing with him: Truman or Eisenhower? How did postwar America deal with the problems of the Great Depression once the war was over? Why was it such a surprise that Truman won in 1948? Be able to show with precision the reasons he pulled it off despite the predictions. What does it mean to say that Ike was a "Whig"? Ike was the first Republican president since Hoover; did he treat the problems of industrialization and depression differently from Hoover, or the same? Would you have supported his policies on civil rights? Did Dulles' policy differ from Truman's "containment" in theory? In practice? Did it work? Why did the U.S. get involved in Vietnam in the 1950s? Be prepared to argue in favor of Nasser. Was the U.S. wrong in its perception of the Third World? If so, why? Was the U.S. itself ever "Third World"? If so, how did it act then?

101. Civil Rights I.

Read Packard, Fires of God, pp. 243–256 u. Remember the definitions given back on p. 223. Identify the roles played by Randolph, FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt, the U.S. Army, Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King, JFK, RFK, LBJ, and television. Know these terms: Executive Order #8802, CORE, NAACP, Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the perhaps more important Voting Rights Act of 1965. Answer in your notebook the questions on p. 256 and be ready to answer them in class, as well.

102. Civil Rights II.

Read B&K, pp. 898–902, 923–926, and 929–932. Get the chief events of this great turn in American morality. Which of the black leaders was most effective: King, Carmichael, or Newton? Which white leader had the best policies: Eisenhower, Warren, JFK, LBJ, Faubus, Connor, or Wallace? What role did the "little people" play: Brown, Parks, Meredith, Watts? Were other minorities different from the African-Americans in their approaches to these matters?

103. Camelot.

Read B&K, pp. 917–926. How much of JFK was mere style and how much real substance? Note carefully his inaugural address: was Kennedy true to his promises? Did America benefit from the promise of JFK, or was he just another in the dreary line of unthinking Cold Warriors who made little change in American foreign policy? What effect did the Cold War mentality have on his Southeast Asia policy? How important was the Bay of Pigs fiasco? Was the Cuban Missile Crisis a victory?

104. LBJ.

Read B&K, pp. 926–943. Will Johnson be remembered as a man of compassion or as a man of aggression? What accounts for the landslide of 1964? What accounts for his disaster in 1968? Did LBJ fulfill his campaign promises? Was LBJ truthful in his Vietnam policy? Was he magnificent in his domestic policies?

105. The Military-Industrial Complex.

Read Jones, "The Military-Industrial Complex" including the accompanying documents. Debate in class following mass debate rules, odds as negatives, evens as affirmatives on the following resolution: America has become a welfare-warfare state, and the result has been a loss of liberty for us all.

106. An American Tragedy?

All read Stoessinger, "Vietnam: A Greek Tragedy in Five Acts" u. Skim the first three sections, but read the rest pretty carefully. Did the U.S. act in its own best interests? Were the Monroe Doctrine, Manifest Destiny, the Open Door, "moral diplomacy," or any other historic diplomatic policies involved in our policy decisions? Or was there some "Cold War mentality" or other attitude that shaped our national decisions?

107. Period Test #8.

Covering all material studied since the last period test, and reaching back before then more generally.

108. The Dark Ages.

Read B&K, pp. 946–962. What accounts for Nixon's victory in 1968? What sort of mandate did he think he had? What credit should he get for his vaunted foreign policy? What were his domestic policies all about? What philosophy of office did Nixon follow as President? Explain the public outrage at Watergate. Why didn't Nixon's political party stand by him?

109. A Malaise?

Read B&K, pp. 963–979. How was Jimmy Carter different from his predecessors? What problems did he inherit from them? What problems did he cause himself? Assess Carter's strengths and weaknesses in both domestic and foreign policy making. What were his greatest achievements as president?

110. Republicans Ascendant.

Read B&K, pp. 979–994. In what ways were Reagan's election in 1980 a dramatic shift in American politics? What did Reagan do well? What did he do poorly? What accounts for "the Gipper's" enormous popularity in the early 1980s? Why was he called the "Teflon president"? Can you identify the greatest achievements and failures of each of his four-year terms? How did the Bush Administration continue the Reagan legacies? How did it most differ?

111. Clinton.

112. The 21st Century.

111. Spring Term Final Examination.

The final examination will be given according to the schedule published by the Registrar in the late spring. There will be an optional question and answer session the night before the exam, following the same rules established for the fall term exam review session. Come late, leave early, don't show at all: your choice. If you got this far, look back and see what an adventure it's been. Tell your younger schoolmates now how you feel about the course.