HIS 122 - Course Requirements

1. Attend class. Attendance and class participation will account for 25% of your final grade. You are expected to arrive for class on time or to slip into class as unobtrusively as possible if late arrival is occasionally unavoidable. Habitual latecomers and ringing-cell phone owners will be embarrassed. Because of the large class size, you should be recognized before making comments or asking questions. Students are required to print, and bring with them to class, course outlines from the instructor's website. No food or beverages are allowed in the classroom unless all debris and recyclables are removed to appropriate receptacles. The "W" grade is not an option after October 29th, and if you remain on the roll after that time, non-completion of the course will earn you an "F" (except in case of an emergency certified as such prior to the last class session). The "I" grade will be given only to a student who has made every effort to complete assignments and requests special consideration on or before December 11th. An "I" grade must be changed before the end of the next semester.

2. Read the text. Class activities are planned with the assumption that students are familiar with the following readings from Volume II of Eric Foner’s Give Me Liberty!

Week #1 - Uncivil War, chapter 14 (review this chapter in Vol. I if available to you).

Week #2 - Reconstructing Reconstruction, pp. 475-509.

Week #3 - Guilt in the Gilded Age, pp. 510-520, 528-545.

Week #4 - A New South and the Old West, pp. 520-528, and Ishi - In Two Worlds  by Theodora Kroeber.

Week #5 - Down on the Farm, pp. 546-572.

Week #6 - First test, on pp. 475-572 and Ishi; then Out in the World, pp. 572-581.

Week #7 - Progressivism, on Main Street, pp. 582-619.

Week #8 - Progressivism, in Woodrow Wilson's World, pp. 620-659; also read  Main Street by Sinclair Lewis (unless you plan to read All the King's Men).

Week #9 - "Normalcy" in the "Roaring Twenties", pp. 660-688.

Week #10 - Second test, on pp. 572-688 and Main Street.

Week #11 - FDR and a New Deal, pp. 688-735; also read All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (unless you completed Main Street).

Week #12 - The World at War, pp. 736-775.

Week #13 - Containment and Contentment, pp. 776-844.

Week #14 - Civil Wrongs and Rights, pp. 845-926.

Week #15 – Globalization, pp. 927-981

Week #16 - Third test, on pp. 688-981 and All the King's Men.

3. Take at least two of the three tests, which will include a choice of essay questions as well as a number of objective questions.  Each of the tests will account for 25% of a student's final grade. Students opting to turn in a paper (see guidelines below) may drop their lowest test score or miss a test. No make-up tests will be given, so anyone missing a test must turn in a paper by the fifteenth week.

4. In addition to the text, read at least two books. By the fourth week you must finish reading Ishi - In Two Worlds by Theodora Kroeber. Be prepared to discuss the book during the fourth week of the course and to answer questions about the book on the first test. By the eighth week, read Main Street, by Sinclair Lewis, OR by the eleventh week, read All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren. You should be prepared to participate in at least one of the two discussions during the designated week and to answer questions about at least one of the books, on the second test in the case of Main Street, on the third test in the case of All the King's Men. You will earn extra credit for reading and answering test questions about both books.

5. Write a(n optional) paper. Although a major theme of this course will be the increasing complexity of American society, America's history remains an intensely personal one, because it is the sum of the experiences of all its people. To test the validity of this idea, you are urged to write an American history, i.e. - a short story about a late nineteenth or twentieth century American, living or dead, real or fictional. Note well: your subject should not be someone famous, whose story is well-known, but rather someone to whom you have special access.

Be sure to describe your character: distinguish him or her from the rest of humanity by appearance, accent, mannerisms, and/or interests, as well as experience, so that your reader can identify with or create a mental image of your character. If possible, relate your subject's experience to some of the broader, contemporaneous issues of American history, but remember, even in lives sheltered from events covered by history texts or the Washington  Post, there is drama. Your subject's day-to-day existence may seem insignificant from some perspectives, but to him or her, it mattered. Furthermore, that experience reflects and to some extent effects American history. Your challenge is to find a unifying theme in this character's experience, some quest or "American Dream" that has inspired or directed your character, whether or not it has been realized, then to determine the extent to which your subject's experience was or is representative of those of his or her contemporaries.

Because you or your subject may be sensitive about sharing your findings, you are certainly free to change names or exact dates, though you should note that you are doing so. You may even create a composite or entirely fictional character and experience, while carefully authenticating all historical information as well as the setting in which you place such a character.

Your paper should be 3-5 double-spaced, typed or processed pages in length. Grammar, spelling, and neatness certainly do count. I will appreciate efforts to be creative in organizing and presenting your paper, although creativity is no substitute for precision and analysis. Formal footnotes are not required, but you must give credit, including author's name and page number for written materials, and name, date, and place of interview for first-hand sources. Deliberately presenting someone else's work as your own is plagiarism and will earn you an "F" for the course. Do not place your work in a folder or binder. Papers are due at the penultimate class meeting, but those turned in early will be read, edited, and returned with a preliminary grade which may be raised if reedited and resubmitted by the due date. You are also encouraged to take advantage of the services of the Writing Center, located in LR250. Late papers will suffer a grade penalty. The paper grade will take the place of a missed test or a lower test grade.

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