History 326: Recent United States History

Goshen College

Fall 2006; MWF, 9:00 am

Wyse Hall, Room 123

Prof. Steve Nolt

office: Wyse Hall 312

telephone: (office) 535-7460; (home) 534-6438

e-mail: stevemn@goshen.edu

course web site: http://blackboard.goshen.edu

Course overview:

This course of study introduces the major events that shaped the most recent generations of Americans (i.e., baby boomers and their successors). From the grand expectations of the civil rights movement, faith in science, and the possibilities of affluence and social reform, society confronted Vietnam, Watergate, and environmental destruction—producing cynicism, culture wars, and continued efforts to balance liberty and equality.

The course includes a variety of historical approaches and sources in its assignments and class activities, although many of the readings emphasize political history. In addition to analyzing print documents we will view visual sources and video footage from contemporary film and television. The course will give some special attention to American religious history, one of the professor’s areas of academic interest.

Four themes will be particularly important in our study:

(1) The interconnected nature of domestic and foreign affairs in U.S. life.

(2) The relationship between ideas and actions in American society and politics, and the ways in which culture both opens and limits the array of plausible (rather than possible) choices humans feel free to make.

(3) The search for authority—intellectually and practically—in sources such as science, individual conscience, collective ideals, or local tradition, and the ways those authorities frequently clashed in the struggle to achieve the “good life.”

(4) The assumptions behind the nation-state and nationalism in the Cold War context and the disorientation engendered by shifts of those concepts in the post-Cold War environment.

Course goals:

(1) To gain knowledge of the events, people, and issues around this topic, especially related to the themes, above.

(2) To identify various perspectives on a given event or topic and consider what historical sources tell us about the past and how we can use them to understand history.

(3) To think historically, evaluate sources, consider contexts, and construct arguments and raise and answer counter-arguments.

(4) To improve written and oral communication skills.

Grading and other requirements:

Evaluation will be based on 425 possible points:

Short quizzes on reading 25 points

Short reading responses 25 points

NSC-68 paper 50 points

Contemporary book presentation 50 points

My Lai paper 50 points

(or Vietnam monograph comparison or Ford Museum paper alternatives)

Oral History paper 75 points

Midterm and final examinations 75 points (each)

Final letter grades are figured at 90%=A; 80%=B; 70%=C; 60%=D.

Attendance: Attendance is expected. Notice of excused absences for athletic or school-related functions should be presented in advance. Quizzes given on days of unexcused absences cannot be made up. Extensions on written assignments are granted only in unusual circumstances, but do consult with me if you think you will be facing such a situation. The grade for any late written work, other than for medical reasons or otherwise cleared with the instructor in advance, will be reduced ten percent per day for each day late. Assignments due on days when a student has a school-related activity must be handed in by the due date.

Academic integrity: Plagiarism (the undocumented use of words or ideas from the work of others) is not acceptable. Plagiarized assignments receive no credit and are not eligible for make-up. All cases of plagiarism are reported to the Office of the Associate Academic Dean for processing.

Academic support: Goshen College wants to help all students be as academically successful as possible. If you have a disability and require accommodations, please contact the instructor or the Director of the Academic Support Center, Lois Martin, early in the semester so that your learning needs may be appropriately met. In order to receive accommodations, documentation concerning your disability must be on file with the Academic Support Center, KU 004, x-7576, lmartin@goshen.edu. All information will be held in strictest confidence. The Academic Support Center offers tutoring and writing assistance for all students. For further information please see www.goshen.edu/studentlife/asc.php.

Assignments:

(1) A four-page paper related to the NSC-68 reader is due Wednesday, 13 September. Details are on Blackboard under “Assignments.”

(2) In assigned groups students will prepare and give an in-class presentation on a contemporary book. Presentation dates will depend on the book. Details are on Blackboard under “Assignments.”

(3) A four-page paper on primary sources from the My Lai reader is due Wednesday, 25 October. As an alternative to this assignment, you may complete an equivalent length Vietnam monographs comparison essay or a paper on the Ford Museum. Details for all three are on Blackboard under “Assignments.”

(4) An eight-page oral history paper involving your interview with two generations on a particular topic is due Monday, 27 November. Details are on Blackboard under “Assignments.” A topic and plan for this paper are due Friday, 22 September.

(5) As a means of building accountability for the reading assignments, there will be five unannounced short quizzes on the reading, each consisting of five questions about that day’s reading. On five different days a one-page reading response, centered on a question given by the instructor in advance, will be due.

(6) A midterm examination and a final examination are scheduled for Friday, 13 October and Friday, 8 December. Both written exams will include short-answer identification questions and two essay questions.

Textbooks:

Loren Baritz, Backfire: A History of How American Culture Led Us into Vietnam and Made Us Fight the Way We Did (Johns Hopkins, 1985, 1998).

Richard W. Etulain, ed. César Chávez: A Brief Biography with Documents (Bedford, 2002).

Daniel Horowitz, Jimmy Carter and the Energy Crisis of the 1970s: The “Crisis of Confidence” Speech of July 15, 1979 (Bedford, 2005).

Charles Marsh, God’s Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights (Princeton, 1997).

Ernest R. May, ed., American Cold War Strategy: Interpreting NSC 68 (Bedford, 1993).

James T. Patterson, Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush v. Gore (Oxford, 2005).

[optional] James S. Olson and Randy Roberts, eds., My Lai: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford, 1998).

Readings marked with (*) are on reserve: Good Library circulation desk and/or E-reserve.

Date Preparation for Class Class

Post-war society: politics, labor, family, & ideology, 1945-1950s

W Aug 30	Read *Patterson, Grand Expectations, Prologue and 10-15	Course introduction, themes, goals, assumptions, assignments.
F Sept. 1	Read *Patterson, Grand Expectations, chaps. 3 & 6.	Topic: A political orientation.

Cold War at home and abroad, 1945-1960s

M Sept. 4	Read *Patterson, Grand Expectations, chap. 7; skim chap. 8.	Topic: The Cold War, Eastern Europe, and East Asia.
W Sept. 6	Skim May, vii-viii, 1-19; begin reading 23-82.	Film clips from the McCarthy hearings, and discussion.
F Sept. 8	Finish reading May, 23-82.	Discussion: May, 1-82.
M Sept 11	Read May, 94-107, 152-64, 178-201.	Contemporary book presentations.

Civil rights movement

W Sept 13	Finish NSC 68 paper.	Topic: Background and overview of the movement. NSC 68 paper due.
F Sept 15	Read *David J. Garrow, “Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Spirit of Leadership,” Journal of American History 74 (September 1987), 438-47.	Topic: Marshall, Jackson, King, Malcolm, Baker, and Powell—comparisons and contrasts.
M Sept 18	Read Marsh, Intro & chap. 1.	Topic: Marshall, Jackson, King, Malcolm, Baker, & Powell, cont.
W Sept 20	Celebrate Service Day
F Sept 22	Read Marsh, chaps 2-4.	Topic: Cold War civil rights. Oral history topic and plan due.

Religion in modern America

M Sept 25	Read Marsh, chap. 5, Conclusion, and Afterword.	Discussion: Marsh.
W Sept 27	Read *Martin Marty, “A Civic Religion of the American Way of Life,” in Modern American Religion, v.3, 294-312.	Topic: Mainline Protestantism and American civil religion.
F Sept 29	Read *Steven P. Miller, “Billy Graham, Civil Rights, and the Changing Postwar South,” 157-86, in Politics and Religion in the White South, ed., G. Feldman (UKYP, 2005)	Topic: Resurgent religion—Catholics and conservative Protestants.

The Vietnam War and American society, 1960s-1975

M Oct. 2	Read Baritz, both prefaces and chap. 1.	Film: “America’s Mandarin.”
W Oct. 4	Read Baritz, chaps. 2-3.	Discussion: Baritz, chaps. 1-3.
F Oct. 6	Read Baritz, chaps. 4-5.	Contemporary book presentations.
M Oct. 9	Read Baritz, chap. 6.	Film: “Two Days in October.”
W Oct. 11	Read Baritz, chaps. 7-8.	Discussion: Baritz, chaps. 6-8.
F Oct. 13	Study for Midterm exam.	Midterm Examination

Midterm Recess

Rights, expectations, and American liberalism, 1960-1972

F Oct. 20	Read *Patterson, Grand Expectations, chap. 15.	Topic: LBJ and the Great Society; Contemporary book presentation.
M Oct. 23	Read *Patterson, Grand Expectations, chaps. 21-22.	Topic: The travail of American liberalism.
W Oct. 25	Finish My Lai/Vietnam/Ford paper.	Topic: SDS in Austin, TX. Guest: Leonard Gross-SDS/WMU Vietnam/My Lai/Ford paper due.
F Oct. 27	Read Etulain, ed., César Chávez, 1-76, 82-118.	Discussion: Chávez, labor, immigrants, Chicano America.

The search for political authenticity and moral authority, 1974-1989

M Oct. 30	Read *Davidson and Lytle, “Breaking into Watergate,” in After the Fact, 5^th ed., chap. 15.	Topic: Nixon and Watergate.
W Nov. 1	Read Patterson, Restless Giant, Prologue and chaps. 1-2.	TV footage: Politics and popular culture-presidential campaign ads.
F Nov. 3	Read Patterson, Restless Giant, chaps. 3 and 4.	Topic: Political realignment and the rise of Southern Republicans.
M Nov. 6	Read *Mike Vargo, “Innocence Lost,” in Our Roots Grow Deeper Than We Know, ed. Lee Gutkind, 117-53.	Film: “Containment: Life after TMI.”
W Nov. 8	Horowitz, Jimmy Carter, vii-x, xvii-xix, 1-28, 33-59, 65-102.	Discussion: Horowitz; ideas framing energy policy & politics.
F Nov 10	Horowitz, Jimmy Carter, 103-84.	Discussion: Carter’s speech, reactions, and Reagan’s politics.
M Nov 13	Patterson, Restless Giant, chap. 5.	Discussion: Interpreting the Reagan revolution.

Challenges of a post-Cold War world, 1989-2006

W Nov 15	Read Patterson, Restless Giant, chap. 6.	Topic: Closing years of the Cold War.
F Nov 17	Read *Walter Sawatsky, “Truth Telling in Eastern Europe,” Journal of Church and State, 1991, 701-29.	Film and discussion: “A Force More Powerful. Poland: We’ve Caught God by the Arm.”
M Nov 20	Read Patterson, Restless Giant, chap. 7.	Topic: The “new world order”—nationalism and ethnicity (again?)
W Nov 22	Read Patterson, Restless Giant, chaps. 8-9.	Guest TBA on religion & nationalism in the Middle East
F Nov 24	Thanksgiving recess
M Nov 27	Finish oral history paper.	Discussion: sharing your oral history papers in small groups. Oral history paper due.
W Nov 29	Read Patterson, Restless Giant, chaps. 10-11	Topic: Immigration, refugees, and immigration policy in recent years
F Dec. 1	Read Patterson, Restless Giant, chap. 12; *Rodgers, “Stories, Games, and Deliberative Democracy,” Journal of American History 88 (Sept. 2001), 444-52.	Discussion: Rodgers; and Patterson, chaps. 16-17.
M Dec. 4	Read *choice of essay on terrorism and 2002 Afghan war, from the Sept. 2002 issue of Journal of American History; *Gordon and Trainor, Cobra II, 3-23, 475-507; *primary sources from The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib.	Discussion: your essay choices, Cobra II, and primary sources.

Tuesday, December 5: Reading Day

Final Examination: Friday, December 8, 10:30 am.