History 4950: Industrializing America, 1800-1920 

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Instructor:      Dr. Lynne Curry                                               email:            cflc2@eiu.edu                           

Office:             2532 Coleman Hall                                          my office       581-7988

Office hours:  TR 11:00 - 12:30; and by appointment              department:  581-3310

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Description: This course surveys the social, political, economic, and cultural development of the United States from approximately 1800 to 1930.  The reading load is substantial.  Class lectures and discussions are heavily based on our course readings, so it is essential that students complete reading assignments and keep pace with the course agenda. 

 

Required texts:    

                                    L. Fink, ed. Major Problems in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era

                                    D. Leviatin, ed., How the Other Half Lives

                                    J. Barrett, Work and Community in the Jungle

                                    M. Pernick, The Black Stork

                                    A. Yezierska, Breadgivers

 

 

Course requirements:

 

1.  I expect your attendance, thorough preparation, and active participation at each class meeting

 

2.  One mid-term and one final examination.  The mid-term date is Tuesday October 19th.  The final is Tuesday, December 14th, 12:30 pm to 2:30 pm.  Note: I will not change the final date unless you have three finals scheduled for the same day.  Graduate students do not take the final exam.

 

3.  Undergrads: Primary source analysis paper,  approximately 8-10 pages  in length.  Grads: Research paper, approximately 18-20 pages in length. 

 

4.  Check our course website on WebCT daily.  Important information, announcements, weekly assignments, emails from me,  and additional readings will be posted there.  You are responsible for keeping up to date with all information posted on our course website.

 

Grading:

 

Undergrads:                                                                  Grads:

Mid-term exam                30%                                      Mid-term exam      30%

Final exam                     30%                                      Research paper       70%

Primary source analysis 40%                                                                                                                                        

 

Accommodations:  If you have a documented physical or learning disability, please contact me as soon as possible regarding any required arrangements

                                                                                   

Things that annoy me, so don’t do them: Consistently coming in late.  Getting up in the middle of class to use the restroom.  Cell phones ringing.  Loud gum chewing.  Private conversations in class.  Treating fellow students rudely.  Packing up your books before I say class is over.  Dull, boring, glassy-eyed, unprepared students who just sit there like rocks.


           

 

           

 

Course agenda

Note:  Bring assigned texts to class

 

08/24      Introductions, requirements, expectations.

08/26      Legacies of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

08/31      The South after Reconstruction. Read: Fink chapter 4.

09/02      Continued.

09/07      The North after the Civil War.  Read: Fink, Cashman essay in chapter 1; all of chapter 2.

09/09      Continued.

09/14      Native Americans and the West.  Read: Fink chapter 3.

09/16      The Myth of the West.

09/21      The Rise of the Industrial City.  Read: Fink chapter 5, essays only.

09/23      Continued.

09/28      Gilded Age Politics: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.  Read: Fink chapter 6

09/30      Populism.  Read: Fink chapter 7 documents only; begin reading Barrett, Work and Community        

10/05      Jim Crow Politics.  Read: Fink chapter 10 essays; continue reading Barrett, Work and Community

10/07      The Rise of Big Labor. Finish reading Barrett, Work and Community in the Jungle

10/12      The “New Immigration”. Begin reading Leviatin, ed., How the Other Half Lives

10/14      Jacob Riis and the Other Half.  Finish reading Leviatin, How the Other Half Lives

 

10/19      Mid-term exam.  Bring exam books.

 

10/21      Progressivism.

10/26      Continued.  Read: Fink chapter 8.

10/28      Frederick Jackson Turner’s Frontier Thesis.  Read: Turner essay posted on our course website.

11/02      Preservation versus Conservation.  Read: Fink chapter 14

11/04      Women and Progressivism.  Read: Fink chapter 8, Muncy essay only

11/09      Consumer culture and commercialized leisure.  Read: Fink chapter 11 essays only; begin Pernick

11/11      From Darwinism to Eugenics.  Read: Finish Pernick, The Black Stork

11/16      State-building.  Read: Fink chapter 13; Fink chapter 1 Cooper essay.

11/18      Empire-building.  Read: Fink chapter 9, essays only

 

11/23-25 Thanksgiving break  

 

11/30      The U.S. in World War I.  Read: Fink chapter 15

12/02      Continued.  Begin reading Yezierska, Bread Givers

12/07      Promises filled, promises broken.  Finish reading Yezierska, Bread Givers

12/09     America and modernity.

  Papers due in class.  Late papers, including those placed in my mailbox or under my  office door,     will be docked one grade level.

 

12/14     Final exam, 10:30 am to 12:30 pm.  Bring exam books.