Hist 461D1: Ronald Reagan and The Modern Presidency – Fall 2012 Syllabus

Professor Gil Troy

September, 2012

Office: Leacock 628

Monday 4:25-6:25

e-mail: gil.troy@mcgill.ca

 

HIST 461D1: TOPICS IN TWENTIETH CENTURY HISTORY:

RONALD REAGAN AND THE MODERN PRESIDENCY

 

More than 30th years after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration, we can begin to place his administration in historical perspective. Already it is possible to discern some of the central questions historians will be debating about the Reagan administration: how successful was it? by what standards should it be judged? just how revolutionary what is it, if at all? what impact, if any, did Reagan’s policies have on winning the cold war? what is Ronald Reagan’s legacy?

 

In assessing Ronald Reagan’s presidency, one also inevitably assesses the 1980s. Then, as now, the conventional wisdom viewed the decade as a paroxysm of selfishness, greed, and materialism. Yet, while Americans were learning how to be material girls and boys, their society was convulsed by a serious debate about individual conscience and social responsibility — a debate that seems to have been missing from the equally prosperous 1990s.

Amid all the squabbles, one thing is clear: to understand Reagan and his era, to take a stand in this debate, it is also essential to tackle broader questions about progressivism, conservatism, the welfare state, the cold war, the presidency, popular culture, and the media in modern U.S. history. This seminar will address some of these questions, while exploring various methods used to assess one of the most enigmatic, controversial, popular, and important postwar presidents.

 

Assignments, and Grading

In addition to coming prepared to all sessions and participating fully, you will be required to write four short papers this semester. These papers must be submitted at the beginning of class on the day they are due. Late papers will be penalized. The second semester will be devoted to preparing a 25-page paper based on original primary source research. You must choose a topic by November 22. The final grade will be based on written work and class participation, which entails active contribution to the discussions as well as consistent attendance. Failure to submit any of the papers will warrant a “J” grade.

 

Plagiarism

All work submitted for this course must be original. Please refer to university and departmental guidelines, or consult me if you are unsure how to proceed. 2

 

Office Hours

My office hours will be Mondays at 3:30 and by appointment.

 

MyCourses

This course will rely on MyCoursesfor announcements, additional readings, and “chats” following up on issues raised in class. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR INFORMATION POSTED ON MyCourses.

 

University Policies

In the event of extraordinary circumstances beyond the University’s control, the content and/or evaluation scheme in this course is subject to change.

In accord with McGill University’s Charter of Students’ Rights, students in this course have the right to submit in English or in French any written work that is to be graded.

 

Academic Integrity statement [approved by Senate on 29 January 2003]: McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures (see http://www.mcgill.ca/integrity for more information).

 

SCHEDULE FOR HIST 461D1

All Readings are on Reserve; all books are at McGill Bookstore

 

Week 1: Sept. 10: Ronald Reagan Grades Himself:

Ronald Reagan, “Farewell Address to the American People,”

January 11, 1989 [distributed in class],

Week 2: Sept. 17: OVERVIEWS: VIDEO: REAGAN AS PRESIDENT

Michael Schaller, Right Turn: American Life in the Reagan-

Bush Era, ALL.

ASSIGNMENT: BOOK REVIEW of Schaller (500 WORDS ONLY) DUE via email.

Week 3: Special Friday Class: Sept. 21, 3:30-5:30 PM:

Reagan and the 1980s: OVERVIEWS:

Gil Troy, Morning in America: How Ronald Reagan Invented the

1980s

Week 4: Oct. 1: Reagan and the 1980s:

Gil Troy and Vince Cannato, Living in the Eighties

VIDEO: Life in the 1980s: Hill Street Blues v. Dynasty

start reading Diggins 3

 

Week 5: Oct. 8: NO CLASS: CANADIAN THANKSGIVING

ASSIGNMENT: FIVE-PAGE ANALYTICAL ESSAY #1 DUE Oct 10

Week 6: Oct. 15: Reagan and America: OVERVIEWS: John Patrick

Diggins, Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom, and the Making of History

Week 7: Oct. 22 OVERVIEWS: REALITY CHECK:

Reagan’s Voice – and Pen: Kiron K. Skinner, Annelise

Anderson, and Martin Anderson, eds., Reagan in His Own Hand

including intro.

Week 8: Oct. 29: Just Who Won that Cold War?

John Matlock: Reagan and Gorbachev: Who Won the Cold War? ASSIGNMENT: FIVE-PAGE ANALYTICAL ESSAY #2 DUE

Week 9: Nov. 5: CONTEXT: Bruce Schulman, The Seventies

Week 10: Nov. 12: CONTEXT: Allan Bloom and the Culture Wars:

Allan Bloom The Closing of the American Mind

Week 11: Nov. 19: CONTEXT: Culture Crisis: River’s Edge

Week 12: Nov. 26: CONTEXT: The Big Picture: James T. Patterson, Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush v. Gore

PAPER TOPIC DUE – YOU MUST SUBMIT A ONE-PARAGRAPH DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM, THE OPERATIVE THESIS, AND YOUR RESEARCH STRATEGY

Week 13: Dec. 3: CONTEXT: Stephen Skowronek, The Politics Presidents Make

ASSIGNMENT: FIVE-PAGE ANALYTICAL ESSAY #3 DUE

Hist 301: The History of American Presidential Campaigning – 2012 Syllabus

Professor Gil Troy

Fall 2012

MW(F) 2:35-3:25

Office: Leacock 628

email: gil.troy@mcgill.ca

 

HIST 301: THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNING

 

Each presidential election season triggers yet another round of complaints about the campaign and the candidates. The campaigns do not test presidential qualifications adequately; none of the candidates are good enough. The campaigns are too long; the candidates, too superficial. The campaigns are undignified; the candidates, demagogic. The campaigns are expensive; the candidates too financially needy. Candidates are too involved; the people, too apathetic. Solutions to the “problem” of the presidential campaign around: clustering primaries, limiting PACs, compressing the campaign season, restricting donations, restraining the media.

 

Many of these laments assume that modern Americans have somehow strayed from an earlier, idyllic path. Once upon a time, when parties were strong and television was not even a twinkle in Marconi’s eye, elections were more substantive, candidates were more impressive, the nation was more virtuous. Democracy seems to have worked then. Now, alas, it barely functions. American politics was once grand, the conventional wisdom goes; now, it is tawdry. In fact, since the first contested election in 1796, when partisans of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams clashed, many have considered presidential campaigns excessively partisan, unduly disruptive, and undignified. Without an appreciation of these traditional concerns, the “problems” of the modern campaign cannot be fathomed.

 

This course considers the continuing problem of the presidential campaign. How has the presidential campaign changed over the last two centuries? How has it remained the same? What do these continuities and discontinuities show about American history, in general, and American democracy, in particular?

 

The course will be divided into three sections. First, we will consider the campaign’s origins. Next, we will examine the golden age of partisan politics, from the 1850s through the 1940s. During this time, the candidates became more active and the people became more involved. But the dissatisfaction with the campaign festered. The concluding section, “The Making and Selling of the President,” compares the modern campaign with its predecessors.

This course will combine lectures and discussions. Students MUST come to class prepared to discuss the assigned readings, particularly the primary sources. Note that the most important documents are italicized in the syllabus.

 

NOTE: The ads since 1952 shown in class can be seen at http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/

FOR ELECTORAL MAPS SEE:

http://www.100bestwebsites.org/alt/evmaps/electoral-maps.htm

 

FOR OVERVIEWS OF EACH CAMPAIGN SEE: http://www.multied.com/elections/

 

 

 

Conferences, Assignments, and Grading

 

There will be weekly reading assignments. Conferences meet regularly throughout the semester. Participation in the conferences and the lectures will account for 10 percent of your grade. A final exam determines 30 percent of the grade. For the remaining 60%, three 5-6 page analytical papers on the assigned readings will be due at the start of conference the week of October 1; the week of October 22; the week of November 19th or November 26th. Early papers are welcome. Late papers are not. You will be penalized. No papers will be accepted after Friday, November 30.

NOTE: Failure to submit three papers for three separate conferences ON TIME or to complete the final will result in a “J.”

 

Office Hours

My office hours will be Mondays, at 3:30 and by appointment.

 

University Policies

In the event of extraordinary circumstances beyond the University’s control, the content and/or evaluation scheme in this course is subject to change.

In accord with McGill University’s Charter of Students’ Rights, students in this course have the right to submit in English or in French any written work that is to be graded.

 

Academic Integrity statement [approved by Senate on 29 January 2003]: McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures (see http://www.mcgill.ca/integrity for more information).

 

L’université McGill attache une haute importance à l’honnêteté académique. Il incombe par conséquent à tous les étudiants de comprendre ce que l’on entend par tricherie, plagiat et autres infractions académiques, ainsi que les conséquences que peuvent avoir de telles actions, selon le Code de conduite de l’étudiant et des procédures disciplinaires (pour de plus amples renseignements, veuillez consulter le site http://www.mcgill.ca/integrity.

 

Required Reading

 

(in order of use, all books available at the McGill Bookstore)

Gil Troy, See How They Ran: The Changing Role of the Presidential Candidates (coursepack)

Charles S. Sydnor, American Revolutionaries in the Making: Political Practices in Washington’s Virginia

Richard P. McCormick, The Presidential Game: The Origins of Presidential Politics

David Donald, Lincoln

Paul W. Glad, McKinley, Bryan,& the People

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

Joe McGinniss, The Selling of the President 1968

Brinkley, Polsby, and Sullivan, New Federalist Papers

myCourses Readings

 

Schedule of Topics and Readings

(* means this document will be discussed in class, so READ IT BEFOREHAND AND BRING IT TO CLASS!!!!)

 

Week 1:

Mon., Sept. 10: #1: Introduction Barack Obama and the “Historic” 2008 Campaign

Gil Troy, “2008,” in History of Presidential Elections

Troy, See How They Ran, “Prologue,” pp. 1-6 in Readings.

Gil Troy, “The Campaign Triumphant,” Wilson Quarterly, Summer, 2012 in Readings.

Wed., Sept. 12: #2: “Candidus”: The Traditional Campaign

*Cato’s Letters in Readings Especially #61-62

*Declaration of Independence

(http://www.law.indiana.edu/uslawdocs/declaration.html)

Troy, See How They Ran, Chapter One, pp. 7-19.

Charles S. Sydnor, American Revolutionaries in the Making:

Political Practices in Washington’s Virginia, pp. 1-118

(NOTE: The book is in the library under its original name

Gentlemen Freeholders)

Fri., Sept. 14: #3: “A Bundle of Compromises”: The Constitutional Campaign

*The Constitution (especially Article II and Amendments 12,13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 22, 24, 25, 26) in Readings

The Federalist Nos. 49, 68 70, 71, 72 in Readings *(#68)

 

Week 2:

Mon., Sept. 17: #4: VIDEO: The 2008 Campaign

Wed., Sept. 19: #5: George Washington and Republican Virtue

SPOTLIGHT: 1788 “George Washington: Republican” in Readings.

*(esp. 110 Rules of Civility)

Fri., Sept. 21: #6: The Emergence of Parties

Charts, “Party Politics in America”

W.N. Chambers, “Party Development and the American

Mainstream,” in Chambers, William Nisbet and Burnham,

Walter Dean, eds. The American Party System: Stages of

Development, pp. 3-32 on reserve

Richard P. McCormick, The Presidential Game, pp. 1-117 4

 

Week 3:

Mon., Sept. 24: #7: Andrew Jackson and the Partisan Campaign

SPOTLIGHT: 1828

*”The Debate on Extended Suffrage” [Kent v. Buel, 1821] in Readings.

Richard P. McCormick, The Presidential Game: The Origins of Presidential Politics, pp. 117-207.

Wed., Sept. 26: #8: Confusion Reigns: 1840 and 1844 SPOTLIGHT: 1840

Troy, See How They Ran, pp. 20-107

*Sources, 1840, 1844 in Readings (esp. Kane, Raleigh and Alabama Letters)

Donald, Lincoln, pps. 1-161,

CONFERENCE #1: THE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN (Troy, Sydnor)

 

Week 4:

Mon., Oct. 1: Images of the Mass Campaign

Wed., Oct. 3: #9: Abraham Lincoln: America’s Greatest Politician in the Golden Age of Campaigning? SPOTLIGHT: 1860

*Sources, 1860, 1868 in Readings

Richard Jensen, “Armies, Ad-men and Crusaders: Types of

Presidential Election Campaigns,” The History Teacher, 2

(1969): 33-50 in Readings

CONFERENCE #2: THE PARTY CAMPAIGN (Troy and McCormick)

FIRST 5 PAGE ANALYTICAL PAPER DUE AT THE START OF YOUR CONFERENCE

 

Week 5:

Wed., Oct. 10: #10: SPOTLIGHT 1876: Education and Partisanship: solving the stalemate of 1876

*Plunkitt of Tammany Hall in Readings

Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center on 1876

http://www.rbhayes.org/hayes/president/display.asp?id=511&subj=president

HarpWeek – -1876 controversy

http://elections.harpweek.com/controversy.htm

CONFERENCE #3: THE GOLDEN AGE OF PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNING

Donald, Lincoln, pps. 162-270, 493-547 5

 

Week 6:

Mon., Oct. 15: #11 SPOTLIGHT 1896: The Battle of the Standards

Paul Glad, McKinley, Bryan, & the People, pp. 1-36, 48-50,

95-141, 163-209.

*Primary Sources, 1888-1892, 1896 in Readings

Wed., Oct. 17: Toward the Televised 20th Century: The Checkers Speech and the Kennedy-Nixon debate

 

Week 7:

Mon., Oct. 22: #12: The Power of the Press and The Brave New World of Twentieth Century Politics

Primary Sources, 1904-1928 in Readings

Primary Sources, Theodore Roosevelt Campaigns in Readings

Troy, See How They Ran, pp. 108-132

Wed., Oct. 24: #13 FDR and the Rise of Mass Culture

*Radio, 1924-1948 in Readings

Troy, See How They Ran, pp. 133-207

*Franklin Roosevelt Campaigns in Readings

CONFERENCE #4: 19th Century Campaign transformations

SECOND 5 PAGE ANALYTICAL PAPER DUE AT THE START OF YOUR CONFERENCE

 

Week 8:

Mon., Oct. 29: #14: Richard Nixon and The Television Revolution

Wed., Oct. 31: #15: The Television Revolution

McCormick, Presidential Game, pp. 207-238

CONFERENCE #5: THE VANISHING VOTER, 1900-2000

Thomas Patterson, “The Vanishing Voter” (2002) in Readings

http://www.uvm.edu/~dguber/POLS125/articles/patterson.htm

Robert Zaller, “Perversities in the Ideal of the Informed

Citzenry [1999] http://www.mtsu.edu/~seig/pdf/pdf_zaller.pdf

Voter Turnout Charts in Readings

Robert Putnam, “Bowling Alone,” Journal of Democracy 6:1, Jan. 1995,pps.65-78 http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/assoc/bowling.html

 

 

Week 9:

Mon., Nov. 5: #16: The Selling of the President, 1960s

Wed., Nov. 7: #17: The Modern Campaign: Primarily Overreported?

CONFERENCE #6: PERSONALITY AND PUBLICITY IN THE MODERN CAMPAIGN

Warren Susman, “‘Personality’ and the Making of

Twentieth-Century Culture,” Chapter 14 in Warren Susman,

Culture as History, pp. 271-285 on reserve.

Robert Westbrook, “Politics as Consumption,” Chapter V in Fox and Lears, The Culture of Consumption, pp. 145-173 on reserve.

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, pp. vii-82

 

Week 10:

Mon., Nov. 12: #18: Tricky Dick, Betty Ford and the Primal Scene of Presidential Politics

Troy, See How They Ran, Chapter 10, pp. 227-239.

Wed., Nov. 14: #19: The Republican Juggernaut

Primary Sources, 1976 in Readings

*The Character Question in Readings

CONFERENCE #7: DID TELEVISION RUIN THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN?

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, pp. 83-163.

Lance Morrow, “Of Myth and Memory: Dreaming of 1960 in the New World,” Time, 24 Oct. 1988, pp. 21-27 in Readings

Timothy Crouse, The Boys on the Bus, pp. 3-11 on reserve

 

Week 11:

Mon., Nov. 19: VIDEO: The Art of Political Advertising

Wed., Nov. 21 #20: The Presidency in an age of the Popular Campaign: Campaigns and Chronology

CONFERENCE #8: MAKING AND SELLING THE PRESIDENT, 1968, 1972

Joe McGinniss The Selling of the President 1968 – ALL

Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, pp. 5-12 on reserve [First option for submitting 3rd paper] 7

 

Week 12:

Mon., Nov. 26: #21: Republicanism and Liberal Democracy in the late 1980s and 1990s…

Brinkley, Polsby, Sullivan, et al., New Federalist Papers, ALL Acceptance Speeches, 1980 in Readings

Gil Troy, “Money and Politics: the Oldest Connection,” Wilson Quarterly (Fall, 1997),

http://www.arts.mcgill.ca/history/faculty/troyweb/MoneyandPolitics.htm

Are Voters Fools? See Arthur B. Maas, Foreword to VO Key, Jr., The Responsible Electorate, vii-xv on reserve

Samuel Popkin, The Reasoning Voter, pp.7-13, on reserve. Troy, See How They Ran, pp. 239-282

Wed., Nov. 28: #22: George Bush wins in 2000 and 2004: what went right and Right?

Gil Troy, “2004,” in History of Presidential Elections

CNN “How we got here: A timeline of the Florida recount,” Dec. 13, 2000

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/12/13/got.here/index.html

Gil Troy, “The Price of Playing it Cool,” from Poppolitics.com

http://www.arts.mcgill.ca/history/faculty/troyweb/ThePriceofPlayingitCool.htm

Dershowitz v. Posner from Slate.com Dialogues, July 2 AND 3rd Democracy in Action’s P2004: the 2004 Campaign – Sample at least 5 of the links at http://www.gwu.edu/~action/P2004.html

 

CONFERENCE #9: THE MODERN CAMPAIGN IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

THIRD 5 PAGE ANALYTICAL PAPER DUE AT THE START OF YOUR CONFERENCE –No Papers Accepted After the End of this Week

 

Week 13: Mon Dec 3: #23: Conclusions: The Presidential Campaign in a Changing – and Unchanging World

 

LECTURE SCHEDULE

 

Week 1:

Mon., Sept.10: #1: Introduction and Overview of the “Historic” 2008 Presidential Campaign

Wed., Sept. 12: #2: Candidus- The Traditional Campaign

Fri., Sept. 14: #3: A Bundle of Compromises- The Constitutional Campaign

Week 2:

Mon. Sept. 17: #4: VIDEO- The 2008 Campaign

Wed. Sept. 19: #5: George Washington and Republican Virtue

Fri., Sept. 21: #6: The Emergence of Parties 8

 

Week 3:

Mon. Sept. 24: #7: Andrew Jackson and the Partisan Campaign

Wed., Sept. 26: #8: Confusion Reigns: 1840 and 1844

Week 4:

Mon., Oct. 1: Images of the Mass Campaign

Wed, Oct. 3: #9: Abraham Lincoln: America’s Greatest Politician in the Golden

Age of Campaigning?

Week 5:

Wed. Oct. 10: #10: Spotlight: 1876- Education and Partisanship: Solving the Stalemate of 1876

Week 6:

Mon., Oct. 15: #11: Spotlight 1896- The Battle of the Standards

Wed., Oct. 17: Checkers Speech and Nixon-Kennedy Debate

Week 7:

Mon. Oct. 22: #12: The Power of the Press and the Brave New World of Twentieth Century Politics

Wed., Oct. 24: #13: FDR and the Rise of Mass Culture

Week 8:

Mon., Oct. 29: #14: Richard Nixon and the Television Revolution

Wed., Oct. 31: #15: The Television Revolution

Week 9:

Mon., Nov. 5: #16: The Selling of the President, 1960s

Wed., Nov. 7: #17: The Modern Campaign: Primarily Overreported?

Week 10:

Mon., Nov. 12: #18: Tricky Dick, Betty Ford and the Primal Scene of Presidential Politics

Wed., Nov. 14: #19: The Republican Juggernaut

Week 11:

Mon., Nov. 19: The art of political advertising

Wed., Nov. 21: #20: The Presidency in the Age of the Popular Campaign

Week 12:

Mon., Nov. 26: #21: Republicanism and Liberal Democracy in the late 1980s and 1990s…

Wed., Nov. 28: #22: George Bush wins in 2000 and 2004: what went wrong — and what went right and Right?

Week 13:

Mon., Dec. 3: #23: Conclusions: The Presidential Campaign in a Changing — and Unchanging World

Hist 221: The United States Since 1865 – 2012 Syllabus

Professor Gil Troy

Fall 2012

MW(F) 1:35-2:25

Office: Leacock 628

Email: gil.troy@mcgill.ca

 

HISTORY 101-221: THE UNITED STATES SINCE 1865

 

The Civil War united the American nation once and for all, but just what kind of nation it would be remained unclear. How to balance individual rights and communal needs? the desire for liberty and the demands for equality? the call of progress and the appeal of the past? History 221 will explore these and other dilemmas, as we survey a period that witnessed extraordinary economic growth punctuated by dramatic cultural and political crises.

 

Required Books Available for Purchase at the McGill Bookstore

Richard Hofstadter, The American Political Tradition and the

Men Who Made it

Sara M. Evans, Born for Liberty: A History of Women in America

John Kasson, Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of

the Century

George F. Kennan, American Diplomacy, 1900-1950

William Leuchtenberg, The Perils of Prosperity, 1914-1932

Martin Luther King, Why We Can’t Wait

David Brooks, Bobos in Paradise

Gil Troy, The Reagan Revolution: A Very Short Introduction

Gil Troy, Why Moderates Make the Best Presidents, 2nd ed.

 

Conferences, Assignments, and Grading

There will be weekly sections to discuss the readings and the lectures. Participation in the conference will constitute 10 percent of the grade — the instructor of each conference will determine just how participation will be assessed. A take-home midterm due on Monday, October 15 will constitute 20 percent; a ten-page research paper due on Wednesday, November 14 will constitute 35 percent; and a final examination will constitute the remaining 35 percent of the grade. Late papers will be penalized. Failure to submit the paper or write either of the exams will warrant a “J” grade.

 

Office Hours

The instructors will announce their office hours soon. My office hours are Monday 3:35 and by appointment.

 

Internet Use in Research

We will discuss this further in class, but students are not prohibited from using Internet sources – however, students are warned to assess the credibility and authority of sources on the Internet judiciously, intelligently – as elsewhere. And copying from the Internet – or from books – without attribution and without your own contribution – is never acceptable. 2

 

University Policies

In the event of extraordinary circumstances beyond the University’s control, the content and/or evaluation scheme in this course is subject to change.

In accord with McGill University’s Charter of Students’ Rights, students in this course have the right to submit in English or in French any written work that is to be graded.

 

Academic Integrity statement [approved by Senate on 29 January 2003]: McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures (see http://www.mcgill.ca/integrity for more information).

 

Schedule of Topics and Readings

 

Week 1:

Wed. Sept. 5: Distribution of Syllabus, Conference Sign up.

WEEK 1 READING on myCourses: Reconstruction

Troy, Moderates Make the Best Presidents, Preface and pp. 1-74.

 

Week 2:

Mon., Sept. 10: Introduction: The Stillness of Appomattox, the Revolution of Reconstruction?

Wed., Sept. 12: 1876: Consensus and Conflict

Fri., Sept. 14: The Changing Face of America: The Boat

WEEK 2 READING on myCourses: A Gilded Age?

Evans, Born for Liberty, pp. 1-6, 119-143

“The Spoilsmen: An Age of Cynicism,” Chapter VII in Hofstadter, American Political Tradition, pp. 211-239

 

Week 3:

Mon. Sept., 17: Populism

Wed. Sept., 19: The Managerial Revolution

Fri. Sept., 21: The Rise of the Leisure Class

CONFERENCE II: POPULISM

William Jennings Bryan: The Democrat as Revivalist,” in Chapter VIII in Hofstadter, American Political Tradition

WEEK 3 READING on myCourses: Populism

myCourses SHOWDOWN: THE POPULISTS: Pollack, The Populist Response to Industrial America, pp. 1-24, (also on reserve) versus Hofstadter.

 

Week 4:

Mon., Sept. 24: Frontiers West and East

Wed., Sept 26: The Middle Class Revolt

CONFERENCE III PROGRESSIVISM Kasson, Amusing the Million (all)

“Theodore Roosevelt: The Conservative as Progressive,” Chapter IX in Hofstadter, American Political Tradition, pp. 265-305.

WEEK 4 READING on myCourses: Progressivism

Evans, Born for Liberty, pp. 145-173

Troy, Moderates Make the Best Presidents on TR, pp. 75-91. 3

 

 

Week 5:

Mon., Oct. 1 – Exercise – Looking Backward, Looking Forward… seeing Obama through the eyes of history

Wed., Oct. 3: Presidents as Supermen

CONFERENCE IV: WOODROW WILSON: PROGRESSIVE WARRIOR

“Woodrow Wilson: The Conservative as Liberal,” Chapter X in Hofstadter, American Political Tradition, pp. 307-365.

Kennan, American Diplomacy, Chapters I and IV, pp. 3-20, 55-74.

WEEK 5 READING on myCourses: Woodrow Wilson

 

Week 6:

Mon., Oct. 8: THANKSGIVING

Wed., Oct. 10: From Splendid Wars to World Wars

TAKE HOME MIDTERM. NO CONFERENCES THIS WEEK/Midterm due Oct. 15

 

Week 7:

Mon., Oct. 15: The New World — Flappers, Cynics, Exiles and those Left Behind — Blacks, Farmers, and Workers

Wed., Oct. 17: VIDEO: “The Grapes of Wrath”

CONFERENCE IV: THE TWENTIES:

Leuchtenberg, Perils of Prosperity, pp. 1-10, 84-240

Evans, Born for Liberty, pp. 175-197

WEEK 7 READING on myCourses: The Twenties

 

Week 8:

Mon., Oct. 22: The Great Crash and the Revolution that Wasn’t

Wed., Oct. 24: Dr. New Deal

CONFERENCE VI: THE GREAT DEPRESSION

Evans, Born for Liberty, pp. 197-219

WEEK 8 READING on myCourses: The Great Depression

myCourses: Misery in America

Troy, Moderates Make the Best Presidents, on FDR, pp. 93-121.

 

Week 9:

Mon., Oct. 29: Dr. Win the War

Wed., Oct. 31: Truman, Eisenhower and the American Century

CONFERENCE VII: FDR IN PEACE AND WAR

Leuchtenberg, Perils of Prosperity, pp. 241-273

Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt, Chapters, XI and XII in Hofstadter, American Political Tradition, pp. 367-456.

WEEK 9 READING on myCourses: FDR in Peace and War

myCourses SHOWDOWN: FDR: B. Bernstein, “The Conservative Achievements of Liberal Reform,” vs. A Defender of FDR

HINT: START READING: Brooks, Bobos in Paradise, pp. 9-53, 103-139 4

 

Week 10:

Mon., Nov. 5: The Cold War

Wed., Nov. 7: The Supreme Court and the Conservative Revolution

CONFERENCE VIII: THE COLD WAR

Kennan, American Diplomacy, Chapter V, VI and Part II, pp. 74-154;

Evans, Born for Liberty, pp. 219-263.

WEEK 10 READING on myCourses: The Cold War

Troy, Moderates Make the Best Presidents, on Ike and Truman, pp. 123-145.

 

Week 11:

Mon., Nov. 12: From Civil Rights to Black Power

Wed., Nov. 14: Cracks in the Consensus

CONFERENCE IX: CIVIL RIGHTS

King, Why We Can’t Wait (all)

Steve Greenberg, “Otis Redding and the Integrationist Dream,” liner

notes, pp. 24-32 from “Otis! The Definitive Otis Redding,”

Four CD Set (New York: Rhino Records, 1993). (on myCourses)

WEEK 11 READING on myCourses: Civil Rights

PAPER DUE WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 14

 

Week 12:

Mon., Nov. 19: The Sixties in Stereo and Video

Wed., Nov. 21: From Women’s Liberation to Feminism

CONFERENCE X: THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE NEW LEFT: THEN AND NOW

READING: Evans, Born for Liberty, pp. 263-314

WEEK 12 READING on myCourses: The Men and Women of the New Left

Brooks, Bobos in Paradise, pp. 54-102, pp. 140-273

Troy, Moderates Make the Best Presidents, pp. 147-200

 

Week 13:

Mon., Nov. 26: Paradise Lost: Richard Nixon, Vietnam, and Jimmy Carter’s Malaise

Wed., Nov. 28: Conservative Era/Error? From Reagan’s Morning in America to Clinton’s Triangulation

CONFERENCE XI: WAS THERE A REAGAN REVOLUTION?

myCourses showdown: REAGAN: THUMBS UP OR DOWN?

Gil Troy, The Reagan Revolution: A Very Short Introduction, all. WEEK 13 READING on myCourses: Was There a Reagan Revolution?

 

Week 14:

Mon., Dec. 3: FINALE: From Bush to Obama, from Civil War to Uncivil Wars, from Reconstruction to Globalization

Troy, Moderates Make the Best Presidents, pp. 200-300. 5

 

 

To: History 221B

From: Gil Troy

Re: Sections and Readings

 

The sections are designed to help you make sense out of the mass of reading and lecture information you receive each week. The challenge for any historian is to learn how to assimilate large amounts of data and then make coherent patterns from them — what we call interpretations or arguments. To keep up with this course, it is essential that you not fall behind in the readings and that you take the time to make sense of them, to look at the big picture that emerges amid all the facts and anecdotes.

 

Just as the instructors and I take a few minutes before each section to collect our thoughts, so should you. To that end, the “admission ticket” for sections will be a short one-page essay based on the week’s reading. These assignments can either summarize the particular reading, or they can answer any of the major questions that emerge from the reading or the lectures that week. Alternatively, you can link one or two of the primary source readings in the myCourses readings to the broader themes addressed by the authors or in the lectures. Feel free to search out contradictions and alternative voices — you need not accept my interpretation of events.

These need not be works of art. Rather, think of them as works in progress, a series of memoranda to yourself that will help you digest all the material as the course moves along and could be useful when you study for the midterm and final.

 

What follows is a list of questions you could (but need not) answer for each week:

 

Week 1: RECONSTRUCTION: What did Reconstruction accomplish? What limited its accomplishments? What, if anything, was the secret to its success? the reason for its failure? How do you account for the different interpretations advanced over the years?

Week 2: A GILDED AGE? — Was the industrial revolution a blessing or a curse for the U.S.? Was there “distress” among the “laboring classes” at the time? (Are the myCourses documents representative or distorted?) Were the “Robber Barons” knaves or heroes? Does the Gilded Age mark a continuation of, or a dramatic break from, earlier American history?

Week 3: POPULISM: — Who were the populists? What did they accomplish? Was the Populist platform moderate or radical? Why was the Cross of Gold Speech so popular? Is Pollack or Hofstadter correct? Which interpretation do the primary sources support? 6

 

Week 4: PROGRESSIVISM: LEISURELY REVOLT? Is the Coney Island experience unique or is it representative of other, broader trends? How can a “bungalow” be “progressive.” Just how revolutionary was this twentieth-century culture that Kasson describes? Was Theodore Roosevelt a reaction to this new twentieth century culture? Was Progressivism? How?

Week 5: WOODROW WILSON: PROGRESSIVE WARRIOR: Who was the better Progressive Wilson or Roosevelt? Who was the better President? What was Progressivism? What did it accomplish? What is the relationship (if any) between Progressivism and Imperialism? Did Progressivism propel the U.S. into the Spanish-American War? Into the Great War? Was it wise for the U.S. to enter World War I? What was the effect of U.S. involvement in the war?

Week 6: NO CONFERENCES

Week 7: THE TWENTIES: Were the twenties as “roaring” as everyone claims? Do the twenties really mark the start of the modern twentieth-century American experience? Was the 1928 campaign a harbinger of future political change or an exceptional moment in history?

Week 8: THE GREAT DEPRESSION: What can you find that is particularly American in the response to the Great Depression depicted in “The Grapes of Wrath” or in the other readings? How did the Great Depression transform the U.S.? Why Wasn’t there a revolution? Is there any connection between Eleanor Roosevelt’s emergence as a force in her own right and the Depression?

Week 9: FDR IN PEACE AND WAR: What caused the Great Crash? What did the New Deal accomplish? Are you more struck by the continuities or the discontinuities between the Hoover and Roosevelt administrations? What was the secret to FDR’s success?

Week 10: THE COLD WAR: Did World War II traumatize or liberate the U.S.? Was the Cold War avoidable? What impact did the Cold War have on American culture? Why?

Week 11: CIVIL RIGHTS: Why did the Civil Rights movement emerge when it did? Was it successful? Would there have been a Civil Rights movement without Dr. King? What effect, if any, did Otis Redding and other black entertainers have on race relations in the U.S.?

 

Week 12: THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE NEW LEFT: THEN AND NOW: Why did the women’s movement emerge when it did? Was it successful? Compare and contrast the movements for civil rights and for women’s liberation. What was the impact of the Vietnam experience on civil rights? What was the great mistake (if any) of 1960s liberals? of the black community? What is the most devastating and accurate critique Brooks offers about modern American culture? What is the most devastating and accurate critique he offers about your own life? How does Brooks link the 60s and the 90s?

Week 13: WAS THERE A REAGAN REVOLUTION?: Did Reagan succeed or fail? Where his policies revolutionary or more marked by continuity? What is his greatest accomplishment? His greatest failure? How long did the Reagan Revolution last? What is the relationship between politics and culture in general? What is the link between politics and culture when looking at the Bill Clinton Administration?

 

 

 

Schedule of Topics and Conferences

Week 2:

Mon., Sept. 10: Introduction: The Stillness of Appomattox, the Revolution of Reconstruction?

Wed., Sept. 12: 1976: Consensus and Conflict

Fri., Sept. 14: The Changing Face of America- The Boat

CONFERENCE I: A GILDED AGE?

Week 3:

Mon., Sept. 17: Populism

Wed., Sept. 19: The Managerial Revolution

Fri., Sept. 21: The Rise of the Leisure Class

CONFERENCE II: POPULISM

Week 4:

Mon., Sept. 24: Frontiers East and West

Wed., Sept. 26: The Middle Class Revolt

CONFERENCE III: Progressivism

Week 5:

Mon., Oct. 1 – Exercise – Looking Backward, Looking Forward… seeing Obama through the eyes of history

Wed., Oct. 3: Presidents as Supermen

CONFERENCE IV: Woodrow Wilson: Progressive Warrior

Week 6:

Mon., Oct. 8: THANKSGIVING

Wed., Oct. 10: From Splendid Wars to World Wars

NO CONFERENCE THIS WEEK- TAKE HOME MID-TERM

Week 7:

Mon., Oct. 15: The New World

Wed., Oct. 17: VIDEO- The Grapes of Wrath

CONFERENCE VI: THE TWENTIES 8

 

Week 8:

Mon., Oct. 22: The Great Crash and the Revolution that Wasn’t

Wed., Oct. 24: Dr. New Deal

CONFERENCE VII: THE GREAT DEPRESSION

Week 9:

Mon., Oct. 29: Dr. Win the War

Wed., Oct. 31: Truman, Eisenhower and the American Century

CONFERENCE VIII: FDR IN PEACE AND WAR

Week 10:

Mon., Nov. 5: The Cold War

Wed., Oct. 7: From Civil Rights to Black Power

CONFERENCE IX: THE COLD WAR

Week 11:

Mon., Nov. 12: The Supreme Court and the Conservative Revolt

Wed., Nov. 14: Cracks in the Consensus

CONFERENCE X: CIVIL RIGHTS- PAPER DUE

Week 12:

Mon., Nov. 19: 60s Movie

Wed., Nov. 21: From Women’s Liberation to Feminism

CONFERENCE XI: THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE NEW LEFT: THEN AND NOW

Week 13:

Mon., Nov. 26: Paradise Lost: Richard Nixon, Vietnam and Jimmy Carter’s Malaise

Wed., Nov. 28: The Conservative Era/Error? From Reagan’s Morning in America to Clinton’s Triangulation

CONFERENCE XII: WAS THERE A REAGAN REVOLUTION?

Week 14:

Mon., Dec. 3: FINALE: From Bush to Obama, from Civil War to Uncivil Wars, from Reconstruction to Globalization