History 1102-03 Office Hours: T-Th 12:00-1:00pm

Summer 2017 Office #: SF #451, 885-2485

Roger Baldwin roger.baldwin@csueastbay.edu

The United States 1877-Today

An Introductory Survey

I. Required Readings I have assigned two books for the course:

1. Steven Johnson, How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the
Modern World, on the impact of technology on our daily lives. You have to write an
essay on this for the midterm exam.

2. Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty! An American History (Vol. 2), a condensed,

shortened textbook. You have to write an essay on this for the final exam. I use the Seagull
5th Edition, but you may use earlier, cheaper editions. Theyre mostly the same.

Where to Find Cheaper Books

1. Websites: bigwords.com; dealoz.com; addall.com; bookfinder.com; valorebooks.com;
amazon.com.
2. Also, there are a few copies on 4-hour/overnight reserve at the Library, 2nd floor.
These fly off the shelf at exam time, so if you want one, write your essay early.

II. Assignments-Grades You will take an in-class, multiple-choice midterm exam and a final
exam; and you will write two take-home essays on the assigned books.

1. Midterm Exam (Thursday, July 20) contains two parts:

A. Multiple-Choice (30 questions, 60 points), in class, no notes. All questions are
from the lectures, use Lecture Outlines and Study Questions (all on Blackboard)
as your study guides.
B. Book Essay: on How We Got to Now (40 points), take-home, youll have five
weeks to complete it, due on exam day.

These two assignments are worth 40% of your course grade

2. Final Exam (Tuesday, August 29, 2:00-3:00p.m.), you will have 2 choices:
A. A two-part test:
a. Multiple-Choice (30 question = 60 points), in class, no notes. All questions
are from the lectures, use Lecture Outlines and Study Questions (all on
Blackboard) as your study guides.
b. Book Essay: on Give Me Liberty! Vol.2 (40 points), take-home, youll have six
weeks to complete it, due on exam day.
Or
B. A three-part test:
a. Multiple-Choice (30 questions = 30 points), in class, no notes
b. Book Essay (40 points), take-home
+
c. Optional Lecture Essay (30 points), also take-home, both essays are due on
exam day. This benefits students who do better on writing assignments than
with the multiple-choice format.
These two assignments are worth 60% of your course grade. The
final will cover material from midterm on.
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III. Three Grade-Improving Suggestions

1. Come to all of the classes, and take notes. This is a lecture course, and all of
the material on the multiple-choice tests60% of your total gradecomes
from the lectures. I dont take attendance after the 1st day, but attendance matters.
a. If you have to miss a class, get notes from someone, youll need them. You
can email students through Blackboard.
b. As a general rule, life happens to those who show up.

2. I have a Lecture Outline and set of Study Questions for every exam topic. They
will all be on Blackboard. Use them as your study guides. The Study Questions and
Exam Questions will be mostly the samebe able to answer every study question using
your lecture notes.

3. The first few minutes of class, most every day, will be a mini-review session. Ill
ask you questions from the main points of the previous class, you will answer them, all
of our lives will be enriched. Its a good reason to show up on timemost of the
questions and answers will be on the exams.

IV. Academic Dishonesty (aka Cheating)

Most of my students do their own work and earn their grades honestly. A few do not.

Two Common Offenses

1. If you hand in an essay and all of it, or part of it, is identical to another students (not
similar, but word-for-word identical)That is plagiarism.
2. If you hand in an essay on an assignment I gave to a previous class, or on a book I
assigned for a previous classThat is plagiarism.

Inevitable Consequences
1. If you cheat on any part of any test, you will FAIL the entire
class. No do-overs, no sympathy from me.
2. If you cheat on any part of any test, I file an Academic Dishonesty Report to the University,
and it goes on your permanent record. Your parents will find out. If you get 2 of them, I
think they kick you out, then youre forced to wander the streets the rest of your life, in
search of food.
The Lesson Here
1. Dont cheat and you have nothing to worry about.
2. Your life will be perfect.
The official University-Standards-Of-Academic-Integrity can be
found at: http://www.csueastbay.edu/ecat/current/i-
120grading.html#section12

V. Course Content
The 1st 5 Weeks (midterm exam)
We will focus on the major transitions of the late 19th-early 20th centuries: economic
and racial shifts in the ex-Confederate South; the game-changing Industrial
Revolution and incoming tidal wave of human migration it brought; the 1 st national
reform movement of the new century (the Progressive Movement); and American
involvement in history's 1st Total War (World War I).
nd
The 2 5 Weeks (final exam)
We will focus on the 20th century's defining events: America's headlong rush into the
modern world by the 1920s; grinding global depression and the New Deal reforms it
inspired; history's most catastrophic military conflict (World War II); a civil rights
revolution; the ideological combat of the Cold War, including a lost war in Vietnam.
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Weekly Time-Line
(The following Foner readings are suggested, not required for the exams)

Week One (Read Foner, pp.659-669; 761-767)

(June 20-22) Where the Past Isn't Past
The 1st New South

Week Two (Foner, pp.605-613; 634-647)

(June 27-29) Prometheus Unbound
The Industrial Revolution

Week Three (Foner, pp.669-672; 696-699; 755-761)

(July 4-6) Strangers in the Land
The New Immigrants

Week Four (Foner, pp.703-732)

(July 11-13) Politics of Reform
The Progressive Movement

Week Five (Foner, pp.742-755; 767-777)

(July 18-20) Cataclysm
World War One

Midterm Exam: Thursday, June 20

Week Six (Foner, pp.779-809)

(July 25-27) The New Era (1920s)
Consumerism, Mass Media & Women

Week Seven (Foner, pp.810-816 + Ch. 21)

(August 1-3) The Worst Hard Time
The Great Depression and New
Deal

Week Eight (Foner, Ch. 22)

(August 8-10) War Without Mercy
The Fascist Threat and World War Two

Week Nine (Foner, Ch.25)

(August 15-17) Bending Toward Justice
The Civil Rights Movement

Week Ten (Foner, Ch. 23)

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(August 22-24) For the Soul of Mankind

The Cold War

Final Exam: Tuesday, August 29, 2:00-3:50 p.m.

VI. Other Things

A. Rules of Engagement
Avoid extended in-class conversations. They bother other students.
Please turn off devices with ring tones. They bother everybody.
Eat delicious snacks and meals outside.
You may use recorders in classset them up here at the podium if you like.
o If you aren't a native English speaker, I urge you to record lectures.
o The university also has on-line tutoring services to improve your writing.

B. Student Learning Outcomes-Course Objectives

To use history as a tool to understand why we are what we are, and how we got that
way.
To understand history, not as a distant set of isolated events, but as an ongoing
sequence of causes and consequencesas a continuous thread that connects our past
to our present.
To locate in the American past the human drama and moral meaning of historical
events on the lives of the individuals who lived through themthat which made history
a living presence to them, and renders it of enduring narrative interest to us.
To situate the events of American history in a larger Western and global context.
To help my students develop the reading and writing skills which will be of critical
importance to the rest of their lives.

C. American Institutions Requirement

This course fulfills part of the American Institutions requirement.
http://www20.csueastbay.edu/class/departments/history/add-offerings/instiutions.html

D. Disabilities
If you have a documented disability, contact Accessibility Services (Library Complex,
#2400; 885-3868), and come talk to me. We will set you up.

E. Emergency Preparedness
California has earthquakes. Sometimes things catch fire. Your natural response may
be: 1. A bone-jarring scream, followed by 2. Extended freaking out. Which makes you
a danger to yourself and others. Instead, check out
http://www20.csueastbay.edu/af/departments/risk-management/chs/emergency-
management/index.html Theyll tell you what to do. And they update frequently.