History 1302: United States History since 1865

Fall Semester 2018

Tuesdays & Thursdays 9:00am-10:20am. UGLC 126
Professor: Miguel Giron
Email: magiron@miners.utep.edu
Office: LART 320
Office Hours: MW 12:00am-1:30pm and by Appointment

Course Description & Goals:

The aim of this course is to expose students to the intersections of race, class, and gender in the
second half of United States history since 1865. In doing so, we will explicitly interrogate
notions of power and identity to ultimately deconstruct ideas of national inclusion. Special
attention will be placed on who is considered “American” from the Reconstruction period to the
present. We will also examine the changing definitions of citizenship and civil rights. The course
will cover a large span of United States history with special focus on the late nineteenth century,
the American Southwest in the 1910s, the Depression era, post World War II urban/suburban
growth and consumerism, and the Civil Rights era.
This course will be heavily focused on academic writing to promote a scholarly skill that
students can apply in other disciplines. Through various assignments, in which you will learn
how to develop a thesis statement and format a history essay, you will be able contribute to
historical debates. Ultimately, this course will improve a student’s historical consciousness and
writing skills.
Course Requirements:
Attendance/Participation (15%)- Attendance is mandatory for an active learning community.
We all benefit from the presence of each other since we can all engage in the material with
different perspectives and points of view. Students will be required to answer a daily REEF
question for attendance. In addition, I will give randomized REEF questions for extra credit in
my lectures.
Midterm Essay (15%)- Students will write a 5-page paper on a pending prompt that will be given
out on Week 6. The Paper will be due on Week 9. We will facilitate sections and lectures on how
to write and prepare such essay.
Midterm Exam (15%)- Students will have one midterm exam in Week 5. Please come prepared
with a bluebook and materials requested.
Essay Quizzes (15%)- There will be three quizzes throughout the semester based on the readings.
Each quiz will be worth 5% and will be open note and book. They are listed in the syllabus on
Week 3, 6, and 12. As an essay quiz, a student will have 45 minutes to answer the prompt in an
essay format.
Writing Workshops (10%)- There will be 5 workshops (2%) in which we will develop writing
strategies to work on essay assignments throughout the semester.

Final Essay (30%)- Students will write a 6-8 page paper on a prompt that will be given on Week
12. It will be due on December 11, 2018.

Classroom Guidelines and Policies

Student Accommodation- If a student requires any accommodation or resources regarding

potential disabilities in the classroom, please contact The Center for Accommodations and
Support Service (CASS). Doing so promptly will enable both the student and instructor to
proceed with efficient communication of pedagogical instruction.

Academic Honesty- Students should avoid any form of cheating whether through plagiarism, the
act of copying or paraphrasing others work, or through other deliberate means. Instead, students
should consider other ways to guide their assignments. Talk to the instructor or Teaching
Assistant to se if any accommodations may be made or for help. For any questions, refer to
UTEP’s Handbook of Operating Procedures. Section II: Student Affairs, Chapter 1: Student
Conduct and Discipline.

Course Readings:
The American Yawp (http://www.americanyawp.com/) Selected Chapters
Baldwin, James. The Fire Next Time. Holt, 2010.
(Blackboard)
Omi & Winant, Racial Formations in the United States (Chapter 4).
Zinn, You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train (Introduction).
Lytle-Hernandez, Migra!: The History of the U.S. Border Patrol (Introduction, Chapter 2)
Stern, Eugenic Nation (Chapter 2)
Turner, “The Significance of the American Frontier in American History”
Course Calendar:
Week 1: History and Social Consciousness
August 28: Introduction and Overview of the Course
August 30: What is History? Why Does It Matter?
Reading: Omi & Winant, Racial Formations in the United States (Chapter 4). Zinn, You Can’t
Be Neutral on a Moving Train (Introduction).

Week 2: Who is an American? Race, Citizenship, and Law

September 4: Reconstruction
September 6: Race & Citizenship, Reconstruction Continued
Reading: The American Yawp (15. Reconstruction).

Week 3: Gilded Age and The American West

September 11: Capital and Labor
Workshop One Due: Creating a Thesis.
September 13: The Frontier and the West.
Essay Quiz One
Readings: The American Yawp (16. Capital and Labor, 17. “Conquering the West”). Fedrick
Jackson Turner “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.”
Note: When reading “Conquering the West,” think about who was in the West before U.S.
Westward expansion.

Week 4: Industrialism in America and American Imperialism

September 18: Immigration and the U.S. Industrialism
September 20: Imperial Nation. Legacies of Colonization and War
Workshop Two Due: What are Primary Sources? What is Evidence?
Readings: The American Yawp (18. Life in Industrial America, 19. American Empire)

Week 5: The Progressive Era.

September 25: Who are the Progressives? Contradictions and Search for Order.
September 27: Midterm Exam (Bluebook Required)
Readings: The American Yawp (20. The Progressive Era)

Week 6: Southwestern America

October 2: Revolution in Mexico: Mexicans become an Enemy!: Medical and Racialized
Borders
Workshop Three Due: Making an Argument
(Midterm Paper Handout)
October 4: At the U.S.-Mexico Border: What does it mean? Who does it stop?
Essay Quiz Two
Readings: (Read) Stern, Eugenic Nation, Chapter 2. Lytle-Hernandez, Migra!, Intro, Chapter 2.

Week 7: WWI
October 9: The Who and the Why: Looking at WWI in Global Terms
Workshop Four Due: Writing and Reading Strategies
October 11: The War at Home and Defining Americanism
Readings: The American Yawp (21. World War I & Its Aftermath).

Week 8: Th 1920s and the Great Depression

October 16: Culture, Business, and Racism: The Roaring Twenties for Who?
Workshop Five Due: Putting all Together: Outlining and Writing
October 18: The Oakies in California: The Great Depression in Popular Culture and the
Repatriation of ethnic Mexicans.
Readings: The American Yawp (22. The New Era) (23. The Great Depression Pt.1)

Week 9: The New Deal: Race, Labor, and Nationalism

October 23: Who is an American?: Entitlements in Action
October 25: Alphabet Soup: Constructing a Nation’s Central Control
Midterm Paper Due: Submit on Blackboard by 11:59pm on October 26th.
Readings: The American Yawp (23. The Great Depression Pt.2)

Week 10: WWII

October 30: The War Abroad: Europe and the Pacific
November 1: Citizenship and War: People of Color at Home and Abroad
Readings: The American Yawp (24. World War II)

Week 11: The Cold War and the Rise of American Suburban Cultures
November 6: Blue v.s. Red: Political Discourses and Displacement Through the lens of Latin
America
November 8: A Consumers Society and White Flight: Race and Consumption in the Suburbs
Readings: The American Yawp (25. The Cold War) (26. The Affluent Society). Begin Reading
Baldwin, The Fire Next Time.

Week 12: The Civil Rights Movement

November 13: Beyond the Bus Boycott and MLK: Reexamining the Civil Rights Movement.
(Final Paper Prompt Handout)
November 15: A Look at the Chicano and Feminist Movements
Essay Quiz Three
Readings: The American Yaw (27. The Sixties) Finish Baldwin, The Fire Next Time.

Week 13: Rise of the Right: War on Poor People, Drugs, and the Rise of the Police State
November 20: The Seventies and Scandalous Political Discourses
November 22: No Class: Happy Thanksgiving
Readings: The American Yawp (28. The Unraveling)

Week 15: Looking at the Future: Who we are and what we become, 1990s to the Present.
November 27: Rise of the Right Continued: Neoliberalism and and the War on Drugs
November 29: 1990 and Beyond: The Surveillance State
Readings: The American Yawp (29. The Triumph of the Right)

Week 16: Looking at the Future Part 2

December 4: The Rise of White Supremacy: Current Political Discourses on Immigration and
Racial Animus
December 6: The U.S.-Mexico Borderlands in the 21th Century
Readings: The American Yawp (30. The Recent Past
Week 17:
December 11th FINAL ESSAY DUE (Submit Hard Copy in Class and Collect Leftover
Work)