Office:
Holland 513C
Office
hours:
Mondays 2-3, Thursdays 12-2, and by appointment.
Phone: x3236.
E-mail:
kutulas@stolaf.edu
Class
e-mail address
(to address the whole class – me included): history-182@stolaf.edu.
There
should be a
Web version of this linked to my St. Olaf homepage
(http:\\www.stolaf\people\kutulas.html) in case you lose the paper copy
or are
someplace your paper copy isn’t. Any
on-line readings are linked there.
History
182 is a
first-year seminar about post-World War II America.
Its goal is to immerse you in the history of the period by using
the voices of those involved. We will
occasionally read a historian’s take on events; but will more commonly
read,
hear, and see documentary footage, manifestos, foreign policy debates,
novels,
songs, oral histories, and movies. The
format is seminar. I will confine
myself to five-minute mini-lectures as needed and the rest of the time,
we’ll
discuss. My goal is that you learn
content and master skills like reading and speaking critically and
writing a
history paper. I also hope this course
will help you understand the present by seeing some of the antecedents
to
modern experiences.
This course carries an HWC credit and a Domestic Multi-cultural credit.
There
are five texts
for this class. All are available at
the bookstore. They are:
Major
Problems in American History since 1945,
edited by Robert Griffith and Paula Baker, second edition.
The Age of McCarthyism, edited by Ellen
Schrecker
My Soul
is
Rested,
edited by Howell
Raines.
Takin’ it
to
the Streets, edited by
Alexander Bloom and Wini Breines.
The
Things
They Carried by Tim O’Brien.
Tales of
the
City by
Armistad Maupin.
As
of this writing,
one of the course books, Takin’ It To The Street, is slated to
arrive in
October. If it fails to arrive before
we start reading from that book, I will provide paper copies of
readings until
it does arrive.
The
major components
of the course are:
Regular attendance and
participation.
Longer papers.
Shorter assignments.
Essay final.
Each
component is
weighted roughly equally. I like to
think that one of the reasons you are here rather than a larger, more
impersonal school is so that your professors can evaluate you as an
individual,
so I’m not going to use a calculator to figure your grade.
However, my willingness to accommodate you
as an individual does not extend to granting extensions on paper
deadlines or
giving you extra credit assignments to boost your grade.
At some point, it’s not just about effort,
but also output. I expect you to come
regularly and be active participants in the discussion.
Missing more than a few classes will hurt
your grade, as will not ever opening your mouth.
I’ve
tried to
structure the class so that there are a variety of kinds of writing
because
different people excel at different things.
I have also used shorter assignments due on the days we discuss
certain
topics to insure that you will have prepared enough for discussion.
Below
is the class
schedule. It is not carved in
stone. It is vital to the success of
the class that you come prepared by completing the reading assignment
listed
for each discussion. The more you
speak, the less you have to listen to me.
Although
I am a very
organized person, my inner calendar always seems to be off. I have trouble scheduling right and, if I do
succeed in scheduling right, I think I know what I’ve scheduled for a
particular day and start leading discussion about a topic scheduled for
the
next week. Say something to me. I promise not to have a middle-aged crisis
about forgetting.
Assignment due dates
are in bold type. Actual
instructions will follow later.
9/10
– Introduction.
9/13
– The Immediate
Context: The New Deal and World War II – no reading, but spend time on
some of
these web sites: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s/front.html
or http://rs6.loc.gov/fsowhome.html
and
http://www.library.northwestern.edu/govpub/collections/wwii-posters/index.html.
9/15
– The Bomb –
reading, Major Problems, pp.
37-49. We’ll also watch a brief
educational film from the period, Duck
and Cover.
9/17
–
Anti-communism– reading, Age of McCarthyism, pp. 5-11, 109-133.
9/20 – Spies – reading, Age of McCarthyism, pp. 38-42, 155-96. Why Does America Hate Communism? (group worksheets).
9/22- Hollywood and the Blacklist – reading, Age of McCarthyism, pp. 63-70, 226-36, 244-57.
9/24 – McCarthy: the Man and the “ism” – reading, Age of McCarthyism, pp. 71-79, 237-41.
9/27 – Cold War Foreign Policy - reading, Major Problems, pp. 96-118 (read first) and then documents on pp. 74-80, 86-88.
9/29 – Fifties Gender Roles - reading, fifties husbands and fifties wives, and Major Problems, pp. 131-4. Fifties Ad assignment.
10/1
– Fifties Teen
Culture - reading, Major Problems, pp. 122-27, 137-42, and “Howl”
on-line (just get a sense of it; the first few lines are the most
famous).
10/4
– Roots of the
civil rights movement - reading, Takin’ It, pp. 15-18, My Soul, pp. 37-70.
10/6
– SNCC,
Sit-ins, and Freedom Rides - reading, My
Soul, pp. 71-129.
10/8
- Freedom
Summer – reading, My Soul, pp.
233-90.
10/11
– Selma –
reading, My Soul, pp. 187-231.
10/13
–Malcolm X;
Black Power – reading, Takin’ It, pp.
105-08, 116-21 Major Problems, pp. 259-65.
2-page essay on civil rights movement.
10/15
- Eyeball to Eyeball: The Cuban Missile Crisis –
reading, Major Problems, pp.158-83.
10/18 - The War on Poverty and Other Great Society Programs – reading, Major Problems, pp.215-26.
10/20 – College Life, c. 1960 – reading, Takin’ It, pp. 50-61, 66-69. St. Olaf Yearbook investigation (group worksheet).
10/22
– The Free
Speech Movement – reading, Takin’ It,
pp. 81-96 and student perspective. There is a good FSM web
site at
http://www.fsm-a.org/.
10/27 – Strategizing the War in Vietnam – reading, Major Problems, pp. 281-96, begin Things.
10/29 – Fighting the War in Vietnam – reading, Things.
11/1
– Fighting the
War – reading, Things.
11/3 – Protesting the War in Vietnam – reading, Takin’ It, pp. 174-85, 193-203, 310-12.
11/5
–
Groovin’: The Counter Culture – reading, Takin’
It, pp. 237-45, 258-60, 264-6, 268-86.
Sixties song analysis.
11/8 – 1968 and Beyond: Getting Radical – Takin’
It,
pp. 353-64, 366-69, 379-86. 4-5 page
paper on Things.
11/12 – The Black Panthers – Takin’ It, pp. 125-30, 317-21, 322-4, and, for context, Major Problems, pp. 263-5.
11/15 – Kent State – Takin’ It, pp. 476-98 and tour http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/8203/.
11/17 – The “Problem with No Name” and the Women’s Movement – reading, Takin’ It, pp. 38-43, 388-93, 398-404.
11/19 – Watergate - Major Problems, pp. 414-28.
11/22 – Radical Feminism – reading, Takin’ It, pp. 404-15. Scorecard: what’s been accomplished?
11/29 – The “Me” Decade – reading, Major Problems, pp.451-4 and start Tales of the City.
12/1 – The Gay Liberation Movement – reading, Takin’ It, pp. 494-508.
12/3 – Disco Culture – Finish Tales of the City.
12/5 – The New Right – reading, Major Problems, pp.454-61 and Phyllis Schlafly reading I’ll try to remember to hand out.
12/8 –Money for Nothing: Yuppies – Major
Problems,
pp. 498-514. 4-5 page Tales paper.
12/10 – The End of the Evil Empire – reading, Major Problems, pp. 498-514.
12/13 – The Contract With America – reading, Major Problems, pp. 57-64.
12/18 - Final exam, 9-11. Please note: College policy forbids me from rescheduling final except for a very specific list of college-related reasons. Please plan accordingly.