Themes in United States History: 1914-1945

This course will provide an in-depth immersion in the historical development of the US from the onset of World War I to the end of World War II. The course will examine significant cultural, political, social, economic, and intellectual developments of the period. The course will also emphasize the use of films, novels, and other cultural products (such as advertising and fine arts) as artifacts of the time. The course will also aim to familiarize the student with historical method and historiography, emphasizing the construction of historical arguments (thesis, methodology, historiography, evidence, sources, research, and narrative), as well as identifying areas for further research.

Course Requirements:

All students are required to attend lectures and take part in discussions. Students must also read and assimilate required readings, and be prepared to discuss readings on the schedule given below. Students will submit all assignments on time; late papers will not be accepted without prior arrangement with the professor. Further, no student with more than four unexcused absences will receive a passing grade for the course.

Contacting the Professor:

My office is in 2N 203, and my office phone is 718-982-2869; I have office hours Mondays and Wednesdays from 2:00 to 4:00, Tuesdays from 5:00 to 6:00, and by appointment; I am usually in my office on Tuesdays. You may also reach me via email at lavender@postbox.csi.cuny.edu.

Assignments:

Journal: Each week you will be asked to write an informal response to a series of questions about the readings and lectures; this will constitute the majority of written work for this course. Your grades for these essays will be averaged, and the average will account for 35% of your course grade. Due throughout course.
Artifact Assignment: Your semester-long assignment will be to choose one historical artifact of the period from 1914-1945 (such as a novel, artwork, building, political speech or essay, etc.), and analyze it in an essay. This will account for 35% of your course grade. Due 9 December 1997.
Participation: You will be required to attend class and take part in discussions. This will account for 30% of your course grade.

Required Texts:

Selections from George Brown Tindall, America: A Narrative History (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1988).
Harvey Green, The Uncertainty of Everyday Life: 1915-1945 (New York: Harper Perennial, 1992).
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (New York: Scribner's, 1925).
Steven Watson, The Harlem Renaissance: Hub of African-American Culture, 1920-1930 (New York: Pantheon, 1995).
Donald Worster, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979).
Rickie Solinger, The Abortionist: A Woman Against the Law (New York: The Free Press, 1994).
John Morton Blum, V Was For Victory: Politics and American Culture During World War II (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976).
Jules Tygiel, Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983).

Required Films:

D.W. Griffith, The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Charlie Chaplin, The Immigrant (1917) and Easy Street (1917)
King Vidor, The Crowd (1928)
John Ford, The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Michael Curtiz, Casablanca (1942)

Additional Materials

There are additional optional materials for this course on the WWW at http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/339links.html

Course Schedule:

Week One: Introduction
	Tuesday, September 2	Discussion of Course Requirements, Introduction to New Media/Computer Lab (click here for Professor Lavender's tutorial on using the WWW at http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/csitutor.html).
	Readings: Tindall, chs. 25-30
Week Two: Defining the Problems of the Era
	Tuesday, September 9	Overview of Course Themes, Historiography, and History, Film as Historical Artifact; View and discuss selections from The Birth of a Nation
	Readings: Harvey Green, The Uncertainty of Everyday Life
Week Three: The Ends of Progressivism
	Tuesday, September 16	1919--Scandals, Strikes, and Suffrage; View and discuss Easy Street
	Readings: Tindall, ch. 25; Harvey Green, The Uncertainty of Everyday Life
Week Four: Modernist Culture in America
	Tuesday, September 23	Redefining Self and the Other in the Shadow of "Over There"; View and discuss The Immigrant
	Readings: Steven Watson, The Harlem Renaissance
Week Five: Forging a National Culture
	Tuesday, September 30	How We Know Who We Are; Discuss Green, The Uncertainty of Everyday Life
	Readings: Tindall, ch. 26; Steven Watson, The Harlem Renaissance
Week Six: The Harlem Renaissance Transforms American Culture
	Tuesday, October 7	Race and Renaissance; Discuss Watson, The Harlem Renaissance
	Readings: F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Week Seven: American Dreams, Lost and Found
	Tuesday, October 14	Advertising and the American Dream; Discuss Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
	Readings: Tindall, ch. 27; Rickie Solinger, The Abortionist
Week Eight: American Dreams and Dreams Deferred
	Tuesday, October 21	Men of Virtue and Honor; View and Discuss The Crowd
	Readings: Rickie Solinger, The Abortionist
Week Nine: From New Woman to Gender Rebel
	Tuesday, October 28	Women of Fight and Fiber; Discuss Solinger, The Abortionist
	Readings: Donald Worster, Dust Bowl
Week Ten: A New Deal Aesthetic
	Tuesday, November 4	WPA Artists and the Dust Bowl; View and Discuss The Grapes of Wrath
	Readings: Tindall, ch. 28; Donald Worster, Dust Bowl
Week Eleven: Living Through the Depression
	Tuesday, November 11	Region and the Depression; Discuss Worster, Dust Bowl
	Readings: John Morton Blum, V Was For Victory
Week Twelve: From Neutrality to Belligerency
	Tuesday, November 18	From Isolation to World Leadership; View and Discuss Casablanca
	Readings: Tindall, ch. 29; John Morton Blum, V Was For Victory
Week Thirteen: No Class
	Tuesday, November 25	No Class (Classes follow a Thursday Schedule)
Week Fourteen: The "Good War"
	Tuesday, December 2	World War II as Political and Cultural Event; Discuss Blum, V Was For Victory
	Readings: Tindall, ch. 30; Jules Tygiel, Baseball's Great Experiment
Week Fifteen: What We Fought For
	Tuesday, December 9	How We Know Who We Are, Redux; Discuss Tygiel, Baseball's Great Experiment (Last Day of Class; Artifact Assignments Due)

Prepared by Professor Catherine Lavender for History 339 (Themes in U.S. History, 1914-1945), The Department of History, The College of Staten Island of The City University of New York. Send email to lavender@postbox.csi.cuny.edu
Fall Semester 1997. Last modified: Tuesday 26 August 1997