Fall 2006                                                                                                                                                                             

MW: 3:00-4:15                                                                                                                                                                    

Class: H201                                                                                                                                                                         

Office: MW 11:20-3:00, and by appointment                                                                                                                          

 

HIS330: The United States between World Wars

 

“Kiki,” Man Ray (1926)

Dr. Nick Maher

304 Hearst Hall

(404) 504-3473

nmaher@oglethorpe.edu

 

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Course Description

 

This course covers the history of the U.S. from 1919 to 1945.  During this period of war, prosperity and depression the United States underwent dramatic economic, political, social, and cultural changes. The interwar years witnessed the emergence of the U.S. as a world power, an increasingly sophisticated women’s movement, the rise of mass production and mass consumption, and a variety of new challenges to social and economic policies.  The Great Depression and the New Deal brought further challenges to traditional liberal political and economic assumptions as the federal government intervened in nearly every aspect of American life.  World War II, then, again transformed the nation as it ushered in the “age of affluence” and cold wars in the international and domestic realms.  Through an examination of both primary and secondary sources, films, and literature we will investigate the ways in which the ‘20s and ‘30s opened up the political, economic, social, and cultural questions that have remained with us through the 20th Century.

 

Required Texts – The following books are available at the bookstore:

Lynn Dumenil, The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s (1995)

David L. Lewis (ed.), The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader (1995)

Sinclair Lewis, It Can’t Happen Here (1936)

Robert McElvaine, The Great Depression: America 1929-1941 (1994)

Roland Marchand, Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity (1986)

Anzia, Yezierska, Bread Givers: A Struggle Between a Father of the Old World & a Daughter of the New World (1925/1975)

 

Readings on Reserve

 

 

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¸ Film Schedule

All films are on reserve in the library.

Date

Film

information

 

Wings

William A. Wellman, 1927

 

The Jazz Singer

Alan Crosland, 1927

 

The Thin Man

W. S. Van Dyke, 1934

 

Modern Times

Charlie Chaplin, 1936

 

The Plow that Broke the Plains

Pare Lorentz, 1936

 

The River

Pare Lorentz, 1936

 

Useful Websites

Library of Congress collections on the net: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/mdbquery.html

The Roaring Twenties (Music) http://bestwebs.com/roaring1920/index.shtml

Roaring Twenties & Great Depression: http://hometown.aol.com/we4amhis/R20s.html

Events on Radio: http://www.antique-radio.org/sounds/events/

Links to 1930s Web Sites: http://bss.sfsu.edu/tygiel/Hist427/1930swebsites.htm

Jazz Age Slang: http://home.earthlink.net/~dlarkins/slang-pg.htm

Depression Era Slang: http://xroads.virginia.edu/%7EMA04/hess/Slang/slangsplash.html

FDR Fireside Chats (recordings): http://millercenter.virginia.edu/scripps/diglibrary/prezspeeches/roosevelt/

 

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Course Requirements

 

Grades for the course will be based on the following:

7/27

20%

Paper #1

10/25

20%

Paper #2

11/27

20%

Paper #3

12/13

20%

Final

 

10%

Presentation

 

10%

Class participation

 

 

 

 

The Essays will be short synthetic discussions of several of the readings and information you find in your own independent research.  Late papers will be graded down one full grade for the first 24 hours late and a second full grade for up to one week late.  No papers will be accepted beyond that. 

 

The Presentation will be an in-class discussion based on selections for The Harlem Renaissance Reader and information you find doing research. 

 

Class Participation means actively speaking up in class discussions.  Your comments should be thoughtful considerations of the readings and the comments of your classmates (especially in response to their presentations).

 

Attendance is, of course, mandatory.  There will be no distinction between “excused” or “unexcused” absences. If you were not in class, you were not in class. You may miss two classes for any reason and with no penalty; more than two absences will result in a reduction in your final course grade. If you have a total of nine absences you will get an F or FA in the course, regardless of the quality of your work or your grades in tests. Use your absences wisely.

 

Honor Code:  “Because Oglethorpe students and faculty expect each other to be truthful in the intellectual endeavour they share, academic work at the University is done under the provisions of an Honour Code. Oglethorpe students affirm their commitment to the Honour Code with a written pledge on each piece of graded work, as requested by the instructor. Both students and faculty have the responsibility of reporting suspected violations” (The O Book).

 

Cheating includes (a) the unauthorized possession or use of notes, texts, or other such materials during an examination.  (b) Copying another person’s work or participation in such an effort.  (c) An attempt or participation in an attempt to fulfill the requirements of a course with work other than one’s original work for that course.

 

Plagiarism includes representing someone else’s words, ideas, data, or original research as one’s own, and in general failing to footnote or otherwise acknowledge the source of such work. One has the responsibility of avoiding plagiarism by taking adequate notes on reference materials, including material taken off the internet or other electronic sources, used in the preparation of reports, papers, and other coursework.

 

University Policy on Course Withdrawal:  Students withdrawing from a course may do so through the 9th week, or two weeks after the published mid-semester date with a “W”. For two weeks between the 9th and 11th weeks the grade “W” or WF” may be given at the discretion of the instructor. Students withdrawing after the Friday that falls on the 11th week will receive a grade of “WF”. Only in the event of medical emergency or hardship may students appeal a grade of “WF” to the Provost.

 

University Policy on Incompletes:  If a student is unable to complete the work for a course on time for reasons of health, family tragedy, or other circumstances the instructor deems appropriate, the grade “I” may be assigned.  If the student completes the work within thirty days of the last day of  exams of the semester in question, the instructor will evaluate the work and turn in a revised grade.  Any “I” not changed by the professor within forty five days of the last day of exams will automatically be changed to a grade of “F”.

 

 

 

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Course Outline: 1920’s

 

Winold Reiss, “Harlem at Night” (1924)

 

 

Week 1: Introduction / Post-War Advantages and Challenges

Wednesday (8/30)

Peace, Isolation, Prosperity, Great Power, The Americas

 

Week 2: Transformations

Monday (9/4) NO CLASS: Labor Day

 

Wednesday (9/6)

Pace, Fragmentation, Alienation,

*      The Modern Temper, Introduction & chapter 1 (“Public and Private Power”)

*      Advertising the American Dream, chapter 1 (“Apostles of Modernity”)

*      Edmund Wilson, American Earthquake, “It’s Great to be a New Yorker!” (p.29) and “Return from Louisiana” (p.133)

 

Week 3: Working and Consuming

Monday (9/11)

Suburbia, Entertainment

*      The Modern Temper, chapter 2 (“Work and Consumption”)

*      Advertising the American Dream, chapter 2 (“Men of the People: the New Professionals”)

*      James Fink, “The Car Culture”

*      “The Automobile Comes to Middletown”

*      “Moving Pictures Evoke Concern”

 

Wednesday (9/13)

Capitalism, Working Conditions

*      Advertising the American Dream, chapter 3 (“Keeping the Audience in Focus”)

*       “The National Association of Manufacturers Defends the Open Shop”

*      “The AFL Condemns the Open Shop”

*      “The Employer’s Case for Welfare Capitalism”

*      Dana Frank, “Workers as Consumers in Seattle”

*      “Ralph Chaplin Recalls the Clampdown of the ‘Red Scare’”

*      “Attorney General Palmer’s Case Against the ‘Reds’”

 

¸Wings (1927)

 

Week 4: Social Liberation

Monday (9/18)

College, Freedoms, Voice

*      Paul Fass, “Symbols of Liberation” and “The Politics of Cultural Liberation”

*      “Happiness in Marriage”

*      John D’Emilio and Estelle Friedman, “The Sexual Revolution”

 

Wednesday Monday (9/20)

Feminism, Working Women, Sexual Liberation

*      The Modern Temper, chapter 3 (“The New Woman”)

*      Anzia Yezierska, The Bread Givers, Introduction-pp.52

*      Advertising the American Dream, chapter 6 (“Advertisements as Social Tableaux”)

*      Alice Kessler-Harris, “ The Uneasy Relationship Between Labor and Women”

*      “The Women’s Bureau Exposes the Myths about Women’s Work”

*      “Employers Consider the Regulation of Women’s Work”

*      Molly Ladd-Taylor, “Maternalism, Feminism, and the Politics of Reform in the 1920s”

*      “A Mother’s Letter to the Children’s Bureau”

*      “Florence Kelley and Elsie Hill Debate Equal Rights for Women”

*      “Alva Belmont Urges Women Not to Vote”

*      “The AFL Ignores Women”

 

Week 5: Science & Society

Monday (9/25)

Inventions, Technological Society, Science as Social Model

*      The Modern Temper, chapter 4 (“Acids of Modernity”)

*      Ruth Cowan, “American Ideas about Technology” (CP)

*      “Mechanizing Sight and Sound”

 

Wednesday (9/27)

Community, Identity, Religion

*      Advertising the American Dream, chapter 5 (“The Consumption Ethic: Art and Style”)

*      Willard Gatewood, “After Scopes: Evolution in the South”

*      “The Reverend Amzi Clarence Dixon on the Evils of Evolution”

*      Bruce Barton, “The Man Nobody Knows”

Paper #1 Due

 

Week 6: The Harlem Renaissance

Monday (10/2)

Harlem Renaissance

Presentations

Group 1:  Rachell / Bonny / Michael / Scott

Group 2:  Heather / Erin / Hannah / Claire

 

Wednesday (10/4)

Harlem Renaissance

Presentations

Group 3:  Joonas / Tim / David / Kasey

Group 4:  Jessica / Arthur / Zeynep / Amanda

 

Week 7: Immigration

Monday (10/9) NO CLASS

 

Wednesday (10/11)

New Immigration, Immigrant Identity

*      The Modern Temper, chapter 5 (“Conformity & Community”)

*      Anzia Yezierska, The Bread Givers, pp.52-128

*      “The Governor of California on the ‘Oriental Problem’”

*      “Congress Debates Immigration Restriction”

*      David Montejano, “The ‘Mexican Problem’”

*      “Modern-Day Girls”

*      “John Box Objects to Mexican Immigrants”

 

¸The Jazz Singer (1927)

 
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Course Outline: The 1930s

 

David Stone, “Electrification” (1940)

 

Week 8: The Crash

Monday (10/16)

Pluralism & Diversity, Reaction

*      The Modern Temper, Chapter 6 (“Pluralism & Community”)

*      Anzia Yezierska, The Bread Givers, pp.128-finish

*      A Jewish Leader Laments the Rise of Nativism”

*      “The Ku Klux Klan Defines Americanism”

*      David Chalmers, “The Hooded Knights Revive Rule by Terror in the Twenties”

*      Nancy MacLean, “Mobilizing the Invisible Army”

 

Wednesday (10/18)

Causes of the Great Depression

*      The Modern Temper, Epilogue

*      The Great Depression, chapter 2 (“Who was Roaring in the Twenties”)

*      Stuart Chase, “Prosperity: Fact or Myth”

 

Week 9: Responding to the Depression

Monday (10/23)

Making Sense of the Depression

*      Advertising the American Dream, chapter 7 (“The Great Parables”)

*      John Raskob, “Everybody Ought to Be Rich”

*      Jane Addams on Prohibition

*      Robert and Helen Lynd, “Remaking Leisure in Middletown”

 

Wednesday (10/25)

Redefining Left and Right

*      The Great Depression, chapter 3 (“Right Place at the Wrong Time?”)

*      Edmund Wilson, American Earthquake, “Detroit Motors” (p.214)

 

¸The Thin Man (1934)

 

Paper #2 Due

 

Week 10: Life during the Depression

Monday (10/30)

Redefining State and Society

*      The Great Depression, chapter 4 (“Nature Takes Its Course”)

*      Edmund Wilson, American Earthquake, “A Bad Day in Brooklyn” (p.281) and “May First” (p.292)

*      Herbert Hoover on American Individualism”

*      Elis Hawley, “Herbert Hoover and the ‘Associational’ State

*      John Maynard Keynes, “The World’s Economic Outlook.”

*      Franklin D. Roosevelt, “First Inaugural Address, 1933.”

 

¸Modern Times (1936)

 

Wednesday (11/1)

Economic and Social Experiences

*      The Great Depression, chapter 5 (“Lord of the Manor”)

*      Advertising the American Dream, chapter 9 (“Advertising in Overalls”)

*      Wayne W. Parrish, “Report on the Unemployed Council in Brooklyn, NY, 1934.”

 

Week 11: The Second New Deal

Monday (11/6)

Community in a New Light

*      Advertising the American Dream, chapter 9

*      The Great Depression, chapters 6-7 (“And What Was Dead Was Hope” and “Action, and Action Now”)

 

Wednesday (11/8)

ABCs of the Depression

*      The Great Depression, chapter 8 (“Fear Itself”) and chapter 10 (“Thunder on the Left”)

*      “The National Labor Relations Act, 1935.”

*      Robin G. Kelley, “Radical Organizing During the Depression.”

*      Richard Wright, “Communism in the 1930s.”

 

 

Week 12: The New Deal as Cultural Program

Monday (11/13)

Rural America

*      The Great Depression, chapter 9 (“Moral Economics”)

*      Advertising the American Dream, chapter 10

*      Edmund Wilson, American Earthquake, “Tennessee Agrarians” (p.328) and “The Scottsboro Freight-Car Case” (p.334)

*      Milo Reno, “Why the Farmer’s Holiday?”

*      F. D. Roosevelt, “President’s Council Reports on Southern Economic Conditions, 1938.”

*      Meridel Le Sueur, “Women on the Breadlines.”

 

¸ The Plow That Broke the Plains & The River (1936-37)

 

Wednesday (11/15)

Advertising the State

*      The Great Depression, chapter 11 (“I’m That Kind of Liberal”)

*      Edmund Wilson, American Earthquake, “Washington: Inaugural Parade” (p.478)

*      “Depression and the New Deal Both Hit Black Farmers.”

*      “From a Dust Bowl Diary.”

*      “John Crowe Ransom Takes a Stand for the Agrarian Way of Life.”

*      Andrea Tone, “Contraceptive Consumers: Gender and the Political Economy of Birth Control in the 1930s.”

*      Susan Ware, “Women and the New Deal.”

*      Mira Komarovsky, “Mr. Patterson.”

 

Paper #3 Topic & Outline Due

 

Week 13: Rediscovering the American South

Monday (11/20)

State Sponsored Expression

*      The Great Depression, chapter 12 (“New Hickory”)

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