History 3460

The Modernization of the American Mind

Fall 2009

R. L. Moore

McGraw 134

E-mail: rlm 8

History 346 explores crucial cultural and intellectual issues that have defined American life since the end of the nineteenth century. Normally, the course meets twice a week for lectures (M, W) and once for discussion R of the assigned readings.

The requirements for the course are two short papers (5-7 pages), and a final examination. The short papers will each count 25% of the course grade, and the final exam 40%. 10% of the grade will be based on participation in discussion sections. Students are expected to attend sections.

Plagiarism is an offense that automatically results in a failing grade in the course. All cases of plagiarism are reported to a student’s College and may be subject to disciplinary action independent of the actions of the course instructor. Although plagiarism usually means the un-attributed use of the words or the thoughts of someone else in writing your paper, it also includes the practice of copying material from a secondary source, even if the source is cited.

WEEK ONE (Aug 31- Sept. 4) Entering the New Century. The Stresses

and Strains of Multicultural America

Reading: W.E.B. DuBois, THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK (Chaps. 1-3,

6, 10, 13); David Hollinger and Charles Capper, THE AMERICAN INTELLECTUAL TRADITION, Vol. II, pp. 54-62, 97-100 (Selections from Henry Adams and Frederick Jackson Turner).

WEEK TWO (Sept. 7-11) Old and New Ways of Thinking. Religion, Science, and Pragmatism

Reading: William James, PRAGMATISM (Lectures I, II, VI, VIII); Hollinger and Capper, pp. 63-76 (Selection from William James).

WEEK THREE (Sept. 14-18) Major Themes of Progressive Reform

Reading: Walter Lippmann, DRIFT AND MASTERY (1-2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 16); Hollinger and Capper, pp. 120-139, 201-09 (Selections from Jane Addams, Thorstein Veblen, John Dewey)

WEEK FOUR (Sept. 21-25) The Contradictions of Progressive Reform. The Great

War

Reading: Malcolm Cowley, EXILE’S RETURN, pp. 1-80, 109-70, 206-309; Hollinger and Capper, 170-87 (Selection from Randolph Bourne)

WEEK FIVE (Sept. 28-Oct. 2) Modern Times in the 1920s. Women and the Vote.

Reading: Hollinger and Capper, pp. 89-95, 188-96, 210-217-28 (Selections from Charlotte Perkins

Gilman, Mencken, Mead, Ransom)

WEEK SIX (Oct. 6-10) Rethinking Pragmatism. The Economic Breakdown and the

American Dream

No readings or sections and no lecture on W. Oct. 7. However the first paper is

due on. Wed. Oct. 7.

FALL BREAK. Oct. 10-13.

WEEK SEVEN (Oct. 14-16) American Culture and Politics in a Decade of

Depression.

Reading: James Agee and Walker Evans, LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS

MEN (These page numbers follow the edition ordered by campus store. Look carefully at the photographs and read ix-xi, other front material, 1-65, 99-137, 177-224, 244-316, 383-416.)

WEEK EIGHT (Oct. 19-23) World War II and Rehabilitation the Old Values

Reading: Reinhold Niebuhr, MORAL MAN AND IMMORAL SOCIETY, Chapters 1-3, 5-7, 9.

WEEK NINE (Oct. 26-30) Anti-Communism and the Cold War

Reading: Hollinger and Capper, pp. 229-238, 260-285, 324-41 (Selections Sidney Hook, Henry Luce, Henry Wallace Gunnar Myrdal, George Kennan, Reinhold Niebuhr, Whittaker Chambers)

WEEK TEN (Nov.2-6) Conformity and Innovation in the Eisenhower Years

Reading: Hollinger and Capper, pp. 342-389 (Selections from Hannah Arendt, John Courtney Murray, Lionel Trilling, Daniel Bell, W.W. Rostow)

WEEK ELEVEN (Nov. 9-13) Vietnam, Civil Rights, and the New Left

Reading: Hollinger and Capper, pp. 314-323, 414-21, 437-54 (Selections from James Baldwin, Martin Luther King, Jr., Herbert Marcuse, Malcolm X.)

WEEK TWELVE (Nov.16-20) Redrawing the Boundaries of Liberalism.

Feminism and its Consequences. Identity Politics

Reading: Hollinger and Capper, pp. 390-99, 422-428, 476-87, 499-504, 516-27 (Selections from Milton Friedman, Betty Friedan, Nancy Chodorow, Gloria Anzaluda, Joan Scott)

WEEK THIRTEEN (Nov. 23. Monday lecture only) Religious Resources, Neo-

Conservatism, and Post-Modernism

No reading or sections. Thanksgiving break.

The second essay is due on M. Nov. 23.

WEEK FOURTEEN (Nov. 30-Dec. 4) Exiting the Twentieth Century. The

Stresses and Strains of Multicultural, Postmodern America

Reading: David Hollinger, POST ETHNIC AMERICA, Chapters 1-5 and Postscript 2005; Hollinger and Capper, pp. 405-14, 429-36, 505-15, 528-46 (Selections from Thomas Kuhn, Susan Sontag, Henry Gates, Jr., Samuel Huntington, Carl Sagan)