Final Exam Info – Mon 5/7/2012

by admin - May 4th, 2012

Reminder, our third exam will be at 8:30 am on Monday, May 7th in our regular classroom. Your lowest exam grade gets dropped, so if you’ve taken the two previous ones you are not required to take the third one (but I always recommend it). The exam will be a combination of multiple-choice and essay questions. You may bring and use the Chafe book, History of Our Time. Your Congress papers are due at the last exam. If you are not planning to take the exam, please make sure I have your Congress paper in hand before 8:30 that morning.

Thanks, see you then! –Prof Hangen

Last Week of Classes – i.e. History Now

by admin - April 23rd, 2012

Here’s the plan for our last four classes.

Mon 4/23 – 9/11 and Post. Reading: HOT 369-395 and MO 296-309.

Wed 4/25 – Congress Day #8 – please be there, it will be our day for hearings, debate and voting on 9 or 10 bills – a big agenda.

Fri 4/27 – Recession 101 (or Congress Day #9 if needed). Instead of reading we have listening, a one-hour radio program (long live radio! But I digress). Please listen to, and take notes on, the “Giant Pool of Money” episode of This American Life from from May 9, 2008 that attempted to explain the origins of the emerging recession (then tagged as a “housing crisis”). Note how the producers narrate this tale, and what was (then) considered significant or ominous. From the vantage point of 2012, what parts of this story might you tell differently?

Mon 4/30 – History in OUR time. If you were assigned to add a new document to the end of the Chafe volume, what would it be? Bring your new document to class IN PRINTED FORM. If it’s lengthy, excerpt/edit it to under 5 pages. Also, your Congress page should be done by this day. The end-of-term instructions for your Congress project are found here: http://us45.wikispaces.com/END+OF+TERM+INFO

Reminder: Our third exam will be Monday 5/7 at 8:30 am in our usual classroom. Note the time is EARLIER than our class meeting time by one hour. Your Congress papers are due at the last exam. If you are not planning to take the exam, please make sure I have your Congress paper in hand before 8:30 that morning.

HistoryPriceGoesUp

Photo credit: Snapped by me on a college student on the campus of William and Mary

Wed 18th – Congress Day #7

by admin - April 14th, 2012

(No Class Monday 4/16 – Patriot’s Day)

Our next class meeting will be a busy Congress Day, discussing and sorting out our own legislation. Please write and submit a bill, preferably electronically by Monday night 4/16. The instructions and details on this are on the Congress Day 6 page. Download the Word template for your bill here.

Reminders:
Everyone writes his or her own bill (or at most, with ONE other person).
These are not committee bills, and do not have to be related to your committee work.
The time period of the bill should be roughly contemporary (since the Reagan era).
Writing more than one bill is fine.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Image: from http://ncpeaceaction.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/congress1.jpg

Online Class Today 4/9

by admin - April 9th, 2012

I’m working from home this morning due to sickness. In place of our class discussion, please take a few minutes to respond to the reading by completing this form. Hit “submit” when you’re done to send it to me. Thanks!

Congress Day 6 – Wed 4/4

by admin - April 3rd, 2012

A few of you mentioned that it would be helpful to have some notice on what we’d be doing in Congress days. The next three Congresses are designed to switch gears somewhat from reenactment to writing new legislation. Tomorrow in class I will have a small packet for you describing the process (in somewhat more detail than Schoolhouse Rock, "I’m Just a Bill").

Bring the MOSS book to class, and also bring your laptop.

We’ll be updating the Committee pages and beginning to design/draft legislation. Your legislation does not have to be related to your committee work. Everyone will write his/her own bill which will go to the various committees for discussion and recommendation before heading to the whole Congress for a vote, in our future Congress days.

Exam #2 Prep (1963-1980)

by admin - March 27th, 2012

This coming Friday 3/30 we have our second in-class exam, covering material from 1963 to 1980. The exam will be open book for the HOT book only. No notes, no Moss book.

In the HOT book, you’ll be responsible for these primary sources:
77 LBJ’s Great Society speech
113 Moody, Sit-in
117 Black Panthers
121 Soy Chicano
128 Indians of All Tribes
141 We Were Soldiers
149 SDS
151 Kerry
158 Clinton
162 McNamara
178 Weathermen
218 NOW
223 No More Miss America
226 Soy Chicana Primero
230 Schlafly
293 Carter’s Crisis of Confidence Speech

and these secondary sources (with brief summaries written by your classmates during Wed’s class):
103 Sitkoff, We Shall Overcome
Sitkoff says “King’s biggest victory was in Selma” (108) but riots in Watts and Chicago soon changed King’s goals to earning the lower class of blacks jobs and equality of opportunity, not just equality under the law.

166 Lind, Genuine Lessons of the Vietnam War
Lind argues (166) that the Vietnam War was not a huge mistake or a tragic error. He argues that both the siege and duel with Vietnam was necessary; not a context of the Cold War or a crime; it was simply a military defeat (169).

212 DeHart, Creation of a Feminist Consciousness
During the feminist movement in the late 1960s, there were two distinct groups, one seeking women’s rights (e.g. NOW) and the other supporting women’s liberation (e.g. Steinem, Ms Magazine, Sara Evans) (213).

263 Schrag, Forgotten American
“[The forgotten American] does all the right things, obeys the law, goes to church and insists – usually – that his kids get a better education than he did.” (264) They were not overly engaged in any of the movements, but did not necessarily disagree with what the movements were about.

273 McQuaid, Watergate
“The war made the United States look ineffective and divided, but Watergate made America look ridiculous in the eyes of its own people” “Washington looked as illegitimate and pathetic as it did misguided or criminal.” (274)

283 Farber, Taken Hostage
Americans were “taken hostage” in the 1970s by forces beyond their personal control: rising energy prices, cost of living increases combined with a new awareness of the actions taken outside of the nation by powerful agencies; this led to a feeling of helplessness politically and economically.

301 Carter, Politics of Anger
“George Wallace [an Alabama politician and 1968 presidential candidate] neared the limits of his political popularity, however, he opened the door for his successors to manipulate and exploit the politics of rage.” (315)

316 McGirr, Piety and Property
McGirr discusses the successes and failures of the Republican party and conservatism since the 1950s, as well as describes the conservative agendas (318, 327-328) and their responses to liberalism.

329 Dionne, Religious Right and New Republican Party
[Republicans of the Religious Right] believed the nation was losing moral values through the growing importance of politics and losing its connection to the Bible in politics. While in 1976 it was still possible for a “candidate with moderate—which is to say nonconservative—views on social issues to win the Republican nomination. By 1980, that had become virtually impossible.” (334)

During Monday’s class we clustered these documents into several topical areas and thought about exam questions that might help you demonstrate your knowledge about this time period, using these documents.

On Wed 3/28, we’ll talk about the rest of the 1970s and the election of 1980; the reading is 3 rather long essays about the profound social, cultural and political transitions of this era (Carter p. 301, McGirr p. 316, and Dionne p. 329). Read them selectively, i.e. read for argument, rather than for detailed content. If we had these three scholars sitting on a panel, where might they agree, and where might they disagree?

The 1970s; A Crisis of Confidence? Mon 3/26

by admin - March 24th, 2012

Hope you’ve had a wonderful break – the weather certainly cooperated for us! On Monday 3/26, we’ll pick up where we left off – with Nixon’s resignation and a discussion of America in the 1970s. Please bring the History of Our Time reader (Chafe) to class with you, we will be using it in class.

Reading: MO 171-194 and HOT 283-298 (Farber and Carter, “Crisis of Confidence”)
Misery Index – calculate for any month, year, Congress or presidential administration

Just for Fun: Some links to pop culture and fashions of the 1970s
Vintage Lunchboxes
Popular Music
Men’s Jumpsuits, so fashionable!
What People Wanted Their Homes to Look Like in the 1970s
Want a real pop culture incongruity? The Day Elvis Met Nixon at the White House (ironically, MY BIRTHDAY)
There’s so much great television of that era, it’s hard to choose, but here’s one: Welcome Back, Kotter (ca 1979). Well, okay, just one more: a vintage Sesame Street clip

The 1970s

by admin - March 17th, 2012

Enjoy your spring break!

When we return, we’ll finish out the unit on the 1960s and 1970s with a look at the Ford and Carter administrations and the election of 1980. This week contains more reading than usual – plan accordingly.

Mon 3/26 – The 1970s: Crisis of Confidence
Reading: HOT 238-298 (Farber, Carter, and the Misery Index) + MO 171-194.
Question: What would the “Misery Index” look like today and how does that compare with the mid-1970s?

Wed 3/28 – Conservatism and the Election of 1980
Reading: HOT 299-335 (Carter, McGirr, Dionne) + MO 199-218
Questions: What did “conservatism” encompass in the 1970s? Who were the main figures in this movement and what were its core ideas? How do today’s conservatives signal their connection to those people and ideas?

Fri 3/30 – Exam #2
in class, covering 1963-1980

Remember to be working on your Research Paper (guidelines are posted under the “Papers” tab); a draft is due in class on Mon April 2.

Vietnam and Nixon (Now ’til Spring Break)

by admin - March 8th, 2012

Friday 3/9 – Vietnam, the Hawks. The reading for the two days on the Vietnam Conflict is a bit scattered through both books, so pay attention to the page numbers.
Reading: MO 127-128, 175-178. HOT 133-148, 155-157, 162-165 (Johnson, Moore, Who, McNamara)

Monday 3/12 – Vietnam, the Doves.
Reading: MO 129-130, 133-135, and 192. HOT 149-154, 158-161, 178-187 (SDS, Kerry, Clinton, Weatherman, Varon)

DUE IN CLASS: Research Paper Topic + Your Source

(see “Papers” tab above for full guidelines, or download the PDF instructions here)

Links/Resources I’ll use in class: For What It’s Worth, Ten Days Later, Winter Soldier Investigation (1971), Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), The Vietnam Wall, NPR’s first “All Things Considered” broadcast covering the Washington DC war protests in April/May 1971

Wednesday 3/14 – Watergate.
Reading: HOT 261-282 (Schrag, McQuaid) + MO 154-168

Friday 3/16 – Congress Day #5, considering articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon.

3/19 – 3/24 Spring Break

The Women’s Movement – Wed 3/7

by admin - March 6th, 2012

The sixties set off cultural shock waves on many fronts, including gender roles and gender rules. We caught a glimpse of that at the end of Monday’s class when we looked at the protest staged by Women’s Liberation advocates at the 1968 Miss America pageant in Atlantic City.

For Wednesday, take a look at (and bring with you) the following essays in the HOT reader, on pp. 209-237: deHart, NOW, Morgan, Vasquez and Schlafly. Consider how these writers differ on womens’ roles and proper place in society. What might the women’s movement owe to the civil rights movement(s) we’ve already discussed? How might it have been different? Is there a single “women’s movement” today? Why or why not?