History 2312 Speech

HIST 2312-01 U.S. HISTORY SINCE 1877 “I THINK THAT A MAN AT ANY MOMENT OF ACTION IS THE LIVING SUM OF HIS PAST…THAT MAN AT THE VERY MOMENT AT WHICH HE IS DOING SOMETHING, HE DID THAT PARTICULAR THING EXACTLY IN THAT WAY BECAUSE OF THE HUNDRED YEARS BEFORE HIM THAT MADE HIM…BECAUSE HE IS THE SUM OF HIS ANCESTORS AND HIS CONDITION, HIS TIMES.” WILLIAM FAULKNER (1957) WELCOME! Regardless of your background, major, or career plans, I am pleased to have you in this course and believe that you will benefit from this study of U.S. history. My goal is to make this course one of your favorites at UALR. We have much to learn! To that end, we must cultivate our interest in people’s stories. Everyone has a story to tell. Today, our lives are defined by the stories that we create daily. Perhaps you have stories to share, both joyful and painful, about your family and friends, about your beliefs, about your travels or hobbies, or about your experiences at work or in college. In a sense, our identities are defined by the stories we live and create for ourselves. The same is true for history. Our subjects, the people we study, have stories to tell about themselves and their times. Historians tease these stories out of available sources, explain why they are important, and debate their meaning and significance. Such activities broadly define my goal for us: learning stories from the past and discussing their significance for understanding U.S. history. Historical narratives involve groups of people and individuals. The same will be true of this course. At times, we will discuss numbers—the percentage of the electorate who voted for a presidential candidate, for example—but we will also give attention to individual stories and what they might mean for understanding U.S. history. When we generalize with statistics, we encourage you to consider the individuals who comprise those statistics and what stories they might share, if given the opportunity. When we consider individuals, we will want to experience their lives with them, as best we can, and engage their worlds, imagining the options that were before them and discussing why they made the choices that they did. At the same time, we will want to ask critical questions of their narratives and the specific contexts from which they spoke to determine the degree to which their stories are indicative of larger historical trends. CATALOG DESCRIPTION Description, analysis, and explanation of the political, social, economic, and diplomatic events to the present time. Special attention is devoted to the forces of modernity and the impact of cultural pluralism on traditional institutions. Major topics for study include industrialization; agrarianism; labor; immigration; reform movements; total and limited war; economic theory and practice; and the U.S.’s role in world affairs. Three credit hours. COURSE DESCRIPTION AND FORMAT Please know that I have high expectations of myself as your instructor, as the one who bears the responsibility of helping you learn and think about the past. Likewise, I have high expectations of you, especially with regard to reading, thinking, and writing. I have no interest in telling you what to think, but I insist that you think logically, read closely, and write well. I will be pleased to assist you in these tasks. By maintaining these high expectations of each other, I am confident that we will learn much about history and perhaps about ourselves. 2 Reading assignments, discussions, lectures, and audiovisual materials will facilitate our exploration of U.S. history from the 1870s to the present. I am particularly interested in asking a lot of questions and proposing answers with you, so most every class meeting will include time devoted to inquiries of texts and each other. Due to the constraints of a survey course and the immense amount of material that we could potentially analyze, we will give special attention to several themes that resonate throughout this period. Namely, we will contemplate the idea of “race” and its pertinence to U.S. history; the evolution of government bureaucracies in responding to the needs and wishes of the governed; the evolution and globalization of the U.S. economy; conceptions of nationhood and citizenship; competing constructions of femininity and masculinity in society; relationships between humans and the environment; the pervasive influence of technological innovations on society; and international relations. As you might imagine, history can be contentious, and there will be occasions in this course when we will have disagreements among ourselves. Of course, I expect everyone to listen closely and carefully consider other opinions as your own ideas take shape. If you disagree with someone, you will have an opportunity to explain why. Together, we will sharpen our historical understanding and improve our critical thinking skills.