Office: 316 Sandefer Memorial Hall

Phone: 670-1279 (office);  698-1414 (home--if you really need to talk to me...)

Office Hours: Tuesday & Thursday, 9:20-11:50, 2:40-4:00, and by appointment.  I will be here many other hours and will be happy to meet with you any time.  If it's not during my official office hours, it's a good idea to call first and make sure I'm there.  I am in class Tuesdays and Thursdays 8:00-9:15, 11:55-1:10, and 1:20-2:35.

Statement of Intent:  The purpose of this is course is to teach basic facts and examine important events and people in American history; to develop critical thinking skills; to become more enlightened citizens of the United States by achieving an understanding of the forces that have shaped our nation's history.  The course will be conducted as a lecture course, supplemented by a significant amount of outside reading.  Emphasis will be placed on developing writing and critical-thinking skills.

Exans and Attendance:  There will be six grades in this course:  three book quizzes, plus three major exams, weighted as follows:
                                                        book quizzes:  30% (10% each)
                                                         major exams:   70% (20% each for first exam; 25% each for 2nd and 3rd exams)

    Each book quiz will consist of five short-answer questions.  The short-answer questions can be answered in a sentence or two or (at most) a short paragraph.  The midterm exams will consist of two long essay questions and five short I.D.-type questions.  You will need a Blue Book (which can be purchased at the campus bookstore) for the major exams.
    Attendance will be taken each day.  Although points are not deducted for absences, in borderline cases good or bad attendance will be the decisive factor in determining whether to assign the lower or higher grade.  Make-up exams will be administered at the professor's convenience for those who miss an exam for a university-approved reason (see HSU regulations).  If you are going to miss ANY exam for ANY reason, you must let me know ahead of time  unless you are too ill to use a telephone.  You will not be allowed to make up missed exams unless you talk to me on or before the day the exam was given.

  Note: Any student with a professionally diagnosed learning disability and/or other professionally diagnosed disability that may affect course performance may choose to seek accommodation.  If so, the student has the responsibility to notify the Office for Students with Disabilities of such at the beginning of the semester.  Notification must be given during the first week of classes.  This will allow time for documentation of the disability through the HSU Office for Students with Disabilities (phone # 670-1251) and for discussion of legitimate alternate means by which the student will be successful in the course.

Books: The following books are required reading:
                    Maggie, A Girl of the Streets, by Stephen Crane
                    Hold Autumn in Your Hand, by George Sessions Perry
                    Born on the Fourth of July, by Ron Kovic
                    The Unfinished Nation, Vol. Two, (2nd edition) by Alan Brinkley

You will be expected to have each book read by the date of the correponding book exam (see schedule), and be prepared to discuss it in class.

WARNING!!  This is a heavy reading load if you put it off until the night before the exam.  The first key to doing well is to read some every day and have the assigned reading done by the date of each exam.  You will have no chance of doing well in this class without doing your reading.  The second key to doing well is to come to class faithfully; the exams draw heavily from the lectures, and much of the lecture material is not to be found in your books.  The third key to doing well in this class is to ask questions when you don't understand something.  The only dumb question is the one you didn't ask!  If the question can't be answered to your satisfaction in the class period, come see me in my office.  I'll be happy to explain something that was unclear the first time around.  And please don't hestitate to challenge something I've said in class--I may be wrong!
 

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE OF CLASSES AND ASSIGNMENTS:
WEEK         DATE            ACTIVITY OR TOPIC
 1                    1/11    Course introduction; Civil War as Turning Point?
                       1/13    America Industrializes [Chap. 17]

 2                    1/18    Big Business and the Search for Order [Chap. 17]
                       1/20    Social Darwinism [Chap. 17]

 3                    1/25    Labor and American Capitalism [Chap. 17]
                       1/27    Urbanization [Chap. 18]; Book Quiz: Maggie, a Girl of the Streets

 4                     2/1    Speculator, Vigilante, & Cowboy [Chap. 16]
                        2/3    The Red Man's Burden [Chap. 16]

 5                     2/8    First Major Exam.
                       2/10   The Populist Revolt [Chap. 19)

 6                    2/15    Disfranchisement in the South [Chaps. 19]
                       2/17    Progressivism [Chap. 22]

 7                    2/22    National Expansion and Democratic Values [Chap. 22]
                       2/24    The Promise of Science [Chaps. 17)

 8                    2/29    American "Neutrality" and World War I [Chap. 23]; Book Quiz: Hold Autumn in Your Hand
                       3/2      To Be Announced.

 9                     3/7     Segregation and the Great Migration [Chaps. 15, 24]
                        3/9     A Polyethnic Society [Chap. 18]

                        3/14    SPRING BREAK
                        3/16    SPRING BREAK

10                    3/21    Immigration Restriction [Chaps. 19)
                        3/23    The Twenties and the Great Crash. (Chaps. 24, 25)

11                    3/28    The New Deal [Chaps. 25, 26]
                        3/30    Second Major Exam.

12                    4/4      The Reluctant Belligerent [Chap. 27)
                        4/6      The U.S. and World War II [Chap. 28]

13                    4/11    Origins of the Cold War [Chap. 29]
                        4/13    The Second Reconstruction [Chaps. 30, 31)

14                    4/18    The End of Innocence [Chaps. 31, 32]; Book Quiz: Born on the Fourth of July
                        4/20    The Reagan Revolution [Chap. 33]

15                    4/25    A New World Order [Chap. 34]
                        4/27    Clinton's America [Chap. 33]

16                     5/2      Final Exam for HIST 1302-E, 10:30 a.m.
                         5/6      Final exam for HIST 1302-G, 10:30 a.m.