Issues in U.S. History

Week Seven Schedule:

Invention and Immigration as American Global Phenomena.

Monday (10/22)

Library Research Methods and Documentation.
We will explore tools available in Furman Library for research in American history. We will consider primary and secondary materials, print and digital resources, and evaluation of scholarly merit. We will talk about footnoting standards and academic integrity issues. Please review the Chicago Manual of Style Quick Guide (N: humanities format), with particular attention to the page's explanation of this format's special benefits for historical and humanities research. You may optionally practice by putting one of your own book sources and one of your own article sources into correct footnote format. Why would the publisher name and publication date matter?

Tuesday (10/23)

Great Plains Encounters.
Finish reading Colin Calloway, ed., Our Hearts Fell to the Ground: Plains Indian Views of How the West Was Lost. Review Guarneri, America, pp. 142-145. Calloway suggests "that the conquest of the West was not simple and that the conquest was not complete." What was complex about it and what was incomplete? How would you compare the preconceptions about human nature, social order, and American liberties expressed by Jefferson and Madison in the Banning book with those documented here. How did efforts at pacification, domestication, and "civilization" of Native Americans compare with similar "imperialisms" by European powers in the nineteenth century?

Before class, members of the RED discussion group will need to post to the course discussion board.

Wednesday (10/24)

Inventors, Entrepreneurs, and Frauds.
Read Guarneri, America, pp. 166-179.
Go to the alphabetical list of "Early Motion Pictures" on the Library of Congess's American Memory website. Locate and view clip #33 "Automobile Parade," #126, "Filipinos Retreat from Trenches," and #272, "Panorama water front and Brooklyn Bridge from East River." Analyze the list of clip titles. If you had to categorize these clips, what would your major groupings be? What do these topics and categories tell us about what interested movie-goers and movie makers at the turn of the century? How, in particular, are other places in the world portrayed? Watch at least one other clip and be prepared to discuss it in class.
Go to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's website on The Patent Medicine Menace. Read the brief introduction and browse through the gallery of patent medicines. Which of these medicine seem most outrageous (as in "why would anyone have bought this?") and which seem most marketable?

√Before class, members of the GREEN discussion group will need to post to the course discussion board.

Thursday (10/25)

Working Class and Immigration History in Transnational Perspective.
Read Guarneri, America, 179-191. How does Guarneri's account differ from the stereotypical descriptions of nineteenth and early twentieth century immigration you have heard before? What was distinctive about American immigration patterns, and how were these similar to those elsewhere? View the "Today in History: Columbus Day" webpage on the Library of Congress's American Memory website. When was this holiday created, by whom, and for what purposes?

Before class, members of the BLUE discussion group will need to post to the course discussion board.

Friday (10/26)

Immgration and the Challenges of Urban Growth and Industrialization.
Read Guarneri, America, pp.191-199.

Preliminary term paper bibliographies are due in class today. See the term paper guidelines and suggestions page for more information.

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Note: The instructor reserves the right to change any provisions, due dates, grading percentages, or any other items without prior notice. All assignments on this schedule are covered under the university's policy on plagiarism and academic integrity. See the syllabus statement for further details. This page was last updated on 9/23/2007.