Course Schedule
* Lecture outlines are in Word format

Week One - Introduction to the Course - America up to 1945

Thursday, January 15

Read Mosin Hamid's editorial "Why Do They Hate Us" from the Washington Post's opinion page from July 22, 2007.

On his Web site at: http://www.mohsinhamid.com/whydotheyhateus.html

Outline for Week One

Week Two - American Colossus and the Origins of the Cold War

Tuesday, January 20
America's role in shaping the post-war world

Text: Chapters One and Two

Slides and maps for Week Two

Outline for Week Two

Readings:
Kennan, "Long Telegram," pp. 39-42
Noivkov, "Report on US Drive for World Supremacy," pp. 43-46
"The Truman Doctrine," pp. 46-48

Thursday, January 22
Atomic politics and the emergence of the Cold War

In class movie Duck and Cover

Readings:
Offner, "President Truman and the Origins of the Cold War," 55-63.

Week Three - The American Dream and the Red Scare

Tuesday, January 27
Lecture on post-war America and the Red Scare

Slides and maps for Week Three

Outline for Week Three

Advertising and Mad Men exercise due Week Four

Web site detailing life in Levittown at University of Illinois Chicago

Thursday, January 29
Lecture on post-war economic boom and the growth of consumerism

Watch episode of Mad Men in class

Week Four - Consumerism, Colonies and Communism

Please keep in mind we are a class behind at this point due to the inauguration.

Tuesday, February 3
Presentations of advertising exercise, discussion of readings

Text: Chapter Four

Because we are behind, I will be finishing up the lecture notes for Week Three this week.

Assignment for midterm essay on Growing Up in Mississippi

Readings:

"Newsweek Decries the Problem of Dangerous Teens," 85-88
"Life Magazine Identifies the New Teen-Age Market," 88-90
"US News and World Report on Mass Culture and Televisoin," 90-94 "Vance Packard Warns Against the 'Hidden Persuaders," 94-97

Marchand, "Visions of Classlessness," 97-109

Thursday, February 5

Catching up from missed class from inauguration.

Week Five - The Cuban Missile Crisis and American Foreign Policy

Tuesday, February 10
Lecture on de-colonization, the threat of communism, rollback, and American foreign policy, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the depths of the Cold War, end of the nuclear monopoly

Text: Chapter Five

Outline for Week Five

Slides and maps for Week Five

Thursday, February 12

In Class Movie: Fog of War

Readings:

"Fidel Castro Denounces U.S. Policy Towards Cuba," 127-130
"President Kennedy and His Advisers Debate Cuba," 136-144
"Premier Khrushchev Appeals to Kennedy," 144-147
"Dobrynin Reports on his Meeting With Robert Kennedy," 147-148

Week Six - The Civil Rights Struggle

Slides for Week Six

Tuesday, February 17
Lecture on the civil rights struggle up to 1964

Text: Chapter Six

Outline for Week Six

Slides for Week Six

In Class Movie: "Eyes on the Prize"

Thursday, February 19

Finish movie and discuss Growing Up in Mississippi along with documents

Readings:

First two parts of Growing Up in Mississippi

"Martin Luther King - I Have a Dream," 182-185
Sagrue, "The Continuing Racial Crisis," 203-209

Week Seven - From New Deal to Great Society

Slides for Week Seven

Tuesday, February 24
Lecture on black radicalism and urban disinitegration, continue discussion of Moody

Readings:

Second two parts of Growing Up in Mississippi
"Stokey Carmichael Explains Black Power," 185-187

Thursday, February 26
Lecture on Johnson and the Great Society

First Essay on Growing Up in Mississippi due in class or by e-mail by Friday, February 27

Readings:

"Lyndon Johnson Declares War on Poverty," 1964 Lassiter, "Suburban Politics and the Limits of the Great Society"

Week Nine - The Tragedy of Vietnam

Tuesday, March 10

MIDTERM EXAMINATION

Thursday, March 12
Lecture on the origins of the Vietnam conflict and its escalation, "Peace With Honor" and the end of the Vietnam War
Discussion of readings

Readings:

Outline for Week Nine

"Vietnamese Declaration of Independence," 325-327
"Eisenhower on the Domino Theory," 327-328
"Gulf of Tonkin Resolutoin," 331-332
"Johnson's Advisors Debate the War, 1965," 332-334

Michael Hunt, "The Wages of War," 338-342

Week Ten -Radicalism, Feminism, and the Reshaping of America

Tuesday, March 17
Lecture: Continue Vietnam lecture s

tudent radicalism and counter-culture

March 11 (L) March 31 (N)

Text: Chapters Nine and Ten

Outline for Week Ten

Readings:

"Port Huron Statement," 245-250
"New Age at Total Loss Farm," 255-258

Readings:

"Betty Friedan and the Problem That Has No Name," 281-284
"NOW Statement of Purpose," 284-286
Roe v. Wade, 292-295
Phyllis Schaffaly and the Positive Woman, 295-298

Echols, "Women's Liberation and Sixties Radicalis

Week Eleven - Watergate and American Malaise

Slides for Week Eleven

Tuesday, March 24
Lecture: Nixon and China, the Southern Strategy and the Republican Party, the Watergate Crisis

Text: Chapter Eleven

Thursday, March 26
Lecture: Backlash against Nixon, the Church Commission, the War Powers Act, Stagflation and economic crisis, Jimmy Carter as the accidental president

Readings:

"Smoking Gun" tape from Watergate at the Nixon Presidential Museum
Readings "Senate Report on Campaign against King,"
187-189 "Senate Report on Attempts to Assassinate Castro," 134-136
"Jimmy Carter and the Crisis of the American Sprit," 353-355

Week Twelve -"Morning in America" - The Reagan Revolution

Slides for Week Twelve

Tuesday, March 31
Lecture: Reshaping the Republican Party

Text: Chapter 11

Outline for Week Twelve

Outline for April 2

Readings:

"Reagan Calls for New Economic Policies," 355-356
"A New Right Activist Explains Conservative Success," 356-360
"Ronald Regan Proclaims 'Spiritual Awakening," 360-351
"Koop Recalls Administration Response to AIDS Crisis," 369-372

Ginsberg and Shefter, "The Republicans Take Control"

Week Thirteen - Rap, Rock, Religion and the Culture Wars

Tuesday, April 7
Lecture on hip-hop, grunge, punk, and the rise of the religious right

In class group presentations

EASTER BREAK APRIL 9

Outline for April 7

Week Fourteen - The Nineties and Bill Clinton

Slides for Week Fourteen

Tuesday, April 14
Lecture: George H.W. Bush and the end of the Cold War, Bill Clinton and governing from the center

Text: Chapter 13

Outlne for April 14 - With final paper questions

Outline for April 16 - With citation guide

Readings:

"President Clitnton's 'New Covenant," 473-475
"'Gays in the Military' Mobilize Conservatives," 475-478
"Republican 'Contract With America,'" 478-480
"Clinton Ends 'Welfare as We Know It,'" 480-482
"How the Nation's Agenda is Set," 485-488

Miroff,"Bill Clinton and the Imperial Presidency," 488-501

Week Fifteen - Globalization and the Dot Com Economy

Slides for Week Fifteen

Tuesday, April 21
Lecture: Immigration, demographics and reshaping race relations in America

Text: Chapter 14

Outline for April 21

Outline for April 23

Readings:

"'New Democrats' Hail the New Economy," 395-397
"Federal Reserve Report Extols 'Mass Customization,'" 397-403
"Money Asks Wal-Mart, 'How Big Can it Get?'" 403-405
"A Critic Assails the Influence of Wal-Mart,"405-408
"A Columnist Decries Outsourcing," 408-409

Wiess, "The Fragmenting of America," 423-434

Week Sixteen - America After September 11

Slides for Week Sixteen

Tuesday April 28
Lecture: September 11, Iraq, and the rise and fall of neo- conservatism

Text: Chapter 14

Thursday, April 30
Lecture: Bush's domestic agenda, the housing bubble, Hurricane Katrina and the challenges of the 21st century

Readings:

"President G.H.W. Bush and the New World Order," 511-512
"Osama Bin Laden Declares Jihad Against America," 514-516
"George Bush announces New National Security Strategy," 519-522
"Losing Hearts and Minds in Iraq," 514-527

Revisit the Hamid article from Week One this week