HIST 357 RECENT AMERICA: 1945-PRESENT Spring 2005
0101
M/W 2 – 3:15, FSK 0102
Instructor: Dr. Howard Smead
Office: 3101 Taliaferro Hall
Phone: 405-0874
Hours: M/W 1-2pm, W 3:15, Th 2-3:15 by appointment
e-mail: hsmead@umd.edu
Texts: Gillon, The American Paradox
Smead, Blood Justice: The Lynching of Mack Charles Parker
Gosse, The Movements of the New Left
Tygiel, Ronald Reagan
Rae & Campbell, Impeaching Clinton
O’Brien, The Things The Carried
WEEK OF: LECTURE TOPICS AND READINGS
Jan 26 Course Introduction
Jan 31 Cold War America “Are You Now or Have You Ever Been ...?”
Reading: Gillon, Introduction, chapters 1-3
Film: “Murrow vs. McCarthy”
Feb 7 The Golden Fifties “Say, Kids, What Time Is It?”
Reading: Gillon, chapters 4-6 (to page 152)
Gosse, pages 1—7
Films: “Duck & Cover,” “Quiz Show Scandals”
Feb 14 The Civil Rights Revolution “I Have a Dream”
Reading: Gillon, chapter 6 (pages 135 – 146), chapter 7 (161 –
68), chapter 8 (pages 197 – 202), chapter (pages
227 – 240)
Gosse, pages 7 – 40, readings 2 – 5, 7, 10, 13 – 17, 19,
21 – 22, 24 – 25, 27, 39
Smead, all
Film: “I Have a Dream”
Feb 21 Monday 1st HOUR EXAM
WEEKS OF: LECTURE TOPICS AND READINGS
Feb 23 Kennedy “Ask Not What Your Country Can Do for You”
Reading: Gillon, chapter 7
Film: “Kennedy-Nixon Debates”
Feb 28 Kennedy; LBJ’s Great Society
Reading: Gillon chapter 8
Mar 7 The Sixties “Power to the People”
Reading: Gillon, chapter 9, chapter 11 (285 – 296)
Gosse, readings 1,6, 8 – 9, 11 –12, 18 – 21, 23, 26, 28 –
38, 40 – 43
Films: “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” “1968 in America”
Mar 14 Nixon and Watergate “A crappy little thing that didn’t work.”
Reading: Gillon chapter 10
Mar 21 Spring Break
Mar 28 Vietnam “In Order to Liberate This Village We Had to Destroy It.”
Reading: Gillon, chapter 7 (pages 175 – 181), chapter 8 (202 –
213), chapter 9 (219 – 224, 237 – 238), chapter 10 (251 –
260, 265 – 267)
Apr 4 Monday 2nd HOUR EXAM
Apr 6 The Ugly 70's “Have a Nice Day” J
Reading: Gillon, chapters 11 – 12
Apr 11 The Reagan Era “Mistakes Were Made”
Reading: Gillon, chapter 13
Tygiel, Introduction – 116
WEEKS OF: LECTURE TOPICS AND READINGS
Apr 18 America in the 1980s “Traditional Family Values”
Reading: Gillon, chapters 14 – 15
Tygiel, 117 – 206
Apr 25 The Culture Wars “A Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy”
Reading: Gillon, chapters 16 – 17
Rae and Campbell, chapters 1-3, 5-7
*** ESSAYS DUE Wednesday May 4 ***
May 2 The Values Elections, 2000 & 2004
Reading, Gillon, chapter 18, Epilogue
May 9 World War IV?
Reading, Gillon, Epilogue
May 19 FINAL EXAM, Thursday, 1:30-3:30 pm
All exams will consist of essay and identification or short answer questions. The Final Exam will be comprehensive. No extra credit. Except for the Final, test dates are approximate.
Grading Method: Exam I 25%
Exam II 25%
Essay 20%
Final Exam 30%
Requirements for the Essay:
1. All students are required to write an interpretive essay answering one of the questions listed after these instructions.
2. The majority of your sources must be primary, although some use of secondary sources is permitted.
3. You MUST INCLUDE PRIMARY SOURCES in your paper.
4. If you don’ know what PRIMARY SOURCES are: go to this website:
http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/History/RUSA/
5. Direct references to the sources should be made in the body of the paper.
6. The paper should be 5 – 7 pages long and employ standard margins and Times New Roman 12 point font.
7. The question you are answering should be written verbatim at the beginning of the paper.
8. A title page is NOT necessary.
9. Do not quote your textbook. It is not a reference for this paper.
10. Do not be afraid to express your own opinion.
1.) Using statements made by active participants and prominent observers at the time, give the reasons, pro and con, for using nuclear weapons against Japan at the end of World War II. Were the bombings effective? Why or why not?
2.) The post-WW II years produced an era of conformity in social habits, dress, customs, mores and even housing. Why did the vast majority of Americans accept and embrace such conformity?
3.) How great was the actual threat communism posed by Soviet espionage and subversion and the activities of fellow travelers to American internal security during the early Cold War/ Red Scare era? Was the response appropriate?
4.) Which has proven more important to improving the position of African-Americans in America society, the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, the Civil Rights Movement, or the Black Power Movement, or Black Neo-Conservatives? Why?
5.) In your opinion, which critics of American mass/popular culture have greater merit, the Beat movement and the counterculture, or the Moral Majority and Christian conservatives? Show why with examples.
6.) Compare and contrast the inaugural addresses of John F. Kennedy (2001), Ronald Reagan (1981), and George W. Bush (second Inaugural address, 2005) in terms of their analyses of the problems facing America and their vision for the future.
7.) Describe — with many examples — the Christian Right’s vision for America.
8.) Using statements by militant Islamists, try to answer this question raised after 9/11: “Why do they hate us?”
Yalta Conference, February 1945
FDR dies, Truman becomes president, April 12, 1945
The United Nations founded, April 25, 1945
Potsdam Conference, July 1945
Hiroshima, August 6, 1945; Nagasaki, August 9, 1945
The Long Telegram, February 22, 1946
Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech, March 5, 1946
Iran crisis, March 1946
The Truman Doctrine, March 12, 1947
Loyalty Oaths March 22, 1947
Marshall Plan (European Recovery Plan), announced June 5, 1947
"Mr. X" article in Foreign Affairs July 1947
National Security Act July 26, 1947
Greek Civil War, 1944 ‑ 1949 (U.S. aid, 1947)
Berlin Blockade, June 24, 1948 ‑ May 1949
NATO chartered, April 4, 1949
Russia explodes atomic bomb, September 1949
Fall of China, October 1, 1949
McCarran Internal Securities Act, September 1950
NSC 68, April 12, 1950
HUAC hearings 1947 ‑ 1951
Alger Hiss Affair, 1948 ‑ 1950
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, February 1950 (executed 1953)
"I have here in my hand a list" (Joe McCarthy), February 9, 1950
The Korean War, June 1950 ‑ June 1953
Ike elected, November 1952
H‑Bomb, November 1952
USSR explodes H‑Bomb, August 1953
Dienbienphu, May 1954
Brown vs. Board of Education, May 17, 1954
Senate censures McCarthy, December 2, 1954
Hungarian Revolt, November 1956
Suez Crisis, October ‑ December 1956
McCarthy dies, May 1957
Sputnik I, October 4, 1957
Explorer I, January 31, 1958
Lebanon Crisis, July 1958
Quemoy and Matsu, 1958
Cuban Revolution, 1959
U‑2 incident, May 1, 1960
Eisenhower's farewell address, January 1961
JFK Inaugural Speech, January 20, 1961
JFK launches Apollo program, May 25, 1961
Yuri Gagarin orbits Earth, April 1961
Bay of Pigs, April 17, 1961
Berlin Wall, August 13, 1961
Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962
"I Have a Dream," August 28, 1963
Test Ban Treaty, October 7, 1963
JFK assassinated, November 22, 1963
Six Day War, June 1967
Tet Offensive, January 1968
Nixon elected, November 1968
Apollo 11, July 20, 1969
Nixon visits Moscow (détente), May 1972
Watergate break‑in, June 17, 1972
Nixon visits China, Fall 1972
Salt II, June 1979
Soviets invade Afghanistan, December 1979
Opening of the Berlin Wall, November 9, 1989
Failed hard-line coup in USSR, August 19, 1991
Collapse of the Soviet Union, December 26, 1991
Gorbachev's Speech at Fulton, Mo., May 6, 1992
Iran Hostage Crisis, November 4, 1979 - January 20, 1980
U.S. embassy bombed in Beirut, Lebanon April 18, 1983
Marine barracks bombed in Beirut, October 23, 1983
First Intifada, 1987
Iran-Contra Scandal, 1986 – 1987
World Trade Center bombed, February 26, 1993
Attempted assassination of President George Bush, April 14, 1993
Murrah Federal Office building in Oklahoma City bombed April 19, 1995
Khobar Towers bombed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, June 25, 1996
U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya bombed, August 7, 1998
Second Intifada, September 25, 2000
U.S.S. Cole attacked at Aden, Yemen, October 12, 2000
World Trade Center bombed, September 11, 2001
Afghanistan attacked by Allies, October 7, 2001
Taliban overthrown in Afghanistan, December 7, 2001
Nightclub in Bali, Indonesia bombed, October 12, 2002
U.S invades Iraq, March 20, 2003
Saddam Hussein captured December 13, 2003
Iraqi insurgents/guerrillas/terrorists/Shites destabilize Iraq, 2002-2004
Trains bombed in Madrid, Spain, March 11, 2004
U.S. hands over sovereignty to new Iraqi government, June 28, 2004
Al Qaeda attacks American consulate in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, December 6, 2004
Elections in Afghanistan, October 9, 2004
Elections in Iraq, January 30, 2005