History 2710 -- Online

This course is designed to give a general overview of U.S. history since 1877. Emphasis will be on the meaning of events:

• why things happened as they did,
• how people viewed the changing times in which they lived,
• the consequences of their words and actions, and
• continuity and change over time.

This course will be reading and writing intensive. Readings include original source materials, scholarly essays, and scholarly Internet sites. Writings will include discussion forums, short response papers, short essay quizzes, and critical analyzes.

Texts: 

• Zinn, A People's History of the U.S.
• Von Drehle, Triangle
• Edleman, Dear America
• other texts as assigned

You might find helpful:

• The Outline of American History (1994)  which has useful summaries and short biographies.
• The learning modules posted from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
• American Memory Timeline

Learning Goals:

A. Historical Knowledge 

•  Students will demonstrate a knowledge of basic facts, events -- and, especially,  of significant questions and major themes in American history, 1877 - .
• Students will describe the increase in federal power after the Civil War.
• Students will explain the persistence of racism in American culture and law.
• Students will explain issues of governance and the various processes -- political, economic, social, and cultural -- by which systems of governance were developed and changed from  reconstruction to the present.
• Students will describe the rise of the U.S. as a world power and the issues of governance and protection of rights that rise generates.
• Students will explain the varieties of capitalism -- corporate, consumer, global -- created in the US and the consequences of these economic systems on culture, demographics, governance.
• Students will explain socialism as an economic system and major periods of reforming capitalism -- Progressive movement, New Deal, and Great Society.

B. Historical Thinking 

•  Students will gain a historical perspective by which to understand the present. Students will gain an understanding of how historians think and interpret the past through the lens of the present.
• Students will consider a wide variety of historical sources and learn about how historians go about "recovering the past." 

 C. Historical Skills

•  Students will hone their skills in reading, thinking, writing. Students will learn how to learn, how to reflect on their own learning.
• Students will be able to weigh conflicting claims by employing reason and rules of evidence to establish the reliability of any claim or statement.

 Activities in support of learning goals:

•  There are 14 Modules
• Discussion Forums. For each module of study, there are discussion forums. You are usually required to make three posts per forum. Two of these should be substantive responses to our readings (topics are posted, including work with primary documents), and one should be a response to the post of a classmate.Students should complete 14 forums:
  1. Post your scores on the relevant AP quiz you took.
  2. on the topic posted
  3. on your work with sources
  4. and a response to the post of a classmate

Posts should total a minimum of  600 words per week. Your grade for the discussion forums will be based on the timeliness of your responses, their length, their quality and substance, your use of assigned readings. (20 points each forum) A record of the number of postings you have viewed is available to me.

• 3 quizzes. These will be randomized from a list of posted topics. (50 points each) These quizzes must be taken on Chi Tester at WSU testing center or under proctored conditions.
• Projects. These are short (1-2 pages) papers based on a variety of topics. Choose 10. Projects should be completed by  the Monday after the unit in which they are described. Points will be taken off late projects. (10 points each)
• 3 Analyses of Scholarship. You will critique 3 pieces of scholarship in formal papers (2-3 pages), typed, free of gross spelling and grammatical errors. You may analyze the scholarship of 3 different topics in U.S. history since 1877, or you may analyze a single topic through 3 different scholars. An analysis paper is due at the end of each of the 4 week intervals of the semester .(15 points each.)
• Final reflection. Earn up to 5 extra points for completing this last response.

Grades: Grades will a weighted percentage of points possible-not "on the curve." 

• 3 exams = 150 points
• 14 discussion forums =  280 points
• 10 projects = 100 points
• 3 Analyses = 45 points