History 3090 American Social History

Exploration of American society through analyses of the public and private lives of ordinary individuals from colonial to present times.

  K.L. MacKay kmackay@weber.edu, ext. 6782; Office: SBS 244

The history of the United States is usually told from the perspective of government in Washington, D.C. This focus leads most courses to emphasize the role of the nation's political leaders -- the white male politicos who wield power in Congress, enact legislation, and shape foreign policy. Yet these persons comprise a tiny part of American society, and the study of politics, economics, and foreign policy carried on at elite levels (while undeniably important) tends to ignore the importance of deeper cultural forces and institutions that illuminate how a people live, as well as ignoring the existence of social groups that have not participated in -- or have been denied access to political power, racial and ethnic minorities, women, and poor people generally.

This course will not be a survey of U.S. social history, but will rather focus on topics.

Course Calendar

Learning Objectives:

• Students will describe the ramifications of historical events for people of varying ethnic, socio-economic, cultural and gender backgrounds
.
• Students will anaylze the new scholarship in social history.
• Students will hone their skills in reading, writing, thinking, and presenting.

Texts:

• The Age of Homespun, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
• Huck's Raft, Steven Mintz (also avaialble as a ACLS Humanities E-book)
• Marriage, a History, Stephanie Coontz (a study guide is available from University of Wisconsin)
• Cheap Amusements, Kathy Peiss (a reading guide is available from the University of Delaware)
• We Are What We Eat, Donna R. Gabaccia
• additional readings as assigned

Resources:

• American Social History Project  and History Matters
• Making of America from Cornell University Library
• Library of Congress - resources for teachers

Activities in support of Learning:

• in-class discussion, free-writes, presentations.
  • Discussion leadership - students will regularly be responsible for being the discussion leader. That student is responsible for preparing discussion questions that facilitate discussion. A good discussion leader will try to keep the discussion focused on a particular historical problem and will be asked to summarize the seminar discussion at end of class.
• 3 formal papers related to the assigned texts (3-5 pages, typed, double-spaced, free of gross grammatical and spelling errors). 15 points each. (You may choose out of the 5 topics)
• 4 response papers related to other readings and projects (2-4 pages, typed, double-spaced, free of gross grammatical and spelling errors). 10 points each. (You may choose out of the 5 topics)
• 1 analysis paper -- in response to scholarly article from the Journal of Social History
• Autobiographical project. Students will write an autobiography (3-4 pages) about being a student at WSU for deposit in the WSU Archives. This paper will not be graded--however, do your best work; you are creating a primary document for the use of future scholars.