Vietnam and other Entanglements

I. War in Vietnam

A. Anti-Communist Context:
Containment and Domino Thinking

Vietnamese Declaration of Independence, 1945
"All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."
This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free. The Declaration of the French Revolution…states: "All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and have equal rights." Those are undeniable truths. Yet, the French imperialists, abusing the standard of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, have violated our Fatherland and oppressed our fellow citizens. They have acted contrary to the ideals of humanity and justice. In the field of politics, they have deprived our people of every democratic liberty.

B. Escalation
1. Advisors:
2. Lyndon Baines Johnson "Great Society"


Head Start
Upward Bound
Job Corps
Volunteers in Service to America
Office of Economic Opportunity
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965
Immigration Act of 1965
Public Works and Economic Development Act
Clean Air Act
Highway Safety Act
R and D bills
Historic Preservation Act
Crime bills
Medicaire
Medicaid
Affirmative Action

2. Gulf of Tonkin

3. Rolling Thunder

4. The Crucial Year: 1968
a. Anti-War Movement—SDS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBdeCxJmcAo fixin to die rag country joe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d8C4AIFgUg war Edwin starr
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AvrZCYvVQI ohio Crosby stills nash young
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWkWSLEW-Ds masters of war dylan

b. The Tet Offensive

c. Enter Tricky Dick: "secret plan"

II. Watergate
A. Break-In/Cover-Up
B. Reform:
1. War Powers Act of 1973
2. Congressional Budget and Impoundment Act
3. Fair Campaign Act of 1974
4. Freedom of Information Act
5. --Attitude Adjustment--

III. Losing a War:

Rights of Nature

I. Origins:
A. The Idea: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
B. The Event: The Santa Barbara Spill

II. Effect:

A. Politicizing a Community:
a. GOO
b. Earth Day
B. SF Bay Cons and Dvpt Commission
C. EPA
D. California Environmental Quality Act
E. California Coastal Act of 1976
F. Clean Air Act of 1990
III. Significance

FINAL EXAM TIME

Here's the source:
http://www.csub.edu/documents/finalExamSched/finalExam_Winter_2010.pdf

The final exam is Wed, the 17th, from 11 to 1:30.

FINAL EXAM STUDY GUIDE

History 232/Winter 2010

FORMAT: Two Essays, one short, one long


I. ESSAY ONE: SINCE THE MIDTERM (NEW DEAL TO THE 1970S) (40%)

The final exam will have one of the following essay questions:

1. What were the most important reforms of the New Deal? How effective were they in solving the problems of the Great Depression?

2. What lead to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the two landmark pieces of Civil Rights legislation?

3. Why was there so much radicalism in the 1960s?



II. ESSAY TWO: CUMULATIVE ESSAY (60%)
The final exam will have the following THREE essay questions. You will write on one of the three:

1. How did the U.S. change as a result of the Civil War, World War I, World War II, AND the War in Vietnam? Judging from the nation’s experience of war, can you make some generalization regarding the impact of war on a country?

2. Discuss the social and political transformation that the country went through during Progressivism, the New Deal, AND the changes associated with the 1960s. Which of these periods of reform ushered in the most profound social change? Which period resulted in the deepest political shift?

3. The idea of Upton Sinclair's _Jungle_ became a reality with the focusing event of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. President Roosevelt's idea of internationalism was made real by the event of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. The idea of environmentalism in Carson's _Silent Spring_ became a reality with the focusing event of the Santa Barbara oil spill.

Discuss the relationship between ideas and events in causing historical change.

Social Movements: Civil Rights and Black Power

Social Movements: Civil Rights and Black Power

I. Civil Rights:
A. Enforcing Segregation:
1. Culturally
2. Legal: Plessy v Ferguson (1898)

B. Fighting Segregation:
1. NAACP
2. Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
a. The Brown Decision
b. Brown II
c. Resisting Justice:
Little Rock Central High School(1957)
Orval Faubus
3. Rosa Parks and the Bus Boycott:
4. The Sit-Ins:
5. Freedom Rides:
6. JFK:
a. Civil Rights Act of 1964
b. Voting Rights Act of 1965
--Fannie Lou Hammer

II. Non-Violent Revolution is an Oxymoron

The Problem with No Name/

Making the Personal Political

Betty Friedan: Feminine Mystique (1963)
--“the problem lay buried"
--Women “could desire no greater destiny than to glory in their own femininity,"
--Presidential Commission on the Status of Women
--Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

National Organization for Women:
"to take action to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society now, exercising all privileges and responsibilities thereof in truly equal partnership with men."
1967: 1000 members
1971: 15,000 members


FREEDOM SUMMER:
"we didn't come down here to work as a maid this summer."

"Assumptions of male superiority are as widespread and deeply rooted and every much as crippling to the women as the assumptions of white superiority are to the Negro."

LIBERAL VS. RADICAL FEMINISM

RADICAL GROUPS:
SCUM
W.I.T.C.H.
Redstockings
Cell 16

AS A RESULT OF THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT:

1. increased participation of women in politics on all levels

2. Title IX of Educational Amendments Acts of 1972, prohibited colleges from discriminating on basis of sex, requiring schools to fund womens' sports at a comparable level to mens' sports

3. Roe v. Wade: 1973, struck down Texas and Georgia statutes outlawing abortion, saying that states could no longer outlaw abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy

4. Equal Credit Opportunity Commission: in 1974, made it possible for women to get credit in their own name

5. ERA, which passed in Congress, and has to be seen as a victory in one sense, because it did pass in Congress, even though it is not now an amendment, since states did not ratify it in time. Why a victory? Military academies and other military arenas thought it would pass so they began to make changes that helped the position of women in the military

One more Atomic Bomb Source; "Truman did not understand."

http://members.peak.org/~danneng/decision/usnews.html

Japanese Internment

February 15th of 1942 to December of 1944

Why did it happen?

What was it like?

How did it end?

Why did the government apologize?

TO BOMB OR NOT TO BOMB....

You and the other members of your group are close advisors to President Harry Truman in 1945. You are currently working with a team of scientists to help the President decide whether or not the United States should use this new weapon, the atomic bomb, or invade Japan in November like previously scheduled.
Use all necessary evidence to decide what policy the president should follow.
You will have between 5 to 10 minutes to convince the president (me) of the efficacy of your decision.

Your policy recommendations must include the following: a clear statement of whether or not the bomb should be dropped, the reasoning behind that decision with specific references to other sources (“According to…”), and the potential outcome of your decision…meaning, what will happen (think into the future) if we follow your policy advice?

You may want to decide on your own option, but here are a few:
1. Drop the two bombs on two targets as quickly as is feasible;
2. Drop one on a neighboring island of Japan as a demonstration. Only drop the second on a Japanese city if the Japanese govt. fails to surrender;
3. Do not drop either bomb.

Here are some websites that may provide some background information:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2125.html
http://www.atomicmuseum.com/tour/decision.cfm
http://www.doug-long.com/
http://www.hiroshima-cdas.or.jp/HICARE/en/12/index.html
http://members.peak.org/~danneng/decision/usnews.html
http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/Lesson_95_Notes.htm
http://www.cfo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/potsdam_decision.htm

Debate on Dropping the Atomic Bomb: Sources

1. Unanimous resolution of the League of Nations Assembly, Protection of Civilian Populations Against Bombing From the Air in Case of War, League of Nations, September 30, 1938
Considering that on numerous occasions public opinion has expressed through the most authoritative channels its horror of the bombing of civilian populations;…
I. Recognizes the following principles as a necessary basis for any subsequent regulations:
1) The intentional bombing of civilian populations is illegal;2) Objectives aimed at from the air must be legitimate military objectives and must be identifiable;3) Any attack on legitimate military objectives must be carried out in such a way that civilian populations in the neighbourhood are not bombed through negligence.

2. Appeal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Aerial Bombardment of Civilian Populations, September 1, 1939
….If resort is had to this form of inhuman barbarism [The ruthless bombing from the air of civilians in unfortified centers of population] during the period of the tragic conflagration with which the world is now confronted, hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings who have no responsibility for, and who are not even remotely participating in, the hostilities which have now broken out, will lose their lives. I am therefore addressing this urgent appeal to every government which may be engaged in hostilities publicly to affirm its determination that its armed forces shall in no event, and under no circumstances, undertake the bombardment from the air of civilian populations or of unfortified cities,…
3. 7/25/45 Truman’s Diary
"We met at 11 A.M. today. That is Stalin, Churchill and the U.S. President. But I had a most important session with Lord Mountbattan & General Marshall before than. We have discovered the most terrible bomb in the history of the world. It may be the fire destruction prophesied in the Euphrates Valley Era, after Noah and his fabulous Ark….
"The weapon is to be used against Japan between now and August 10th. I have told the Sec. of War, Mr. Stimson, to use it so that military objectives and soldiers and sailors are the target and not women and children. Even if the Japs are savages, ruthless, merciless and fanatic, we as the leader of the world for the common welfare cannot drop this terrible bomb on the old capital or the new [Kyoto or Tokyo].
"He [Stimson] and I are in accord. The target will be a purely military one and we will issue a warning statement [known as the Potsdam Proclamation] asking the Japs to surrender and save lives. I'm sure they will not do that, but we will have given them the chance. It is certainly a good thing for the world that Hitler's crowd or Stalin's did not discover this atomic bomb. It seems to be the most terrible thing ever discovered, but it can be made the most useful."
4. Potsdam Declaration, 1 August 1945, Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender, July 26, 1945
(1) We-The President of the United States, the President of the National Government of the Republic of China, and the Prime Minister of Great Britain, representing the hundreds of millions of our countrymen, have conferred and agree that Japan shall be given an opportunity to end this war.
(2) The prodigious land, sea and air forces of the United States, the British Empire and of China, many times reinforced by their armies and air fleets from the west, are poised to strike the final blows upon Japan. This military power is sustained and inspired by the determination of all the Allied Nations to prosecute the war against Japan until she ceases to resist.
(4) The time has come for Japan to decide whether she will continue to be controlled by those self-willed militaristic advisers whose unintelligent calculations have brought the Empire of Japan to the threshold of annihilation, or whether she will follow the path of reason.
(9) The Japanese military forces, after being completely disarmed, shall be permitted to return to their homes with the opportunity to lead peaceful and productive lives.
(10) We do not intend that the Japanese shall be enslaved as a race or destroyed as a nation, but stern justice shall be meted out to all war criminals, including those who have visited cruelties upon our prisoners. The Japanese Government shall remove all obstacles to the revival and strengthening of democratic tendencies among the Japanese people. Freedom of speech, of religion, and of thought, as well as respect for the fundamental human rights shall be established.
(11) Japan shall be permitted to maintain such industries as will sustain her economy and permit the exaction of just reparations in kind, but not those [industries] which would enable her to re-arm for war. To this end, access to, as distinguished from control of, raw materials shall be permitted. Eventual Japanese participation in world trade relations shall be permitted.
(12) The occupying forces of the Allies shall be withdrawn from Japan as soon as these objectives have been accomplished and there has been established in accordance with the freely expressed will of the Japanese people a peacefully inclined and responsible government.
(13) We call upon the government of Japan to proclaim now the unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces, and to provide proper and adequate assurances of their good faith in such action. The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction.


5. (MEMORANDUM ON THE USE OF S-1 BOMB, Harrison-Bundy Files, RG 77, microfilm publication M1108, folder 77, National Archives, Washington, DC).
On July 2, 1945, Sec. of War Henry Stimson and Truman discussed a proposal by Stimson to call for Japan to surrender. Stimson's memo to the President advised, "I personally think that if in saying this we should add that we do not exclude a constitutional monarchy under her present dynasty, it would substantially add to the chances of acceptance". Stimson's proposed surrender demand stated that the reformed Japanese government "may include a constitutional monarchy under the present dynasty" (U.S. Dept. of State, Potsdam 1, pg. 889-894).
However, the constitutional monarchy line was not included in the surrender demand, known as the Potsdam Proclamation, that was broadcast on July 26th, in spite of Stimson's eleventh hour protestations that it be left in (Diary of Henry L. Stimson, 7/24/45, Yale Univ. Library, New Haven, Conn).

6. John McCloy, (Assistant Sec. of War)
"I have always felt that if, in our ultimatum to the Japanese government issued from Potsdam [in July 1945], we had referred to the retention of the emperor as a constitutional monarch and had made some reference to the reasonable accessibility of raw materials to the future Japanese government, it would have been accepted. Indeed, I believe that even in the form it was delivered, there was some disposition on the part of the Japanese to give it favorable consideration. When the war was over I arrived at this conclusion after talking with a number of Japanese officials who had been closely associated with the decision of the then Japanese government, to reject the ultimatum, as it was presented. I believe we missed the opportunity of effecting a Japanese surrender, completely satisfactory to us, without the necessity of dropping the bombs."
McCloy quoted in James Reston, Deadline, pg. 500.

7. GENERAL DOUGLAS MacARTHUR
MacArthur biographer William Manchester has described MacArthur's reaction to the issuance by the Allies of the Potsdam Proclamation to Japan: "...the Potsdam declaration in July, demand[ed] that Japan surrender unconditionally or face 'prompt and utter destruction.' MacArthur was appalled. He knew that the Japanese would never renounce their emperor, and that without him an orderly transition to peace would be impossible anyhow, because his people would never submit to Allied occupation unless he ordered it. Ironically, when the surrender did come, it was conditional, and the condition was a continuation of the imperial reign. Had the General's advice been followed, the resort to atomic weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki might have been unnecessary."
William Manchester, American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964, pg. 512.

8. Leo Szilard, (The first scientist to conceive of how an atomic bomb might be made - 1933)
After Germany surrendered, Szilard attempted to meet with President Truman. Instead, he was given an appointment with Truman's Sec. of State to be, James Byrnes. In that meeting of May 28, 1945, Szilard told Byrnes that the atomic bomb should not be used on Japan. Szilard recommended, instead, coming to an international agreement on the control of atomic weapons before shocking other nations by their use:
"I thought that it would be a mistake to disclose the existence of the bomb to the world before the government had made up its mind about how to handle the situation after the war. Using the bomb certainly would disclose that the bomb existed." According to Szilard, Byrnes was not interested in international control: "Byrnes... was concerned about Russia's postwar behavior. Russian troops had moved into Hungary and Rumania, and Byrnes thought it would be very difficult to persuade Russia to withdraw her troops from these countries, that Russia might be more manageable if impressed by American military might, and that a demonstration of the bomb might impress Russia." Szilard could see that he wasn't getting though to Byrnes; "I was concerned at this point that by demonstrating the bomb and using it in the war against Japan, we might start an atomic arms race between America and Russia which might end with the destruction of both countries.".

9. A PETITION TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, July 3, 1945
…. We, the undersigned scientists, have been working in the field of atomic power for a number of years. Until recently we have had to reckon with the possibility that the United States might be attacked by atomic bombs during this war and that her only defense might lie in a counterattack by the same means. Today with this danger averted we feel impelled to say what follows:
The war has to be brought speedily to a successful conclusion and the destruction of Japanese cities by means of atomic bombs may very well be an effective method of warfare. We feel, however, that such an attack on Japan could not be justified in the present circumstances. We believe that the United States ought not to resort to the use of atomic bombs in the present phase of the war, at least not unless the terms which will be imposed upon Japan after the war are publicly announced and subsequently Japan is given an opportunity to surrender.
If such public announcement gave assurance to the Japanese that they could look forward to a life devoted to peaceful pursuits in their homeland and if Japan still refused to surrender, our nation would then be faced with a situation which might require a re-examination of her position with respect to the use of atomic bombs in the war.
Atomic bombs are primarily a means for the ruthless annihilation of cities. Once they were introduced as an instrument of war it would be difficult to resist for long the temptation of putting them to such use.
The last few years show a marked tendency toward increasing ruthlessness. At present our Air Forces, striking at the Japanese cities, are using the same methods of warfare which were condemned by American public opinion only a few years ago when applied by the Germans to the cities of England. Our use of atomic bombs in this war would carry the world a long way further on this path of ruthlessness.
Atomic power will provide the nations with new means of destruction. The atomic bombs at our disposal represent only the first step in this direction and there is almost no limit to the destructive power which will become available in the course of this development. Thus a nation which sets the precedent of using these newly liberated forces of nature for purposes of destruction may have to bear the responsibility of opening the door to an era of devastation on an unimaginable scale.
In view of the foregoing, we, the undersigned, respectfully petition that you exercise your power as Commander-in-Chief to rule that the United States shall not, in the present phase of the war, resort to the use of atomic bombs.
Leo Szilard and 58 co-signers (Dr. Leo Szilard, 62, is a Hungarian-born physicist who helped persuade President Roosevelt to launch the A-bomb project and who had a major share in it. In 1945, however, he was a key figure among the scientists opposing use of the bomb.)
10. Leo Szilard, Interview: President Truman Did Not Understand, U.S. News & World Report, August 15, 1960, pages 68-71.
Q In what way? [did the bombing boomerang?]
A I think it made it very difficult for us to take the position after the war that we wanted to get rid of atomic bombs because it would be immoral to use them against the civilian population. We lost the moral argument with which, right after the war, we might have perhaps gotten rid of the bomb.
Let me say only this much to the moral issue involved: Suppose Germany had developed two bombs before we had any bombs. And suppose Germany had dropped one bomb, say, on Rochester and the other on Buffalo, and then having run out of bombs she would have lost the war. Can anyone doubt that we would then have defined the dropping of atomic bombs on cities as a war crime, and that we would have sentenced the Germans who were guilty of this crime to death at Nuremberg and hanged them?
But, again, don't misunderstand me. The only conclusion we can draw is that governments acting in a crisis are guided by questions of expediency, and moral considerations are given very little weight, and that America is no different from any other nation in this respect.

11. Dwight Eisenhower, Mandate For Change, pg. 380
"...in [July] 1945... Secretary of War Stimson, visiting my headquarters in Germany, informed me that our government was preparing to drop an atomic bomb on Japan. I was one of those who felt that there were a number of cogent reasons to question the wisdom of such an act. ...
"During his recitation of the relevant facts, I had been conscious of a feeling of depression and so I voiced to him my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives. It was my belief that Japan was, at that very moment, seeking some way to surrender with a minimum loss of 'face'. The Secretary was deeply perturbed by my attitude..."

12. Admiral William D. Leahy (Chief of Staff to Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman)
"It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons.
"The lethal possibilities of atomic warfare in the future are frightening. My own feeling was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children."
- William Leahy, I Was There, pg. 441.

13. Gar Alperovitz, The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb
Intercepted cables showed Japan responding positively to a U.S. offer of a surrender based on the "Atlantic Charter" as put forward in an official July 21, 1945 American radio broadcast. The key clause of the Charter promised that every nation could choose its own form of government (which would have allowed Japan to keep its Emperor).
On July 25 (reported in MAGIC on July 26), an intercepted message from Japanese Foreign Minister Togo to Ambassador Sato in Moscow cited the radio broadcast--and stated without reservation:
The fact that the Americans alluded to the Atlantic Charter is particularly worthy of attention at this time. It is impossible for us to accept unconditional surrender, no matter in what guise, but it is our idea to inform them by some appropriate means that there is no objection to the restoration of peace on the basis of the Atlantic Charter. (See p. 399, Chapter 31)

Rear Admiral L. Lewis Strauss, special assistant to the Secretary of the Navy from 1944 to 1945 (and later chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission….recalled:
“I proposed to Secretary Forrestal at that time that the weapon should be demonstrated. . . . Primarily, it was because it was clear to a number of people, myself among them, that the war was very nearly over. The Japanese were nearly ready to capitulate. . . . My proposal to the Secretary was that the weapon should be demonstrated over some area accessible to the Japanese observers, and where its effects would be dramatic. I remember suggesting that a good place--satisfactory place for such a demonstration would be a large forest of cryptomaria [sic] trees not far from Tokyo. The cryptomaria tree is the Japanese version of our redwood. . . . I anticipated that a bomb detonated at a suitable height above such a forest . . . would [have] laid the trees out in windrows from the center of the explosion in all directions as though they had been matchsticks, and of course set them afire in the center. It seemed to me that a demonstration of this sort would prove to the Japanese that we could destroy any of their cities, their fortifications at will. . . . “(See p. 333, Chapter 26)
In his "third person" autobiography (co-authored with Walter Muir Whitehill) the commander in chief of the U.S. Fleet and chief of Naval Operations, Ernest J. King, stated:
The President in giving his approval for these [atomic] attacks appeared to believe that many thousands of American troops would be killed in invading Japan, and in this he was entirely correct; but King felt, as he had pointed out many times, that the dilemma was an unnecessary one, for had we been willing to wait, the effective naval blockade would, in the course of time, have starved the Japanese into submission through lack of oil, rice, medicines, and other essential materials. (See p. 327, Chapter 26)

14. Grayford C. Payne, Bataan Death March survivor
“In the latter part of June 1945, a note was posted in our camp. It was signed by Hideki Tojo. And it said, 'The moment the first American soldier sets foot on the Japanese mainland, all prisoners of war will be shot.' And they meant it. I hadn't been a prisoner for fifteen minutes before they bayoneted a fifteen-year-old Filipino kid right next to me - a kid so innocent he scraped together this little dirt dam with his last bit of energy so he wouldn't bleed on my uniform while he died. That is why all of us who were prisoners in Japan, or were headed for it to probably die in the invasion, revere the Enola Gay. It saved our lives.” September 26, 1994, Washington Post

15. The Great Atomic Bomb Debate by Bryan McNulty

General of the Army George C. Marshall worried that even with the two atomic bombings, an invasion might be necessary. He had earlier observed that in a raid with conventional bombs five months before, "we had 100,000 people killed in Tokyo in one night and it had seemingly no effect whatsoever." In fact, it took another six days after the second atomic bombing - and the foiling of an attempted coup by military diehards who wanted the nation to fight to the end - before Emperor Hirohito, in an unprecedented personal radio broadcast to his nation, cited the "new and most cruel bomb" in announcing the surrender. "The U.S. knew that the Japanese had given no indication that they were going to surrender," says Ohio University World War II historian Marvin Fletcher. "The use of the bomb to convince the Japanese of what was obvious - that they had lost the war - was a necessary choice. Truman would have been derelict if he had done otherwise. The number of Americans and Japanese who would have died if the invasions had gone as planned would have been, in my mind, higher than the number of Japanese who died at Hiroshima."….
While the atomic deaths were horrific, Ohio University Professor of History Donald Jordan says the horror was not unrivaled. The 1937 Rape of Nanjing, in which Japanese troops took the Nationalist Army headquarters city and then spent seven weeks killing up to 300,000 men, women, and children, by hand, is arguably at least as horrific. If rational plans at high levels are the determinant of "evil barbarism," Jordan points out that the deaths from the two atomic bombs are pale shadows to the deaths resulting from the Japanese military's systematic abuse and killings of prisoners of war and slave laborers from Korea, China, and Southeast Asia. And Japan was the first country in any of the theaters of war to create a deliberate firestorm in an undefended city when it bombed Shanghai in 1932, says Jordan, the author of Chinese Boycotts Versus Japanese Bombs…
Hamby [author of Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman] says the historical record shows this: The Japanese had instructed their envoy in Moscow, Naotake Sato, to seek Soviet mediation for a negotiated settlement, not the unconditional surrender demanded by the United States and Britain at the July 16 Potsdam Conference. Truman knew of this from coded messages broken by the American military and from the Soviets themselves. Sato's intercepted cables from Tokyo left the impression of a Japan unwilling to surrender and preparing to wage a bitter, suicidal resistance that might last for months if the nation was unable to get the terms it wanted. "A distraught Sato on July 12 vainly urged an apparently gridlocked government in Tokyo to be specific and embrace unconditional surrender," Hamby says. "But the curt Japanese rejection of the Potsdam ultimatum on July 28 reinforced the worst American expectations." The April 1945 U.S. invasion of Okinawa spelled the collapse of Premier General Hideki Tojo's government. His replacement, Admiral Kantaro Suzuki, told the Japanese Cabinet in June 1945 that thousands of kamikaze pilots would fly against enemy ships even in training planes, that millions of soldiers would fight what was called the "Decisive Battle" by suicide banzai charges, and that civilians would strap on explosives and throw themselves under enemy tanks. To secure the approval of senior Army officials to his accession to premier, Suzuki affirmed that Japan's only course was to "fight to the very end" even if it meant the death of 100 million Japanese..
"…. if you go across to the Asian mainland, the Chinese and Koreans say, 'The rest of Asia were the victims, and the Japanese better get over that and quit looking at themselves as victims or we won't trust them.' There are museums all over China about the Japanese atrocities. The Chinese and Koreans have a very different view of who were the victims." By contrast, Hamby says the Germans, particularly West Germans, "have practically wallowed in war guilt for two generations. There is a big contrast with the Japanese."
According to a report to President Roosevelt from the Joint Chiefs of Staff in September 1943, escaped prisoners had been providing accounts as early as April 1943 of malnutrition, cruel workloads, widespread torture, and murder of U.S. and other Allied prisoners of the Japanese. War planners worried about the fate of POWs in the event of a prolonged war or an invasion of the Japanese home islands. After the war, their fears proved well-founded: Of the 132,134 Americans, British, and Australians taken prisoner by the Japanese, 27 percent - 35,756 -died in captivity. According to a 1995 book on the planned invasion, Code-Name Downfall, by Thomas B. Allen and Norman Polmar, Soviet troops who liberated a POW camp in Mukden, Manchuria, found 3,000 prisoners who, like prisoners in Japan, had thought they were about to be murdered as the Soviets approached their camp. A Japanese directive described how prisoners were to be killed: "mass bombing, or poisonous smoke, poisons, decapitation... . In any case, it is the aim not to allow the escape of a single one, to annihilate them all, and not to leave any traces." When Red Army troops in

16. Tony Alessandro, former president of the U.S.S. Missouri Association, who joined the Navy in the middle of the war at the age of 17 and "as a 19 year old kid" was present when the Japanese surrendered aboard the U.S.S. Missouri on September 2, 1945.
"All we wanted to do wanted to was to get home. A lot of us missed our childhood - those things kids like to do at 17 and 18. When I left the Navy in 1946 I seem to go back to my childhood and I began to play sports - baseball, football, basketball for longer than kids do today. We were trying to pick up that lost time.
"Then, I got married when I was 24 years old. It was hard to find work between 1946-1950. I finally got a good job in 1950, when the economy began to pick up after the war. It was still tough times.
"Regarding the Atom bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki - that caused a lot of loss of life at the time - but those bombs SAVED many, many, many more. The United States already had plans to invade Japan and had we done that, after we fought in Okinawa, where we faced Japanese suicide planes, it would have been much tougher if we had invaded Japan.
"If we had not dropped the Atom bombs, the Japanese people would have lost 3 million people and the Allies would have lost 1 million people. You are talking about 4 million people! We saved a lot of lives by dropping them."

17. Mary Mostert “The Greatest Generation May Be Our Grandchildren,” December 12, 2001
In Hiroshima, 70,000 people died. In Nagasaki, 36,000 people died. However, in the German attacks on England during World War II, 62,000 people died. In the conventional bombing of Tokyo in 1945, 83,000 people died. And, in the Allied bombing of Dresdon, Germany, 100,000 people died.



18. FDR AND TRUMAN : CONTINUITY AND CONTEXT IN THE A-BOMB DECISION by HERMAN S. WOLK AND RICHARD P. HALLION
….When Truman called his military chiefs to the White House on 18 June 1945, uppermost in his mind were the mounting American casualties in the Pacific island campaigns. Most revealing of Truman’s mindset—and frequently neglected by historians—was Adm William Leahy’s memorandum of 14 June calling the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to this meeting. Leahy in-formed the JCS that Truman wanted
an estimate of the time required and an estimate of the losses in killed and wounded that will result from an invasion of Japan proper.
He wants an estimate of the time and the losses that will result from an effort to defeat Japan by isolation, blockade, and bombardment by sea and air forces. . . .
It is his intention to make his decisions on the campaign with the purpose of economizing to the maximum extent possible in the loss of American lives.
Economy in the use of time and in money cost is comparatively unimportant.4
In the middle of June 1945, Okinawa was the one campaign that Truman had foremost in his mind. It had been a staggeringly bloody campaign that killed or wounded about 49,000 Americans. The ferocity of the Japanese defenders and the stunningly successful Japanese use of kamikaze suicide planes gave Truman and the military leadership pause concerning potential American casualties in an invasion of Kyushu (Operation Olympic), which Truman approved on 18 June for 1 November 1945. Based on the American casualty rate of 35 percent for Okinawa—emphasized to Truman during the meeting of 18 June 1945—the US could suffer approximately 268,000 casualties in a Kyushu invasion, given the size of the invading forces.5
Also foreboding to Truman were the facts that some 6,000 to 8,000 kamikaze planes would be available to oppose a Kyushu landing and that the Japanese could count on more than 2 million troops to defend the home islands with great ferocity. Throughout World War II, the US Navy had 34 ships sunk, 368 damaged, 4,907 sailors killed, and 4,824 wounded from kamikaze at-tacks. For approximately every seven kamikazes en-countered, the Navy had a ship sunk or damaged. The fact was that Japanese hard-liners in the military and the government were insisting on a fight to the finish, with the objective of forcing a negotiated peace that would modify or destroy the surrender policy of the Truman administration. They emphasized the losses that the Americans had suffered on Okinawa. The US Army’s medical plan for Operation Olympic estimated that total battle and nonbattle casualties (not including dead) could be 394,859.
….Had the atomic bombs not been used, would Japan have surrendered prior to the invasion of Kyushu, scheduled for 1 November 1945? This answer, of course, cannot be determined. However, had the B-29 campaign continued for several more months, more Japanese would have been killed than at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine any other means whereby Japan could have surrendered with casualties equivalent to or less than those experienced at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan had been defeated but was not willing to surrender. The Japanese military and government were, in effect, holding their own people hostage.
Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were, under the principles of international law, legitimate military targets for attack. Both had extensive armament factories as well as war-related industries, and both contributed significantly to Japanese military transportation networks. Further, both had robust military establishments. Hiroshima, for example, was the headquarters of the Japanese Second Army—virtually destroyed in the atomic bombing of the city. Beyond this rationale, the decision to drop the atomic bomb on both of these tar-gets did not constitute an act of aggression against a foe already reduced to impotence by Allied attack. Indeed, in August 1945, fighting still raged across Asia: an invasion of Malaya was planned for later in the year. In particular, hundreds of thousands of Allied prisoners were in mortal danger. By this time, 43 percent of the prisoners in Japanese hands (almost 400,000 captives) had died—a clear measure of the brutality of Japanese rule overall. (The toll of Japanese rule is approximately 20 million dead.) As recent scholarship has shown, clear evidence exists that, had the Allies invaded, the Japanese would have slaughtered these prisoners of war.7 Also worthy of note is the fact that Japan had under way a vigorous program to develop an atomic bomb.8


19. President Harry S. Truman and the atomic bomb, History Today, August 1995, by Alonzo Hamby
On June 18th, the president met with his top military officials to discuss the possible scenarios for ending the war against Japan. They recommended an invasion of Kyushu no later than November 1st. The operation would be enormous: 766,000 American assault troops engaging an estimated 350,000 Japanese defenders. It would be followed in 1946 by a decisive campaign near Tokyo on the main island of Honshu.
Would the Kyushu operation, Truman asked, be 'another Okinawa closer to Japan'? With questionable optimism, the military chiefs of staff predicted the casualties would be somewhat lighter. Still their estimate for the first thirty days was 31,000 casualties. Truman gave his reluctant approval, but not without saying he hoped 'there was a possibility of preventing an Okinawa from one end of Japan to another'.
In fact, Pentagon planners were at work on estimates that projected 132,000 casualties (killed, wounded, missing) for Kyushu, another 90,000 or so for Honshu. Of these, probably a quarter would be fatalities. The figures were not wholly worked out by the June 18th, meeting but they would be given to Truman in due course and would constitute the estimates upon which he acted. In later years, he exaggerated them, but they required no magnification to make the atomic bomb a compelling option.
….The Japanese surrender offer put before Truman on August 10th, still insisted on retention of the emperor. Only Secretary of State Byrnes was reluctant to accept it. Truman opted for a response asserting that the Japanese message met American terms with the understanding that the emperor would be subject to the Allied supreme commander. At a Cabinet meeting, he declared there would be no more atomic bombings. Secretary of Commerce Henry Wallace recorded his attitude: 'He said the thought of wiping out another 100,000 people was too horrible. He didn't like the idea of killing, as he said, "all those kids"'.
….At the August 10th cabinet meeting, Truman declared ('most fiercely', according to Wallace) that he expected the Russians to stall on the surrender in order to grab as much of Manchuria as possible, and that if China and Britain agreed to the American terms, he would not wait for the Russians. Scholars of the Left invoke such bits and pieces of anti-Soviet rhetoric as proof that the bombs were dropped not to compel a Japanese surrender but to intimidate the USSR. Yet there is no credible evidence in Truman's personal contemporary writings or his later accounts that he saw the use of the bomb as a way of making a point to the Russians -- although he clearly thought its existence would strengthen the hand of the United States.

20. Martin J. Sherwin, Dartmouth College, Oxford Companion to World War II
The military use of atomic weapons was expected not only to end the war; it was assumed it would help to organize an American peace. While these expectations and decisions may be understandable in the context of four years of scientific secrecy and brutal war, they were not inevitable. They were avoidable. In the end, that is the most important lesson of Hiroshima for the nuclear age.

21. Minutes of the second meeting of the Target Committee Los Alamos, May 10-11, 1945
…7. Psychological Factors in Target Selection
A. It was agreed that psychological factors in the target selection were of great importance. Two aspects of this are (1) obtaining the greatest psychological effect against Japan and (2) making the initial use sufficiently spectacular for the importance of the weapon to be internationally recognized when publicity on it is released.
B. In this respect Kyoto has the advantage of the people being more highly intelligent and hence better able to appreciate the significance of the weapon. Hiroshima has the advantage of being such a size and with possible focusing from nearby mountains that a large fraction of the city may be destroyed. The Emperor's palace in Tokyo has a greater fame than any other target but is of least strategic value.


22. Leaflets dropped on cities in Japan warning civilians about the atomic bomb, dropped c. August 6, 1945
TO THE JAPANESE PEOPLE:America asks that you take immediate heed of what we say on this leaflet.
We are in possession of the most destructive explosive ever devised by man. A single one of our newly developed atomic bombs is actually the equivalent in explosive power to what 2000 of our giant B-29s can carry on a single mission. This awful fact is one for you to ponder and we solemnly assure you it is grimly accurate.
We have just begun to use this weapon against your homeland. If you still have any doubt, make inquiry as to what happened to Hiroshima when just one atomic bomb fell on that city.
Before using this bomb to destroy every resource of the military by which they are prolonging this useless war, we ask that you now petition the Emperor to end the war. Our president has outlined for you the thirteen consequences of an honorable surrender. We urge that you accept these consequences and begin the work of building a new, better and peace-loving Japan.
You should take steps now to cease military resistance. Otherwise, we shall resolutely employ this bomb and all our other superior weapons to promptly and forcefully end the war.
EVACUATE YOUR CITIES.
Source: Harry S. Truman Library, Miscellaneous historical document file, no. 258.

23. Truman Speech, August 9, 1945 (excerpt)
The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians. But that attack is only a warning of things to come. If Japan does not surrender, bombs will have to be dropped on her war industries and, unfortunately, thousands of civilian lives will be lost. I urge Japanese civilians to leave industrial cities immediately, and save themselves from destruction. 24. Excerpt from public statement by President Truman. This was the first time he publicly gave a reason for using the atomic bomb on Japan 8/6/45:
"The Japanese began the war from the air at Pearl Harbor. They have been repaid many fold.
"If they do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth." (Public Papers of the Presidents, Harry S. Truman, 1945, pg. 197, 199).




25. Testimony of Hatchobori Streetcar Survivors
Seven hundred and fifty meters from ground zero, these are the testimonies of the passengers who were on the same streetcar in a Hatchobori area when the atomic bomb fell. A little after eight in the morning on August 6, the streetcar for Koi left Hiroshima Station. And at 8:15 it approached Hatchobori Station, 780 meters from the hypocenter and an intense flash and blast engulfed the car, instantly setting it on fire. It is said that seventy cars were running in the city at the same time. They were an important means of transportation for the citizens, and all the trains were packed with people since it was the morning rush hour. Nearly 100 passengers are said to have been on board on the streetcar which was near Hatchobori. But the survival of only ten have been confirmed to date. Seven out of ten have recorded their testimonies on this video tape.
Tomiko Sasaki, 17 on that day, was on her way to her friend's house in Funairi with two classmates as it was their holiday from student mobilization labor. Approximately two weeks after the bombing, her two classmates died.
INTERVIEWER: Were three of you on the same part of the car?
SASAKI: Yes. I was standing in front here and the others were next to me. There was the flash and darkness. I think I was unconscious for a while. We came to and called each other's names. My friends complained of the heat and terrible pain. I saw that one side of her body had been badly burned. There was a water tank for fire prevention, but the water wasn't clear due to all the dust. I put my handkerchief in the water and I put it over her burns, but she went on crying in pain. Both of my friends were burned. As for myself, flesh was hanging from my whole face was bloody. Fortunately I escaped from being burnt. I think it made a big difference that I was not burned. In fact, I think that saved my life.
Eiko Taoka, then 21, was heading for Funairi with her one year old son to secure wagon in preparation for her move out of the building which was to be evacuated. Her son died of radiation sickness on August 28.
TAOKA: When we were near in Hatchobori and since I had been holding my son in my arms, the young woman in front of me said, "I will be getting off here. Please take this seat." We were just changing places when there was a strange smell and sound. It suddenly became dark and before I knew it, I had jumped outside.
INTERVIEWER: What about your son?
TAOKA: I held him firmly and looked down on him. He had been standing by the window and I think fragments of glass had pierced his head. His face was a mess because of the blood flowing from his head. But he looked at my face and smiled. His smile has remained glued in my memory. He did not comprehend what had happened. And so he looked at me and smiled at my face which was all bloody. I had plenty of milk which he drank all throughout that day. I think my child sucked the poison right out of my body. And soon after that he died. Yes, I think that he died for me.
Shizuno Tochiki, 23 at that time, was on her way to her office in Kogo. Immediately after the bombing, she had a high fever which lasted for ten days. She's suffered the symptoms of radiation sickness, the purple spots appeared all over her body and her hair fell out. It was only after one month that she was finally able to get up.
TOCHIKI: I think the air-raid warning had been lifted, so I left for Hatchobori without worrying. Then, there was a flash and a big sound which is known as ``Pika-don''. The train shock and it seemed to me as if a flash had directly entered my eyes. It was extremely hot. Because of the jolt, people fell right on top of each other. I think I was at a very bottom. I thought I would be crashed to death in a little while because I was so small and had the weight of all those people on top of me. But one by the people on top finally left the car. They ran with all their might along the railroad tracks. I could hear someone shout, ``Another hit and we're finished.'' But I could only see people's shadows. When I gained consciousness, I was in a bed. I don't remember how many days it took until I could walk again. One day I asked for a cane, but I couldn't walk straight since my legs were so thin and so shaky. I staggered towards a mirror and I fell utterly, completely miserable as I had no hair, all my hair was gone. But just being able to walk to the next room made me so happy.
Keiko Matsuda, then 14, on her way to Miyajima with two friends since they had no mobilized labor on that day. One of her friends who had been closest to the front and received the worst burns died in the first-aid station in Nukushina.
MATSUDA: It was very, very hot. I touched my skin and it just peeled right off. The driver of the streetcar was not in sight. I thought he had been quick to run away but now I think that he was probably hurled outside in the blast. It was around August 25 that a pile of my hair just fell off all at once. I had a high fever and maggots infested in my eyes.
INTERVIEWER: In your eyes?
ISHIDA: Several months later, I can remember, I remember a cold morning, I don't know why but my mother always kept a round hand mirror by my pillow, which I picked up without thinking. I looked at my face and I saw something so shiny on the corner of my head. Using all my energy, I called out to my mother who was in the kitchen, and I said, ``Mother! My hair is growing back!'' She was so happy that she held me and she cried. I'll never forget that day and the feel of the tears that my mother shed for me while she held me in her arms. It still comes back to me even though the people here are of different ages, we are also all of the same age. On August 6th, 1945, all of us died once and then, we were brought back to life. We were all born again. And we're in our second life now. Everyone gathered here today is now 41 years old if you count the number the years from the bombing. It's like a class reunion. I feel that we must testify in the hope that our experience will help to keep mankind from perishing.

Coming of Age in Mississippi Reading Due on 3/3

Discussion Questions: Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi

1. Describe Anne Moody’s economic circumstances as a child in Mississippi. When and why did she become a domestic servant?

2. Explain Anne's awakening to racial inequality. What are some of the incidents in childhood that spark her consciousness? How does she first challenge white supremacy and what is the reaction of her family?

3. How did the Emmit Till lynching affect Anne Moody?

4. How did Anne overcome the obstacles to get a college education? Where did she go to school? Did she graduate?

5. How would you describe the attitude toward sex in the college that Anne Moody attended? How does it differ from today’s attitude?

6. Anne frequently refers to African-Americans who were of the “high yellow caste.” To what is she referring?

7. Describe Anne Moody’s involvement in the Civil Rights Movement?

8. How does Anne judge the success of the Civil Rights Movement?

9. Anne Moody attended the August 28, 1963 March on Washington. "I sat on the grass and listened to the speakers, to discover we had 'dreamers' instead of leaders leading us...I sat there thinking that in Canton we never had time to sleep, much less dream." How does this contradict Americans' popular memory and celebration of the March and Martin Luther King, Jr's speech?

10. What does Anne Moody’s story tell us of life for African Americans during the Civil Rights era?

FINAL EXAM SCHEDULE

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 11-1:30

SCHMOLL/HISTORY 232/Essay topics

SCHMOLL/HISTORY 232/Essay topics:
This essay is 3-4 pages, typed, double-spaced.
3/10 Book Essay Due (Due by midnight to turnitin)

1. Wounded Knee (1890) crucial for understanding American history?
Here are some good sources:
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/eight/gdmessg.htm
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/eight/gddescrp.htm
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/eight/sbarrest.htm
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/eight/wkmiles.htm
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/eight/wklakota.htm
http://www1.assumption.edu/users/McClymer/us%20survey/BaumSittingBull.html

2. Japanese Internment:
Considering Japanese Internment as your key historical context, is interning citizens or non-citizens ever justified?
Here are some good sources:
http://www1.assumption.ed/users/McClymer/bedfordprototype/toc/SanFranciscoNews4242.html
http://www.densho.org/
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-worldwar/5851

3. Immigration Interview Project:
Conduct interviews with at least four people who immigrated to the United States. Compare their experience with the experiences of people who came to the country through Ellis Island.
Here is a good source:
http://www.dumas-k12.net/socst/K-5/Grade_5/Supplements/13_Voices%20From%20Ellis%20Island.pdf
4. Heroism: What is the meaning and importance of heroes in the modern world?
Remember, this question must be answered in the context of 232. You may use current figures, but you must think historically and use historical examples to prove your point.

5. What was the meaning of Race and Racism in the 1910s and 1920s?
Here are some good sources:
http://www1.assumption.edu/ahc/1920s/Passing.html
http://www1.assumption.edu/ahc/1920s/Eugenics/Klan.html
http://www1.assumption.edu/ahc/1920s/Eugenics/default.html

6. Music: “Okie from Muskogee” (Merle Haggard) versus “Asshole from El Paso” (Kinky Friedman)
In what context were these songs created? What role does music play in responding to cultural, social, political, or economic changes?

7. Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms: Choose one of the paintings and essays and discuss the importance of that Freedom in the historical context in which it was created.
Here is a good source:
http://www.best-norman-rockwell-art.com/norman-rockwell-saturday-evening-post-article-1943-02-20-freedom-of-speech.html

8. Were the 1950s really Happy Days?

9. History of Childhood: Choose one of the following periods we have covered in this course:
Reconstruction, the 1890s, WWI, the 1920s, the 1930s, the 1940s, or the 1950s. Compare and contrast childhood today with childhood from that era. It is up to you to classify what “growing up” means in 2010. That means more than just saying that there is now tv and fast food and internet. It means reading, researching what others have said is significant about childhood today. Here’s an example: The Sociology of Childhood by William A. Corsaro. This book traces the meaning of childhood, focusing on the construction of identity by children.

10. Make Your own: If you choose this, you must clear your topic with me.

6 Relevant Writing Moments for History Essays

WE'LL TALK MORE ABOUT THESE IN CLASS, BUT HERE'S A BRIEF VIEW OF FIVE IMPORTANT WRITING ISSUES TO CONSIDER WHEN THINKING OF HOW TO WRITE FOR THIS CLASS.
1. Think Creatively: don't be boring and descriptive!

2. Avoid plagiarism: I know that you've heard it all before, but please, be honorable! If you use someone else's words, even if it's justa few of them, put them in quotes and cite them!!!

3. Maintain paragraph coherence: Each paragraph should have one main point, and that point should help make your case!

4. Introduce Authors Correctly: At first mention use first and last name and the author's position of authority (such as "historian," "professor of anthropology," etc), and after the first mention, use only the author's last name.

5. Avoid fragments and run-ons (fused sentences): Listen, I can give you exercise upon exercise, but ample research shows that they don't work. If you want to avoid these in this paper, bring me a draft. If you want to solve this basic problem in your writing for the lon run there are three easy steps. Read, then read, and then read. Reading is panacea!

6. Turn in a professional final product. If your final essay has simple spelling and editing mistakes, I'll simply assume you don't care about it...turn in a polished final product.

What a contrast!

How to Quarantine Disease in an Isolationist Country:

I. Intro:
Abraham Lincoln Brigade


II. PEACE IN THE 1920s
A. Isolation
B. Washington Conference
C. Kellogg-Briand Pact
D. The Peace Movement

III. ISOLATION TO WAR
A. Isolationist Tension:
1. Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act (1934)
“Foreign markets must be regained if producers are to rebuild a full and enduring domestic prosperity.” (FDR)
2. Nye Committee
3. Neutrality Acts
FDR: “no state has the right to intervene in the internal or external affairs of another.”
4. Ludlow Amendment
B. Non-Belligerence:
1. Stockpile Act
2. Educational Orders Act
3. Civilian War Resources Board
4. Lend-Lease
5. The Atlantic Charter
C. War: Attack of Pearl Harbor

THE NEW DEAL

I. The Election of 1932:
Herbert Hoover vs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt

II. THE NEW DEAL
--RELIEF, RECOVERY, REFORM—

A. RELIEF:
1. work relief:

1935--1943
WPA --employed 8.5 million americans
--spent $10.5 billion
--constructed 651,087 miles of roads
--125,110 public buildings
--8192 parks
--853 airports
-- built or repaired 124,087 bridges

2. direct assistance

B. RECOVERY:
1. industry:
2. agriculture:

C. REFORM:

1. Social Security Act:
2. Emergency Banking Act:

Was the New Deal Successful?

III. OTHER RESPONSES TO THE DEPRESSION:
A. Cultural Responses
B. Political Responses from the Left:
1. Huey Long, "Share Our Wealth"

2. Dr. Townsend, "Old Age Revolving
Pension"
3. Father Coughlin, "Social Justice"
C. Political Responses from the Right:
1. Father Coughlin turns Right

2. William Dudley Pelly's "Silver Shirts"

IV. SIGNIFICANCE:
A. desperate times require desperate policy
B. changing expectation of govt. involvement


"It is my contention that no one should be allowed to write about FDR who did not experience that era. It really is one of those cases of you had to be there. Roosevelt may be a myth...today, but 60 years ago that myth looked more like hope. In his fireside chats, he turned our Philco radios into shrines, and when he said that America could not afford to live with one-third of a nation ill-housed and ill-fed, we thought he would do something about it. And he did."

Daniel Schorr, "The FDR 'Myth': You Had To Be There," Christian Science Monitor, 25 October 1996

The Great Depression:

I. Intro
A. Origins:
B. Impact of the Depression:
1) Morally
2) Economically
3) Emotionally

II. What Did it do to people?
A) Work:
B) Savings:
C) Housing:

“But in spite of these efforts, the number of foreclosures started in February rose to 243,000 from 217,000 in January. About 87,000 homes were repossessed by banks during February, a 28% jump from the 68,000 foreclosures completed in January. Since the mortgage meltdown hit in July 2007, 1,395,044 homes have been lost.”

D) Eating:

III. How did people deal with it?

A. BY MAKING FEWER PEOPLE:
B. BY HELPING OUT:
C. BY MOVING:
1. Okies
2. African-American migration
3. Mexican-American
D. PSYCHOLOGICALLY:
1. Suicide:
2. Nervous breakdowns:
3. Blaming themselves
4. Blaming others:
a) Hoover and other politicians:
b) business interests:
c) women:
d) Mexican-Americans:
e) blacks:

HERE’S A DEEP QUESTION TO PONDER:
Does poverty cause discrimination, discrimination cause poverty, or is there no relationship between the two?

IV. No Single Great Depression Experience:
1. very wealthy
2. Pre-Depression Poor:
3. Middle-class/young middle class:

V. Why Important?

Origins of Great Depression

1. U.S. Business Fundamentally Flawed
a. Overproduction/underconsumption
b.Stock market speculation

c. Run on the Banks

2. Farm Depression
The Dust Bowl

3. Worldwide depression

4. Bad Policy:
a. Hawley-Smoot Tariff
b. Agricultural Marketing Act:
c. National Credit Corporation:
d. Reconstruction Finance
Corporation:
e. Presidential Organization for
Unemployment Relief (POUR)
f. Bonus March

This is early, but it's a good article that will be important later...

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/01/greensboro.four.sitins/index.html?hpt=C2

Midterm Exam Study Guide

YOU MUST BRING A NEW BLUE BOOK TO THIS EXAM.

EXAM DATE: 2/5, next friday

I. TERMS: 6 Terms—you choose and write about five. EACH TERM SHOULD INCLUDE A FULL PARAGRAPH EXPLAINING WHAT THE TERM IS AND WHEN IT HAPPENED. YOUR ANSWER MUST ALSO INCLUDE A SECTION SAYING WHY THE TERM IS IMPORTANT, WHY IT IS SIGNIFICANT!

Wade-Davis Bill
Johnson’s Restoration
Tenure of Office Act
14th Amendment
Freedmen’s Bureau
Social Darwinism
Jane Addams
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
Pure Food and Drug Act
Yellow Journalism
USS Maine
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
Zimmerman Telegram
Edward Bernays
Sheppard-Towner Act
Carrie Nation
18th Amendment
Volstead Act
19th Amendment


II. ESSAY: Two essay questions—you choose and write one. I WILL WRITE THE QUESTIONS FROM THESE LARGER CATEGORIES. YOU WILL HAVE TWO TO CHOOSE FROM AND WILL WRITE ONE.

The essay questions will come from one or two of the following themes:

1. Reconstruction: Think about the challenges of reconstructing the war-torn nation, how various groups tried to solve those problems, and which plan eventually went into effect.
2. Progressivism: Think about the many movements involved and how successful they each were in improving the world.
3. The 1920s: Think about the “progress” or “decline” model that we discussed in class.
4. Foreign Policy: Think about how the U.S. uses its power around the world.


HOW TO SUCCEED ON THIS TEST: Start early. We know that cramming can work, but it’s never as good as actual disciplined study. Make outlines for each theme. Make sure that your outlines have far more information than you could ever remember. Avoid the big general statements. Instead, add detail to your outline. Then, use those outlines to study; try to rewrite the outline without looking; say the outline out loud in front of a mirror; use the outline to impress your friends at work or at parties; come to office hours and let me see the outline.
The one comment I write more than any other on midterms is “add more detail.” So, learn some details to back up your understanding of the periods we have studied. I want you to do well!

Using body insecurity to sell products? An Advertising Tradition.

Prohibition and the Crazy 1920s

I. Prohibition Law:
A. 18th Amendment
(prohibiting manufacture, sale, transport)
B. Volstead Act
(making the 18th a “bone dry” amendment)
C. "Five and Ten Law"
(1929, 5 year, $10,000 penalty)

III. Prohibition Failure:
Why Not More of a Success?
A. Minimal Enforcement:
B. Unrealistic Expectations:
C. Corruption:
D. Policy without Authority:

III. Repeal:
A. 21st Amendment (Dec. 5, 1933)
B. The Constitution and Federal Intervention

IV. Progress and Decline in the 1920s:
A. 20s as Decade of Cultural/Economic Flowering:
1. Consumerism:
Lowest 40%=$725
190-housing
110-clothing
290-food
=135 left

Edward Bernays=father of modern pr

2. Movies:
3. Harlem Renaissance
4. “Lost Generation” =Great Literature
5. The “New Woman”

B. 1920s as a Decade of Ignorance, Cultural Decay
1. Influenza
2. Urban Racial Unrest: Chicago, 1919
…48 recorded lynchings in 1917
…78 recorded lynchings in 1919
3. Nativism:
a. National Origins Act of 1924
b. Sacco and Vanzetti
4. The KKK
5. Scopes Monkey Trial

VII. Significance:

Studs Terkel Reading Guide

History 232 Studs Terkel Reading Guide: THE BOOK IS DUE TO BE READ ON FEB. 17

The Good War is an incredible book. You are going to love it! You may become so entranced by the stories herein that you feel compelled to read every page. Here’s how to read it for this class:

1. Read the Introduction;
2. Read the whole section called "A Sunday Morning;"
3. For every chapter/section thereafter, Read one story
A Chance Encounter ____________

Tales of the Pacific ____________

The Good Reuben James ____________

Rosie ____________

Neighborhood Boys ____________

Reflections on Machismo ____________

High Rank ____________

The Bombers and the Bombed ____________

Growing Up: Here and There ____________

D-Day and All That ____________

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy ____________

Sudden Money ____________

The Big Panjandrum ____________

Flying High ____________

Up Front with Pen, Camera, and Mike __________

Crime and Punishment ____________

A Turning Point ____________

Chilly Winds ____________

Is You Is or Is you Aint my Baby ____________

Remembrance of Things Past ____________

4. Read the Epilogue

More on Hyphenated Americanism

The caption says, "Why should I let these freaks cast whole ballots when they are only half Americans?"

The Progressive Era

ARE THESE 2 QUOTES CONTRADICTORY?

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
Emma Lazarus, "The New Colossus"

There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism...The one absolutely certain way of bringing the nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities.
Theodore Roosevelt, 1915


The Progressive Era:
I. Origins
Hull House—1889
Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr
http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/10870.html

II. A New Mindset:
Progressivism Defined:
Progressivism was a series of movements designed to combat the ills of industrialism. Some progressives also wanted to control the behavior of the working classes.

Stanley Schultz, Univ. of Wisconsin:
· Government should be more active
· Social problems are susceptible to government legislation and action
· Throw money at the problem
· The world is “perfectible”

III. Progressive Movements:
A. Anti-Trust
Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890
“Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, is declared to be illegal.”

B. Anti-Lynching (Ida B. Wells-Barnett)

C. Good Government Movement
--17th Amendment=direct election of senators
--referendums and recalls

D. Consumer Protection: The Jungle
Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906

IV. Progressivism in Practice:

TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FIRE OF 1911

A. The ILGWU Strike:
B. Fire on the Factory Floor
C. Reporters and the Visibility of Triangle
1. "Love Affair in Mid-Air"
2. Mortillalo and Zito
D. The Public Response


V. Progressivism in Practice Elsewhere:

As a Progressive, you believe that you have the correct way to live and that through the proper use of government you can help other live that way. What are the boundaries, the frontiers of your belief? In other words, how far are you willing to go with this belief?

Progressivism Abroad

Progressivism Abroad

I. Why the Outward Look?
A. Peer Pressure
B. Foreign Policy Community
C. Capitalism
D. "Yellow" Journalism
E. Racism

II. Anti-Imperialists:

III. Hawaii (Liliuokalani)

IV. Spanish-American War:
A. Cuban Revolution
B. The Maine
C. The War with Spain
D. The Outcome

V. The Great War:
“He Kept us Out of War”
“The War to End All Wars”

Industrialism

I. Why was there such vast growth so rapidly in the U.S.?

1. War: Why would war encourage industrial growth?

Example #1: Morrill Act (1862)

Example #2: Railroads:
1860: 30,000 miles of r.r.
1864: Congress grants 131 million acres
1910: 240,000 miles of railway

2. Resources: land, raw materials, people,
ideas=booooooom!

1864: 872,000 tons of iron and steel
1919: more than 24 million tons

1860: 20 million tons of coal
1910: 500 million tons of coal

1860: 500,000 barrels of petroleum
1910: 209 million barrels of petroleum


3. Integration:

a. Horizontal Integration:
--monopolize one part of the productive process

Example: meatpacking plants


b. Vertical Integration:
--monopolize all elements of productive process

Example: Andrew Carnegie: mining iron ore, own blast furnaces (factories), own shops, own ships, own railroad and rail lines



4. Mindset:

a. Small Government is Best:
Laissez faire: “let it do”

Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (1776)

b. Aggressive Business Mentality:
The Robber Barons

Andrew Carnegie—FRIDAY

J.P. Morgan

Jay Gould: “Mephistopheles of Wall Street”

Cornelius Van Derbilt:


Gentlemen:
You have undertaken to cheat me. I will not sue you, for law takes too long. I will ruin you.
Sincerely,
CVD


c. Justifying the New World:
How do you justify the world when fabulous wealth and wretched poverty exist so closely together?

Strenuous Life

http://www.bartleby.com/58/1.html

This is our first reading. The reading guide is very simple: what does TR mean by living the strenuopus life? Why does he consider this vital? How is the idea applicable to today's world?

Race Relations before 1900

1. "How can we ask more of the States formerly in rebellion than that they should be abreast of New England in granting rights and privileges to the colored race?"

2. "The humblest black rides with the proudest white on terms of perfect equality, and without the smallest symptom of malice or dislike on either side. I was, I confess, surprised to see how completely this is the case; even an English radical is a little taken aback at first."

3. "The Negroes are freely admitted to the theatre in Columbia and to other exhibitions, lectures, etc, though the whites avoided sitting with them if the hall be not crowded."

4. "In Columbia they are served at the bars, soda water fountains, and ice-cream saloons, though they were not accepted at hotels and other accommodations."

5. Charleston editor, "We care nothing whatever about Northern or outside opinion in this matter. Our opinion is that we have no more need for a Jim Crow system this year than we had last year, and a great deal less than we had twenty and thirty years ago."

6. "Jim Crow laws would be a needless affront to our respectable and well behaved colored people."

7. VA, 1886, "Nobody here objects to sitting in political conventions with Negroes. Nobody here objects to serving on juries with Negroes. No lawyer objects to practicing law in court where Negro lawyers practice…Colored men are allowed to introduce bills into the Virginia legislature, and in both branches of this body Negroes are allowed to sit, as they have a right to sit."

8. "Occasionally the Negro met no segregation when he entered restaurants, bars, waiting rooms, theatres, and other public places of amusement."

9. 1885, "In Virginia they may ride exactly as white people do and in the same cars"

10. 1885, traveled from Boston to South Carolina, once there, "I put a chip on my shoulder, and inwardly dares any man to knock it off…bold as a lion I took a seat at a table with white people, and I was courteously served. The whites at the table appeared not to note my presence. Thus far I had found travelling more pleasant than in some parts of New England."

11. Same guy, "Negroes dine with whites in a railroad saloon

Taken from C. Vann Woodward's The Strange Career of Jim Crow (1955)

Dr. Dhada's Visit

Write a note regarding Dr. Dhada's enlightening visit to discuss Jourdan Anderson.

Dr. S

RECONSTRUCTION OUTLINE

"RECONSTRUCTING A BROKEN UNION"

I. Reconstruction
A. PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION
--Lincoln
--Johnson
B. CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION
--Thaddeus Stevens & Charles Sumner
--Wade-Davis Bill (ironclad oath)
--Freedmen's Bureau
C. JOHNSON'S “RESTORATION”
--Black Codes
D. RADICALS STRIKE BACK
1. First Civil Rights Bill
2. First Reconstruction Acts
3. 14th Amendment
4. Tenure of Office Act
5. Fifteenth Amendment
E. The Compromise of 1877

The Souls of Black Folk (1901) W.E.B. DuBois:
"For this much all men know: despite compromise, war, and struggle, the Negro is not free. In the backwoods...he may not leave the plantation of his birth...in the whole rural South the black farmers are...bound by law and custom to an economic slavery, from which the only escape is death or the penitentiary. In the most cultured sections and cities of the South the Negroes are a segregated and servile caste, with restricted rights and privileges. Before the courts, both in law and custom, they stand on a different and peculiar basis...The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line."

FIRST BOOK: A STRENUOUS LIFE, THEODORE ROOSEVELT

http://www.bartleby.com/58/1.html

...OR HERE...

http://books.google.com/books?id=z7XcUl35-iMC&dq=theodore+roosevelt+a+strenuous+life&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=Q9dES9TOBIqYMbnWxPEB&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=&f=false

SYLLABUS SIGN IN SHEET

For Friday, either handwrite this note or print it out and bring it with you.


I have read and understand all of the policies of the syllabus for History 232.


Signed ___________________________ 1/8/10

COURSE SYLLABUS

History 232: 10:55-12:15
Winter 2010
Section 3
DDH 107G
Office: Faculty Towers 201A
Instructor: Dr. Schmoll
Office Hours: MWF 9:30-10:30
…OR MAKE AN APPOINTMENT!!!
Email: bschmoll@csub.edu
Office Phone: 654-6549

Course Description: We will examine the political, social, and cultural foundations of American history from 1870 to the Present. We will cover Reconstruction, the problems of an increasingly urban and industrialized society, and the United States in World Affairs.

Course Reading: Course Reading: 1. Paul Johnson, History of the American People
2. Theodore Roosevelt, The Strenuous Life
3. Studs Terkel, The Good War
4. Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi
5. Weekly Readings on the course blog

Grading Scale:
5% Debate on Dropping of the Bomb
10% Participation
25% Book Assignment/Essay
30% Midterm Exam
30% Final Examination

The Blog: If you have questions or comments about this class, or if you want to see the course reader or the syllabus online, just go to http://schmollhistory232winter2010.blogspot.com/.
You will also have short readings on the blog. I will announce these in class.

Attendance:
Just to be clear, to succeed on tests and papers you really should be in class. That’s just common sense, right? To pass this class, you may not miss more than two classes. If you miss that third class meeting, you are missing 10% of the quarter. You cannot do that and pass. So, here’s what we do. Do your best to not miss any class unnecessarily. Let’s say your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, or wife calls and wants to take you to Tahiti this weekend, but you won’t be back until late Tuesday night. Here’s what you say: “Honey, I love you, but Dr. Schmoll seems to value my education more than you do, so we are breaking up.” Ok, that may be harsh, so don’t do that, but just make sure that you do not miss any class until the 8th week. What I’ve found is that it seems inevitable that those who miss two classes early for pathetic reasons like doctor’s appointments that should have been more carefully scheduled get to the 8th week and then have to miss for a legitimate reason (like a surprise meeting at work, a sick child to take care of, or a flat tire). If you get to that 8th week and then have to miss your third class, it’ll be bad. By that point, I’ll be kind, compassionate, a real shoulder to cry on, if you want, when telling you that you’ve now failed the course. Now, if you make it to the 8th or 9th week and you have not missed those two classes, then you have some wiggle room, so that if, heaven forbid, your cat Poopsie gets pneumonia and you have to sit up all night bottle-feeding her liquid antibiotics, you and I don’t have to have that ugly conversation where I tell you that Poopsie gets blamed for you failing the course. Let’s put this another way; do you like movies? No way, me too! When you go to the movies do you usually get up and walk around the theatre for 15% of the movie? Let’s say you do decide to do that, out of a love of popcorn and movie posters, perhaps. If you did that, would you expect to understand the whole story? Okay, maybe if you are watching Harold and Kumar, but for anything else, you’ll be lost. So, please, get to class.
Being Prompt:
Get to class on time. Why does that matter? First, it sends the wrong message to your principal grader(that’s me). As much as we in the humanities would like you to believe that these courses are objective (at what time of day did the Battle of the Marne begin?), that is not entirely the case. If you send your principal grader the message that you don’t mind missing the first few minutes and disturbing others in the class, don’t expect to be given the benefit of the doubt when the tests and papers roll around. Does that sound mean? It’s not meant to, but just remember, your actions send signals. Being late also means that someone who already has everything out and is ready and is involved in the discussion has to stop, move everything over, get out of the chair to let you by, pick up the pencil you drop, let you borrow paper, run to the bathroom because you spilled the coffee, and so on. It’s rude. There’s an old saying: better two hours early than two minutes late. Old sayings are good.
So, what are the consequences of persistent tardiness? What do you think they should be? Remember that 10% participation? You are eligible for that grade if you are on time. Get here on time. It is especially important in a class that begins at 7:55!!! And no, I’m not the jackass who watches for you to be late that one time and stands at the door and points in your face. If you are late a few (that means three) times, you will lose the entire 10% participation grade. One time tardiness is not a problem precisely because it is not persistent. It’s an accident. But if you are late several times, you will not be able to receive a participation grade above 50%.

The Unforgivable Curse:
Speaking of one time issues, there is something that is so severe, so awful, that if it happens one time, just one time, no warning, no “oh hey I noticed this and if you could stop it that’d be super,” you will automatically lose all 10 percent of the Participation grade. Any guesses? C’mon, you must have some idea. No, it’s not your telephone ringing. If that happens, it’ll just be slightly funny and we’ll move on. It’s a mistake and not intentional, and the increased heart rate and extra sweat on your brow from you diving headfirst into an overstuffed book bag to find a buried phone that is now playing that new Cristina Aguilera ringtone is punishment enough for you. So, what is it, this unforgivable crime? Texting. If you take out your phone one time to send or receive messages you will automatically lose 10% of your course grade. That means, if you receive a final grade of 85%, it will drop to 75%. If you receive a final grade of 75%, it will become a 65%. Why is that? The phone ringing is an accident. Texting is on purpose and is rude. It, in fact, is beyond rude. It wreaks of the worst of our current society. It bespeaks the absolutely vile desire we all have to never separate from our technological tether for even a moment. It sends your fellow classmates and your teacher the signal that you have better things to do. Checking your phone during class is like listening to a friend’s story and right in the middle turning away and talking to someone else. Plus, the way our brains work, you need to fully immerse yourself, to tune your brain into an optimal, flowing machine (see Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s incredible book Flow) that can grasp and can let itself go. Students now tend to see school as a stopover on their way to a career. Brothers and sisters, that’s deadly! I wish that I could pay for you all to quit your jobs and just focus on the mind. I can’t yet do that, but if I could I would, because it’d be worth every penny. Devoting time to the mind and to thinking deeply about your world will change who you are and how you approach your future, your family, your job, and your everything. Is that overstated? I believe it to be true. So, until my stock choices really take off so that I can pay all of your bills, promise me one thing. When you are in class or preparing for class, you have to be fully here. Oh crap, now it’s going to sound like a hippy professor from the 1960s: “I mean, like, be here man, just be here.” Maybe the hippies were on to something. Devote yourself fully to your classes by unplugging from the outside world for awhile.

Class Climate:
No, I don’t mean whether it’s going to rain in here or not. Sometimes I’ll lecture at you, but even then, your participation is vital. How can you participate when someone is lecturing? Any ideas? Turn to a neighbor and tell them the story of your first day at school in kindergarten. Now, if you are the one listening to the story, right in the middle look away, look at your watch, sneer at them, roll your eyes, yawn, wave to someone across the room, nudge a person next to you and tell them a joke, all while the other person is telling about his or her first day of kindergarten. If this happens in social setting we call it rude, and we call the people who listen in that way jackasses. They are not our friends precisely because we deeply value listening and do not put up with those who do not listen well. Right? So, there will be lecturing, and if you abhor what we are doing, then fake it. I used to do that sometimes too: “oh no, professor, I love hearing you talk about President Reagan’s policies of supply side economics.” If we listen to psychologists, by faking interest you’ll be learning much more than if you show your disinterest. The next time you are sad force yourself to smile and you’ll see what I mean. So, sometimes there will be lecture. At other times there will be discussion of short readings that we do in class. During these times, it’s crucial that you do the silly little exercises: turn to a neighbor; find someone you don’t know and discuss this or that; explain to your friend what we just went over in lecture; pick something from the reading to disagree with; find two people on the other side of the room; throw cash at your professor…ok, maybe not that last one. This class is a bit unique in that it violates the normally accepted activity systems of college history classrooms. What we do in discussion will help solidify the concepts of each section of this course in your brain. If you are active in class, you will have to study less, and you’ll find yourself remembering much more.

Reading:
How many of you love reading? I did not read a book until I was 18, so if you have not yet started your journey on this ever widening path, it’s never too late. In any course, there’s no substitute for reading. Theorist Jim Moffett says that “all real writing happens from plentitude,” meaning that you can only really write well about someone once you know about it. Reading is one way to know—not the only, by any means! I want you to have experiences with great texts. I can show you voluminous research proving why you nee to read more, but then if I assign a stupid, long, expensive textbook you probably will end up not reading, or only reading to have the reading done, something we have all done, right? The economy now requires much higher literacy rates (see The World is Flat), and even though reading levels have not gone down in the last 40 years, it is crucial that you start to push your own reading so that your own literacy level goes up. For these ten weeks, diving wholeheartedly into the course reading is vital. Remember to read in a particular way. As reading expert and UCSB professor Sheridan Blau has argued, “reading is as much a process of text production as writing is.” Reading involves revision? Does that sound silly? As you read, think about the different ways that you understand what you read. Most importantly, when you read, think about the words of E.D. Hirsch, who says that we look at what a text says (reading), what it means (interpretation), and why it matters (criticism). Hey, but if you are in a history course, aren’t you supposed to be reading for exactly the number of miles of trenches that were dug in World War One, how many railroad workers died from 1890 to 1917, or what the causes of the Great Depression were? Anyway, the answer is yes and no. There are two types of reading that you’ll do in college. As the literary goddess theorist Louise Rosenblatt explains, there is aesthetic reading, where you are reading to have an experience with the text, and there is efferent reading, where you are reading to take away information from the text. You do both types all the time. Think about a phone book. You have probably never heard someone say of a phone book, “don’t tell me about it, I want to read it for myself.” Reading a phone book is purely efferent. In this course you will practice both types of reading. I have chosen texts that you can enjoy (aesthetic) and that you can learn from(efferent). I want to see and appreciate the detail in our reading, but in this course I’ll give you that detail in class lectures. In the reading, it’s much more important that you read texts that will live with you forever and to inspire you to think more thoroughly about your world. As you read, you should be working hard to create meaning for yourself. As Rosenblatt asserts, “taking someone else’s interpretation as your own is like having someone else eat your dinner for you.” Please, don’t let the numbskulls as wikipedia or sparknotes eat your dinner for you.

Participation:
You do not need to be the person who speaks out the most, asks the most questions, or comes up with the most brilliant historical arguments to receive full credit in participation. If you are in class and on time, discuss the issues that we raise, avoid the temptation to nod off, to leave early, or to text people during class (the three easiest ways to lose credit), and in general act like you care, then you will receive a good participation grade! Just being here does not guarantee a 100% participation grade, since you must be regularly actively involved for that to be possible.

Academic Honesty
You are responsible for knowing all college policies about academic honesty. Any student who plagiarizes any part of his or her papers may receive an “F” in the course and a letter to the Dean.

Course Schedule:
1/6 Intro/Reading Guide to Roosevelt/Intro to Reconstruction
1/8 Jourdan Anderson/Reconstruction
HOMEWORK DUE TODAY: SIGNED STATEMENT

1/11 Political and Economic Reconstruction
1/13 Industrialism
1/15 New Imperialism/1890s

1/18 MLK Day=Campus Closed
1/20 Progressivism
1/22 Progressivism/Strenuous Life Due

1/25 Progressivism Abroad: Liliuokalani to the Kaiser/Hand Out Good War Reading Guide
1/27 Prohibition
1/29 Woman Suffrage/Midterm Review

2/1 Harlem Renaissance/Women in the 1920s/
2/3 Economic Origins of the Great Depression
2/5 Midterm Exam: You Must Bring a Blue Book

2/8 The Great Depression
2/10 The New Deal
2/12 FURLOUGH DAY=NO CLASS

2/15 From Quarantine to War
2/17 The Good War Due/Dropping the Bomb Debate Prep
2/19 Dropping the Bomb Debate

2/22 Post War Conformity/The Cold War
2/24 Civil Rights and Other Movements
2/26 FURLOUGH DAY=NO CLASS

3/1 Coming of Age in Mississippi Reading Due
3/3 Social Movements in the 1960s
3/5 FURLOUGH DAY=NO CLASS

3/8 War in Vietnam/Review for Final Exam
3/10 Student Unrest and Vietnam/Book Essay Due (Due by midnight to turnitin)
3/12 Watergate and the Turbulent 70s

3/15 The 1980s to 9/11

REMEMBER, although this syllabus is the “law” of the class, I reserve the right to change it at any time to suit the particular needs of our class. If I must do so, it will always be in your best interest, and I’ll always advise you as soon as possible.

HISTORY 232 READING #1: Jourdon Anderson Letter

HOW WOULD YOU RESPOND IF YOUR FORMER SLAVE MASTER INVITED YOU TO COME AND WORK ON THE PLANTATION AFTER YOU HAD BEEN FREED FROM SLAVERY?
WHAT ONE LINE IS MOST STRIKING TO YOU IN THIS LETTER?

Dayton, Ohio, August 7, 1865
To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee
Sir: I got your letter and was glad to find you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Col. Martin’s to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again and see Miss mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville hospital, but one of the neighbors told me Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.
I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here; I get $25 a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy (the folks here call her Mrs. Anderson), and the children, Milly, Jane and Grundy, go to school and are learning well; the teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday- School, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated; sometimes we overhear others saying, “The colored people were slaves” down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks, but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Col. Anderson. Many darkies would have been proud, as I used to was, to call you master. Now, if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again. As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free-papers in 1864 from the Provost- Marshal- General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you are sincerely disposed to treat us justly and kindly- - and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty- two years and Mandy twenty years. At $25 a month for me, and $2 a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to $11,680. Add to this the interest for the time our wages has been kept back and deduct what you paid for our clothing and three doctor’s visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams Express, in care of V. Winters, esq, Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past we can have little faith in your promises in the future.
We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night, but in Tennessee there was never any pay day for the Negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire. In answering this letter please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up and both good- looking girls. You know how it was with Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve and die if it comes to that than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters.
You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood, the great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.
P.S. — Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.
From your old servant, Jourdon Anderson

Source: Cincinnati Commercial, reprinted in New York Tribune, August 22, 1865.