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GEHI 123: US History Since 1865

Syllabus | Class Notes | Presentation Schedule | How to Footnote | CR Rubric | Extra Credit Rubric | Student-Faculty Contract | Choice Project Guidelines | Final Exam Review

Tools for the Toolbox: Reading Quickly | Making an Argument

GO HERE FOR ALL ASSIGNMENTS AFTER 10/22/09 (WEBSITE too BIG)

All work that is posted for a specific date below is due on that day. For example, the reading you should do for Thursday before you come to class is listed on Thursday.

Unit 1: Who Am I

Tues., Aug. 18:
Introduction. Student-Faculty contract. Syllabus. Music as history.

Thurs., Aug. 20:
Carefully read, and be prepared to discuss, "WHO AM I" STORY:  "Angela's Afro" (ch. 40, p. 112 in Mickey Z and "Katherine Hepburn" (ch. 17, p. 55) Be prepared to explain, giving specific examples from the reading, why YOU think they are classified as “revolutionaries”

Extra Credit #1: Watch the following YOU TUBE video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fZaDf15O-8&feature=related. Then write a 1-3 page response to the following questions: What have been the historical associations with "nappy hair"? How has the identity of "nappy hair" changed over the last thirty years? What have you been taught about "black hair", and how have your ideas about black hair changed over time?

Tues., Aug. 25:  
Carefully read, and be prepared to discuss, Walter Mosley, Workin' On the Chain Gang, ch. 1 (pp. 3-16)--if you have not yet been able to get the book (which you do have to get), ch. 1 can be accessed on website in PDF. Also on website: Key Questions you need to BE ABLE TO ANSWER from the reading

Thurs., Aug. 27:

• Patti Smith (ch. 44, p. 123) in Mickey Z
• Public Enemy (ch 47, p. 131) in Mickey Z
• Families of 9/11 (ch. 50, p. 139)in Mickey Z
• Nathan McCall, “Men, We Just Don't Get It”

CRITICAL RESPONSE ENTRY #1:  We have discussed different “social identities” we as people all have (the obvious such as race, class, gender, but also the less obvious such as nationality, region, religion, sexual preference, occupation, etc.)  For your journal entry, and using the readings and class discussions as material, pick one identity that you consider to be your most important (i.e., ask yourself, which one of the social identities commonly used in America most defines and/or shapes who I am, or who I think I am?--is it gender, is it race, is it class, is it my sexual orientation, or my religion, or what?).  After you have thought about and picked your most important identity, discuss the following three questions:  (1) WHO ARE THE PEOPLE WHO MOST INFLUENCED YOUR THINKING/FEELING ABOUT THIS IDENTITY?  (2) HOW DID THESE PEOPLE IMPACT YOUR THINKING? (3) DID YOU EVER COME ACROSS PEOPLE WHO THINK VERY DIFFERENTLY ABOUT THIS IDENTITY?  IF SO, HOW DID YOU RESPOND TO THEIR THINKING?

Extra Credit #2: Caster Semenya. Read this article. Then write: 1) In your opinion, explain why or why not: Should the IAAF have made this a private inquiry until it was ready to publish a finding on whether Caster was 'male' or 'female' -- or did her competitors deserve to know (2) In your opinion, what makes someone male or female? Be sure to give specifics to support your ideas.

Unit 2: Who are We?

Thurs., Sept. 10:

Carefully read, and be prepared to answer key questions on:

Carefully read, and be prepared to discuss:

• Mickey Z, pp. 81-82 on Lolita Lebron (see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita_Lebron )

• Mickey Z, pp. 95-97 on Muhammad Ali

• What we eat in a week http://francismove.blogspot.com/2007/11/what-other-cultures-eat-in-week.html

   

CRITICAL RESPONSE ENTRY #2:

One of the most famous American authors, Mark Twain, once wrote:  "This nation is like all the others that have been spewed upon the earth--ready to shout for any cause that will tickle its vanity or fill its pocket."  Given what you have learned in this class, and what you have experienced in life up to this point, discuss this quote by picking 2 positive, and 2 negative characteristics that you think best identify "who we are as Americans."  Do the characteristics you chose support or contradict Twain's assertions?  How and why?

Extra Credit #4: Watch the 15 minute interview President Obama does here on his new approach to the  Israeli-Palestine conflict. Respond to the following question giving at least three examples from the speech: In what specific ways does Obama want US policy toward Israel and Palestine to be different than it has been under the last 8 years of the Bush administration. http://ta-nehisicoates.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/01/a_deliberative_mind.php

Unit 3: how we work

Tues. Sept. 15:  CR 1& CR 2 Due today. Check CR Rubric to make sure you are doing everything for an "A"

No Class today, 9/15 - Dr. Hogan lost her voice & running fever.  Please make sure you bring in your CR1 & CR 2 THURSDAY (in a folder with your name on front). Finish reading for both 9/15 and 9/17 and expect a quiz on Thursday based on the QUESTIONS at the end of Zinn ch. 3, and the QUESTIONS listed for 9/17.

Carefully read, and be prepared to discuss:

• HOW DO WE WORK" STORY:  read  "Coxey's Army" (in Mickey Z, p. 40)
• Howard Zinn, ch. 3, "Robber Barons and Rebels," pp. 61-87 -- make sure you can answer the following questions at the back of the chapter:  3, 4, 10, 11, 18, 21, 33
• preview the following, for we will discuss it in class: 

   Resources: We Came to Work | Truth in Advertising II http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go_VtqtxCHY

Extra Credit #5:

go see "Bring your 'A' Game" TONIGHT - stay for the entire event about black men and boys. The event will take place on September 15, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. at Colson Auditorium in Harris Hall. Write a 1-2 page evaluation of what you liked, didn't like, and questions you had about the information

Thurs. Sept. 17:

Carefully read and watch, and be prepared to discuss:

1. Walter Mosley, ch. 3; Here are the Key Questions you need to BE ABLE TO ANSWER from the reading
2. Walmart issues http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuZt0vYwvB4
3. today we will also view "The Story of Stuff" (if you are not in class today, make sure to watch it on the web

Tues., Sept. 22: 

Carefully read and watch, and be prepared to discuss:

1. Howard Zinn, ch. 5 "The Socialist Challenge," and be ready to answer end of chapter questions 2, 7, 13, 14, 18, 26, 31, 33, 38
2. Watch the following video, and be prepared to discuss:  http://video.on.nytimes.co/?fr_story=46dd3d6fde496927d1d80e1120a79631b58bde60

Thurs., Sept. 24: 

Carefully read and watch, and be prepared to discuss:

• Howard Zinn, ch. 7 "Self-Help in Hard Times," and be ready to answer end of chapter questions 3, 5,9, 13, 22, 24, 26

   

Extra credit #6: Find two different news reports that cover the following:  (1) reasons for a company laying off people, and (2) consequences for people laid off.  Report on the findings, and analyze what and how the news reports cover (1) and (2).  Try to work in what you have learned in class on this topic.

Tues., Sept. 29:

Carefully read and be prepared to discuss:

• Dirk Philipsen, Uncle Sam's Broken Arm
• Howard Zinn, chapter 13 ("Carter-Reagan-Bush"), but only pages 291 (from top) to 300 (bottom)
• Movie clip from Bulworth on socialis, watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6ag_2dg8nI
   

Thurs. Oct. 1:

Carefully read and be prepared to discuss this article on why the world economy collapsed last year. Be able to answer these key questions.

CRITICAL RESPONSE ENTRY #3:  Today we participate in the economy primarily in two ways: by consuming/buying stuff, and by working. For this journal entry, describe in depth  your role in the last two years as

- a consumer (what do you buy? Who benefits from your spending patterns? Have your buying patterns changed? Would you buy from someone if you knew they were treating their workers badly, or selling shoddy goods/foods? If you could change one thing about your experience as a consumer, what would it be?)

- AND as a worker (how much have you worked, what has that experience been like, have you supervised others, what is your supervisor like, what are the most important experiences you’ve had on the job, what are the most difficult experiences? If you could change one thing about your job, what would it be?)

Unit 4: How we live

Tues., Oct. 6:  

Today we will begin with the unit "How Do We Live?", which will deal with communities, the environment, segregation, (sub)urbanization, the role of cars, the family, religion, and sexuality.  Of course how we lived is not separate from "who we are" or "how we work," but rather is a reflection of it.  For instance:  if there were no profit-driven mass media, there would be no advertising;  if there were no advertising, there would be no mass consumer market (and thus no media-produced identities such as "Mexican immigrant" or "street thug"  or "Hip Hop artist" etc).

So how do we organize our lives?  And why do we live the way we do?  And how do we justify, or rationalize, to ourselves what we do? 

Let's start with several examples:  one about an aspect of how we live, and one on how we try to make sense of it.

Carefully read and be prepared to discuss these :