HIST 128: American History Since 1865

Course Objectives

Greetings and welcome to the course.

In the past few years distance education classes such as this one have been taken by all sorts of people--those with doctorates, those with high school diplomas, stay-at-home parents, farmers, teachers, social workers, and prison inmates. Distance students have come from Illinois, Wyoming, Alaska, and Hawaii, as well as from North Carolina. Ultimately, then, you are part of a varied student body.

Given the different life experiences that you and your fellow course members have, my challenge has been to create a course that speaks to every person in the group. I want this class to be more than a meaningless exercise, so I've asked myself the question "Why should students study history?"

Of course, there are plenty of practical reasons that bring students to the class. Some of you are completing degree requirements for your professional careers, some of you are trying to better your grades so you can eventually enter UNC on a full-time basis, and some of you are finishing a Carolina degree you previously started. Others of you are taking this class purely out of personal interest.

But on a more philosophical basis, why study history? There are many answers to this question. Certainly in elementary and secondary schools, American history courses are intended to make all of us better citizens, to help "socialize" us. That is why there is a history component to the battery of tests the federal government administers to immigrants who seek to become US citizens. If you live here, the reasoning goes, you should know a little about the place.

This list of "why's" can go on and on--teaching critical thinking skills, fostering broader thinking about people and issues, and so on. All of these are fine answers, but to me, history is best taught when it becomes personal. That is, somewhere in the course, I want you to become aware that these often-forgotten events have had a very real and significant impact on your lives. If this doesn't happen, then one of the fundamental lessons of history has been lost.

Fortunately, this is a course in recent US history, so seeing these vital, personal connections is not quite as difficult as, say, in a study of ancient history (although the same sort of principles apply). This class will cover the Vietnam and Gulf Wars, for instance, conflicts that probably either directly involved you or certainly impacted friends or family. You will learn about immigration reform in the 1920s and 1960s, which drastically impacted the racial and ethnic composition of the nation. Again, somewhere in your family tree, these policies probably made themselves felt.

I hope that, as you become more aware of these immediate connections, you can start making connections with incidents that may seem less important to you. Populism, Progressivism and the New Deal; Nativism, Prohibition, and the Cold War--all of these shaped the nation, the experiences of those who came before you, and, ultimately, your own life.

Throughout the course, you will be asked to comment on some of these great historical issues. Many times, as a means of further personalizing these issues, you will be asked to put yourself in the place of various actors in a given period.

This process should make you a better citizen. If successful, it will also give you more of a sense of connection with the country in which you live.

[top of page]

Study Tips

The course is divided into sixteen lessons. Most often, you will be required to read a chapter of the text and some complementary document sets that are comprised of original source material. These sets of documents will help you to make your own decisions about historical events without relying on a historian to act as an interpreter. The assigned readings will at times be supplemented with a short lecture from your course audiotape or with a historical monograph.

As you complete the work for the lessons, pay attention to the large themes you encounter--chapter headings and subheadings in your texts are a good place to start. Understanding each of the "important terms" listed on these course pages will also help. Normally, it is best to work from the general to the specific in mastering these themes. Once you understand what the New Deal was, for instance, then you might study a bit about the "first" and "second" New Deals, then about the NRA, the "court packing" scheme, and so on.

You will find that all this information does, in fact, fit together into a greater whole. By studying in this manner, you will also be well prepared for your final exam.

[top of page]

Text and Materials

The following texts and materials are required for the course:

• The Enduring Vision, Volume II, 6th edition by Paul Boyer, et al.
• Enduring Voices, Volume II, 4th edition by James Lorence.

The bulk of your reading assignments will come from these two books.

• Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression (1978) by Studs Terkel.

This is an excellent history of the Great Depression based on interviews with those who experienced it.

• CD—a series of short lectures by scholars associated with the UNC-Chapel Hill Department of History. Each piece is a supplement to one of your course lessons. The work is meant to humanize the course experience by allowing you to hear the voices of some of the people who are engaged in researching and writing history. The CD contains a variety of speakers, from long-established professors to those working on their doctoral degrees.

You can order these materials from the Higher Grounds bookstore at the Friday Center either online or by using the book order form.

Internet Resources

Each lesson will have some suggested Web sites, and you are encouraged to find additional resources to supplement your studies.

[top of page]

History and the Internet

I had a colleague who left the world of academics for a job with a Canadian Agriculture Ministry. Armed with a master's degree in history, he was not quite sure how much of his post-graduate education would translate into "real world" job skills. He was pleasantly surprised. Ultimately, he found that his training in analyzing and synthesizing information served him well as he entered an "information age" workplace.

"You know," he told me, "using the Internet and writing history require a lot of the same skills." At the time I was much more of a cyber-novice, so I did not fully appreciate his comment for a few years. But further experience and thought have helped me realize that he was right.

Like historians, focused Internet "surfers" have to find information relevant to their interests. In historical research, finding one good source often leads to several others, much like the links of any given Web site. As materials are located, they then must be assessed. What sources have been used by the site/document authors and how reliable is this information? How valid are the arguments presented? Most importantly (and perhaps obviously), just as in historical research, you can't believe everything you read on the Internet. Whether you are completing research on the Internet or in an archive, chances are that much or most of the information you find will be bad. That is to say, the material is not helpful because it is unreliable, poorly organized, and/or irrelevant to your needs.

Treating all of this information after it is gathered is perhaps the most difficult aspect for researchers and historians of all kinds. How can all this material be synthesized in a way that is understandable (essentially making order out of chaos)? What are the important issues and themes that emerge? And, of course, is it possible to present all of this analyzing and synthesizing in a way that will interest an audience?

[top of page]

Written Assignments

Each of the sixteen lessons will have a written assignment that will require you to write one or two essays. These written pieces should reflect your ability to analyze the course materials and to derive your own opinions about them. As you complete these essays, please keep the following points in mind:

1. You need to place each of your responses in proper essay form. That is, you must have an introduction containing a thesis statement (summarizing the main points of the essay), a body that follows the outline stated in the introduction, and, finally, a summarizing conclusion. You may want to consult a basic English textbook in order to find more information about the construction of a good essay.
2. The general argument(s) in each essay should be your own and thus should reflect your thoughts and words. You should, however, support these fundamental ideas with course materials. For instance, perhaps you might choose to argue that the initiation of the Cold War was the result of poor decision making on the part of US policy-makers (your idea). You might then refer to specific actions taken by the Truman and Eisenhower Administrations (support from course materials).
3. When supporting your arguments with factual detail, try to explain these materials in your own words. If you do occasionally paraphrase or quote from your readings and tape, be sure to use quotation marks and cite your source.
4. You will normally be required to complete one essay of approximately 1,600 words (or four pages). In those few lessons that require two essays, the pieces should be 1,200 words each (or three pages).

You will send your assignments to be graded by clicking a "submit" button (at the bottom of each lesson) that opens a pre-addressed e-mail to me and the Self-paced Courses office. Send your assignments as attachments. In the subject line of the e-mail message, enter "SPC HIST 128 assignment #" and your name (example: SPC HIST 128 Lesson 3 Jane Smith). By providing the assignment number and your name, you make it easier for me and Student Services to track your progress and keep your work separate from that of other students.

[top of page]

Grading and Final Exam

Two-thirds of your final grade will be determined by averaging the grades from your sixteen individual assignments.

The results of your supervised final examination count for the remaining one-third, but keep in mind that you must pass the final exam in order to receive credit for the course.

Your final exam will have three parts. You will be required to answer two long essays and then complete a section of short identifications that will be drawn from the list of important terms in each lesson. In this last section, you will have to fully identify and then state the significance of each term.

One of the two long essays will be given to you when you receive a copy of the final exam; it will cover one of the major themes of the course. The other essay will be derived from a question that I want you to contemplate throughout this course and one that speaks to my desire to make US history something personal for you. Thus, I will give you the question (and fully 35 percent of your final exam) now:

After having studied the period of US history since the Civil War, what seven national episodes, events, or developments have you come to feel most impacted you and the world in which you live? In answering this question, be sure to explain why you made the selections you did and be sure that you fully identify these historical issues by using factual materials from the course. Also be sure to cover comprehensively the time period from 1865 to the present. Do not, for example, make seven selections from the 1980s and 1990s. You must cover the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as well. (I am afraid that I will also have to limit your options here to those episodes, events, or developments covered in the course materials.)

Good luck to you in the course.

[top of page]

Course Schedule

[top of page]

How to Proceed

When you have reviewed the information on this home page, click on the Lesson 1 link at the bottom of the page. Complete the assigned readings and then read the discussion notes on the Web. When you are prepared, complete the written assignment and submit your answers to me via e-mail. You will follow this procedure for each lesson in the course.

Lesson 1

Course author: David Long, PhD
Current instructor: David Long, PhD

© University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Last updated: May 21, 2008
Send comments and questions to fridaycenter@unc.edu