The Truth Is Out There
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The
Truth Is
Out
There
Since 1877 American History
American History
❖Introduction to the Course:
–“What Am I Doing Here Anyway”
–Basic Themes
–Historical Study and Scholarship
»“The Past Never Goes Away”
American HistorySince 1877
Mr. Maddock
EMail ([email protected])
Office Hour
Reminders and Notifications
American History
❖News about the
class is twitterific!
❖twitter.com/madoc4
American History
❖Website:❖madoc4. homestead.com/ History.html
American History
❖Required
Reading
–Paul Johnson, A History of the American People
American History
❖Required Reading:
–Larry McMurtry, Buffalo Girls
8
American History
❖Required Reading
–David Brooks, On Paradise Drive
American History❖Required Reading
and Paper:
– Answer one question (your choice) per chapter (except chapters 4 and 15).
– A few sentences for each question.
– Submit at any time during the class until the final exam.
American History
❖Reading
assignments?
❖Homework?
American History
❖Important Dates
American History
❖Comprehensive
❖Introductory
❖Two students
❖Active
❖Your class
American History
❖Tape
Recorders
❖Video
Materials
American History❖Examinations–Essay
–Reinforce main themes
–No tricks
❖Two exams
American History
❖Missed Exam:
–YOUR responsibility to finish before the next exam
American History
❖ Term Paper:
➢5-6 pages (An American subject 1865-1989)
With Bibliography or Endnotes
➢Person, event, idea or thing
➢Use the Internet and Library
17
American History
❖Plagiarism
American History❖The final course grade:
No points or curve; A progression; Expectations
First Exam 25%
Final Exam 40%
Term paper 30%
Extra Credit 5%
American History❖Course Grade:
–The default grade for the
class if all assigned work
is not completed is a D
20
American History❖Entitlement and self-esteem
❖Is there a secret formula?
American History
❖Hardcopy only – no
emails without prior
approval
❖Computers and Tablets
in the classroom
American History
❖Attendance
–Three absences
❖Dropping the class
–Drop forms
❖Incompletes
American History
❖Hardcopy only – no emails without prior approval❖Word format only
❖Computers and Tablets in the classroom
American History
❖Courtesy and
civility
❖Cell phones
❖IM Devices
American History
❖ Tutorial and Learning Skills Assistance
❖Reading and Writing
Center
American History
❖Once you are enrolled in the class
❖Responsibilities
❖Problems
Themes
New earths, new themes expect us.
Henry David Thoreau (1857)
28
History❖Two Issues:❖One: How to approach the
class?❖Two: how to approach “near
history”. The “two generations” rule.
❖Current Events? Anything after 1975 or 1989? Has to be arbitrary
29
American History
❖Part One: The Dynamo
❖The Great Fact
❖A Changed Political Discussion
❖ The Presidency
30
American History ❖The context: the
organizational revolution (1870-1900)
❖A changed economy, politics and society
❖A new political discussion and argument (Progressives and “Liberals”)
❖The “Limits” of the Constitution
31
American History
❖Part Two: Optimism and the Suburban Empire
❖ 1939: Unfulfilled Promises: “why oh why, can’t I”
❖Depression and War
32
American History ❖The aftermath of World
War One
❖The “Great Depression”
❖The purpose and place of the state; the Fascist moment
❖Caught between optimism and the wasteland
33
American History
❖Which war?
❖The importance of the Pacific War
❖The nature of violence and surrender
34
American History ❖“Lost in the universe”
❖What to make of the “peace”
❖Yalta (Feb 3, 1945) and the aftermath
❖How to think about the Soviet Union – just what did Stalin represent
❖A mixture of the utopianism of the 30s and “realism”
35
American History
❖Americans wanted nothing more than to “settle all our difficulties with Russia and then go to the movies and drink coke”
❖Averell Harriman (Ambassador to Moscow during World War II)
36
American History
❖The “myths” of the 1950s and early 1960s
❖Automobiles, suburbs and kitchen appliances
37
American History ❖Part Three: Here In
Utopia – All Along the Watchtower
❖The Button Down Mind
❖Two Kennedys
❖Wishing so many things so …
38
American History
❖The Civil Rights Generation
❖The unfinished business of Reconstruction
39
American History
❖Two Vietnam Generations
❖Nature of the war?
❖Quagmire?
❖Watergate?
40
American History
❖The Dark Carnival
❖June 8, 1982 in the House of Commons: The “evil empire” speech
❖Rejecting the world created at Yalta
41
American History
❖“Once Upon A Time” – Everyone Knew The Rules
❖The legacy of the “Flappers”
❖From Blondie to Lois and Mrs. Peel
42
American History ❖Part Four: Sugar? –
Slouching Toward Dystopia
❖Money or Hourglass “Liberalism”
❖Orwell, Huxley, Boorstin and Brooks
❖Social Media – Unintended Consequences of Technology and Big Data
43
Themes
Themes
New earths, new themes expect us.
Henry David Thoreau (1857)
45
Themes❖ One: The Great Fact
❖ 1903: The Wright Brothers
❖ July 20, 1969: Apollo 11 landing on the moon
❖ 66 years (Kennedy proposed project in 1961)
❖ A person living in Sumer (4,000 BC) would have found the resources, work and technology in 1066, or in the Aztec Empire at the time of Columbus familiar (4000 BC – 1494).
❖ Change only begins to accelerate in the mid-1700s. First in Britain and then slowly to the rest of the world.
46
Themes❖ Why? (1) the evolution of institutions;
constitutions, law and private property; (2) changing attitudes toward markets, work (Protestant Reformation), and innovation.
❖ Average income per person per day: between 1 AD-1066 about $2. Between 1800-1900 it doubled. Grew twice as much in one century than in the previous eighteen. Today: $45 world; $145 in USA.
❖ Life expectancy: 1870, 36 years. Today it is 72.
❖ Infant death: 1800, 43% died before age five; today less than 1%.
47
Themes❖ Literacy: 1820, 90% illiterate.
Today 13%❖ Poverty: 1820, 90%. Today, less
than 10%❖ Less conflict: 1800, 65 per
100,000; Today 2 per 100,000. The last great power war was between China and America in the Korean peninsula (1950-53) 66 years ago.
❖ Expanded agricultural production (the Green Revolution) means more people can eat.
❖ The encounter with prosperity for Americans since 1949. The “boomer” generation.
❖ What have we become? (Brooks)
48
Themes
49
Themes❖ Two: The Long
War– Weimar to Peace of
Paris (Nov 1990); the Soviet Union formally dissolved on December 25, 1991
– A contest between Fascism/Nazism, Communism, Islamism and Constitutional Democracy
Themes
Three: In a sense, the history of the 20th Century is defined by a search for Utopia–Advances in technology,
science and administration (the organizational revolution)
–Social and cultural confidence as well; to create a new person
Themes
The Irony: The Great War shattered this world but not it’s desire for a social and economic paradise (a form of secular faith)
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900): “God is dead”
Themes
In Europe and Asia: National Socialism(three variations):
Communism (Bolshevik revolution, internationalism and the importance of the Soviet State)
Fascism (Mussolini and the nation state): a world of war and state competition
Themes
Nazism (the Nation and race theory): to return to the true history of the German volk
All three saw Democracy as the primary enemy; anti-Semitism and anti-Christian (anti-Catholic)
To replace the Church with the State
Themes
All of these stressed the ability to know the future; to begin again; an inheritance of the French Revolution; a combination of social analysis and belief (in the religious sense)
–A “new” man
–The Year Zero
Themes
View of those who might
oppose their ideas
–Must be willful ignorance and/or
reactionaries
–No need for debate or argument;
only assertion counted; the
commitment to gaining and
holding power
Themes
In America: Progressivism and or “Liberalism” (In a sense, a fourth National Socialism)
Woodrow Wilson
–A war to end war (to remove power from International relations); self-determination
–Emphasized executive authority
–An inversion of the Founders emphasis on evil and power
Themes
An elite sensibility
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859): toured America 1831-32 and warned against conformity and “expert” opinion
The slow erosion of what happened in 1776: from Aristocracy to a Republic
Themes
Authority and common respect no longer came from the bottom up; the return to an Aristocratic sensibility?
In America: the politics came from the reality of prosperity
The
Truth Is
Out
There
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