AMST 301Rogues and Rebels
Monday
Syllabus etc
American Rogues and Rebels: AMST 301 Professor: Dr. Ian Chambers
Fall 2008 Contact Details:
Office: History Department, 315 Administration building Phone: (208) 885-6551 - E-mail: [email protected]
Office hours: Monday 2:00pm – 3:00pm Wednesday 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Additional office hours available by appointment
Texts Eric Larson, Devil in the White City Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed
America
A pack of six books from the book store (all books from Bedford/St. Martins): Kenneth S Greenberg, The Confessions of Nat Turner and Related documents Jonathan Earle, John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry: A Brief History with Documents Shelia l, Skemp, Judith Sargent Murray: A Brief Biography with Documents Victoria Bissell Brown, Twenty Years at Hull-House Jane Adams David Howard-Pitney, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the Civil Rights Struggle of
the 1950s and 1960s: A Brief History with Documents Richard W. Etulain, César Chávez: A Brief Biography with Documents Additional reading as issued during the semester
I will also be showing various documentaries and movies outside of class hours. Details to be issued during the first week of class
Course Requirements Exams: A final on Thursday, December 18. 30% Research proposal 10% Group Class Presentation 20% Research paper: Students will select a topic, in consultation with the professor, and prepare a research
paper of 7-8 pages, type-written and double spaced. The paper will be due on November 19th and count as 30% of the final course grade. Class Participation Class participation counts as 10% of the course grade and is determined by the following criteria:
attendance and classroom discussion. Class Rules and Regulations Three-One System You must wait ONE day before contesting any grade You must write ONE paragraph explaining why your grade should be adjusted You must challenge the grade within ONE week of receiving it. Plagiarism Plagiarism WILL NOT be tolerated Late Papers You will lose one point per minute for any late work.
Schedule (subject to change)
The class will follow a weekly format Monday – General historical
overview Wednesday – Specific topic lecture Friday – Group presentations and
discussion
Groups: Class will divide in 13 groups (min 3 people max 4 per group) Each group will present on the
Rogue/Rebel under discussion that week
Additional Readings
For discussion this week James Clavell A Children’s Story
How is power worked out in this book Eric Hobsbawm chapter from Bandits
Can, as I suggest, Hobsbawm form a theoretical base for this class
Hobsbawm and Banditry What interests the
social and economic historian is primarily the structure of banditry . . . rather than the effects on the wider history of events in their time
In this class we are going to attempt to do more
We need to know the make up of the people we study
But also their position and impact in America
Why?
I want to examine America through the idea of rogues and rebels for two reasons
1) to find out why America loves them
2) to find out if America has ‘progressed’ because of their actions
For this class I will use the following definition
Rogue – someone who goes against society for no reason or for personal gain
Rebel – someone who goes against society to correct a wrong within society
1. Who are what are Rebels?
2. John Smith3. Pilgrims4. Thomas Paine5. Nat Turner6. John Brown7. Jessie James
8. Judith Murray9. Jane Adams10. HH Holmes11. Eleanor Roosevelt12. Martin and Malcolm13. James Dean and the
teenager14. Ceaser Chavez
Rogues and Rebels
Wednesday
Group work clarification
Each group will present on one of the listed Rebels/Rogues
That group will also turn in a written report on the day of their presentation
If the Rebel/Rogue does not have a corresponding book I will supply some suggestion to the group
I expect other people in the class to have read about and have knowledge of the Rebel/Rogue to enable a discussion
GroupsRogue/Rebel Presentation Group
Who are what are Rebels? Whole Class
John Smith Group 2
Pilgrims Group 3
Thomas Paine Group 5
Nat Turner Group 6
John Brown Group 7
Jessie James Group 8
Judith Murray Group 1
Jane Adams Group 10
HH Holmes Whole Class
Eleanor Roosevelt Group 12
Martin and Malcolm Group 13
James Dean and the teenager Group 11
Ceaser Chavez Whole Class
Paper Clarification
Research paper of 7-8 pages, type-written and double spaced.
Based on a Rogue/Rebel of your choice Paper must deal with the historical time
period and the impact that the individual or group had on society
Check your paper topic with the Professor before starting your paper.
To understand banditary and its history we must see it in the context of power
That is control by governments of what goes on in the territories and among the populations over which they claim control
The history of banditry including social banditry
Cannot be understood or properly studied except as part of the history of political power
Power to control increasingly concentrated in territorial or ‘national’ states
Claiming and exercising power over everything that goes on within its boarders
Power reaches down to interact with every person in its territory.
In modern world volume of information travelling and number
of people make it difficult for American government to
control all power If it could there would be no people in jail Inability to stop certain acts of behavior
displays a similar gap between claimed and real power
But power limited by ability to maintain large and effective body
of armed and civil servants an efficient system of information,
communication and transportation These potential weakness of power
contain the potential for banditry
Social Banditry
For the law, anyone belonging to a group of men who attack and rob with violence is a bandit,
Historians and sociologists cannot use so crude a definition.
Social bandit :-People not regarded as simple criminals
by the people
Power of bandits to operate is always, ironically, defined by the same gap that allows their creation.
Eventually state power will react and either negotiate or crush
Bandits have to come to terms with whatever centers of power are prepared to tolerate them or go under
Social Banditry Universally found wherever societies are
based on agriculture and consist one groups ruled, oppressed and exploited by someone else lords, towns, governments, or even banks
3 main forms Noble robber Primitive resistance fighter Terror bringing avenger
social bandits state regards as criminals considered by their people as
heroes champions Avengers fighters for justice leaders of liberation
It would be unthinkable for a social bandit to snatch the peasants harvest in his own territory.
Those who do lose the peculiar relationship which makes banditry ‘social’
In practice such distinctions are less clear than in theory
Modern agrarian systems no longer those of traditional peasant society
and cease to produce social bandits except in countries of what has been called
‘settler capitalism’ = The USA, Australia, Argentina
Settler capitalism exploitation by one country over another
Britain, the country which gave the world Robin Hood the international paradigm of
social banditry has no records of social bandits
after the early 17th C
And Now something
completely different
Banditary becomes epidemic in times of pauperization and economic crisis
more than able bodied men who take what they need by arms rather than starve.
the resistance of entire communities or people against the destruction of its way of life
Unless It becomes the symbol, even the spearhead,
of resistance by the whole of the traditional order against the forces which disrupt and destroy it.
Or If the dream of every peasant for a society
free from evil and oppression is awakened
What part if any do Bandits play in the transformation of societies
According to Hobsbawm banditry itself is not a program for peasant society but
a form of self help to escape it in particular circumstances
However, reformist or revolutionary, banditry does not constitute a social movement
Friday
When banditry merges into a large movement, it becomes part of a force which can and does change society.
But the results are not always what were expected
This does not devalue their historical position or power however
To understand social composition of banditary
look primarily at the mobile margin of peasant society
Importance of age Male youth between puberty and marriage Before the responsibility of family life
Men not integrated in society Ex service men shepherds
But possibly the most important type of person to contribute to the bandit category
People who were unwilling to accept the ‘meek and passive social role’
“men who make themselves respected”
FridayDiscussion
I want to make Friday a regular discussion day I want to spend a little time today organizing the
structure of the discussion First I want you to individually think about and
then write down: A) The best group discussions you have been in and
why were they good? B) The worst group discussions you have been in and
why were they good? Think about what factors made them the way
they were they structured, free flowing, did they build on previous
weeks, did everyone have to speak etc
Now I want you to get into your groups
Compare and discuss you individual answers
Then I want each group to come up with three ideas/rules for the class discussion
Not everyone has to speak Although you all can
Use examples – from text or from your life that relate to discussion Read the text
Be respectful to other participants Be to the point Teacher to encourage not run
discussion
Some start up questions What struck me most about the text we read
to prepare was….. The question I’d most like to ask the author
is … The part of this weeks class that made the
most sense was ….. The part of this weeks class that made least
sense was ….
Not everyone has to speak Although you all can
Use examples – from text or from your life that relate to discussion Read the text
Be respectful to other participants Be to the point Teacher to encourage not run
discussion