This is a survey course that begins with the last half of the nineteenth century and examines the 132 years leading from that time to the year 2009.  It includes the establishment of segregation in the South and the rise of the modern Civil Rights Movement; women's fight for the vote and the later struggle for the ERA and other rights; the invention of the telephone, electric lights, the automobile, film, TV, and the computer; the urbanization, incorporation, and commercialization of America; Vietnam, 9/11, and Iraq, as well as many other subjects that touch our lives today.  This is the history that has the most bearing on our lives.  We can see how events from the past both directly and indirectly influence or shed light on events in the present.

      People who learn to love history usually come to it in one of three ways:  they begin to see history as a great story within which are a series of fascinating smaller stories and get hooked; or as they read what people have written in the past they begin to hear their voices and become hooked; or they start to see history as a great puzzle--What really happened?  Why did this happen?  Why did this person act this way?  And they get hooked trying to solve the puzzles.  My approach is to examine some of the puzzles, and that's what I'll be doing in my lectures.  The materials for this class were chosen because they tell the stories of American history and provide some of the voices--so through the class books, lectures, and website, through stories, voices, and puzzles, my hope is that you will also come to be hooked on history for the rest of your lives.

      One of the most interesting ways to look at history is to ask questions of the past.  What did people of the past do about birth control?  Did they have drug problems and what did they do about them?  About crime?  Did they participate in sports?  If so, what?  Did they feel cynical or hopeful about politics?  What did they do with their time before there were TV or computers?  We may not agree with their answers, but finding out helps bring perspective to the problems of our own time.

      While some memorizing of facts and time periods is required (this is, after all, history), at the college level we emphasize thinking skills such as being able to take facts and generalize from them, critiquing, analyzing, synthesizing (putting ideas together), and using ideas to argue for or against something.  Thus exams will be 80% essay to practice and display these types of skills, and 20% matching to display your familiarity with people, places, and historical events.

      Students will be expected to attend class and do the assigned reading for the course; take three exams (10%) (20%) (40%); participate in seven starred discussions and turn in typed short answers (7%); read the book Freedom's Children and attend the book discussion (8%); write a 5-page research paper using primary and secondary sources and correct historical notation (8%); and do two Internet/Library papers as practice for the research paper (6%--1st = 3%, 2nd = 3%).  (See class website.)  All papers must be typed.  The remaining 1% is discretionary.
 

GRADING:
98, 99 = A+
90-97 =  A
88, 89 =  B+
80-87 =  B
78, 79 = C+
70-77 = C
68, 69 = D+
60-67 = D
Below 60 = F

STUDY HINTS

• Set time aside every day or every other day to read the assignments.  YOU MUST READ THE TEXTBOOKS IF YOU ARE GOING TO DO WELL.  For a three-credit class you need to think in terms of studying and reading three more hours a week outside class, whether that is fifteen minutes or more every day, or another hour three times a week.
• TAKE NOTES ON CLASS DISCUSSIONS AND LECTURES.   Not all lecture material will be found in the book.   Any name or event mentioned or written on the board or screen is fair game as part of an exam.
• Use charts and drawings to make MENTAL MAPS of the material you are supposed to know.  Use MNEMONIC AIDS to help you remember things.  Make FLASH CARDS to help you learn people, places, and events.