Daniel Wold

This class will survey over 150 years of modern American history, keeping a collective mind openabout which and why certain facts, stories, events, and people are key to understanding our past.It draws on two popular American history books that offer complementary, sometimes conflicting,interpretations of the American story to illuminate the rich textures of the nationʼs history as wellas the particular challenges faced in its writing. Using these authorities (as well as a basic Outlineof U.S. History) as a starting point, participants will work collaboratively to expand theirunderstanding of American history and to engage in the type of thinking required to “do” history.

REQUIRED

U.S. Government, Outline of U.S. History, chapters 8-15.

http://www.america.gov/publications/books/history-outline.html

Johnson, History of the American People,

Zinn, A Peopleʼs History of the United States (available online, but without page numbers)

iClicker, available at Coop . Register on Blackboard/ ToolsAdditional readings, available as posted on class website. (password provided in class)https://sites.la.utexas.edu/history2point0Optional: Foner, Give Me Liberty

GRADES and ABSENCE.

Grades will be determined on the basis of individual quiz grades (20%), four in-classessays (30%), team work: journal preparation and templates (23%), survey participation (2%),and a final exam (25%).

The course will survey change and continuity in the history of Texas within the context of U.S. history. Special attention will be given to politics and social relationships (class, race and gender relations) between 1900 and 1950. We will also examine themes such as socio-economic change, labor, transborder relations and electoral politics. Three semester hours of Texas history may be substituted for half of the legislative requirement for American history.

This course traces the history of Western civilization from roughly 1500 to the end of the twentieth century. We will be examining European societies as they grew from scattered kingdoms to centralized states to vast global empires. We will be looking at revolutions in politics, religion, and technology, and how they rapidly changed how people lived, worked, and even conceived of time and space. We will also explore how religious, political, social, and economic change led to violent upheaval in communities, war, slavery and colonial oppression, and global conflagrations.

Grading:

Response essays: 15%

Exam 1 [day] 25%

Exam 2 [day] 25%

Final Exam: 35%

Texts:

Judith G. Coffin and Robert C. Stacey, Western Civilizations, Second Brief Edition, Volume 2

Natalie Zemon Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre

Art Spiegelman, Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, Volumes 1 and 2

John Le Carré, The Spy Who Came In from the Cold