1 Common Course Syllabus Angela Roberts, Instructor of History Department of History Department: Social Sciences Discipline: History Course Number: HISTORY 1302 Course Title: American History - 1877 to present Credit: 3 Lecture, 0 Lab Satisfies a core curriculum requirement? Yes, Social Science and ALL Undergraduate Degrees Prerequisites: TSI compliance in Reading (face-to-face), TSI compliance in Reading and Writing (internet) Available Formats: Conventional, INET, ITV Campus: Levelland, Reese, ATC, Plainview Textbook: Varies according to instructor. Course Specific Instructions: Each instructor will attach his/her course with specific instructions. Course Description: This course is a survey of United States history from the disputed election of 1876 to the end of the Cold War in 1990. Primary emphasis is placed on ideas and social concepts that constitute the American heritage. Course Purpose: To acquaint students with the diversity of American history and to promote critical thinking in interrelating the past to the present. Fundamentally, the course promotes general understanding of a body of knowledge any literate person should possess about the history of his own country. Course Requirements: To maximize a student's potential to complete this course, he/she should attend all class meetings, complete all homework assignments and examinations in a timely manner, and complete all other projects or papers as assigned in the instructor's specific instructions. Course Evaluation: See the instructor's course information sheet for specific items used in evaluating student performance. Attendance Policy: Whenever absences become excessive and in the instructor's opinion, minimum course objectives cannot be met due to absences, the student will be withdrawn from the course. Each instructor will have additional information about attendance on his/her course information sheet. Student Learning Outcomes: Students who have completed this course will be expected to:2 demonstrate knowledge and understanding of major perspectives in American history. demonstrate knowledge and understanding of cause and effect of major events of the past. understand the nature of history as a fundamental subject in the study of humanity. evaluate the diversity of interpretations of the past and the quality of evidence for that interpretation. tolerate ambiguity in explanations of the past and realize that historical explanations will often be complex and tentative apply historical knowledge with caution to current events, seeing common threads of development of the past with the present. Through course assignments, papers, activities, and assessments, students will: demonstrate the ability to read and write clearly and concisely, value diversity and differences in people, explore relationships of ideas and see their similarities and differences, gain a basic understanding of the career fields related in the major, assimilate and synthesize information, integrate ideas across the curricula, and interrelate the past to the present.3 History 1302.207, 208, & 209 America Since 1876 Instructor: Angela Roberts Spring: 2012 Office Hrs: T/Th: 10:30-2:00 Office: 318C (Reese Center) Fri. 9:30-11:30 e-mail: [email protected] Phone: Office: 716-2456 Course Overview: History 1302 constitutes a general survey of United States history from the end of Reconstruction through the present. Given the time constraints of a one-semester survey and the broad range of subjects available for study, we will only be able to focus on a few major topics. Some of these include: the aftermath of the Civil War and Reconstruction; westward expansion; industrialization and responses to it; the emergence of the welfare state; American internationalism; social tumults in the period after World War Two; Vietnam and its effects; the quest for civil rights and equality of citizenship; America’s right turn in the 1970s-1990s; and current issues and topics that we as Americans face today. The central theme of this course, one that is related to each of the topics, is the ever-changing ideology of Republicanism: i.e., what it has meant to be an American from the perspectives of men and women of different ethnicities, classes, and regions, and how that meaning has changed over time. We will experience the years 1877-present through visual media such as documentaries, primary sources written by people who lived and made the history of the period as well as secondary sources written by historians who have interpreted it. After reading, viewing, and discussing these materials over the course of a semester, you will be able to judge whose arguments you most closely agree with and develop interpretations and questions of your own. Course Objectives: My goals for the course include, but are not limited to, the following:  You will increase your knowledge of events in U.S. history and the reasons why they occurred.  You will be introduced to the art of historical interpretation through the reading, analysis and application of primary sources.  You will develop critical writing skills through essay writing.  We will exchange our interpretations and ideas through class discussions.  We will gain a deeper understanding of the importance of the relationship between past events and the historical context in which they occurred. The Higher Education Coordinating Board of Texas has also identified the following as objectives for core classes in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. 1. To employ the appropriate methods, technologies, and data that social and behavioral scientists use to investigate the human condition. 2. To examine social institutions and processes across a range of historical periods, social structures, and cultures. 3. To use and critique alternative explanatory systems or theories. 4. To develop and communicate alternative explanations or solutions for contemporary social issues.4 5. To analyze the effects of historical, social, political, economic, cultural, and global forces on the area under study. 6. To comprehend the origins and evolution of U.S. and Texas political systems, with a focus on the growth of political institutions, the constitutions of the U.S. and Texas, federalism, civil liberties, and civil and human rights. 7. To understand the evolution and current role of the