HIST 608 (CRN 26251)
COLLOQUIUM: TWENTIETH-CENTURY U.S. HISTORY
WINTER 2011
WEDNESDAY, 2:00 - 4:50, 375 MCKENZIE HALL

Professor Ellen Herman
Department of History
University of Oregon

office: 321 McKenzie Hall
phone: 346-3118
e-mail: eherman@uoregon.edu
office hours: Thursday, 1:30 - 3:30

This course is designed to acquaint graduate students with the historiographical terrain of twentieth-century U.S. history. It is not comprehensive—covering every subfield, period, subject, or theme in ten weeks is not possible—but it does aim to showcase trends in current scholarship. Weekly readings include significant monographs that illustrate the analytical frameworks, theoretical sensibilities, questions, sources, and genres of writing that have been influential in recent work on twentieth-century U.S. history. During the course of the term, we will have several opportunities to speak, via two-way videoconferencing, with historians whose books appear on the syllabus.

The weekly reading and discussion are the heart of this course and a great deal depends on your preparation and participation. To facilitate that worthy goal, students will rotate responsibility for leading weekly discussions, alone or with a colleague.

WRITING REQUIREMENTS

The writing requirement will be a historiographical review essay, approximately 15-20 pages in length. You will select one of the required books in the course, to which you will add two related, recently published books. Please begin by consulting this selected bibliography, but if you have other titles in mind, just let me know. Your essay should accomplish two things at once. It should review the titles under consideration and use them to identify and evaluate key historiographical trends and debates in the subfields under consideration. In addition to your finished essay, I also want to review the notes you keep on the books you have chosen to write about.

There are a number of good places to begin looking for models for this kind of essay. You might consider the relatively lengthy reviews published in Reviews in American History. Essays in the following collections are also useful: Jean-Christophe Agnew and Roy Rosenzweig, eds. A Companion to Post-1945 America. Cambridge: Blackwell, 2002 and Harvard Sitkoff, ed. Perspectives on Modern America: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Rowman & Littlefield publishes a series, "Debating 20th-Century America," that is designed to illustrate interpretive conflicts as well as present primary sources. The "Major Problems in American History" series, published by D.C. Heath and Houghton Mifflin, does something similar.

thinking Requirements

Grades

As in most graduate courses, your final grade will depend largely on the quality of your written work. But because all of us will benefit from your active participation, grades will also reflect your completion of the required reading, weekly preparation, and engagement in discussion.

Course Calendar

Week 1

Week 2

The Borders of Citizenship and the Nation-State

JANUARY 12: IMMIGRATION

Ngai, Mae M. Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004.

We will meet in Knight Library Studio A from 2-3 pm in order to speak with Professor Ngai via two-way teleconferencing.

JANUARY 19: THE REFORM TRADITION THROUGH THE NEW DEAL, WORLD WAR II, AND BEYOND

Gordon, Linda. Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits. New York: W.W. Norton, 2009.

JANUARY 26: THE NATIONAL, THE INTERNATIONAL, AND THE TRANSNATIONAL

Dudziak, Mary L. Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.

FEBRUARY 2: SOCIAL KNOWLEDGE AND THE CHANGING PUBLIC SPHERE

Igo, Sarah E. The Averaged American: Surveys, Citizens, and the Making of a Mass Public. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007.

We will meet in Knight Library Studio A from 2-3 pm in order to speak with Professor Igo via two-way teleconferencing.

The Rights Revolution and Its Discontents

FEBRUARY 9: RACE, SEX, LAW, AND SCIENCE

Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Crown Publishers, 2010.

FEBRUARY 16: CONSUMPTION, POLITICS, AND RELIGION

Moreton, Bethany. To Serve God and Wal-Mart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009.

FEBRUARY 23: GENDER AND SEXUALITY

Canaday, Margot. The Straight State: Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009.

We will meet in Knight Library Studio A from 2-3 pm in order to speak with Professor Canaday via two-way teleconferencing.

MARCH 2: CITIES

Sugrue, Thomas J. The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.

The Modern Historical Profession

MARCH 9:

Fitzpatrick, Ellen. History's Memory: Writing America's Past, 1880-1980. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002.

We will meet in Knight Library Studio A from 2-3 pm in order to speak with Professor Fitzpatrick via two-way teleconferencing.