History 457: RECONSTRUCTION

Fall Quarter, 2007: T & R, 12:00 to 13:20, 175 Lil

Professor: James C. Mohr
Office: 383 McKenzie
Office Hours: T&R 10:30-11:30 and by appointment
Phone: 346-5903
E-mail: jmohr@uoregon.edu

Required Readings:

Foner, Reconstruction, America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877

Jones, Soldiers of Light and Love: Northern Teachers and Georgia Blacks, 1865-1873

Benedict, “Southern Democrats in the Crisis of 1876-1877: A Reconsideration of Reunion and Reaction," Journal of Southern History, Vol XLVI, No. 4 (Nov 1980), 489-524

Ross, “Justice Miller’s Reconstruction: The Slaughter-House Cases, Health Codes, and Civil Rights in New Orleans, 1861-1873,” Journal of Southern History, Vol LXIV, No. 4, (Nov 1998), 649-676.

(The books are paperback and available in the Bookstore; the articles will be available on Knight Library electronic reserve)

This course allows us to take a close look at one of the most tumultuous, fascinating, and significant periods in our national history: the so-called Reconstruction, when Americans faced the awesome task of trying to rebuild their republic after the cataclysm of the Civil War. The decisions they made at that time laid the foundations upon which the modern United States evolved, and many of those decisions still reverberate clearly into our own times.

This will be primarily a lecture course, with some discussion interspersed along the way and one class session set aside specifically for discussion of the Jones book.

There will be a mid-quarter exam (30%); a paper of five to ten pages (30%); and a final exam (40%).

Week I:
Reading: Foner, Reconstruction, 1-76.

Lectures: Sep 25: Outline and introduction
Sep 27: Wartime roots of post-war policy

Week II:
Reading: Foner, Reconstruction, 77-280

Lectures: Oct 02: Johnson's Failure, 1865-1867
Oct 04: The impeachment episode
Week III:
Reading: Foner, Reconstruction, 281-345; continue Jones, Soldiers

Lectures: Oct 09: Congressional, or "Radical," Reconstruction
Oct 11: Radical Reconstruction in Practice in the South

Week IV:
Reading: Foner, Reconstruction, 346-411; finish Jones, Soldiers

Lectures: Oct 16: Reconstruction in the North
Oct 18: Freedpeople and the Southern Economy

Week V:
Reading: No additional assignment; review for mid-term exam

Lectures: Oct 23: Readers only discussion session on Jones, Soldiers of Light and Love
Oct 25: MIDTERM EXAM
Week VI:
Reading: Foner, Reconstruction, 412-511; do not forget your Times reading for the paper

Lectures: Oct 30: Grantism
Nov 01: Counter-Reconstruction in the South

Week VII:
Reading: Foner, Reconstruction, 512-612; continue Times paper

Lectures: Nov 06: Counter-Reconstruction at the National Level
Nov 08: The Election of 1876 and the Crisis of 1877

Week VIII:
Reading: Benedict, "Southern Democrats in the Crisis of 1876-1877"; Ross, “Justice Miller’s Reconstruction: The Slaughter-House Cases, Health Codes, and Civil Rights in New Orleans, 1861-1873”; begin writing your Times paper

Lectures: Nov 13: The “Compromise” of 1877 and its aftermath
Nov 15: Reconstruction legal history and its aftermath

Week IX:
Reading: No additional assignment; finish Times paper, which is due Tuesday

Lectures: Nov 20: PAPERS DUE (at beginning of class)
American Indian policy 1865-1887
Nov 22: Thanksgiving: No class

Week X:
Reading: No additional reading; review for final exam

Lectures: Nov 27: The Consolidation of a New Era, Part I: Trends in the New Economy and Some of its Implications
Nov 29: The Consolidation of a New Era, Part II: The Foundations of Modern America

Week XI: Dec 03: FINAL EXAM (Monday at 8:00 a.m.. Please note the time and date, and please make departure plans accordingly)

Paper Assignment:

The Knight Library holds the New York Times newspaper for the entire period we will be looking at in this course. It is on microfilm. You are to select any one week between June 1, 1865 and December 31, 1878 and read the Times thoroughly for that week; every page, editorials, ads and all. Then write a paper that addresses any of the chief issues of that week or any aspects of American everyday life revealed in the Times during that week. If you wish to do so, you may explore your subject beyond the week you chose and you may explore your subject in sources other than the Times, but you are not required to do so. Your papers may vary a great deal depending upon what was going on during your week, what you decide to write about, what context you decide to put the material into, and which themes you select for analysis.