The

Truth Is

Out

There

Since 1877 American History

American History

❖Introduction to the Course:

–“What Am I Doing Here Anyway”

–Basic Themes

–Historical Study and Scholarship

»“The Past Never Goes Away”

American HistorySince 1877

Mr. Maddock

EMail (madoc4@innercite.com)

Office Hour

Reminders and Notifications

American History

❖News about the

class is twitterific!

❖twitter.com/madoc4

American History

❖Website:❖madoc4. homestead.com/ History.html

American History

❖Required

Reading

–Paul Johnson, A History of the American People

American History

❖Required Reading:

–Larry McMurtry, Buffalo Girls

8

American History

❖Required Reading

–David Brooks, On Paradise Drive

American History❖Required Reading

and Paper:

– Answer one question (your choice) per chapter (except chapters 4 and 15).

– A few sentences for each question.

– Submit at any time during the class until the final exam.

American History

❖Reading

assignments?

❖Homework?

American History

❖Important Dates

American History

❖Comprehensive

❖Introductory

❖Two students

❖Active

❖Your class

American History

❖Tape

Recorders

❖Video

Materials

American History❖Examinations–Essay

–Reinforce main themes

–No tricks

❖Two exams

American History

❖Missed Exam:

–YOUR responsibility to finish before the next exam

American History

❖ Term Paper:

➢5-6 pages (An American subject 1865-1989)

With Bibliography or Endnotes

➢Person, event, idea or thing

➢Use the Internet and Library

17

American History

❖Plagiarism

American History❖The final course grade:

No points or curve; A progression; Expectations

First Exam 25%

Final Exam 40%

Term paper 30%

Extra Credit 5%

American History❖Course Grade:

–The default grade for the

class if all assigned work

is not completed is a D

20

American History❖Entitlement and self-esteem

❖Is there a secret formula?

American History

❖Hardcopy only – no

emails without prior

approval

❖Computers and Tablets

in the classroom

American History

❖Attendance

–Three absences

❖Dropping the class

–Drop forms

❖Incompletes

American History

❖Hardcopy only – no emails without prior approval❖Word format only

❖Computers and Tablets in the classroom

American History

❖Courtesy and

civility

❖Cell phones

❖IM Devices

American History

❖ Tutorial and Learning Skills Assistance

❖Reading and Writing

Center

American History

❖Once you are enrolled in the class

❖Responsibilities

❖Problems

Themes

New earths, new themes expect us.

Henry David Thoreau (1857)

28

History❖Two Issues:❖One: How to approach the

class?❖Two: how to approach “near

history”. The “two generations” rule.

❖Current Events? Anything after 1975 or 1989? Has to be arbitrary

29

American History

❖Part One: The Dynamo

❖The Great Fact

❖A Changed Political Discussion

❖ The Presidency

30

American History ❖The context: the

organizational revolution (1870-1900)

❖A changed economy, politics and society

❖A new political discussion and argument (Progressives and “Liberals”)

❖The “Limits” of the Constitution

31

American History

❖Part Two: Optimism and the Suburban Empire

❖ 1939: Unfulfilled Promises: “why oh why, can’t I”

❖Depression and War

32

American History ❖The aftermath of World

War One

❖The “Great Depression”

❖The purpose and place of the state; the Fascist moment

❖Caught between optimism and the wasteland

33

American History

❖Which war?

❖The importance of the Pacific War

❖The nature of violence and surrender

34

American History ❖“Lost in the universe”

❖What to make of the “peace”

❖Yalta (Feb 3, 1945) and the aftermath

❖How to think about the Soviet Union – just what did Stalin represent

❖A mixture of the utopianism of the 30s and “realism”

35

American History

❖Americans wanted nothing more than to “settle all our difficulties with Russia and then go to the movies and drink coke”

❖Averell Harriman (Ambassador to Moscow during World War II)

36

American History

❖The “myths” of the 1950s and early 1960s

❖Automobiles, suburbs and kitchen appliances

37

American History ❖Part Three: Here In

Utopia – All Along the Watchtower

❖The Button Down Mind

❖Two Kennedys

❖Wishing so many things so …

38

American History

❖The Civil Rights Generation

❖The unfinished business of Reconstruction

39

American History

❖Two Vietnam Generations

❖Nature of the war?

❖Quagmire?

❖Watergate?

40

American History

❖The Dark Carnival

❖June 8, 1982 in the House of Commons: The “evil empire” speech

❖Rejecting the world created at Yalta

41

American History

❖“Once Upon A Time” – Everyone Knew The Rules

❖The legacy of the “Flappers”

❖From Blondie to Lois and Mrs. Peel

42

American History ❖Part Four: Sugar? –

Slouching Toward Dystopia

❖Money or Hourglass “Liberalism”

❖Orwell, Huxley, Boorstin and Brooks

❖Social Media – Unintended Consequences of Technology and Big Data

43

Themes

Themes

New earths, new themes expect us.

Henry David Thoreau (1857)

45

Themes❖ One: The Great Fact

❖ 1903: The Wright Brothers

❖ July 20, 1969: Apollo 11 landing on the moon

❖ 66 years (Kennedy proposed project in 1961)

❖ A person living in Sumer (4,000 BC) would have found the resources, work and technology in 1066, or in the Aztec Empire at the time of Columbus familiar (4000 BC – 1494).

❖ Change only begins to accelerate in the mid-1700s. First in Britain and then slowly to the rest of the world.

46

Themes❖ Why? (1) the evolution of institutions;

constitutions, law and private property; (2) changing attitudes toward markets, work (Protestant Reformation), and innovation.

❖ Average income per person per day: between 1 AD-1066 about $2. Between 1800-1900 it doubled. Grew twice as much in one century than in the previous eighteen. Today: $45 world; $145 in USA.

❖ Life expectancy: 1870, 36 years. Today it is 72.

❖ Infant death: 1800, 43% died before age five; today less than 1%.

47

Themes❖ Literacy: 1820, 90% illiterate.

Today 13%❖ Poverty: 1820, 90%. Today, less

than 10%❖ Less conflict: 1800, 65 per

100,000; Today 2 per 100,000. The last great power war was between China and America in the Korean peninsula (1950-53) 66 years ago.

❖ Expanded agricultural production (the Green Revolution) means more people can eat.

❖ The encounter with prosperity for Americans since 1949. The “boomer” generation.

❖ What have we become? (Brooks)

48

Themes

49

Themes❖ Two: The Long

War– Weimar to Peace of

Paris (Nov 1990); the Soviet Union formally dissolved on December 25, 1991

– A contest between Fascism/Nazism, Communism, Islamism and Constitutional Democracy

Themes

Three: In a sense, the history of the 20th Century is defined by a search for Utopia–Advances in technology,

science and administration (the organizational revolution)

–Social and cultural confidence as well; to create a new person

Themes

The Irony: The Great War shattered this world but not it’s desire for a social and economic paradise (a form of secular faith)

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900): “God is dead”

Themes

In Europe and Asia: National Socialism(three variations):

Communism (Bolshevik revolution, internationalism and the importance of the Soviet State)

Fascism (Mussolini and the nation state): a world of war and state competition

Themes

Nazism (the Nation and race theory): to return to the true history of the German volk

All three saw Democracy as the primary enemy; anti-Semitism and anti-Christian (anti-Catholic)

To replace the Church with the State

Themes

All of these stressed the ability to know the future; to begin again; an inheritance of the French Revolution; a combination of social analysis and belief (in the religious sense)

–A “new” man

–The Year Zero

Themes

View of those who might

oppose their ideas

–Must be willful ignorance and/or

reactionaries

–No need for debate or argument;

only assertion counted; the

commitment to gaining and

holding power

Themes

In America: Progressivism and or “Liberalism” (In a sense, a fourth National Socialism)

Woodrow Wilson

–A war to end war (to remove power from International relations); self-determination

–Emphasized executive authority

–An inversion of the Founders emphasis on evil and power

Themes

An elite sensibility

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859): toured America 1831-32 and warned against conformity and “expert” opinion

The slow erosion of what happened in 1776: from Aristocracy to a Republic

Themes

Authority and common respect no longer came from the bottom up; the return to an Aristocratic sensibility?

In America: the politics came from the reality of prosperity

The

Truth Is

Out

There