fall06his490

SUNY Cortland, Department of History
Undergraduate Seminar In American History
Topic: US Social History
Fall 2006

Instructor: Dr. Randi Storch
Office: Old Main 210D
Office Hours: Tues. and Thurs. 11:30-12:30 and 2:30-4:00, and by appointment
Web Page: web.cortland.edu/storchr
Email: storchr@cortland.edu
Phone: 753-2054

The Course. This seminar will result in a thirty-page research paper based on primary and secondary sources that you discover and analyze. This class affords you the opportunity not only to begin to dig deeply into these historical sources, but also to develop research skills, to apply logic to your research and writing, to evaluate evidence critically, to refine your writing, and to participate in a critique of your own work and the work of others. These skills are not only the property of the professional historian (although they do clearly describe most of our life’s work) but also belong to teachers of history and to all critical-thinking citizens. Thus, regardless of your career, the skills you learn, use, and refine in this course are applicable to all aspects of your life.   Beyond these things, this class will introduce you to the major themes and historiography of your topic. When all is said and done, you will hopefully be quite proud of having developed an historical thesis, gathered relevant information from a variety of sources, evaluated that evidence critically, and presented your arguments in an oral presentation and in a paper (no shorter than twenty pages and no longer than thirty pages).

A WORD OF CAUTION. More than nearly any other course, the undergraduate Seminar in American History is what you make of it. We will be meeting together to learn research and writing techniques and to learn about the study of history, and I will be available throughout the semester for consultations on your progress. You will, however, do nearly all of the work on your research project alone and on your own time. The Seminar requires discipline, concentrated study, considerable reading, systematic work, an orderly thought process, and dedicated effort. If you do less than required in any of these areas, your seminar paper and the assignments along the way will be of lesser quality and your final grade will reflect it.

THE TOPIC.    The topic for the undergraduate Seminar in American history is US social history. You will gain a general understanding of the field, closer insights into particular issues and historical problems in this field, and a real expertise with one particular topic relating to US social history.

TEXTS. All books are available in the College Store and may be available at Mandolin Winds in downtown Cortland.
Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 6th
ed. (1996).
This is the researcher’s bible. It contains all the rules and regulations on citations, formatting, and general presentation. Follow it as closely as you can.

William Kelleher Storey, Writing History: A Guide for Students, 2nd ed. (2004).
Storey discusses the basics you will need to successfully pick and research a topic, interpret sources, and organize and write your paper. It is also short and to the point.

** In addition to these texts, I will provide you with primary sources and article-length readings, which we will discuss in class.

COURSE POLICIES

Grading: Fifty percent of your final grade will be based on the seminar paper itself. This will include my judgment of your topic selection, background reading, work with sources and organization of material, writing, and final copy. I will also be assessing you on a primary source report (10%), an annotated bibliography (10%), a prospectus (10%), your participation in seminar discussions (including your reading and critiquing of the work of others) (10%), and a final oral presentation of your work (10%).

Attendance: This is mandatory. The seminar does not meet every week through the semester. At every meeting, something important takes place. Thus, barring something very important, I expect you to be here when class meets.

Deadlines: The effective running of the seminar depends on everyone handing in work on time. You simply must meet each deadline. It is department policy that we give no incomplete grades for the seminar except in the case of the most serious situations.

E-Mail: Feel free to e-mail at anytime during the semester if you have a question, or want my thoughts on a topic, a paragraph or a topic sentence you have written. I will respond as soon as I am able.

SEMINAR SCHEDULE

August 29: Introduction to Seminar, the History Profession, and Social History
After Class:        Read over Entire Syllabus.
For Thursday:    Do Assigned Reading.
Surf the Web for primary sources to address your potential topic. Bring the website and historical questions to class next week.

August 31: Thinking About History; Primary Sources; and Finding a Topic
Read:        Storey, chapters 1-2.

September 5: Finding Sources; Gathering Information
Read:        Storey, review pgs. 22-23 and read chapter 3
September 7: Making Historical Arguments
   Read:     Storey, chapter 4
           Dubofsky and Nelson articles on the 1930s

September 12: No Class – Individual Meetings as Needed

September 14: Present Topics to Seminar; Writing and Documentation
   Read:        Storey, chapters 5-9

September 19, 21, and 26: No Class—Individual Consultations--Work on Refining Your Topic, Writing Your Primary Source Report, Drafting your Prospectus and Creating an Annotated Bibliography

September 28: Present Topics and Tentative Arguments to Seminar -- Prospectus, Primary Source Reports, and Annotated Bibliographies due in class. (See descriptions at the end of this syllabus). Discuss Oral Presentations.

October 3 – October 31: No formal class meetings. Time for research and writing; individual consultation as necessary

November 2: First Group of Draft Papers Due—copies for each member of the group due in the history department office by 1:30.

November 7: Second Group of Draft Papers Due—copies for each member of the group due in the history department office by 1:30.

November 9: Presentation and Critique of First Group of Papers
Third Group of Draft Papers Due--copies for each member of the group due in the history department office by 4:20

November 14: Presentation and Critique of Second Group of Papers

November 16: Presentation and Critique of Third Group of Papers

**All Groups Read Chapter 10 of Storey before turning in Final Papers**
December 7th: Final Papers Due in my mailbox, which is located in the history department office.

Suggested Topics for Research
What follows are some suggestions for further investigation that might lead to a topic for a seminar paper. I have made these suggestions because it appears that there are some primary sources available for study of the area. Clearly, you will have to do more investigation to see if enough primary and secondary material is available for the seminar project. And, of course, no one is required to select a topic from one of the areas listed below. This is just a sampling of what might be possible topics. Many of the resources noted below are in Cortland’s Memorial Library or are available online. There is also wealth of sources at the Kheel Center for Labor Management Documentation and Archives at Cornell University. We are very fortunate to be so near this archive, which has one of the largest holdings of labor and working class materials in the country. If you are interested in researching at this archive, come and talk to me first so that I can get you in touch with the appropriate archivist.

The following listings generally adhere to the same format. I have listed a general area of study, then possible topics, and then primary sources that are available.

Work
Compare the work and living experiences of the first female factory workers? There are collections of writings online and printed in the Memorial Library.

Records of the Women’s Bureau of the US Department of Labor, 1918-1965 edited by Anne Firor Scott and William Chafe are available on microfilm through interlibrary loan. These records also deal with children’s labor.

Look into government hearings on workplace safety, sexual harassment, or protective legislation. What arguments are used to create particular pieces of legislation?

Meatpacking and Steel workers have left good accounts of their work and political activities.

Immigrants
Examine the experiences of a particular group of immigrants at home or at work.
Compare and contrast the experiences between various groups.
There are many autobiographies written by immigrants that could serve as primary sources. Also, Maxine Seller’s edited collection of documents, Immigrant Women might be helpful.

Find legislation particular to immigrants in America and look at reactions to such government actions. You could look for collections of oral histories. I have the index to the Dillingham commission, a congressional committee that looked into questions of immigration during the early 20th century.

Look at the ways that newspapers dealt with Germans during World War I and World War II, or compare and contrast different wars or newspapers’ treatment of different ethnic groups.

Examine the clash of cultures that divided America in the period from 1910-1920. A place to start is www.history.ohio-state.edu/projects/clash.

Why did congress decide to severely limit immigration in 1924? Why did they decide to exclude Chinese immigrants in the late 19th century? Check out the congressional debates on one of these issues.

Class Relationships
How do middle-class reformers think about and treat workers in America in different historical periods? Jane Addams has a number of published writings available. There are also a number of memoirs by reformers available. Welfare is an interesting topic to pursue in this regard.

Middle class reformers and their role in establishing Illinois’ factory inspection act -- see the women and social reform database linked off of our library’s website.

What did middle-class reformers think of child labor? What did they think of working girls? You might begin by looking at The Survey available at Cornell, Binghamton, or Syracuse Universities, and Children’s Bureau publications, available on interlibrary loan. There are also great websites that catalogue child labor photos from the progressive period. Check out www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/index.html.

Labor and Radicalism
Study the Bisbee Arizona deportation of 1917. digital.library.arizona.edu/bisbee/

Iconography of the labor movement or radical movements-How did they portray working people? Industrial Workers of the World on-line photos, radical newspapers, memoirs of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and other wobblies.

You might also be interested in the Communist party. How and why did the party appeal to women or minorities? The party’s paper The Daily Worker is available at Cornell, Syracuse University and through interlibrary loan. Also, many party members have written books about their experiences. What were their personal lives like? Did women make different political sacrifices than men to the movement? What role did sport play in this radical movement?

--Anarchism, Socialism and Women—Emma Goldman’s On-line Archive might be helpful also materials on Mother Jones. See how national female figures influenced local unions, industries, or communities. sunsite.berkeley.edu/goldman/

--African-Americans and Workers’ Radicalism
We have Marcus Garvey and the UNIA’s papers in our library. What did the movement signify to people? What did it do?   What role did women play in the Garvey movement? Why didn’t Garvey and WEB Dubois get along?

You can look at any radical organization and analyze the role of women or African Americans in it. How does the group think about these groups? NYU’s Tamiment center has an oral history project on radicalism and women. You can listen to some interviews Online. I have some records from the collection for those who are interested.

--Utopian Ideals You can look at the Cooperative movement among the Amalgamated Clothing Workers. The Kheel center has the records of an attempt in co-op housing and co-op banking. What was the impetus to such a movement? How successful were they? Why or why not?

Research the Sacco and Vanzetti trial – Were they guilty or innocent? Did they have a fair trial? www.lib.msu.edu/coll/main/spec_col/radicalism/index.htm

Research the Haymarket incident. What happened? Who is to blame? Who was blamed and why? See memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/ichihtml/hayhome.html/evidence.

Strikes, Mobilizations and Working People
You might be interested in researching the famous Flint sit down strike. There is a website to get you started at historicalvoices.org/flint.

--1909 New York Shirtwaist Strike—women and social movements database—What was the relationship between the striking workers and their middle class supporters? How did socialism affect this relationship?

You also might be interested in studying the Lawrence strike of 1912—women and social movements database—What effect did the American dream have on immigrants’ actions in the strike of 1912?

Research the WTO protest in Seattle. depts.washington.edu/wtohist/index.htm

Research rent strikes of the 1930s or other consumer movements (union label campaigns, boycotts, etc.)

African-American Women
Examine the experience of slavery for women. Look at appropriate slave narratives.

Examine the life of African-American women in post Civil-War South.
You could start by looking at the on-line WPA life histories collection.

Find the records of an African-American women’s organization and study the activity and focus of the organization. Records of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs is available on microfilm through interlibrary loan.

What role did African Americans play in the suffrage movement?

What role did women (black and/or white) play in the Civil Rights movement? How did the rhetoric of the movement serve to include or exclude them? Pick a state or region and focus on a group of women. There are a number of autobiographies and collections of oral histories available.

You might want to explore the experiences of women abolitionists. There are a number of autobiographies available.

Education

You might trace the treatment of women, native Americans or African Americans, for example through textbooks in order to see how their treatment has changed over time.

You could look at old yearbooks from Cortland College along with course materials and newspaper records to determine something about social relations between men and women and their place in society.

War
--For those interested in war, there are a number of oral history collections. The Kheel center has good oral and archival material and there is at least one memoir online concerning women in UE during WW2. There are also a number of autobiographies concerning women and men in the Civil War. You might compare the experiences of women or men in the North and the South or look at their experiences in one region. There is a great web project called Valley of the Shadows that looks at two communities during the Civil War through diaries, newspapers, birth records, etc. You could also look at the freedmen’s bureau records to research the experiences of black civil war soldiers.

Compare and contrast newspaper treatment of particular groups during different wars.

Look at race relations during or immediate after war in two cities through newspapers.

Research Japanese Internment in the United States. There are a number of newspapers, diaries, and first hand accounts available.

Unions
--All union newspapers, proceedings, and several union’s minutes are located at the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives. You could pick an event (war, strike, election, deportation), law, or movement, for example, and examine a group’s role in it.
--You may be interested in the role of women’s auxiliaries? What was the role of women’s auxiliaries in unions? The Kheel center has of records of women’s auxiliaries.

1930s and 1940s America
--Explore women’s involvement in the formation of industrial unions by looking closely at one industry and union. How important were women? Did they formulate their own agendas? How different were these then men’s agendas? How did men respond to women’s issues?

Look at the life and politics of Eleanor Roosevelt. She had a weekly column in Women’s Home Companion from 1933 through 1935 and wrote two autobiographies.
The New Deal Network has letters that people wrote to Eleanor. How was she perceived by ordinary Americans?

What impact did the New Deal have on ordinary Americans? Look at a coal mining town in Alabama through the newdeal.feri.org and compare it to a town in New York through www. mcny.org/research/fap/wpa.htm. The website memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsowhome.html has primary material from the Great Depression through World War II. Studs Terkel’s interviews are also available on line at studsterkel.org.

Research student activism in the 1930s. There is great material available on line newdeal.feri.org as well as through memoirs and in newspapers.

Consumerism
The Kheel Center has New York State’s Consumer League reports and their suggestions for legislation. Why did these leagues form? Who did they consist of? What did they try to achieve? How successful were they? When? Why or why not? How did they appeal to women?

Migrant Labor in New York State
The Kheel Center has records on migrant labor in New York. There are reports from migrant labor camps, correspondence about migrant labor, statistical reports and photographs. How was migrant labor looked at by reformers? Did they distinguish along gender lines? How did workers themselves think of their labor? How was work done? What conflicts emerged? What was the ethnicity of migrant workers? How did migrant workers affect local economies and cultures? There are also online sources that look at migrant camps set up in the period from 1940-41.

The Farm Security Administration has on-line records that deal with rural workers. How were they looking at rural women workers?

Images of Women
You could pick an historical period and compare and contrast popular images of women with their social reality. There are many popular women’s magazines dating back to the 19th century (such as Godey’s Lady’s Book). Also census materials would help give a picture of everyday life for women at a particular time. There are a number of memoirs written by women about their lives in the 1950s. You might compare them to popular culture images of women.

Cold War
--Look at trials that deal with communism in education, unions, etc. What evidence was presented? What were the outcomes? Were the outcomes justified?

--HUAC trials on any number of industries or in Hollywood are published and easy to access. What was on trial? How did these trials play out?

There is a website that has good primary source material on famous supreme court trials in America. You pick one to research as a lens on to a particular historical period. www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/ftrials.htm

--Explore the role of women in the Post-World War II world of labor unions. How important were women? What were they pushing for? How did men respond? You might start by looking at union proceedings and newspapers at the Kheel center.

History of Sexuality
Cornell University has the collections of a number of gay, lesbian, and transsexual organizations. It may be interesting to study the rhetoric, issues, and/or activity of one of these groups, putting them in an historical context.

If you are interested in the birth control movement, there is quite a bit of information available about Margaret Sanger. Her papers are available on microfilm through interlibrary loan. Womanhood In Bondage includes letters written to her by working-class women seeking information on birth control. There is also a project on federal obscenity laws and the birth control movement at womhist.binghamtom.edu.

Women’s Liberation Movement
You might explore a particular aspect of the women’s liberation movement. There is an extensive website available from http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/

Workers and Historical Memory
--You can look at the way a workers’ celebration has changed over time. (Labor Day, May Day)

--You could also choose to examine how the interpretation of a past strike or phenomena (like Communism) is contested in different time periods.

--You can write a paper on the construction of (and contestation over) a worker’s monument.

Prospectus—Due September 28
A prospectus is a preliminary statement of your topic. This should be a one page, typed paper explaining the general issue you will examine, what types of sources you will use, and what questions you will ask. Why are you using the sources you’ve chosen? Why pick the questions you’ve selected? What do you think you will find?

Annotated Bibliography--Due September 28
The purpose of this bibliography is for you to show me that you have located a body of sources that will address the questions that you have presented in your prospectus. It is only natural that your bibliography will grow and change as your research progresses. Make sure to group your sources into the main categories of “Primary Sources” and “Secondary Sources.” Under “Secondary Sources,” be sure to further subdivide your categories into books, articles, and online materials. Storey has a good description of Annotated Bibliographies on pages 15-16.

Primary Source Report—Due September 28
You will each write a two-three page typed primary source report based on a primary source relating to a topic of interest to you. In these reports you will be formulating arguments about your sources and linking your findings to potential paper topics. In your paper you will explain what your document reveals (and hides) about your topic. Here are some guiding questions. Do not answer them point by point. Instead, think about them as you examine your source.

Questions to Ask Yourself
1. What kind of document is it? Is it private or public? Is it casual or formal? Is it a government record or a work of fiction or a diary or a reminiscence or a newspaper editorial? Does this particular genre have any conventions or peculiarities that affect its reliability or usefulness?

2. What was the motive for producing the document? In a sense, every document is an answer to some question or a response to some problem--that's simply a way of saying that things are written for a reason. If this document is the answer, what is the question? Is it a strong answer or a weak one? How does the author's intention affect the document's credibility?

3. Why was the document produced at precisely this moment and not, say, 5 years earlier or 50 years later? What does its appearance tell us about the society at that particular time?

4. In what ways is this a useful document for historians? What are its strengths and weaknesses as a source? What conclusions could you draw if this were the only surviving source about its subject?

5. What questions does this document leave unanswered? What is left out or slurred over or slighted? What other conceivable document would you like to be given as a supplement to this one?

6. What do you know about the author of the document? What was their background--social position, economic class, occupation, religion, education, place of residence, and circle of associates?

7. Would anything in that background make them likely to notice certain things or to overlook certain things? For example, a fashion model would be likely to pay attention to someone's clothing.

8. What does the document itself tell you about its author? Can you infer from it anything about them, people like them, or his society?

9. Is the author a credible witness? Was she in a position to see what she describes? Was she physically present? Is the document a first-hand account? If not, on what sources did she rely?

10. For whom was the document written?

11.What was the relationship of the author to the audience? Did the author have any reason to deceive the audience?

12. What response did the author hope to produce in the audience? What tone did the author take with the readers? Was it sincere, bitter, sarcastic, pleading, or threatening?

Places to Find Answers
1. The title. Why did the author give the document this title? What does the title mean? Can you turn the title into a question? If so, what is the answer to that question?

2. The beginning and the end. How does the document start? Why did the author begin with this particular sentence? with this particular paragraph? How does the beginning set up the rest of the argument? How does the document end? Why does it end in this way? What's the relationship between the document's ending and its beginning?

3. Key sentence. Can you identify one sentence that seems to be crucial to the entire document? Is there a sentence that summarizes the document's main point? Is there one that seems to be especially significant or difficult?

4. Key words. What words does the author use again and again? What words seem to be given special emphasis? Circle these significant words and look them up in The Oxford English Dictionary.

5. Descriptive language. What images or figures of speech are used by the author? What are the implications of the metaphors and visual language? For example, consider the very different implications of describing society as a machine or a body or a ship or a battleground or a marketplace.

6. Causal statements. Does the author make any generalizations or claims about causes or
effects? What are the underlying assumptions of these generalizations? For example, consider the very different implications of stating that a cow's death was caused by witchcraft or caused by anthrax.

7. Fuzzy logic and awkward organization. Look very carefully at places where the argument seems strained or inconsistent or evasive. Pay attention to transitions or abrupt shifts of topic. These places often reveal inner contradictions in the document. Give special scrutiny to any statement that seems odd, unexpected, puzzling, confusing, funny, or irritating. These places are the crevices that can open up a source if you dig at them. One of the best ways to develop an interpretation of a document is to try to understand why these places caught your attention.

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