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for grade breakdown, due-dates, required
texts, office hours, etc.
Don't let this happen to you. Know your history.
109
American history
to Reconstruction
1877
We live life forward,
but we understand it backward.
John M. Ysursa, Ph.D.
Department of History
Office hours Tues. & Thur.
7:30-8AM in classroom SH-145 then
9:30--10:45 & 2:30--3:30 in AL-586
Email: ysursa@rohan.sdsu.edu
I will not be back on campus until the beginning of Fall term 2010, at which time you can pick up your final exam/take-home essay if you'd like.
COURSE GRADING: 500 pts total
Essay Exam I (20%/100 pts)
Take-home essay (20%/100pts)Final Exam (20%/100 pts)
Quizzes (20%/100 pts)
H.T.M. Journal (6%/30 pts)Attendance (4%/20pts)
Group Participation (4%/20pts)
Journal write-ups (6%/30pts)
Due dates
QUIZ/JOURNAL WRITE-UPS TRACK. Below are the specific tasks that are due each week. ESSAY EXAM TRACK. Click on the links below. The exact reading start date varies but will be announced in class
Introduction: Mutual Expectations (optional reading) 2/2 Tu> Q1. U.S. CITIZENSHIP QUIZ (20pts) 2/9 Tu> Class cancelled; nothing due (represents the furlough) A1. America Debate 2/16 Tu> J1. Time Travel (Initial group formation) 2/23 Tu> Q2. HISTORY BOOT CAMP QUIZ (20pts) A2. Legacy Debate 3/2 Tu> J2. Textbook Analysis + Optional essay trial 3/9 Tu> J3. Colonial Life & Myth + Feedback page 1 A3. Religion Debate 3/16 Tu> Q3. DAVIS CH. 1 & 2 (30pts) 4pm class Tu 3/23 >
8AM class
Th 3/25>
ESSAY EXAM I: (click on "A" links at right for readings)
Grading Criteria Exam Prep Bring a bluebook & pens
> The midterm exam will be over the material A1, A2 & A3 (above at right). Of the three topics two will be selected at random, and you answer one in a bluebook. You will have 75 minutes for your response. Plan accordingly.
3/29-4/2> Week of Spring Break--no classes campus wide B1. Liberty Debate 4/6 Tu> J4. Television, Film & History + Feedback page 2 4/13 Tu> J5. American War Rhyme + Feedback page 3 B2. E Pluribus Unum Debate 4/20 Tu> J6. Logical reading & the Nature of History + Feedback page 4 4/27 Tu> Q4. DAVIS CH. 3 & 4 (30pts) B3. Racism Debate 5/4 Tu> J7. Slavery Debate 5/11 Tu> J8. Senator's Speech + Journal submission + In-class group & self evaluation 5/14 Fri> Grade to date (60%) will be posted on Blackboard. Final exam day is last day to check-off on these posted grades
8AM class
Th 5/20
8-10AM
4pm class Tu 5/18
4-6PMFinal essay exam (only in enrolled slot)
PART I. In-class bluebook exam.
Grading Criteria Exam Prep Bring a bluebook & pens
> The final essay exam will be over the material B1, B2 & B3 (above at right). Of the three topics two will be selected at random, and you answer one in a bluebook. You will have two hours and my use a "cheat sheet" for your response. Plan accordingly.
Part II. Take home essay: Historical Film Analysis. After you finish the in-class final exam you turn these in together.
5/25 FINAL GRADE POSTED @ SDSU WebPortal thus final grades are not emailed, nor posted on BlackBoard. Instead please complete the course evaluation at to be able to access your final course grade on WebPortal
"Man has always been his own most vexing problem." ~Reinhold NiebuhrFour course objectives:
·What is American Civilization? There is no one answer to this, and it varies depending upon one’s perspective; i.e., what questions you ask of American history and what points you concentrate on. In this course we will approach this issue from various perspectives.
·What is a History Thinking Machine? This course endeavors to explore ways of HOW to think about history as opposed to WHAT we should think. Historians train to approach the study of history with various “history tools” that will be developed.
·What does it take to bring history alive? This course examines the roots of the ongoing dilemma as to why so many students perceive history as being “boring/irrelevant.” By identifying sources of the problem, the hope is that some viable solutions might emerge so that we can break this seemingly endless cycle.
·What does history have to do with my life? Benjamin Franklin divided knowledge into two categories: the useful and ornamental. Seemingly, history appears to be ornamental, but could it be that it might be useful? This course explores this possibility.
WHAT IS HISTORY: "History is who we are and why we are the way we are." ~David C. McCullough
"For history is to the nation as memory is to the individual." ~A.M. Schlesinger, Jr.
"It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers." ~James Thurber
"History is the science of what never happens twice." ~Paul Valery
THE USE OF HISTORY: History is not a fixed story students have to swallow but a way of thinking they can apply to life. ~James Loewen
THE 3 KINDS OF PEOPLE IN THE WORLD: The foolish fail to learn from their mistakes and successes,
while the smart do, but it is the wise who can learn from the mistakes and successes of others.
HISTORY AT ITS BEST: To clarify an ever-changing present and inform the future with wisdom.
THE CHALLENGES OF HISTORY:
Historical thought is not a natural process: it goes against the grain of how we ordinarily think, [which is] one of the reasons why it is much easier to learn names, dates, and stories than it is to [understand] the past.
~Sam Wineburg
SOME HISTORICAL QUOTATIONS:
"People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
"History is the only laboratory we have in which to test the consequences of thought." ~Etienne Gilson
"Half the job of teaching history is in getting the students interested in the questions the Professor deems important." ~Sidney E. Mead
"The most important of all sciences man can and must learn is the science of living so as to do the least evil and the greatest good possible." ~Leo Tolstoy
“Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
"History is, indeed, an argument without end." ~Pieter Geyl
"Life is not simple, and therefore history, which is past life, is not simple." ~David Shannon
"What teacher and student are jointly after is knowledge, and the question should never be what do you think--but instead what is the truth?" ~Stanley Fish
"It might be good idea if the various countries of the world would occasionally swap history books, just to see what other people are doing with the same set of facts." ~Bill Vaughan"The realization that history involves the study of individual interpretations or versions of the past can be unsettling. Many of us yearn for the security afforded by unchallenged, definitive answers to a limited and manageable set of questions. To find out that historians are always asking new questions and continually offering new answers to old questions eliminates the possibility of an absolute and singular truth about the human past. At the same time, this is also what makes history so intellectually exciting. History is not the dead study of a dead past; it is not about the memorization of dates, names, and places. History is a living and evolving dialogue about the most important subject of all-the human experience. And all of us are capable in taking part in that dialogue. The remaining question is, how do you do this? The answer is simple: by learning how historians think and by sharpening the analytical and communication skills that are essential for success in college and professional life. These skills and thought processes are what we call the methods of history." ~Michael J. Salevouris & Conal Furay
"Facts are supposed to make truth out of a proposition. They are the proof. The trouble is that there are enough facts around to prove most things. Facts are the currency of power for each specialized group. But how can so much be expected from these innocent fragments of knowledge? They are not able to think and so cannot be used to replace thought. They have no memory. No imagination. No judgment. They're really not much more than interesting landmarks which may illuminate our way as we attempt to think."
~John Ralston Saul
SDSU History Fans with author James Loewen at a conference he gave (Spring 2008)Email: ysursa@rohan.sdsu.edu
Historical learning comes when the "velcro sticks together"
HEURISTIC:
“encouraging the student to discover the answers for herself or himself.”
"History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme."
~Mark Twain
Do You Pledge?
It depends on what you know--or don't know--about American history
The American trinity on coins:
"E Pluribus Unum"
"Liberty"
"In God We Trust"
Look behind because:
"God alone knows the future, but only an historian can alter the past." ~Ambrose Bierce
“Professor Johnston often said that if you didn't know history, you didn't know anything. You were a leaf that didn't know it was part of a tree.” ~Michael Crichtonfor grade breakdown, due-dates, required texts, office hours, etc.