American history post Civil War Introduction 1 Overview of history / Prof. Kovarik

HU2003

AMERICAN HISTORY FROM

POST-CIVIL WAR TO THE PRESENT

Unity College KH 203 / T-Th 6-7:15

Prof. Kovarik wkovarik @unity.edu

Books: Howard Zinn, People’s

History of the U.S. (Free)

& other assigned readings

About this course …

Introductions

How the course is organized

Instructors goals

Students goals

Introduction to history in general

Instructor – Prof. Bill Kovarik,

PhD Career in journalism & teaching

History of media, which …

Opened environmental history ◦ See environmentalhistory.org

Have also installed solar panels, built windmills, worked in ethanol plants

Wrote major histories of renewable energy and mass media ◦ Billkovarik.com

Introductions

Name & major

Hometown

Your interest in history

◦ Wayback machine

Online resources

Canvas

◦ Reading assignments

◦ Quiz questions

◦ Some online quizzes

Instructor’s web site

◦ Billkovarik.com

Spring 2015

Syllabus 1 This class covers American history from post-Civil War

Reconstruction to the present through an examination of the major ideas and forces that shaped the country during this period.

The class will focus on particular themes and periods, including the meaning of freedom, especially as it emerged from Emancipation and Reconstruction and reached some measure of fulfillment in the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s; the profound social, economic, and political effects of the industrialization of America between the collapse of Reconstruction and World War I; the progressive political reform that culminated in FDR’s New Deal and which still, in many ways, defines the terms of our political debate today; the post-World War II prosperity and growth that not only propelled America onto the global stage as a superpower, but remade our landscapes at home with the suburbanization of America; and the rise of cultural and political conservatism, beginning in the 1970s and continuing today against the background of increasing globalization and global change.

Grading

Group Topic Briefing (12 possible

points)

Mid-Term & Final (40 possible points)

Open Quizzes about readings (18

pts)

Public service / research project (26

pts)

Reading & video (24 pts)

Overall: 120 possible points

Schedule thru Spring Break

1. About history

2. Freedom Riders – Reconstruction to Civil Rights

3. Pioneers & Frontiers

4. Progressives

5. Flappers / Roaring 20s

6. Suffragettes / Women’s movement

7. New dealers

8. Greatest Generation / WWII

Schedule April - May 2015

1. Cold Warriors

2. New Conservatives

3. Greens – environmental history

4. Muckrakers, dramatic changes in

media technology, and global culture

What is history?

Active investigation

of what happened

and what we can

learn from the past

From the Greek,

ἱστορία - historia,

meaning "inquiry,

knowledge

acquired by

investigation.”

This lecture is about history

… What is history

Historical methods

Importance of history

Historians motives

Schools of history

Historical issues, myths and

fallacies

What is history?

Collective memory of humankind

The record of events and also to the

academic discipline of studying or helping

create the record of events.

One of the Humanities

Allows broad questions – when and who,

but also why and how …

History is NOT …

A permanent repository of facts

Not a “science” or “social science”

Useless memorization of dates

Only concerned with “great men”

and “great machines”

Only concerned with Europe and

the USA

Clio: Muse of history

First among the nine

muses of Greek

mythology

Often represented with

a parchment scroll or a

set of tablets.

The name is from the

root κλέω, "recount" or

"make famous”.

Visualizing history

History, by Frederick Dielman, 1896

from the US Library of Congress, Washington DC

Historical method 1

Comparative & critical method

◦ Not experimental like sciences

◦ Research in archives, interviews with

subjects, query data

◦ Critical approach to when, where, by

whom, who else, what medium,

◦ Concern with source integrity &

credibility

Historical method 2

Duty to truth and accuracy

◦ Preference for eyewitness

accounts, original documents,

Precise answers are elusive

Looking for insights & explanations

Producing narrative & analysis

Motives of great historians:

Herodotus (484–420 BCE)

preserve the memory of

great heroes

Thucydides (460–400 BCE)

learn the lessons of the

past as a guide to the

future Heroditus and Thucydides

Great historians:

David Hume (1711-1776)

History of Britain from the invasion of

Julius Caesar to the Revolution of 1688.

(written 1754–62) Definitive interpretation

of British history glorified the monarchy but

in an ironic and witty manner.

Edward Gibbon (1737 -1794)

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman

Empire (written 1776 – 1788). One of the

most famous early modern works of history,

used primary sources and worked for

accuracy. Main motive was to understand

the fall of an empire so that the fall of the

British empire could be averted.

Why is history important?

◦ George Santayana

(1863–1952)

American

◦ “Those who

cannot

remember the

past are

condemned to

repeat it.”

Why is history important?

◦ H.G. Wells (1866–1946), historian,

science fiction writer

◦ “History is a race

between education

and catastrophe”

“Schools” of history Heroic – Early American histories ◦ Nation-building, inspirational

Scientific – 1860s – 20th century ◦ Search for objectivity

Progressive (1890s - WWI era)◦ Class conflict

Consensus – Grand narrative ◦ (post WWII – 1970s)

New social history ◦ (post 70s – present)

Heroic school

Parson Weems (1759 –

1825)

◦ George Washington and

the cherry tree in his

1800 biography

◦ Hagiography (biography

of a saint)

Subjective history

British historian Thomas Carlyle -

passionate 1837 history of the French

Revolution / Tale of Two Cities is partly

based on this

American historian George Bancroft’s

notion that the United States was

created more or less as an act of God.

Both approaches heavily influenced by

the personal biases of the historian

Whig

His

tory

in t

he U

SA

American progress, John Gast, 1872

Let’s stick to the facts said …

Leopold Von Ranke (German 1795–1886)

Historians should take a

fact-based empirical

approach and report

“the way things really

were.”

Thomas Macaulay

(1800 – 1859) Historical accuracy also means being inclusive. Macaulay wrote that history is incomplete if it only involves palace intrigues and great battles.

History of England A political Whig (reformer), Macaulay put liberalism, reform and public service at the center of British history. The “Progressive History” approach was widely adopted in UK and US

Thomas Macaulay

“ … a true picture of the life of their ancestors.”

“… to relate the history of the people as well as the history of the government, to trace the progress of useful and ornamental arts, to describe the rise of religious sects and the changes of literary taste, to portray the manners of successive generations and not to pass by with neglect even the revolutions which have taken place in dress, furniture, repasts, and public amusements …”

Progressive / Moral historian

Lord John Acton

(1834 – 1902)

◦ Highly influenced by

Macaulay

◦ “Power corrupts,

absolute power

corrupts absolutely.”

◦ Historians must

apply moral

judgments

Progressive

Allan Nevins (1890 – 1971)

American journalist, worked with Walter

Lippmann at Pulitzer’s World newspaper

“History is never above

the melee. It is not

allowed to be neutral,

but forced to enlist in

every army…” Other “Progressive” historians – Charles A. Beard,

Consensus history

Post WWII approach to

history that emphasized

areas of agreement

rather than conflict.

Daniel J. Borstin is one

example.

“ … believed that the prosperity and

apparent class harmony of the post-World

War II era reflected a return to the true

Americanism rooted in liberal capitalism and

the pursuit of individual opportunity that had

made fundamental conflicts over resources a

thing of the past.”

New Social History

Eugin Weber (1925 – 2007)

Romanian-American historian /

Modernization theory

“History is the dressing

room of politics…”

"The world has always been

disgracefully managed, but now

(1989) you no longer know to whom to

complain."

New Social History Barbara Tuchman (1912–1989) American

Guns of August, Proud Tower, First

Salute, Stilwell and the American

Experience in China,

Tuchman’s Law:

"Disaster is rarely as

pervasive as it seems from

recorded accounts. The fact of

being onthe record makes it appear continuous and

ubiquitous whereas it is more likely to have been

sporadic both in time and place. … The fact of being

reported multiplies the apparent extent of any

deplorable development…”

Historical myths Stab-in-the-back myth Dolchstoßlegende right-wing circles in

Germany after 1918, that the German Army did not lose World War I

but was instead betrayed by the civilians on the home front.

◦ Myth bred resentment that led to WWII ; post-Vietnam era has version of this

Whale oil myth -- Petroleum did not emerge in the free market just

in time to save the whales. In fact, petroleum was marketed after

competing fuels were heavily taxed in the US.

◦ Reason for preferring market policy to government energy policy.

Benito Mussolini did not "make the trains run on time.”

◦ Excuse for harsh treatment of political opponents

Widespread panic after Orson Welles 1938 radio adaptation of

H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds? Probably not.

◦ But newspapers helped make seem as if it were true.

Two thirds of total world oil reserves are not located in Saudi

Arabia and the Middle East.

◦ Myth excused intervention in Gulf Wars 1990s – 2000s

Time – related historical terms

Chronological – In order of occurrence

Anachronic -- against flow of time

◦ (Ex: Mad Men Anachronisms)

Synchronic – at same time

◦ (Ex: synchronize clocks)

Diachronic – through time

◦ (Ex: diachronic linguistics is the study of

language change over time)

Issues in history

Historicism – Cant understand without context

◦ As opposed to reductionism & determinism

Determinism – “weak” & “strong” versions ◦ Usually there are many factors are at work

Chronological snobbery ◦ things were better / worse in the past

Historian’s fallacy ◦ projecting present knowledge on the past

◦ not recognizing fog of history

Whig history ◦ Viewing past through present / inevitable & progressive view of

history

Revisionism ◦ Re-consideration of orthodox views (sometimes negative, but not

usually)

What’s a

Whig

?

A political party in Britain (1670s – 1860s) that favored Parliament

over the monarchy, free trade, religious tolerance, abolition of slavery

and expansion of voting rights. Whigs became the labor party in the

1860s. (Opposition was the Tories, favor monarchy, tradition).

Whig history is about history that favors the idea of progress.

Whig

His

tory

exam

ple

Progress in public relations history:

P.T. Barnum & ballyhoo PR ◦ Mid-19th century

Ivy Lee & press agency PR ◦ Early 20th century

Edward Bernais & scientific public info ◦ Mid-20th century

James Grunig & 2-way symmetrical flow ◦ Late 20th century

People’s history

Howard Zinn(1922 – 2010)

People’s History of the United States

“History is invoked because nobody can say what history really has ordained for you, just as nobody can say what God has ordained for you…”

Civil Rights history

People who have

been ignored until

recent generations

Major contributions

Struggle for equality

reflects America at its

best and worst

Influences (Gandhi,

Tolstoy)

Has influenced

(Mandella, Tum,

Aung San Suu Kyi,

others)

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lincoln

Memorial, Aug. 28, 1963.

Women’s history

Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of British

movement for women’s suffrage, 1913.

Early non-violent

movement

Major contributions

that had been

ignored

Struggle for equality

reflects the world at

its best and worst

Environmental history

US President Teddy Roosevelt

& Sierra Club founder John Muir

at Yosemite National Park, May, 1903

Conservation

Public health

Technology

regulation

“Wise use” – TR

“Preservation” – JM

Goes back through

history

Not “new” but

new as an historical

discipline

End of history ?

Francis Fukuyama

(1952–present) / also

Jean Baudrillard

(1929–2007)

End of the idea of

progress

Abandonment of

utopian visions from

right- and left-wing

political ideologies

Review: Questions

Who is Clio? Who says history is important? Who says history is objective? Who says history is NOT objective? What are some historical myths? What are some historical problems? What is ‘Whig history’ ? What are some new branches of social

history? Why is history “ending”?

Review: People

Heroditus & Thucydides Edward Gibbon George Santayana Leopold Von Ranke H.G. Wells Barbara Tuchman Arnold Toynbee Lord John Acton Herbert Butterfield Howard Zinn Francis Fukuyama

Next up:

Envision America, 150 years ago

◦ Reconstruction – how to deal with the

defeated South ?

◦ Continued military occupation

◦ African Americans – Voting rights,

education

◦ Factions – Radical Republicans vs

Moderates, vs Democrats, Elections

1868, 1872

◦ End of Reconstruction 1876 election

◦ Henry Grady & the New South 1880

Thank you