HIST 3207

History of the United States since

1877 Anna Marie Bautista (until September
30th) ambautista@hkbu.edu.hk

Stephan Ortmann (from October 7th)

sortmann@hkbu.edu.hk

Lecture: Friday, 6.30 – 8.20pm (WLB104)

Tutorial: Friday, 8.30 – 9.20pm (WLB104)

Office Hours: by appointment

Introduction
This course offers an overview of American history from the end of post-Civil War
Reconstruction to the present day. This has been a transformative period in American
and global history, characterized by freedom struggles within the U.S. and around the
world. This course will focus on changes in American institutions, ideologies, and
practices in this period. Contests over African American civil rights, U.S. military
intervention overseas, and the structure of the nation’s politics and government are part
of a continuing and often rancorous conversation about what it means to be an American.
By understanding this history, we can understand the roots of and identify trajectories for
a nation that remains influential to this day.

Grading
Participation 10%
Group Presentation 15%
Research Paper 35% (due November 14)
Final Exam 40%

Participation. Lectures will introduce key concepts, actors, and events, while tutorials
will offer an opportunity for the class to interpret selected primary sources. Both require
active engagement on the part of students, will be evaluated in the participation grade.
Students are expected to come to each class on time and prepared to engage with the
subject matter. For lectures, this means paying attention, responding to questions, and
posing questions of your own; for tutorials, it means doing the reading ahead of time and
contributing to our discussion.

Group Presentation. Students will be required to give a group presentation on a historical

source related to the week’s topic. Students must form groups of 4-6 and will be assigned
a specific week to present on, beginning on October 14. Group lists must be finalized and
submitted by September 30.

Research Paper. The research paper assignment is a condensed version of the larger
papers you write in upper-division courses. Students will select one or more primary

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sources, offer an interpretive reading of it/them, and place it/them into historical context.
More information will be provided about this assignment in a separate document.

Final Exam. The exam will ask students to think about some of the major questions posed
this semester and the major texts have examined. It will entail a short answer and a long-
essay section; more details will be provided near the end of the semester.

Course Schedule

Week 1, 9 September: History Department Annual Assembly / Academic Advising Session

Week 2, 16 September: Introduction / The Gilded Age

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READ: William Graham Sumner on Social Darwinism (ca. 1880); A Second

Declaration of Independence (1879); Excerpt from Henry George, Progress and
Poverty (1879)

Week 3, 23 September: Jim Crow -

READ: Excerpts from Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery (1895) and W. E.

B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903)

Week 4, 30 September: The Progressive Era

READ: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Declaration of Sentiments” (1848) and

Sojourner Truth, “Two Speeches” (1851, 1867)

Week 5, 7 October: American Empire

Week 6, 14 October: The Roaring ’20s

READ: Rubie Bond, “The Great Migration” (1917); Marcus Garvey, “Africa for
the Africans” (1921)

Week 7 , 21 October : The Great Depression and the New Deal

READ: Frances Perkins, “The Social Security Act” (1935)

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Week 8, 28 October: World War II
READ: Franklin D. Roosevelt, “The Four Freedoms” (1941); Excerpts from
LULAC News, “World War II and Mexican Americans” (1945); Charles Wesley,
“The Negro Has Always Wanted the Four Freedoms” (1944); Justice Robert A.
Jackson’s dissent in Korematsu v. U.S. (1944)

Week 9, 4 November: The Cold War, at Home and Abroad

Week 10, 11 November: The Civil Rights Movement

READ: Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (1964)

Week 11, 18 November: The Vietnam War Era

READ: Betty Friedan, excerpt from The Feminine Mystique (1963)

Week 12, 25 November: Politics and Society from Watergate to the Clinton Impeachment

Week 13, 2 December: The U.S. since 2000 and Conclusion

Diversity Statement
In order to promote productive dialog, the classroom must be a place that is open and
respectful to all, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, social
background, or religion. This is the history department’s stated policy—it is also the
policy for this class.