History 124B: The United States Since 1940

100 Lewis Tu Th 9:30-11am
Mr. Abrams abramsr@berkeley.edu
Office: 3219 Dwinelle (Tel 642-1971; -2611) Hours: 11-12pm and by appointment
Download a Printable Version of this Syllabus (PDF Format)
There are no formal prerequisites for the course but all students should understand that this is an advanced course that presumes a survey knowledge of the historical period covered.  Culture, foreign policy, politics and literature, race and gender relations, and constitutional, business and economic issues are among the subjects we will be concerned with.  Also, sex.

        There will be two 80-minute, in-class Midterm Examinations.  Midterm I will be on Thursday, March 2.  Midterm II will be on Thursday, April 13.  The Midterms are required in the sense that students who elect to pass up the Midterms, or fail to earn a passing grade on at least one, may expect that they will lose all benefits of doubt come the Final.  Moreover, the Dean requires that a student have demonstrated “passing work” before the Final in order to qualify for an “I” grade should the student miss the Final for ANY reason. NO EXCEPTIONS.  Therefore, students who miss both Midterms, or who do not earn at least a “C-“ on at least one, and also miss the regularly scheduled Final Exam Tuesday, May 18, 8-11am, will not be permitted to take a Final Makeup and will automatically receive a nonpassing grade.  No person [repeat: NO ONE] will be permitted to take the Final examination before the scheduled time and date.

        There will be no discussion sections.  But there will be open-ended REVIEW SESSIONS:  Tues.,Feb.28, 7 pm;  Tues, Apr.11, 7pm; and another Thursday, May 4, 7pm, before the FINAL, which will be Tuesday, May 16, 8am-11am.  Rooms TBA.

REQUIRED READING will include all or most of the following: 

   READER [RDR] – available at Copy Central on Bancroft
   Baldwin, James, The Fire Next Time (any edition).
   Herring, George C. America’s Longest War, 4th edition.
   Johnson, Haynes, Sleepwalking Through History
   Kerouac, Jack.  On the Road. [any edition]
   Miller, Arthur, Death of a Salesman  [any edition]
   Orwell, George, 1984  [any edition]
   Pertschuk, Michael.  Revolt Against Regulation (U.C.Press)
   Salinger, J,.D.  Catcher in the Rye  [any edition]
   Updike, John.  Rabbit Redux [any edition]

   All books are available in the bookstores in paperback edition, but the READER [RDR] is available only at Copy Central on Bancroft.
   The following is a suggested schedule of reading.  Although I tailored the schedule to my plans for lectures, I may in fact alter those plans­perhaps in response to class interest, perhaps in response to my own changing interests, or possibly because I fall behind my anticipated schedule.  In any case, the readings are designed to prepare for and to complement the lectures, not serve as the subject of lectures.  You should keep up with the schedule because you will be held responsible for the accumulated assignments at the dates of the Midterms and the Final.  All exams are cumulative.

COMPLETE READING ASSIGNMENTS BY DATES INDICATED:

Tues., Jan. 17– Informational Meeting

By Thursday, Jan. 19, READ:
   RDR, Adams, “Mythmaking & the War”

By Tuesday, Jan.24:  Overview:Eight Revolutions
   RDR: Jane de Hart, “The New Feminism”
   RDR: Friedan, “Feminine Mystique” (excerpt)
   RDR: Degler, “Revolution”
   RDR: Macdonald, “Invisible Poor”
   RDR: Galambos & Pratt, “Corporate Commonwealth”

By Thursday, Feb.16: War, Cold War, and McCarthyism
   RDR: Abrams, “Anticommunism,”
   RDR: Maier, “Revisionism”
   RDR: Alperowitz, “Hiroshima”
   RDR: Crossman/Wright, from “The God That Failed”
   RDR: Pearson, “Nazi-Soviet Pact”
   Schaller, chs.3-4.

By Thursday, March 2: Eisenhowerism & The ‘Fifties
   RDR: Wills, “Checkers”
   Kerouac, On the Road, complete
   Baldwin, The Fire Next Time, complete
   Salinger, Catcher in the Rye, complete
   Miller, Death of a Salesman, complete

******** MIDTERM – I:  Thurs, March 2, in class, 9:30-11am **********
                       Review Session, Tuesday February 28, 7pm, Rm.TBA

By Tuesday, March 21: Law As an Instrument of Social Reform
   RDR: Abrams, Korematsu v. US, and all other Supreme Court Cases
   RDR: Wilkinson, From Brown to Bakke (excerpt)
   RDR: Glennon, “The Role of Law”

*********SPRING BREAK:  March 25 – April 2**********

By Tues., April 4: The ‘Sixties
   RDR: Mailer, “White Negro”
   RDR: Podhoretz, “My Negro Problem,”
   RDR:  de Hart, “The New Feminism” (review the article)
   RDR:  Brown, “Manchild in the Promised Land” (excerpt)
   RDR: “The Port Huron Statement,”
   RDR:  Abrams, “Berkeley Students”
   Updike, Rabbit Redux, complete.

By Thursday, April 13:  The Great Society vs. Vietnam
   Herring, The Longest War, complete.

******** SECOND MIDTERM: THURS., APRIL 13 , in class, 9:30-11am**********
                       Review Session, Tuesday, April 11, 7pm; Room TBA

By Tuesday, April 25:  Demise of the Liberal Democratic Coalition
   RDR:  Brinkley, “Means of Descent”
   Pertschuk, Revolt Against Regulation, complete
   RDR: Vogel, “The New Social Regulation”

By Thursday, May 4: The Counterrevolution, Continued
   Haynes Johnson, Sleepwalking Through History, complete
   RDR:  Gaddis, “How the West Won the Cold War”
   RDR:  Deudney & Ikenberry, “Who Won the Cold War?”
   RDR:  Bell, “Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism”
   George Orwell, 1984, complete

FINAL EXAMINATION – Tuesday, May 16, 8-11am.  Room TBA

FINAL REVIEW SESSION:  Thursday, May 11, 7pm-9pm.  Room TBA

Review Sessions:  7pm-9pm, Tues., March 4; 7pm-9pm, Tues, Apr. 8; and Thursday, May 11, 7pm-9pm.  Rooms TBA.


[Note:  If an assignment listed in the syllabus does not appear in the READER (RDR), you will not be required to have read it. Sometimes errors occur in the RDR contents.]