1
DRAFT SYLLABUS, 12/21/2016, SUBJECT TO REVISION
Prof. A. Keyssar
Taubman 418; 617-495-1042
[email protected]
Temporary Faculty Assistant: Kathleen Schnaidt
Littauer 207; 617-495-9913
[email protected]
DPI 710
History of the U.S. for Policy Makers, Activists, & Citizens
Tuesday/Thursday, 2:45 – 4:00, Belfer L1 Weil Town Hall
Introduction
This is a course intended for students, both from the U.S. and from abroad, who would like to
strengthen their knowledge of U.S. history—and, in so doing, enhance their understanding of
contemporary issues The course will deal with major themes, issues, and turning points in the evolution
of the modern United States, primarily -- but not exclusively -- in the twentieth century. These themes
and issues have been selected with an eye on enduring problems, challenges, and institutions; the most
fundamental goal of the course is to help students understand how the United States became the society,
polity, and state that it is today. Among the topics to be considered are: the Constitution and
institutions of governance; the development of government regulation of the economy; immigration;
race; labor; regional differences; political parties and ideology; and imperialism. Attention will also
be devoted to: historical thinking as a mode of analysis; the assessment of competing interpretations of
history; and the ways in which historical understanding can fruitfully serve policy makers.
Requirements
The course will be built around a mixture of lectures and class discussion. (Lectures sometimes
will, and sometimes will not, directly address the readings for class.) Since class discussions are an
integral part of the course, completion of the readings before class and participation in class discussions
are required. Some participation may also take place via the course page on Canvas.
The course will also include some films and documentary footage. Some of these will be shown
in class; some screenings will take place at designated times outside of the regular class hours. If you
are unable to make a screening, you should nonetheless make sure that you have seen these materials by
the appropriate class date.
Class presentations: periodically, students may be asked, individually or in groups, to make
brief presentations in class regarding the class readings.
Supplementary discussions: Depending on the size of the class, there may be occasional
additional meeting times for discussion. These will be held at different times and will always be
optional.
DPI 710 SPRING 2017 DRAFT SYLLABUS
2
Written Requirements
There are two written requirements for the course:
1) A journal of responses to the reading. Each week (except the last week of classes) you
should write a 1-2 page paper, a critical response to the readings (and possibly multi-media
materials). These may vary in approach from week to week but should, for the most part,
focus on what you regard as the key issues in the reading. (On occasion, you may be asked
to address a specific topic in your journal responses.) These papers should be turned in at
Thursday’s class each week. You may skip a journal response five times during the
semester; i.e. you are required to complete seven responses. You are welcome to write more
if you choose to do so.
2) A final paper for the course, 10-12 pages in length, will be due approximately a week after
the end of classes. Topics will be discussed in class: you will be encouraged to focus on the
history of an issue or an institution; or to analyze what you view to be a critical turning point
or inflection point in history; or to explore the relevance of history to a contemporary issue or
problem., either in the form of a paper or a policy memo. (You might want to focus this
paper on a subject matter related to your own professional work.) These papers will require
research beyond the reading list.
PLEASE NOTE: You are expected to abide by the University policies on academic
honesty and integrity as given in the HKS Student Handbook. All written work for this
course should be appropriately referenced and cited. Including material from others in
the assignments without appropriate quotation marks and citations is regarded, as a
matter of School and University policy, as a serious violation of academic and
professional standards and can lead to a failing grade in the course, failure to graduate,
and even expulsion from the University. Students seeking guidance should see the
Original Work Code in the student handbook, and Writing With Sources which can be
found at the Harvard College Writing Program website.
Grading: The weekly journal/response papers will count for 4-05% of your grade; the final
course paper will count for 35%; class participation will count for 25%.
Readings: Where to Find Them
The following books have been ordered at the Coop: they will also be on reserve at the
HKS Library. In some cases, you may be able to obtain used copies through Amazon or at local
bookstores. You are not required to purchase any of these books. Whether or not you purchase an
individual title may well depend on the length of the assignment as well as your possible future interest
in the subject of the book.
1. Kevin Boyle. 2004. Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age.
2. Alan Brinkley. 1995. The End of Reform: New Deal Liberalism in Recession and War.
3. Roger Daniels. 2004. Guarding the Golden Door.
DPI 710 SPRING 2017 DRAFT SYLLABUS
3
4. Godfrey Hodgson. 2005. America in Our Time: From World War II to Nixon--What Happened
and Why.
5. Morton Horwitz. 1999. The Warren Court and the Pursuit of Justice.
6. Walter LaFeber. 1996. America, Russia, and The Cold War, 1945 – 1996.
7. Walter LaFeber. 1995. The American Search for Opportunity, 1865-1913, vol. 2.
8. William Leuchtenburg. 1963. Franklin D Roosevelt and The New Deal.
9. James T. Patterson. 2007. Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush v. Gore.
10. Jack Rakove. 1996. Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution.
Readings marked with an asterisk (*) in the syllabus, are available on the Canvas coursepage.
Textbooks for background. In addition to the readings assigned for the course, some students
with less familiarity with U.S. history might want to consult a college-level textbook in order to
acquaint themselves with the basic facts regarding particular topics. Many of these are available through
Amazon or other on-line retailers. Textbooks often try to distinguish themselves from one another by
emphasizing particular types of history (e.g. social history, international history, political history), and
some have “concise” or shortened editions. Almost all would serve the purpose of giving you a
grounding in basic facts and chronology. Among them are the following titles:




John Murrin, Paul Johnson, et al. Liberty, Equality, Power: A History of the American People.
Thomas A. Bailey, David M. Kennedy, Lizabeth Cohen. The American Pageant: A History of
the Republic.
Alan Brinkley. The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People
Daniel Kevles, Alex Keyssar, Pauline Maier, and Merrit Roe Smith, Inventing America: A
History of the United States.
Schedule of Course Meetings and Assignments
1. Introduction: the Arcs of American History; the U.S. Constitution and the Architecture of
Federalism (January 24, 26)
 *“Historians Politely Remind Nation To Check What's Happened In Past Before Making Any
Big Decisions,” The Onion, issue 47.39
 *James R. Grossman, “The New History Wars,” New York Times, September 1, 2014
 *The Constitution of the United States. (Bring a copy to class. Please have a copy that contains
the dates of amendments.)
 Jack Rakove, Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution, Chapters
2, 4, 5.
 *Terry Bouton, Taming Democracy: “The People,” the Founders, and the Troubled Ending of
the American Revolution, Chapter 8.
Recommended: *Gordon Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, Chapter 13.
DPI 710 SPRING 2017 DRAFT SYLLABUS
4
2. Reconstruction, Redemption, Populism, and the South in the Late 19th Century (January 31,
February 2)
 *Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877, Chapter 6, pp. 228 –
261 and 271-280; and pp. 575-612 (including part of Chapter 12, beginning with “The Electoral
Crisis and the End of Reconstruction” and the Epilogue.)
 *Worth Robert Miller, “Farmers and Third-Party Politics,” pp. 235-260, in Charles Calhoun, ed.,
The Gilded Age: Essays on the Origins of Modern America.
 *Theodore Mitchell, “The Alliance and the Public School,” pp. 57-68 in William F. Holmes, ed.,
American Populism.
 *Lawrence Goodwyn, The Populist Moment, pp. 294-298.
 *Charles Postel, The Populist Vision, Chapter 6 and Chapter 9 (only pp. 269-71, 286-9).
 *Irwin Unger and Debi Unger, The Vulnerable Years: The United States, 1896-1917, Chapter 1
(alternatively this could be read as part of unit 3, below).
Recommended: Lawrence Goodwyn, “The Alliance Develops a Movement Culture,” pp. 22-37 in
William Holmes, ed., American Populism.
3. The Triumph of Industrial Capitalism; the Emergence of Government Regulation; and
Progressive Reform (February 7, 9)






*Harold U. Faulkner, The Decline of Laissez Faire, 1897-1917, pp. 35-51 (last two sections of
Chapter II).
*Thomas McCraw, Prophets of Regulation, Chapter 3 (read quickly).
*Morton Keller, Regulating a New Economy: Public Policy and Economic Change in America,
1900-1933, Chapter 2, and pp. 55-65, 192-208.
*Michael Katz, In the Shadow of the Poorhouse: A Social History of Welfare in America,
Chapter 7.
*Eric Foner, The Story of American Freedom, Chapter 8.
*Daniel Fusfeld, “Government and the Suppression of Radical Labor, 1877-1918,” in Charles
Bright and Susan Harding, ed., Statemaking and Social Movements.
Recommended (or alternatives, especially for those interested in social reform):
o Historiographic Essay: Daniel Rodgers, “In Search of Progressivism,” Reviews in American
History, vol. 10, no. 4, pp.113-132.
o Daniel T. Rodgers, Atlantic Crossings; Social Politics in a Progressive Age, pp. 130-159
plus Chapters 5 and 6.
o Melvin Holli, “Urban Reform in the Progressive Era,” in Lewis Gould, ed. The Progressive
Era.
o John L. Recchiuti, Civic Engagement: Social Science and Progressive-Era Reform in New
York City, Chapter 3.
o *Richard McCormick, “The Discovery that Business Corrupts Politics: A Reappraisal of the
Origins of Progressivism,” The American Historical Review, Vol. 86, No. 2 (Apr., 1981),
pp. 247-274.
o Katz, Shadow of the Poorhouse, Chapter 6.
DPI 710 SPRING 2017 DRAFT SYLLABUS
5
4. A Pause to Catch Up- and to Reflect on History and Policy (February 14, 16)
 Ernest May and Richard Neustadt, Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision
Makers, Preface, Chapters 3, 6
 *Michael Singh, “How to Construct an Inaccurate Historical Analogy,” Foreign Policy
Magazine, February 2012
5. The Emergence of American Empire (February 21, 23)


6.
Walter LaFeber, The American Search for Opportunity, 1865-1913.
* Historiographic Essay: Thomas G. Paterson, “United States Intervention in Cuba, 1898:
Interpretations of the Spanish-American-Cuban-Filipino War,” The History Teacher, 29:3 (May,
1996), pp. 341-361.
Immigration, Restriction, and Thereafter (February 28, March 2)



Roger Daniels, Guarding the Golden Door, Chapters 1, 2, 7, 8 or 9, 11
*Otis L. Graham, Jr. “Uses and Misuses of History in the Debate Over Immigration Reform,”
The Public Historian, vol. 8, no 2 (spring 1986): pp. 40-64.
*Doris Meissner, “Learning From History,” The American Prospect, 23 October 2005.
Recommended (for reconceptualizing the issues)
o *Donna Gabaccia, “Is Everywhere Nowhere? Nomads, Nations, and the Immigrant
Paradigm of United States History,” Journal of American History, 86:3 (1999), pp.11151134.
o *Mae Ngae, “The Architecture of Race in American Immigration Law: A Reexamination of
the Immigration Act of 1924,” Journal of American History (1999), 67-92.
Possible Film Screening: March 1 Island of Hope, Island of Tears
7. Race and Migration in the 20th Century (March 7, 9)


Kevin Boyle, Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age.
Documentary film footage, * Black Wall Street, part 1 and part 4
SPRING BREAK
8. The Great Depression and the New Deal (March 21, 23)




William Leuchtenburg, Franklin D.Roosevelt and the New Deal, Chapters 1-8, 10.
Alan Brinkley, The End of Reform: New Deal Liberalism in Recession and War, Introduction,
Chapters 3 and 10.
* Irving Bernstein, Turbulent Years: A History of the American Worker, 1933-1940, Chapter
13, pp. 635-646 (first sections of “The Revolution in Labor Law”).
PBS American Experience- view FDR, Ch. 16-19.
Recommended McCraw, Prophets of Regulation, Chapter 5.
DPI 710 SPRING 2017 DRAFT SYLLABUS
6
Evening of March 23, Film: The Uprising of ’34.
9. Politics, Ideology, and Growth in Postwar America (March 28, 30)




Godfrey Hodgson, America In Our Time, Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 22, 24.
*Robert Collins, “Growth Liberalism in the Sixties” in Farber, ed., The 60's: From Memory to
History.
*Luis Suarez-Villa, “Regional Inversion in the United States: the Institutional Context for the
Rise of the Sunbelt Since the 1940s,” Royal Dutch Geographical Society 93:4 (2002), pp. 424442.
*View LBJ’s speech on voting rights (3/15/1965).
10. The Cold War and the War in Viet Nam (April 4, 6)





Walter LaFeber, America, Russia, and the Cold War, Chapter 2, 3 (pp. 49-69), 4, 5, 10, 12.
*Odd Westad, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times,
Introduction, Chapter 4.
*George C. Herring, “America and Vietnam: The Unending War,” Foreign Affairs, 70:5
(Winter, 1991), pp. 104-119.
*James Thomson, “How Could Vietnam Happen? An Autopsy,” The Atlantic, April 1968.
*Historiographic Essay: Melvyn Leffler, “The Cold War: What Do ‘We Now Know,’” The
American Historical Review, 104: 2 (April 1999), pp. 501-524.
Recommended: George C. Herring, ed. The Pentagon Papers, Introduction, pp. 23 – 37, 81-2, 1003, 118-20, 122-8, 169-70.
Evening of April 4, Film: Hearts and Minds or The Fog of War.
11. The Supreme Court (April 11, 13)




Morton Horwitz, The Warren Court and the Pursuit of Justice.
Rakove, Original Meanings, Chapter 1.
*Lawrence Solum, “District of Columbia v. Heller and Originalism,” Northwestern University
Law Review, Vol. 103 no. 2 (Spring 2009), pp. 923-9, 939-40.
Dennis J. Goldford, The American Constitution and the Debate Over Originalism, pp. 20-33.
Recommended: Look at the opinions in *District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U. S. (2008).
12. The 1970s, Reagan, and thereafter (April 18, 20)





*Paul Boyer, “The Evangelical Resurgence in 1970s American Protestantism,” Bruce Schulman
and Julian Zelizer, ed., Rightward Bound: Making America Conservative in the 1970s.
James Patterson, Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush vs. Gore, Chapters
1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10.
Judith Stein, Pivotal Decade, Chapter 8, “Domestic Keynesianism,” pp. 176-192.
*Daniel Rodgers, The Age of Fracture, Chapter 2.
*Westad, Global Cold War, Chapter 10 and Conclusion.
DPI 710 SPRING 2017 DRAFT SYLLABUS

7
Recommended : *Bruce L. Gardner, American Agriculture in the Twentieth Century, pp. 213-20
and 241-49.
Possible film evening, April 20: documentary footage from the 1970s and 1980s.
13. Conclusion – and some thinking about the uses of history for policy makers (April 25, 27)



* Ernest May and Richard Neustadt, Thinking in Time, Chapter 13. Chapter 14 is
recommended.
* Margaret Macmillan, Dangerous Games: the Uses and Abuses of History, Chapter 8, pp. 140164, “History as a Guide” and Conclusion, pp.165-70.
*Francis Gavin and James Steinberg, “The Unknown Unknowns,” from Foreign Policy, 14
February 2012.