1920s and Great Depression
512:384:B2
Summer 2012
Michele Rotunda
Email: [email protected]
Office Hours: MTWTh 12:00 – 12:45
Conklin 337
Conklin 424
MTWTh 10:15 – 12:00
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course covers the social and cultural history of the United States from the 1920s through the Great
Depression. Some key themes will be business v. labor, women, African Americans, immigration, and the
role of “big” government. Students will be expected to critically analyze primary source documents from
this era and evaluate the relevance of this history to some of today’s current issues.
BLACKBOARD:
A guide to each day’s class and daily short assignments will be posted on Blackboard. Make sure you are
able to access this material as soon as possible. I strongly suggest that you print these guides out in
advance of each class and bring them with you. Additionally, the power point slides presented in class
will also be available for review.
GRADING:
Grades will be calculated as follows:
Attendance:
Participation:
Short (daily) Assignments:
Paper:
Midterm:
Final:
5% (Additional penalties may apply – see below)
10%
25%
20%
20%
20%
Attendance/Comment Cards (5%): Attendance is essential to doing well in this class. You will
be responsible for all information presented in class. During each class you will be expected to
write down (on an index card) a comment or question relevant to the material covered that day.
Cards will be collected at the end of class. Your attendance grade will be based on the number of
cards you hand in as follows:
0-1 unexcused absences: 5 points
2 unexcused absences: 4 points
3 unexcused absences: 3 points
4 unexcused absences: 0 points
5 unexcused absences: -5 points
Important note: Any student who misses six or more sessions for any combination of excused and
unexcused absences will not earn credit in this class. Such students should withdraw from the
class.
Participation is essential to doing well in this class. Class discussions will be based on readings
completed at home. It is expected that students will come to class prepared to actively participate in
each and every class. The quality of your comments and questions matters just as much (if not more
than) the quantity.
Short Assignments:
 Questions based on the readings will be assigned for each class and posted on Blackboard.
 Assignments must be submitted online through Blackboard BEFORE class starts to be
considered on time.
 You will receive four points for each day’s assignment. Complete and thoughtful responses will
receive full credit. Assignments that do not adequately demonstrate knowledge of the readings, late
or incomplete assignments will receive reduced points. Assignments will not be accepted at all after
one week unless you have spoken to me or there has been an excused absence.
 Short assignments will count for 25% of your grade and will be calculated by dividing the
number of points you have earned over the total number of points possible.
 Information from assigned readings should be sufficient to answer all questions. Questions
based on the primary documents will generally require an understanding of the historical
background found in your textbook. No outside sources are required. If you choose to
consult outside sources, they must be clearly cited. Please be familiar with the Rutgers
plagiarism policy – see below.
 I understand students may work together on assignments, but your responses should reflect
your own interpretation in your own words. Duplicate (or very close) responses will receive
0 credit and may be reported to the Office of Academic Integrity.
Paper: You will be required to write a 4-5 page essay focusing on a particular theme from this
period that brings together a variety of class readings. You must include at least one additional
secondary source, primary source or recent article that addresses this topic. (More information
will be posted on Blackboard.)
Midterm/Final: Both exams will consist of a number of short questions and essay questions. The
short questions will be based on key terms listed on class handouts. A list of possible topics for
the essay questions will be handed out prior to the exam.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: Make sure you are familiar with Rutgers Academic Integrity Policy (posted
on Blackboard). You must sign the Student Agreement on Plagiarism (also posted on Blackboard).
STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
Students with disabilities, including learning disabilities, requiring assistance and/or accommodation
should provide documentation and speak with me in a timely manner.
READINGS:
Eric Rauchway, The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University
Press)
ISBN 978-0-19-532634-5
The above text is available at Rutgers University Bookstore.
Additional readings are either online (if link provided) or posted on Blackboard (BB).
COURSE OUTLINE AND ASSIGNMENTS:
All assignments are to be completed by the date on which they are shown.
May 29: Introduction: Legacy of WWI
May 30: A “Lost Generation”
 Julian A. Navarro, “Influenza in 1918” Public Health Reports 2010, Supplement 3/ vol.
125, pp. 9-14
http://www.publichealthreports.org/archives/issuecontents.cfm?Volume=125&Issue=9
 W.E.B. DuBois, “Returning Soldiers” (1919)
http://www.yale.edu/glc/archive/1127.htm
 "Ghastly Deeds of Race Rioters Told," Chicago Defender, 2 August 1919.
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4976
May 31: The Red Scare
 John A. Fitch on the Great Steel Strike (1919) (BB)
 Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, “The Case against the Reds” (1920)
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4993
 Sacco and Vanzetti – Read “Red Scare” and “The Sacco-Vanzetti Case: An Account”
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/SaccoV/SaccoV.htm
 Emma Goldman Describes her Deportation “I Glanced Up – The Statue of Liberty!”
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/15
 A. Philip Randolph Embraces Socialism “Our Reason for Being” (1919)
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5125
June 4: Big Business and Consumerism
 Rauchway, ch. 1, pp. 8-15
 Senator Warren G. Harding – “Return to Normalcy” Speech (1920)
http://www.livefromthetrail.com/about-the-book/speeches/chapter-3/senator-warren-g-harding
 Welfare Capitalism – Employer v. Labor (BB)
 Robert and Helen Lynd, The Automobile Comes to Middletown (1924)
http://cwx.prenhall.com/bookbind/pubbooks/faragher7/medialib/chapter23/23.htm
 Chapter VII of Only Yesterday by Frederick Lewis Allen
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/Allen/ch7.html
June 5: Immigration/Nativism
 Mae M. Ngai, “Nationalism and Immigration in the 1920s” (BB)
 Madison Grant on the New Immigrants as Survival of the Unfit, (1918)
http://www3.niu.edu/~td0raf1/history261/Madison%20grant%20on%20the%20New%20Immigra
tion.htm
 Senator Ellison DuRant Smith, “Shut the Door” A Senator Speaks for Immigration Restriction
(1924) http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5080
 Robert H. Clancy, An “Un-American” Bill: A Congressman Denounces Immigration Quotas
(1924) http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5079
 Manuel Gamio on a Mexican-American Family (ca. 1926) (BB)
June 6: Prohibition
 George Chauncey, “The Campaign Against Homosexuality” (BB)
 Jack Blocker, “Did Prohibition Really Work?” (BB)
June 7: The “New Woman”
 Florence Kelley and Elsie Hill Debate Equal Rights for Women (BB)
 Selections from Women’s Advice Columns (BB)
 Margaret Sanger, “The Story of Sadie Sachs,” (BB)
 Margaret Sanger, “No Healthy Race without Birth Control” (1921)
http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/secure/documents/speech_no_healthy_race_without_
bc.html
June 11: The “New Negro”
 Claude McKay, “If We Must Die,”
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5130/
 Walter F. White, “I Investigate Lynchings” (1929)


http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai3/segregation/text2/investigatelynchings.pdf
Alain Locke, “Enter the New Negro,” (1925)
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai3/migrations/text8/lockenewnegro.pdf
Langston Hughes, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” (1926) http://www.hartfordhwp.com/archives/45a/360.html
June 12: The Modern Temper: Review and Relevance
 State v. Johns Scopes (Monkey Trial)
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/evolut.htm
June 13: Midterm
June 14: No class
June 18: The Crash
 Rauchway, ch. 1, pp. 15-22, ch. 2
 Arthur Robertson, oral history in Studs Terkel, Hard Times (BB)
 Herbert Hoover, “Radio Address on Lincoln’s Birthday” (1931)
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=22975#axzz1v3OUSPEe
June 19: From Hoover to FDR
 Rauchway, ch. 3, ch. 4
 The 1932nd Psalm (BB)
 Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address, (1933)
 http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres49.html
June 20: Dust Bowl
 Rauchway, ch. 5
 John Steinbeck, selection from Grapes of Wrath BB
 “Dust Bowl Diary” (click on “Dust Bowl”)
http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/01794/first_hand_accounts.htm
June 21 Business v. Labor
 Rauchway, ch. 6
 W.P. Kiplinger Argues “Why Businessmen Fear Washington” (BB)
 What the Liberty League Believes, 1935-1936 (BB)
 FDR, “Campaign address at Madison Square Garden,” (October 31, 1936)

http://millercenter.org/president/speeches/detail/3307
Flint Sit-Down Strike, Read “Organization,” “Strike,” and “Aftermath” (additional “audio
recollections” will be assigned)
http://www.historicalvoices.org/flint/
June 25: Family Hits Hard Times
 Jane Yoder, oral history in Studs Terkel, Hard Times (BB)
 Norman Cousins, “Will Women Lose Their Jobs?” (BB)
 “Tales from the Rails”


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/interview/rails-tales/
Leslie Reagan, “Reproductive Practices and Politics,” (BB)
Alice Kessler-Harris, “Designing Women and Old Fools: Writing Gender into Social
Security Law” (BB)
June 26: Race/Ethnicity
 Clifford Burke, oral history in Studs Terkel, Hard Times (BB)
 Langston Hughes, “Waitin’ on Roosevelt” (1934) http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5096/
 Ira Katznelson, “When Affirmative Action Was White,” (BB)
 Eleanor Roosevelt letter to Walter White (March 1936)


http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentati
ons/timeline/depwwii/race/letter.html
“El Enganchado (The Hooked One)”
http://noemigarcia.tripod.com/lapaint/belvedere.htm
“A New Deal for American Indians” (BB)
June 27: Opposition
 Rauchway, ch. 7
 Herbert Hoover on the New Deal and Liberty (BB)
 FDR, “Fireside Chat on Reorganization of the Judiciary,” March 9, 1937




http://www.mhric.org/fdr/chat9.html
Communists Lament the Futility of the New Deal, 1934 (BB)
The Communist Party Argues for a “Popular Front” 1938 (BB)
Upton Sinclair’s Twelve Principles to “End Poverty in California,”
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma01/Kidd/thesis/sinclair2.html
Alan Brinkley, “Dissidents and Demagogues” (BB)
June 28: Roosevelt’s Legacy
 Debating Roosevelt: “Advocate for the American People” v. “Opportunistic Architect of
Big Government” (BB)
July 2: Modern Times: Review and Relevance
***Papers Due***
July 3:
Recovery and WWII
 Rauchway, ch. 7
July 4: Happy Fourth of July!
July 5: Final Exam