Course Description: The focus of this Watauga core course is American society in the 20th century. Our guiding concept is that the American experience can best be grasped by listening to the multitude of stories through which that experience is interpreted. Immigration, settling and resettling, movements to cities and suburbs, succeeding and failing, being included and excluded, going to war or protesting against it, singing and movie-making, competing and worshipping -- stories "realize" these historical activities. We are particularly interested in how stories told in the student's family intertwine with the larger "national" stories told by historians, preachers, politicians, schools and the media.
"Stories" is, we believe, a sophisticatedly interdisciplinary course, embracing a variety of skills and contents. Mastery of key personalities, trends, and events in recent American history; practical genealogy; the art of biography and autobiography; interviewing skills; library usage and research; interpretation of primary historical data; appreciating the profound links between the personal and the political -- these are only some of the areas in which students are expected to grow. The course has a "pay-off" point: the famous "Stories Paper," which is both a biographical and interpretive account of a person from the student's own family. In this exercise, the skills developed in the course are brought into play.
There is an on-line homepage for this course where
you can find this syllabus as well as links to some of the required readings
and other helpful resources. More information to follow. There
will also be a distribution list for the class. We therefore assume that
you check your email regularly for late-breaking announcements about the
class.
The Faculty Team:
Mark Evans
Bud Gerber
Leighton Scott
Office: B-12
East Hall 162
East Hall 160
Office Phone: 262-2975
Phone: 262-2442
Phone: 262-2243
Phone: 297-2931
[email protected]
[email protected]
E-mail: [email protected]
Required Texts
William Strauss and Neil Howe, Generations: The History of America's Future: 1584-2069 (NY: William Morrow, 1991)
Stephen B. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound: A Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. (NY: HarperCollins, 1982/94)
Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of Dorothy Day (New York: Harper and Row, 1952)
Jim Forest, Love Is The Measure: A Biography of Dorothy Day (NY: Orbis Books, 1994).
Peter O. Whitmer, When The Going Gets Weird : The Twisted Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson : A Very Unauthorized Biography (Chelmsford, MA: Courier Corporation, 1999).
Joseph Gilbaldi, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 5th ed. (NY: Modern Language Association, 1999)
Ernest J. Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying (NY: Vintage Books, 1993)
Barbara Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer: A Novel (NY: HarperCollins, 2000)
Rental Text (ask for IDS 1101): Leon Litwack and Winthrop Jordan, The United States: Becoming a World Power, Vol.II, 7th Ed. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1991)
Grading: The student's grade will be determined in a consultation of the teaching team. Roughly speaking, the Biographical Report together with the final paper will count 25% of the grade and will be the end product of the course. The biographical units count 75%. The student will also have quizzes and writing assignments in connection with the three biographical studies. Monday classes will be followed by a quiz on Tuesday, when such quizzes are appropriate. In order to pass the course, the student must complete the work required for all four parts of Stories: the three biographical units and the final paper.
Class Schedule
TH 8/16 Introductions to faculty, course, students and syllabus
M 8/20 Generations Large Group
meeting, Sanford 104. [Phase I Begins.]
Discussion Leader: Bud Gerber
Read Strauss & Howe pp. 7-12; 27-40; 43-49; 58-60.5; 60.5-68 (skim); 69-79 (skim, but study p. 74); chart 6-6 after p. 96.
T 8/21 Large Group meeting, Sanford 104. Discussion Leader: Leighton Scott
Assignment: Briefly review generational charts:
Strauss & Howe pp. 122, 130, 138, 146, 158, 166, 174, 182, 196,
208, 218. Your intention here is to get an idea of how Strauss &
Howe are organizing their data. Read pp. 228-232; 233-240 (skim); 247-254.5;
254.5-260 (skim). Read John Winthrop's Model
of Christian Charity
TH 8/23 Small Group meetings:
Group 1 - Mark Evans,
Sanford 104
Group 2 - Bud Gerber,
Sanford 405 (1:00 p.m.)/ I.G. Greer Auditorium (2:00p.m.)
Group 3 - Scott, Sanford
103
Read Strauss & Howe pp. 261-294 -- Very Important!
M 8/27 Large Group meeting, Sanford 104. Discussion Leader: Mark Evans
Read Strauss & Howe pp. 295-316; 317-334
This Is Your Life! At Last!
Read and print-out the on-line Faculty Biographies:
Mark
Evans,
Bud Gerber,
Leighton Scott
T 8/28 Small Group meetings.
Read Strauss & Howe pp. 335-343; 374-377.2; 380-383; 395.7-401.8; 408.7- 417 (This is the history of your future!)
TH 8/30 First Quiz + Small Groups on Generations
Weekend viewing assignment: "The Third Miracle"
LABOR DAY (Monday, September 4) -- NO CLASS
T 9/4 First Bio-Unit Begins Large Group Lecture: "Why Labor Day Doesn't Mean Anything Anymore: And What This Shows Us About Dorothy Day's World," Bud Gerber
Viewing: Appalnet, Channel 89: "Reds" (3.5 hours!),
8:00 p.m. (Monday-Thurs.) Reading: Love is the Measure, pp. 1-100.
L&J Chapter 25, pp 569-601
TH 9/6 Convocation and Assessment Day
M 9/10 Large Group Lecture: "Why Catholic Worker Was an Odd Phrase: Socialism, Communism and the Worker as the Future."
Reading: Continue with Love is the Measure; study for quiz
T 9/11 Forum on the World Trade Center Bombing
TH 9/13 Large Group: Quiz + "Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin, and the Worker Communal Farms"
Reading: The Catholic Worker for May, 2001; Love is the Measure; Long Loneliness, pp. 9-12 [Hereafter, the latter book will be abbreviated as LL]
M 9/17 Small Group Discussion
Reading: Finish Love is the Measure; LL: 9-12, 36-86
T 9/18 Small Group Discussion
Viewing: "Entertaining Angels"--the Dorothy Day film. Will continue throughout week.
Reading: L&J Chapter 35 (The Depression); LL: 133-151; 169-181; 204-222
Th 9/20 Large Group: "What is Pacifism? What is Catholic Pacifism? What about WWII ?" Interview Forms Due
Reading: Skim L&J, Chapter 29 (World War II); LL: 222-235; 263-268
M 9/24: Large Group: "Dorothy Day in Generational Context"+ how this unit provides material for Stories Paper
T 9/25 Small Groups: Evaluative Opportunity of Instructor's Choice
Th 9/27 (Yom Kippur) Second Bio-Unit Begins Lecture: "Martin King and the Black Man's Battle Against Fear," Bud Gerber
Read: Oates, Prologue and Parts I &
II
View: "Eyes on the Prize" [segment 1: "Awakenings"]
on Appalnet
M 10/1 Large Group Lecture: "The Civil Rights Movement, Anti-Communism, and the Cold War," Bud Gerber
Read Oates, Part II + Second viewing of Eyes on the Prize
T 10/2 Small Group meetings: Biographical Reports Due.
TH 10/4 Small Group Meetings
Read Oates, Part III
M 10/8 Large Group meeting, Sanford 104. Historical Overview: 1950's, David Huntley
T 10/9 Small Groups
Read Oates, Parts IV-V
TH 10/11 "King, Gandhi, Malcolm, and the Effectiveness of Non-Violence" Bud Gerber
Read Gerber�s review of Eric Michael Dyson�s, I May Not Get There With You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr. (This is on electronic reserve.)
Read Oates, Part VI
M 10/15 "King in Context" Mark Evans
T 10/16 Small Groups
Parts VII-VIII
TH 10/18 NO CLASS- Fall Break
M 10/22 "The Post Civil Rights Liberation Movements: Women, Latinos, Gays, Handicapped"- Bud Gerber
T 10/23 Small groups
Read Oates, Read Oates, Parts IX & X and References
TH 10/25 Final Small Group Meeting for this unit
M 10/29 "What do we mean by the 60's?" Richard Carp Large Group meeting, Sanford 104.
TH 11/1 Library Research Tours
M 11/5 "All Coherence Gone: An Approach to `These Twisted Times.�" Leighton Scott
Readings from Thompson�s works [TBA]
TH 11/6 Small Groups
Read Whitmer, 3-43
TH 11/8 "Generations of Students" Lee Burdett Williams
Read Whitmer, 44-88
M 11/12 Large Group meeting, Sanford 104. "Hunter S. Thompson in Generational Perspective: a Silent Writes for a Boomer Audience, or, How to Split Your Own Personality" First Research Segment Due
Read "Young
Doctor Thompson" . This is a large
exerpt from E. Jean Carroll�s sort-of biography.
T 11/13 Small Group meetings.
Read Whitmer, 89-135 Read "Hunter in Playboy" interview:
TH 11/15 Small Group meetings. The Great Gonzo Era. Readings TBA
Read Whitmer, 136-220
M 11/19 Large Group meeting, Sanford 104. Q&A with three professors: topics--from Generations to Thompson, the "coherence" of the biographical section of course; questions about final paper; the relation of biography to historical study. Second Research Segment Due
Read Whitmer, 221-298
T 11/20 Small Group meetings.
Small Group meetings. Graded exercises on Thompson unit
TH 11/22 THANKSGIVING (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, November 21-25) -- NO CLASS
M 11/26 Small Group meetings with original instructors. Work on papers.
T 11/27 Small Group meetings.
TH 11/29 Small Group meetings.
M 12/3Small Group meetings.
T 12/4 Small Group meetings.
Final Stories Paper due by Friday, December 7 at noon in your instructor's box.