The United States and the World in the 20th Century Christopher Colvin St. Stephen's Episcopal School

Charles Sheeler, "Classic Landscape," 1931

This year I am not teaching this course; the legend will resume next year or sometime thereafter.
I will, however, update this page from time to time. [August 2011]

Philosophy is not meant to be a narration of happenings but a cognition of what is true in them, and further, 
 on the basis of cognition, to comprehend that which, in the narrative, appears as mere happening." --Hegel

There are several ways you can contact me for advice and assistance. The best way is to speak to me while at school (before or after class, at lunchtime, or look for me at my carrell). The next best way is to send me email.

Course Materials:

Books:
· Tindall and Shi, America: A Narrative History, (Brief 8th Edition, Volume II)
· Retrieving the American Past (a collection of articles)
- Robin Winks, Europe, 1890-1945.
· McWilliams and Piotrowski, The World Since 1945
· various xerox items to be handed out in class

A notebook for class notes, reading notes, and handouts. Bring the proper book and notebook to class every day.

Attendance:

Please read and understand the attendance regulations in the student handbook. I will follow them.

Homework:

Please do your own homework. Homework is due on the date given on the assignment sheet. Be sure you understand what the homework assignment is before you leave class! There will be homework every school night, even on "off" days.

All students will be expected to use and check their email once every school day since I will use email to communicate certain assignments or to keep in touch with students in case of absence (theirs or mine).

Tests and quizzes are private to each class. Please do not discuss them with members of other classes.

Please read the History Department General Policy Statement for a fuller account of coursework guidelines. (See link above)

Evaluation:

11th grade history is a very challenging course and it is important to take it seriously and responsibly. Be sure to do all of the assignments and to keep up with the assignments. Tests are primarily essay and require extensive daily study; you cannot "cram" for them. Stay on top of your assignments and you will do well.

Your daily average (homework, surprise quizzes, notebook checks, reading assignments) count for 20% of your grade; tests count for 80% of your course grade. There is no extra credit work. (Use the extra effort to improve your next test grade.) For further details about how you will be evaluated, please read the History Department General Policy Statement.

Please, save all your work (notes, handouts, quizzes, tests). It will very much help you with tests and exams. (Yes there is a cumulative exam at the end of the year!) It is also your record in case there is any dispute with my grade book.

If you have difficulties with any aspect of the course (reading, note-taking, quizzes, essays, tests) please tell me about it. If you want extra help, we can schedule a conference in a free period or after school. In some cases, I can require a student to attend a conference. A student who misses a scheduled conference will be counted as absent from a class and turned in as absent.

For further tips on managing and improving your performance in the course, see this handout.

Assignments: [The assignments will be updated in the course of the year.]

Fall Term:
Unit I - Imperialism and the Progressive Era
Unit II - World War I: Finis Austriae. Links for the first reading handout and Vogt assignments. For this unit, maps are important! Here is the blank map for your map quiz. Also, you may want to study this useful map. In addition, here is a map of Europe in 1648 and here is a set of four maps of Europe in the 20th century for comparison.
Unit III - The 1920's (research paper). Please read this (all of it!) about plagiarism. Here is the calendar of assignments for this unit.
Unit IV - The Depression and the New Deal. The handout from Leuchtenberg is here.

Fall Term Final Exam:

Winter Term:
Unit V - The Cold War: US vs. USSR
Unit VI - The '50s, '60s, and 70's in the US
Unit VII - The Research Paper. Here is the link to the SSES website for this project.

Spring Term:
Unit VIII - The Conservative Generation (1975-2008). Here is the website for the film "Inside Job."
Unit IX - End of the Cold War and Changing Alignments (1985-2001).
Unit X - The Middle East Since WWI.

Final Exam on Friday May 27th.

Links:

Suggestions for additions and deletions can be emailed to the address below.

For research, your first stop should be the electronic document sources and data bases available through the SSES library. See their annotations.

Resources for US Government, Foreign Policy, and International News

Branches of Government

US Constitution - full document with rich selection of supplemental texts.

National Archives - Declaration, Constitution, and other US documents.

US Congress - official site for following current activities of the House of Representatives. Here is the one for the Senate. The Library of Congress has a web page for tracking and searching Congressional activity and legislation here.

Supreme Court - the official site.

White House - official site and "bully pulpit" for the Executive Branch. There are parodies.

Presidential Libraries - a centralized site for the Presidents from Herbert Hoover through Bill Clinton. The source for research paper primary documents.

White House tapes - Miller Center for Public Affairs (see above) also archives recordings of Presidents.

Presidents - University of Virginia Miller Center for Public Affairs Center for History of the American Presidency. You can find links to recordings of Presidents from FDR forward here.

Library of Congress - as you might expect, there is a lot here!

FedWorld - a search engine for US government documents.

Budget - a federal website for seeing where government contract money goes. It is not complete since not all of the budget is public.

U.S. Census Bureau - a mine of information from all sorts of population statistics and maps. Much more interesting and accessible than you might think.

CDC - Center for Disease Control statistics and data; likewise accessible and informative - about more than the flu.

The Lehrman Institute - an institute and website devoted to the teaching of American History. Useful and interesting for students as well. SSES is an affiliate member.

The Memory Hole - this site keeps information public that the US government suppresses or removes from its public view.

Open Secrets - one of several websites that track lobbyist money in government.

Patriot Act - this controversial bill that developed and intensified (along with the NSS above) the "national security state." This site that provides critical responses from an amazing variety of organizations (NRA to Gays) here. Both links are from the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a site devoted to the issue of government vs. privacy.

This Modern World - politically incisive cartoons about many of the issues addressed in the course

Foreign Policy

State Department - the Department's home page where you can find special sections on various countries
as well as US policy statements and reports on human rights.

FRUS - "The Foreign Relations of the United States series is the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions that have been declassified and edited for publication."

Wilson Center - US government program to honor Woodrow Wilson. A rich supply of documents and materials about foreign policy (history and current) as well as progressive issues. For example, the excellent resources at the Cold War International History Project!

CIA - this links to the CIA home page. For information on particular countries go to their World Fact Book.

CDI - Center for Defense Information, an NGO providing good critical analyses of the US military; its condition, actions, and policies.

CSBA - another NGO focused on military policy, supportive of military, with good analyses of actual military expenses.

National Security Archives - is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University that collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

National Security Strategy - this is the controversial and extremely interesting statement of the Administration about US foreign policy for the 21st century. It is in a .pdf file that must be downloaded. For a concise review of the document and its most interesting features, see commentary by a noted conservative expert on US foreign relations.

Conservative - it is a truism that the "neo-con" policies of Bush were radical not conservative. This site offers a traditional American conservative view of foreign policy.

Council on Foreign Relations - a prestigious institution that studies and comments on American foreign policy. Very establishment; often disliked by those who don't want to hear from or about the "outside" world.

Crisis Group - an impressive organization that formulates policy reports on various "crises." A good place to see examples of political analysis and policy writing.

UT Web sites

Each of these has individual sites for countries and covers politics, economics, society, culture and much more. They have numerous links that will help you find current information, news, and documents for your country.

Asia- UT web site for Asian Studies Network Information.

Middle East - UT web site for Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Separate sites for each country in the area.

REENIC - UT site for Center for Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies. This is the best of the UT sites. and covers all countries once part of the Soviet Union or the Soviet sphere of influence.

Latin America - UT site for Latin American Network Information Center.

There are two boxes here. The first is for traditional newspapers (my preference), now online.
The second is for more on-line news sources.
I encourage you to explore to find out what these sources offer.
If you have questions, additions, or objections to any, let me know.

Middle East Unit

Historical Map - dynamic illustration of the last 5000 years of this center of civilization.

Maps - 45+ maps (!) concerning Palestine-Israel over the past couple of centuries.

MERIP - Middle East Research and Information Project, an NGO that provides excellent background reporting (some material, but subscription is required to access most of it).

FMEP - Foundation for Middle East Peace, a non-profit organization with regular reports about the Israeli-Palestinian situation (maps!).

Timeline - a detailed set of timelines of Middle East relations and events.

Shovrim Shtika - "Breaking the Silence" a website where Israel soldiers talk about the occupied territories.

Goldstone Report - the somewhat controversial (in the US and Israel) UN report on Israeli military operations in Gaza.

Ta'ayush - "Israelis & Palestinians striving together to end the Israeli occupation and to achieve full civil equality through daily non-violent direct-action."

Revolt of Islam - piece by Bernard Lewis tracing history of Islam and "the West." Part of neo-conservative view of ME.

Jihad - an informative and helpful article about Islamic fundamentalism, it versions, beliefs, and relations to jihad. For high school teachers.

US & Middle East - an insightful piece sent to me in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.

MNF-I - "Operation Iraqi Freedom" webpage (Multi-National Force-Iraq).

CENTCOM-webpage for US Central Command for east Africa (includes Sudan), the Middel East, and Central Asia (the hotspots).

ISG - the Iraq Study Group report, also available at its sponsoring institution, United States Institute of Peace.

Cost of War - a running tally.

Why? - the reasons for the US presence in Iraq have changed over time. A full data-base of Bush Administration statements on reasons foe a US intervention in Iraq (from prior to the actual invasion).

Timeline of the Iraq War - a handy timeline that reviews the main events and policy turn from 2002 to the "second ending" of the Iraq War in 2008.

The Arab Spring - a timeline of the turbulent events of 2011 from Tunisia forward.

Iran - of American newspapers, the LA Times seemed to have the best coverage of the 2009 "election." Here is there Iran news webpage.

Torture

Reports on Torture:

Schlesinger Report - the official US inquiry into the torture at Abu Ghraib prison by US troops.

Taguba Report - the US Army investigation of the torture at Abu Ghraib. An article about the report and General Taguba.

Torture techniques condemned by the US but allegedly used by the US military and CIA.

Documentation about earlier torture by US and its later rejection.

Afghanistan - Human Rights Watch report on torture in Afghanistan prisons.

Human Rights Watch reports on torture.

US government documentation of torture - reports and investigations by the Army, Defense Department, FBI, and Justice Department.

Oppose Torture - an organization working to eliminate US government torture. Has a good selection of links to documents and resources.

National Religous Council Against Torture - as its name says.

Red Cross Report - The International Committee of the Red Cross Report on the Treatment of Fourteen "High Value Detainees" in CIA Custody.

Senate Armed Services Committee Report - the Executive Summary, Conclusions, and parts of the forthcoming report, released by Senators Levin and McCain.

Center for Constitutional Rights - much as its name, but primarily active with human rights and torture issues in the US, in US occupied territories and in US policy..

US law against torture:

UCMJ - Uniform Code of Military Justice (laws governing US soldiers and forbidding torture), particularly para. 893-933

War Crimes Act - US Code para. 2441 and 2340.

Geneva Conventions - Third Convention governing soldiers and civilians in warfare.

This page was updated on 3.5.11.. Please let me know if links are broken or if you have suggestions for additions or deletions.

Christopher Colvin St. Stephen's Episcopal School ccolvin@sstx.org