History 319E: The Remarkable Sixties

Instructor: William Mood

Email: wmood@faculty.ed.umuc.edu

 

Purpose

History 319E course is an examination of the political, social, cultural, and intellectual events that shaped America during the watershed years of the 1960s. This weekend seminar will combine audio, video, semi-formal lecture, and group discussion to examine the great watershed of  a decade from only forty years ago. We begin with the later years of the Eisenhower Administration (Civil Rights, Cold War, Indochina, Aerospace); pass through the turbulent years of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations; include the beginnings of movements involving gender issues, environmental concerns, and the popular arts; and end with the early years of the Nixon presidency (Cambodia, affirmative action, stagflation, detente). Topics include major movements and events including the civil rights and environmentalist movements, the Vietnam War, and the assassination of JFK, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, and Dr. Martin Luther King. 

 

Textbook

Douglas T. Miller, On Our Own: Americans in the Sixties (Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath, 1996)
 

Articles

Gael Graham, "Flaunting the Freak Flag: Karr v. Schmidt and the Great Hair Debate in American High Schools, 1965-1975," Journal of American History, 91 (Sept. 2004), 522-43. Available in MasterFile UMUC Database
 

Audio

Internet Archive: Presidential Recordings

Document Collections On-line:


Objectives

Successful students will be able to:

  • recognize the major events, movements, and personalities of this historic decade

  • answer in depth the major questions the Sixties has left to American society

  • demonstrate research skills in both hard-copy and electronic sources, and writing skills at the advanced undergraduate level in both narrative and analysis

  • explain why the Sixties are an example of that ancient Chinese malediction: "May you live in interesting times"

  • discuss convincingly the lessons to be learned from an intensive study of an important decade in our history

Grading

Grading will be based on class participation (10%) and a written research essay on a topic from the Sixties (cleared in advance with the professor, with at least one electronic source, bibliography, citations, title-page, and double-spacing) for the other 90% of the course grade. The essay should combine narrative, analysis, commentary, critique, evaluation, and interpretation of the chosen subject. Submission deadline is two weeks after completion of the course.

Refer to the following sources for writing help.

 
 
Day

Date

Tentative Topic/Reading Assignments/WWW Links

Notes
1. Sat AM Introductory business and discussion of the period 1956-1960 ("Ike")

WWW links

 

  
2. Sat PM Discussion of the period from 1961-1965 (JFK, Malcolm X, MLK)

WWW:

 

  
3. Sun AM Discussion of the period from 1966-1970 (LBJ and "Vietnamization")
 


Martin Luther King and LBJ

WWW:

Paper Topic and Bibliography - Use Turabian Style. Refer to the Study of History.
4. Sun PM Discussion of the period from 1971-1975 (Detente and Watergate).

WWW:

 

  

 

Webcasts

On-line Supplemental Reading Assignments

UMUC Library Database [WilsonSelect Fulltext]

Examples of academic articles available:

Beschloss, Michael R., "A tale of two presidents: D.D. Eisenhower and J.F. Kennedy," The Wilson Quarterly v. 24 no 1 (Winter 2000) 60-70.

Kengor, Paul, "Comparing presidents Reagan and Eisenhower," Presidential Studies Quarterly v. 28 no 2 (Spring 1998) 366-93.

Presidential Studies Quarterly "SPECIAL ISSUE Going to War" Volume 34, Number 1 (March 2004)