About

Location and Instructor:
Baruch College, CUNY
Summer, 2010
HIS 1005, S1D6A
MTW, 5:30-8:00pm
Vertical Campus, Room 9-120
Instructor: Thomas Harbison
E-mail: thomas.harbison@baruch.cuny.edu
Office hours: Wednesday, 4:00-5:00pm and by appointment
Office location: 137 E. 25th St., Room 322

Course Description:
This course surveys United States history from the post-Civil War years to recent times. Topics include Reconstruction, industrialization, the growth of the United States as a world power, the prosperous Twenties, the depressed Thirties, and the issues and events of the decades since World War II.  We will begin with the last chapter of your textbook and work our way backwards, exploring the historical roots of a wide range of problems and successes in U.S. history.  A continuing theme in your textbook, document reader, and course lecture and activities will be the changing definition of freedom through the decades studied in this course.  At each step, you will critically analyze evidence to construct historical arguments and challenge the interpretations of others.

Texts:
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History (Volume 2), Seagull Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005. ISBN: 0393932567 [available as e-book from http://www.nortonebooks.com/disciplines/discipline2.asp?Discid=11]
Foner, Eric.  Voices of Freedom:  A Documentary History (Volume 2).  New York:  W.W. Norton & Company, 2005. ISBN: 0393931080

Weekly attendance:
Attendance at all class sessions is essential. There will be material covered in weekly lectures and class activities not covered by the reading assignments. More than two unexcused absences will affect your overall grade. You are allowed four absences before being dropped from the course. If you arrive to class after I have taken attendance, it is required that you speak to me after class. Repeated lateness will affect your grade.

Classroom Etiquette:
Out of respect for others in the classroom, silence electronic devices and refrain from chatting when class is in progress.

Academic Dishonesty:
The university’s policy on plagiarism can be found online at http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/academic/academic_honesty.html. The minimum penalty for cheating or plagiarism is an F on the exam or assignment. I am required to bring all cases of cheating and plagiarism to the attention of the Dean of Student Affairs.

Course Blog:
The blog is located at https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/his1005/
You have all been registered as authors on the blog.  If you have any trouble accessing the blog, please notify me at thomas.harbison@baruch.cuny.edu.  It is required that you participate in blog assignments.  Please see below for information on the assignments.

Exams, Quizzes, and other Assignments:

Exams: There will be two exams for this course: a mid-term and a final. The final exam will be take-home.  It should be emailed to me at thomas.harbison@baruch.cuny.edu.  I will confirm receipt of the email.  The exams will cover material from the readings, lectures, and blog and will include short-answer and essay questions.

Blog discussion: For most classes, you will be given an assignment to complete on our course blog.  I will post the question, and you will respond according to the assignment.  In most cases, this will involve raising and/or answering questions reflecting on the reading.  In some cases, it will include posting images or video that demonstrate a historical argument that you have constructed.  In other cases, it will require that you respond to your classmates’ posts in the comments area.

In class: You will be asked to participate in written or spoken activities during our class time.

Your final grade will be calculated as follows:

Attendance/Participation: 20%
Homework/Blog: 30%
Midterm: 25%
Final Exam: 25%

Schedule of Readings, Assignments, and Exams:

See the Schedule page.