History
192
Fall 2001
Instructor: Michael Gordon
Office: Holton Hall 346
Phone: 229-4314
e-mail: mgordon@uwm.edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays and
Thursdays, 1:30-3:30 and by appointment
History
192
Fall 2001
Instructor: Michael Gordon
Office: Holton Hall 346
Phone: 229-4314
e-mail: mgordon@uwm.edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays and
Thursdays, 1:30-3:30 and by appointment
NOTE: If you have a disability, please
let me know early in the semester if I can help to accommodate your needs.
Scope of The Course
What does it mean to create an authentic life?
For centuries, people have struggled to
make lives for themselves that reflect the
values they hold dear. What problems do people
encounter in these efforts? How do people
adjust their own values, desires, and needs to the
requirements and demands of others?
Why do some people conform to dominant ideas and
values while others do not?
In this course, we will explore these and related
questions by focusing on sources of
conformity and conflict during the 1950's
from a variety of perspectives–history, film, fiction,
essay, poetry, music. This was a richly
interesting decade in which many of your grandparents
were settling into comfortable lives and having
children (your parents). These were times that
were shaped by fears about nuclear war and
the spread of communism, and by political and social
conformity. Yet in those same years
many younger and older Americans were raising important
questions about conventional values, their
jobs, and inequality. It was a time of conformity
and conflict–perhaps
much like the late 1990's. The many images of the 1950's that we
commonly associate
with the fifties also convey their complexity: Ike, Elvis, McCarthyism,
Korea, the Cold War, the Montgomery bus boycott,
the Beat Generation, the H-bomb,
“I Love Lucy,” PresidentTruman’s firing of
Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the confrontation
at Little Rock’s Central High School,
Dizzy Gillespie, “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit,”
James Baldwin, “Rebel Without a Cause,”
Marilyn Monroe, Playboy, “The Wild One,”
the Rosenbergs.
How can we make sense of all of the events
that are associated with these images? What
themes seem to characterize the fifties?
What were the concerns of ordinary Americans
in those years?
How pervasive was the climate of fear and suspicion? How did different
kinds of people try to create their lives.
What–and whose–values seemed important to them?
The films and readings for this course will
open new doors to the past in general, and help
you to better understand the world of your
parents and grandparents. It also will suggest new
ways of thinking about the past–and the present.
To help you to think more systematically
about some aspects
of the 1950's, you will write several papers and also keep a journal
in which you summarize
class discussions and readings.
Purpose of The Course
The first purpose of the course is to provide
insights into an important period of American
history that helped to shape your life and
the lives of your parents and grandparents.
Our second purpose
in focusing on the 1950's is to help you develop critical skills that will
help to ease your transition into college,
and help you participate more fully in your own
education. All education should
be collaborative. This course especially will be. We will
work with each
other to develop your abilities to read, think, discuss, and write critically
about a variety of sources. We especially
will work hard to improve your ability to communicate
effectively orally and in writing. The
writing assignments and your participation in class
discussions will help us to attain these goals.
Required Readings
The following books are available for purcahse
in the university Bookstore. They and other
reading assignments are also on reserve
in the reserve reading room in the Golda Meir Library.
These are core readings that everybody will
do. I encourage you not to be content with things
I assign to read. Find books and essays
written by people in the fifties, or about the fifties,
and bring them to class and talk about them.
Required Books
1. Elaine Tyler May, Pushing
the Limits: American Women, 1940-1961
(New York: Oxford\
University Press,
1994). An interesting survey of women's expectations and experiences,
with some eye-opening
chapters on families, sex, reproduction, and public life.
2. Anne Moody,Coming
of Age in Mississippi (New York: Dell
Laurel Books, 1968).
A “classic autobiography
of growing up poor and black in the rural South.” Covers childhood,
high school, college
and the Civil Rights Movement. This book helps us focus on
the experiences
of people who were
overlooked by Hollywood and the mass media in the 1950's.
3. John Updike, Rabbit,
Run (New York: Ballantine Books, [1960]
1988). White male
discontent in the
1950's--run rampant. Here is Harry Angstrom, former high school star
basketball player,
seeking to recapture his glory days in his mid-20's, with a boring
job and
a dead marriage.
He runs into an affair, and away from his marriage, his life, and
even himself,
in a search for identity.
Does he find it? See for yourself. Published in 1960, Rabbit,
Run
was the first of
Updike's "Rabbit" books, which finally ended with Harry Angstrom's death
in
Rabbit
at Rest
(1990).
4. Jack Kerouac,
On the Road
(New York: Penguin Books, [1957] 1976).
The novel that helped
to define “the Beat
generation” and to shape American prose. On the Road memorialized
Kerouac’s fabled
travels across America with Neal Cassady, and explores the alienation
of
other postwar young
Americans.
5. Ray Bradbury, Farenheit
451 (New York: Ballantine Books, 1953).
Classic science fiction
bestseller set in
the early 1950's about firemen who are paid to burn books!
6. Ellen Schrecker, The
Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents (New
York:
Bedford Books, 1994).
7. Sylvia Plath, The
Bell Jar (New York: Harper Books, [1963]
2000). Although first published
in 1963, this novel
in many ways mirrors Plath's struggles for identity in the 1950's--a
decade in which many
people refused to take the aspirations of women seriously.
Like Plath
herself, the narrator
in The Bell Jar
doesn't win her battle with madness and
despair. What
made it so difficult
for women like her to succeed? Why didn't other women have similar
experiences?
Strongly
Recommended by Not Required:
Kate
L. Turabian, Student’s Guide for
Writing College Papers, third edition.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1976. Indispensable book that you will use
throughout college.
William Strunk, Jr., The
Elements of Style. New York: Bartleby.
Com, 1999. First published in 1918,
this classic is now availabe on line. It's as useful as it was the day
it first appeared.
Requirements and Responsibilities
I am a firm believer in participatory education.
Education involves active--not passive--
engagement with course content. You
will learn little if you come to class expecting me to tell
you what you should know and think about America
in the 1950s. My job is to help shape course content,
and to challenge you to think about it. You must keep up with reading
assignments, submit papers on time, and attend
class and participate in discussion regularly. You will learn much
more in this course, and be better prepared for other courses, if
you participate here.
Sources of Help
Take advantage of every opportunity to learn
about resources at UWM, and especially about
where you can get help. Here are a few
things you can do.
2. Explore the many opportunities
for help through UWM
Student Resources
including
the many student support services, the Tutoring and Academic resource
Center,
and Student Academic Services.
Office Hour Visit
So that I can get to know you better and discuss
your progress in class, you must schedule an
appointment for a fifteen-minute office visit
during the last two weeks of September. If it is not
convenient for you to meet during my scheduled
office hours (Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:00-
3:30), we will arrange another time.
Writing Assignments
1.
Five
Short Essays.The purpose of these assignments
is to help you develop
your ability to communicate effectively in
writing. You will have the opportunity to
revise some of the papers in light of my suggestions and comments.
Your grade
on the revised paper will replace the original grade. All assignments
must
conform to the conventions set forth in Turabian’s Student’s Guide for
Writing College Papers.
A.A
paper about McCarthyism, based on Schercker's
The Age of McCarthyism
and films from class,
on the subject: "Did McCarthyism sustain or subvert American values?"
See Part I below for
details.
B.
A paper on Part 2: Women in the Fifties:
Home, Work, and Sex
See Part 2 below for details.
C. An in-class essay on November 12 about Part 3.
D. A short paper on Part 4. See instructions under Part 4 for details.
E. A final essay (in-class) covering Part 5 in the syllabus. This will serve as the final exam for the course.
Date: Friday, December 22, 3:00-5:00 p.m.
2.
A
brief
written and oral reporton an aspect of
the 1950's that interests
you, based solely on information you can obtain on the World Wide Web.
This
is not intended to be a lengthy term paper based on extensive research.
Instead, I
want you to look into something that you’re curious about and report on
it briefly
in class and in writing. By “briefly” I mean a 10-minute oral report
and a four-
page written report. The following is a broad but by no means exhaustive
list of
subject areas from which you could carve a small, discrete, manageable
topic for a
report:
Final written reports due on December 14.
Fifties
Web Sites
There are well over 200 web sites on the 1950's! Here are just a few to get you started. Most have links to many other sites.
Dave and Donna’s Fifties Memorabilia Links Page has about 100 links to siteson fifties music, legends, cars, and more.
You’ll find about 150 links to sites on the 1950's in this Web Resources Site. Links include literary and artistic sites; music; movies, tv, and radio; science and technology, and consumer culture.
Encarta’s Concise History of the 1950's has features on sports, arts, people,lifestyle, and science and technology.
For a taste of the insipid lyrics to Popular Fifties Music, see this great site. You can actually hear some of the great fifties rock ‘n’ roll music on Lucille’sRockin’ Radio .
James Dean fans will love James Dean Online. And the Official James Dean Web Site is even better.
For soul music, see the Classical Soul Music of the 1950's .
The great 1959 Cadillac Coupe de Ville has its own great site too. Check it out.
Ford lovers will love this Fabulous Fifties Fords site.
At the Arthur Miller’s The Crucible site, you’ll find information about this greatplay, and excerpts from the film version. The Crucible ostensibly concerns the Salem witch trials, but it was inspired by McCarthy’s witch hunts.
Is cigarette smoking sexy, smart, and chic? Two dozen cigarette ads from the fifties in this Truth in Advertising site might lead you to think so.
Here’s a great course syllabus with many readings
from the fifties, prepared by Professor
Al Filreis, for his course at the University
of Pennsylvania on The
Literature and Culture of the American1950's.
Interested in the Cold War? See links to over 50 Cold War Hot Links . More Cold War information at this wonderful site with many pertinent documentsonline, at the Nuclear History at the National Security Archives site.
See video clips of Senator Joseph McCarthy at this Senator Joe McCarthyMultimedia Celebration.
An introduction to the Beats is on the Hotel Boheme . A more complete guide to net sources is on this wonderful The Beat Generation: Neat Sources on the Internet site. And an even better site, with many documents and links, is The Beat GenerationArchives . Yet another great site, with much history on the Beats, is Literary Kicks. for material on Allen Ginsberg, see Allen Ginsberg: Shadow Changes intoBone. The Official Jack Kerouac Web Site contains wonderful material on Kerouac’s life and times. More on Kerouac is at Route 66. Another fun Kerouac site is Sounds of Jack Kerouac reading (and Singing) HisProse.
Lovers of jazz will also love this fantastic Jazz Links site, with over 200 links, many off them dealing with the fifties. There’s a good site on Billie Holiday at the Unofficial Billie Holiday Site, with pictures, biography, and songs. The famous Miles Davis Playboy Interview is also available online.
There’s a helpful guide to sources at the University of California at Berkeley on Movies and Television in the 1950's .
On Marilyn Monroe, see the Official Marilyn Monroe Web Site.
One of the great movie makers of the 1950's was Alfred Hitchcock. For a biography, filmography, and more, see The Hitchcock Page.
Hear and see excerpts from some of the Great TV in the ‘50's shows.
A good detailed list of fifties films, year
by year, is Greatest Films
of the 1950s.
Grading:
We will negotiate a method for grading the written assignments and class participation.
Do Not Plagiarize!
I apologize for bringing up this unpleasant
subject, but it may serve as a useful reminder that it is dishonest
to represent somebody else’s work as your own. There are serious
penalties for doing so. The UWM
Student Handbook states that “UWM expects each student to be honest inacademic
performance. Failure to do so may result in discipline under rules published
by the
Board of Regents (UWS 14). The most common
forms of academic dishonesty are cheating and plagiarism.”
Please remember that “Plagiarism includes: (A) Directly quoting the
words of others without using quotation marks or indented format to identify
them; or, (B) Using sources of information
(published or unpublished) without identifying them; or, © Paraphrasing
materials or ideas of others without identifying
the sources.”
9/5 INTRODUCTION
Part 1 Fears and Dreams in Cold War America
Assignment
for Part 1:
Write a paper about McCarthyism, based on Schrecker's The Age of
Mccarthyism and films from class, on the subject: "Did McCarthyism
sustain or subvert American values." Think carefull about this question
before you begin to write. What are "American values"?
In seeking to expose communists in America, is it possible that McCarthy
and his supporters actuallly did seek to preserve important values
which communists themselves might have tried to subvert? Or, did
McCarthy and his supporters recklessly disregard legal safeguards and commonly
shared beliefs regarding freedom and liberty?
Length: 3-4 pages
Due: September 26
Revisions due: October 5
9/7 POSTWAR
DREAMS IN THE SHADOW OF THE H-BOMB
Assignment
Read
and take notes on Schrecker, The Age of McCarthyism, pp. 1-31.
We will discuss this assignment on
September 12.
Film:
“The Fear and the Dream: Part 1" (in class)
A film from the History Channel series, “The Fifties,” about the hopes
and fears
of Americans after World War II. The
film covers the development of Levittown
as embodying the dream of affordable middle-class
(white) housing; the H-bomb
and the home bomb shelter mania; and the rise
of Joe McCarthy.
Questions from the film for discussion:
1. How did the Cold War of the 1950s shape social attitudes
during that
decade?
2. During the economic boom of the 1950s, William Levitt helped
to create the
modern suburb with the development of Levittown. Yet Levittown was
for
whites only. What does this suggest
about how some people viewed the
meaning of this economic boom?
3. Why did some scientists like J. Robert Oppenheimer who worked
on the
original atomic bomb refuse to help create the hydrogen bomb?
4. Why was Joseph McCarthy able to become so powerful and to
destroy so
many innocent lives?
9/12
COMMUNISTS IN THE U.S.A.?
Assignment
Read
Schrecker, The Age of Mccarthyism, documents 1-2, 5-8. Take
some notes to help in your
class discussion of these documents.
9/14
FEAR AT WORK: MCCARTHYISM IN FULL FORCE
Assignment
Read Schrecker, The Age of McCarthyism, documents 9-16.
9/19
THE INFAMOUS BLACKLIST
Assignment
Read Schrecker, The Age of McCarthyism, documents 17-19.
9/21 THE END AND MEANING OF McCARTHYISM
Film: “The Fear and the Dream: Part 2"
This continues the survey of concerns about subversion during the 1950s.
It
explores concern about foreign spies; Mickey Spillane’s fictional tough-guy
detective, Mike Hammer; the Korean War; the effects of McCarthyism; and
President Eisenhower’s popularity.
Questions from the film for discussion:
1 . What contributed to McCarthy’s downfall?
2. Why do you think films about frontier life (sometimes called
“westerns”) were
so popular in the 1950s?
3. Mickey Spillane was the best selling fiction writer of the
1950s. What made
his novels, and his character, Mike Hammer,
so popular?
4. How and why did the United States use propaganda--and racism--
during the Korean War?
Part 2: Women in the
Fifties: Home, Work, and Sex
Assignment
for Part 2
Write a paper on what the films and readings for this reveal section
about
women in the 1950's. What kinds of women
are discussed in these
materials? What kinds of forces
and values shaped their lives? How did
these women respond?
Length: 5-7 pages.
Due: October 17.
Revisions Due: November 7
9/26
GENDER ROLES, MARRIAGE, FAMILY LIFE--AND SECRET
DISCONTENTS
Film: “Let’s Play House”
This episode in the series on “The Fifties” focuses on changes in the family
and on
gender roles after World War II. For many Americans, family life
provided
stability and continuity after wartime disruptions, and also a haven from
the
anxieties of a dawning nuclear age. No wonder that Americans began
marrying
and forming families at younger ages than ever before. The subsequent
baby boom
created a home and child centered existence that demanded rigid gender
roles,
especially for women. The film examines how these roles caused conformity
and
discontent, and how Betty Friedan exposed this discontent in her famous
book,
The Feminine Mystique, which was based on research in the 1950s
but not
published until 1963. It also mentions how Sloan Wilson’s best-selling
novel, The
Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (we’ll see the film version in October)
revealed
corporate male discontent. It concludes with a segment on how a novel
by a New
Hampshire housewife, Grace Metalious, exposed the sometimes sordid lives
of
people in a small town she called Peyton Place.
Questions from the film for discussion:
1. During the prosperous 1950s, how did images of women and
family
life in popular magazines help to symbolize and promote the new
middle-class affluence and idyllic lifestyle?
2. Why were housewives who expressed discontent with their
lives
often blamed for creating their own unhappiness?
3. What was the “feminine mystique” that Betty Friedan
discussed in
her book?
4. Peyton Place dispelled the myth of idyllic small-town
America.
Why, then, was it so popular?
DUE: Paper on McCarthyism
9/28
MRS. SOMEONE: WOMEN, MOTHERHOOD, AND DOMESTICITY
Assignment
Brett Harvey, The Fifties: A Women’s Oral History (New York: Harper
Books, 1993). Read: “Mrs. Someone” (Chapter
4), “The Motherhood
Drift”(Chapter 5), and “Living the Dream”
(Chapter 6), ON RESERVE IN
LIBRARY RESERVE ROOM. You may make a
copy of these readings in the
library.
10/3
THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION: KINSEY, MARILYN MONROE, AND
PLAYBOY
This
History Channel film examines the sexual attitudes and realities of the
1950s.
Dr. Alfred Kinsey’s sensational study about Americans’ sexual behavior
revealed
that the nation’s ostensible strict moral code regarding sex did not match
Americans’ sexual desires or practices. The film also recounts how
Hugh Hefner
tapped into male sexual appetites and fantasies in his Playboy magazine,
and
depicts how Marilyn Monroe became America’s sexual icon. It concludes with
a
segment on Margaret Sanger’s contributions to birth control, and to the
development of the revolutionary birth control device, “the pill”.
Questions from the film for discussion:
1. How do sexual mores of the 1990s differ from those of the
1950s?
2. What do the sexual mores of the 1950s reveal about the gender
expectations of that era?
3. Why do you think Dr. Kinsey’s report created such controversy?
4. How did Playboy and the birth control pill reflect different
attitudes
toward women in the 1950s?
10/5
A YOUNG WOMAN'S STRUGGLES FOR IDENTITY (I)
Assignment
Plath, The Bell Jar, chapters 1 through 10.
See this great site: The
Complete List of Sylvia Plath Links.
Sylvia Plath, Smith College, 1955
10/10
A YOUNG WOMAN'S STRUGGLES FOR IDENTITY (II)
Assignment
Plath, The Bell Jar, finish book.
Part 3: Men in the Fifties
10/12
WHITE MEN IN THE CORPORATE WORLD
Assignment
Begin reading Miller, Death of a Salesman, for discussion on October
17 and 19.
Film: “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit” (Part 1)
10/17 WHITE MEN IN THE CORPORATE WORLD
Film: “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit” (Conclusion)
DUE: Paper on Women in the Fifties
10/19
WILLY LOMAN'S STRUGGLE FOR IDENTITY IN THE 1950'S (I)
Assignment
Miller, Death of a Salesman.
See the Helpful Death
of a Salesman Study Resource Center. The Student Guide is
quite good.
10/24
WILLY LOMAN'S STRUGGLE FOR IDENTITY IN THE 1950'S (II)
Assignment
Miller, Death of a Salesman.
10/26
MODERN MAN AND THE RACE FOR AN AUTHENTIC LIFE (I)
Assignment
Updike, Rabbit, Run, pages 5-116.
10/31
MODERN MAN AND THE RACE FOR AN AUTHENTIC LIFE (II)
Assignment
Updike, Rabbit, Run, finish book.
11/2
IN-CLASS WRITING ASSIGNMENT
Assignment
Come prepared to write an essay on men in the 1950's based on The Man
in The Gray
Flannel Suit, Death of a Salesman, and Rabbit, Run.
Part 4: A Civil Rights--and Civil Rights
Assignment for Part 4
Keep detailed notes and questions about what
these two books and the film
reveal about conformity and conflict in the
1950's. From your notes, write
three pages on this subject.
Due: November 16
11/7
INTERLUDE: A DIFFERENT WORLD
Assignment
Begin reading Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi, Part 1.
Film: “The Rage Within”
Another film from the History Channel’s fifties series, “The Rage Within”
explores
how the simmering rage of African Americans began to explode in the 1950s
and
shattered white American complacency about race discrimination. The
film
focuses on the 1954 Montgomery bus boycott and the start of the Civil Rights
Movement; the murder of young Emmett Till in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi,
a year later; and the integration of
Little Rock’s Central High School in 1957.
Questions from the film for discussion:
1. Why did the writer Ralph Ellison title his book The Invisible
Man?
2. How could such a system as “Jim Crow” exist in America?
3. What were the effects of Emmett Till’s murder?
4. How did television contribute to the growth of the Civil
Rights Movement?
DUE: Revisions of essay on women.
11/9
REMINISCENCES OF GROWING UP BLACK
Assignment
Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi, Parts 2-3.
11/14
ADOLESCENCE SLIPS AWAY IN A DIFFERENT KIND OF
STRUGGLE
Assignment
Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi, Part 4.
PART 5: CURRENTS
There will be no writing assignment
for Part 5 (although some material from
this section
will be covered on the final exam), because you will need to
devote much
time to preparing your final paper.
11/16 ART IN THE 1950'S
Willem de Kooning
Woman I, 1950-52
Museum of Modern Art
Assignment
Find one interesting Web site on art in the 1950's, and send it to the
e-mail
reflector. I’ll add them all to the on-line syllabus.
Here are some excellent examples:
The Whitney Museum’s spectacular on-line exhibit, The
American Century: Art
and Culture, 1900-2000. Take all the tour if you want to, but especially
look at the tour for 1950-2000.
Art Net Web’s exhibit on Abstract Expressionism.
Slides on American Art, 1900-1950.
DUE: Paper on Part 4.
11/21 JAZZ: BOP AND COOL
Charlie Parker
by William P. Gottlieb
Assignment
Find one interesting Web site on jazz in the 1950's, and send it to the
e-mail
reflector. I’ll add them all to the on-line syllabus
11/23 THANKSGIVING
11/28
ROCK AND ROLL
Assignment
Find one interesting Web site on rock ‘n roll in the 1950's, and send it
to the e-mail
reflector. I’ll add them all to the on-line syllabus
11/30
THE BLUES
Assignment
Find one interesting Web site on the blues in the 1950's, and send it to
the e-mail
reflector. I’ll add them all to the on-line syllabus
Film: “That Rhythm–Those Blues”
A film about rhythm and blues performed by Southern Black musicians in
the
1940's and 1950's.
12/5
THE BEAT
Assignment
Begin reading Kerouac, On the Road.
Film: “The Beat”
The final film from “The Fifties” series on the History Channel.
This one focuses
on the growing unrest among the younger generation that was expressed in
the
music, literature, and pop culture of the era. The film explores
how this unrest
was partly embodied in the work of Jack Kerouac and the response to Elvis
Presley.
Questions from the film for discussion:
1. How did rock-n-roll in the 1950s reflect changes in American
society in those years?
2. In an age of general affluence and comfort for middle-class
white
people, why would Jack Kerouac and other “beatniks” challenge
dominant American values and popular images of suburban bliss?
3. Why do you think that Elvis Presley was so popular?
4. The modern Civil Rights Movement erupted in the same years
in
which the beats and rock-n-roll gained national attention. Was
there a connection between these developments?
12/7 ON THE ROAD
Assignment
Kerouac, On the Road, Pages 1-237.
12/12 BACK HOME--AND
BEAT
Assignment
Kerouac, On the Road, pp. 237-310.
12/14 REPORTS AND SUMMARY
DUE: REPORTS
12/21 FINAL
EXAM (3:00-5:00 P.M.)
If you have questions, please contact Michael
Gordon .
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