Youth in American History
or “Not Always Adolescents”
or “Urchins, Bobbysoxers, Whippersnappers”
History 192-004 Amanda I. Seligman, Assistant Professor Freshman Scholars Seminar office: Holton Hall 331 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee phone: 229-4565 Spring Semester 2002 email: seligman@uwm.edu Class meetings: TR 12:30 p.m.- 1:45 p.m. office hours: M 4-5 p.m. and T 2-3:45 p.m. Class location: Holton 286 or by appointment How old are you? What does your age imply about what you do, how you spend your time, what civic activities you are allowed to participate in? What else, other than your age, shapes your experiences? This course examines how young people throughout the history of the United States have experienced their youth. It also asks what it has meant to be young in different times and places. To answers some of these questions, we will study New England colonial families, the period of slavery, children who worked and played in industrial cities, the roaring 20s, the origins of modern dating practices, the counterculture of the 1960s, and gang members. This course aims to teach students three things: 1) the importance of historical context in shaping people’s lives; 2) basic skills for reading and writing history at the college level; and 3) how scholars produce their work, which is not so very different from how students produce theirs. The tools for achieving these goals include reading, writing, and group discussion. This class is structured as a seminar. Students should come to class having done the reading and prepared to discuss it with their peers and instructor. In addition to discussing reading assignments together, class members will critique each other’s written work. There will be several opportunities to revise and improve writing assignments. Readings:
All of reading assignments for this course have been placed on electronic or paper reserve through UWM’s Golda Meir library. Instructions for using electronic reserve are available through the library web page, http://www.uwm.edu/Library/b4eres/help.html, and will be discussed in class. I recommend that you print out the reading assignments stored electronically so that you can mark them up, bring them to class, and review them whether or not UWM’s servers are up. DO NOT try to print the electronic reserve texts from the reference room in the UWM library—the printers are set with a very low memory and it will take you longer to print out the assignment than it would to read it. Instead, go to the electronic reserve room (east wing) and print from one of the workstations there. Where is the Reserve Room for the Golda Meir library? The library’s reserve sections are located on the first floor of the east wing of the library. You cannot reach these rooms through the west wing. You can retrieve the paper copies of the reading assignments from regular reserve counter, which is the first thing you will see when you walk in to the room. The Electronic Reserve room is in a hallway to the left of the regular reserve counter and is staffed with people ready to help you locate the assignments. Grading: Grading in this course has two components: participation, and written assignments. Participation will count for 20% of your final grade and writing assignments for 80%. Participation means that you engage with the readings and come to class prepared to discuss them with your classmates. You should be prepared both to share your ideas and to listen to those offered up in class. Participation does not mean striving to talk the most—it means that you play an active role in your learning and that of your colleagues. Your participation grade will reflect the quality of your participation rather than its absolute quantity. Because your participation is critical to the overall success of the seminar, attendance at all class sessions is required. Obviously, in some cases (illness, death in the family), absence is unavoidable, but you should not schedule job interviews, doctor’s appointments, or other conflicts during class meeting times. If you do miss a class, you are nevertheless responsible for the materials covered that day. Writing assignments are listed in the schedule section of this syllabus. They will be weighted in your final grade according to the following schedule. One paragraph, due 9/17: 5% 3-4 page paper, due, 10/8: 10% prewriting assignment, due 10/15: 2% prewriting assignment, due 10/22: 3% 3-4 page paper due, 10/29: 20% 3-4 page paper due, 11/21: 20% 3-4 page paper due, 12/12: 20% (optional) revised paper due, 12/16: replaces original grade (eligible: papers for 10/8, 10/29, or 11/21) participation: 20% All assignments should be typed or word-processed; be double-spaced in a 12 point font; and leave at least an inch and a half on the right hand margin for comments. Please do not come to class expecting to find a stapler. To receive full credit, all papers must be turned in at or before the beginning of the class period on the day they are due (or, in the case of the final paper, at the time listed in the schedule). Late papers will be penalized at the rate of one step of a letter grade per day (e.g. a paper otherwise written at A quality becomes A-). Failure to complete all required components of the course may result in a failing grade for the course as a whole. Thus omitting a single paper or unexcused absences from class may result in a final grade of F. Notes: If you need special accommodations in order to meet any of the requirements of this course, please contact me as soon as possible. All students are expected to observe University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee standards of academic honesty. A statement about UWM’s policies regarding academic integrity is available at http://www.uwm.edu/SAHP//administrationinfo/acadmisc.html. You can find the academic integrity statements of many other universities and colleges through http://www.nwu.edu/uacc/cai/resources.html. In addition, we will be discussing academic honesty in class. If you have any concerns about the course, want to talk about your academic progress, or are interested in knowing more about history, please come and see me in my office hours or send me email. I am also available for appointments at times other than my scheduled office hours. I encourage you to take advantage of UWM’s Peer Mentoring Center, located in Bolton Hall, room 192 (first floor). They can help you with a variety of problems, including using computers, finding help at UWM, and coping with the stresses of college life. For example, if you have trouble remembering how to access the course readings that are held on electronic reserve, you could go to the Peer Mentoring Center and ask for assistance. PMC’s website, http://www.uwm.edu/letsci/edison/gateway/index.html, contains links to all sorts of information you might need. Their telephone number is (414) 229-5385. Additionally, you should be aware that only students who have completed a freshman seminar are eligible to become Peer Mentors. Course Schedule September 3: Introduction September 5 (e) John Demos and Virginia Demos, “Adolescence in Historical Perspective,” Journal of Marriage and the Family (November 1969), pp. 632-638 September 10 (e) John Demos, A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970), chapter 10, “Coming of Age.” September 12 (e) Joseph F. Kett, Rites of Passage: Adolescence in America, 1790 to the Present (New York: Basic Books, 1977), chapter 1. September 17 Write: One paragraph that answers the question, “What is Joseph Kett’s main point in chapter 1 of Rites of Passage?” Do not use any direct quotations—the point of this exercise is to work on your prose and your expression of ideas. In Class: writing workshop: academic integrity September 19
In Class: Freshman Scholars picnic (free!) Come to our classroom for instructions; we will attend the picnic in a group. September 24 Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, written by himself, chapters 1, 5, 6, 7, and 8. online: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Literature/Douglass/Autobiography/ September 26 (p) Harriet A. Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself Jean Fagan Yellin, editor (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987), chapters 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 10, and 11.
October 1 (e) Paul Boyer, Urban Masses and Moral Order in America, 1820-1920 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978), chapter 3. October 3 (e) Christine Stansell, City of Women: Sex and Class in New York, 1789-1860 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987), chapter 5. October 8 Write: Using the arguments and evidence presented in the readings assigned since September 19, write a short paper (3-4 pages, approximately 750 words) discussing how well Joseph Kett’s model of “semi-dependence” applies to American youth living in cities and in slavery in the early 19th century. Your essay should have a clear and concise thesis statement, be developed with a logical argument, and contain supporting evidence. In class: writing workshop: revisions October 10 (p) David Nasaw, Children of the City, at Work and at Play (Garden City, New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1985), chapter 2
(e) Jane Addams, Spirit of Youth in the City Streets (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1909), chapter 4. Turn in: Prewriting for paper due October 29: Look over the readings assigned during October. Submit a list of three possible paper topics based on those readings. For each topic, write out the question that you would answer in the paper.
October 17 (p) David Nasaw, Children of the City, (Garden City, New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1985), chapters 4 and 6 October 22 (e) Paul Boyer, Urban Masses and Moral Order in America, 1820-1920 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978), chapter 7. Turn in: Prewriting for paper due October 29: select your topic and question. Write out a thesis statement for the paper. October 24 (p) David Nasaw, Children of the City, chapter 7 October 29 Write: A 3-4 page paper based on the readings assigned since October 8. Bring TWO (2) copies of the paper to class with you. In Class: writing workshop: peer review October 31 (e) Paula Fass, The Damned and the Beautiful, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977), chapter 4. November 5 (e) Alain Locke, “Negro Youth Speaks,” pp. 47-53 in Alain Locke, The New Negro: Voices of the Harlem Renaissance (New York: Atheneum, 1992). November 7 (e) Richard A. Reiman, The New Deal and American Youth (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992), pp. 11-45. (e) Robert H. Bremner, Children and Youth in America: A Documentary History (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970-74), pp. 108-114 and pp. 1603-1610. November 12 (e) Beth L. Bailey, From Front Porch to Back Seat (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988), pp. 25-66, chapter, “The Economy of Dating.”
(e) William Graebner, “Outlawing Teenage Populism: The Campaign against Secret Societies in the American High School,” Journal of American History, vol. 74 no. 2 (Sept. 1987), pp. 411-435. November 19 (e) Eric C. Schneider, Vampires, Dragons, and Egyptian Kings: Youth Gangs in Postwar New York (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999), pp. 106-136, chapter 4. November 21 Write: A 3-4 page paper. In which of the essays assigned since October 30 do you see most clearly the emergence of the fully-formed, modern adolescent? In Class: writing workshop: prose details November 26 (e) Allen J. Matusow, The Unraveling of America: A history of liberalism in the 1960s (New York: Harper & Row, 1984), chapter 10. November 28: No Class (Thanksgiving Holiday) December 3 (e) Theodore H. White, The Making of the President, 1968 (New York: Pocket Books, 1970), chapter 3. December 5 (e) William Wei, “Hmong American Youth: American Dream, American Nightmare,” chapter 18, in Generations of Youth: Youth Cultures and History in Twentieth-Century America, edited by Joe Austin and Michael Nevin Willard (New York: New York University Press, 1998). December 10 (e) Neil Howe and William Strauss, Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation (New York: Vintage Books, 2000), chapter 2. December 12 Last day of class Write: 3-4 page paper: Are millennials extensions of 20th century adolescents, or something new under the sun? December 16: Final Assignment (optional): Pick one of the three 3-4 page papers you have written for this course and revise it (paper due December 12 not eligible). Turn in both the original and the revised paper. The grade on the revised paper will replace the original grade. |