Syllabus

THE AMERICAN WEST: SETTLEMENT TO PRESENT


 * Textbook **
 * Robert V. Hine and John Mack Faragher. The American West: A New Interpretive History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.
 * Assorted online articles

This course looks at the frontier region, and modern landscape that is the American West. The course begins with the exploration and settlement of diverse groups and continues through the cultural clashes and the development of the West. Specifically, The American West covers the early exploration beginning with the Columbian Exchange, setting the stage for the development of the southwest culture; it continues with the Lewis and Clark expedition and US expansion into the West as Native Americans struggled to protect their land and preserve their culture. The course continues discussing conflict and growth focusing on Native-Americans, cowboys, ranchers, miners, lumberjacks, and oil men as they contribute to economic development and struggle for conservation; all of which continue to impact our nation's political, economic, and environmental outlook today.
 * Course description **

 1. Involvement and contribution to classroom discussion and activities.  2. Completion of reading online articles and textbook assignments.  3. Completion of all assignments and submitted on time.
 * Expectations for students **

Student’s grades for each semester calculated on the following:
 * Grading Policy **


 * 1st Nine Weeks (33.33% of total grade)
 * Unit projects (25%) – Generally, at least one assignment (paper, project, etc.) every
 * two or three weeks
 * Quizzes/Homework (50%) – Generally, homework daily (reading and assessing
 * content)
 * Special Project (25%) – At least one project per grading period
 * 2nd Nine Weeks (33.33% of total grade) - same as above
 * End of Semester Examination (33.33% of total grade) – 50% Multiple Choice, 50% Essay

Email: david.widener@woodward.edu Office: 404-765-4054 Class Wiki: theedutainers.wikispaces.com
 * Contact information **

**Week One:** The First American West

**Topic 1:** Why Study the American West? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Topic 2:** American West Fact and Myth


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Readings: **
 * The American West, Hine and Faragher Chapters 1 and 2.
 * Jefferson, Thomas: Notes on the State of Virginia.” (Handout)
 * Turner, Frederick Jackson: “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.”

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Ken Burn’s, //The West//, //Episode 1:// //The People//
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Video: **


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Study Questions: **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">
 * 1) Why is the western United States so important to our nation’s history and identity?
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> What native tribes lived in the western US when Europeans made first contact? What kind of relationship was established between the two groups? How did the clash impact the culture of both groups?
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">How were native peoples impacted immediately by the contact with Conquistadors like Cabez and Coronado? What was driving the exploration of the West by the conquistadors?
 * 4) The Catholic Church sent missionaries to the New World to convert Indians to Christianity. In the west (California and New Mexico) a series of missions were set-up. How did the “mission system” change the life of the local native population?
 * 5) How did the constant clash of groups in the West impact its development as a unique diverse region?
 * 6) In looking at the West what misconceptions have developed that have become part of the story of the West that impact perceptions of Americans today.
 * 7) Why did Thomas Jefferson view the Louisiana Purchase as so significant? Was his decision to authorize purchase of the western lands from France a legal act? What did each side argue about the purchase?
 * 8) What is the “Frontier Thesis” put forward by Frederick Jackson Turner? How has it influenced the study and writing of the history of the West?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Week 2:** The Ohio Territory and Indian Country

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Readings: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|Treaty of Greenville] (1795) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|Declaration of Independence] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|Letter to Governor William H. Harrison], February 27, 1803 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> From The Philadelphia Aurora (A Philadelphia Newspaper): <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* “[|The Savage Tomahawk],” November 24, 1812 (reprinted in The Columbian) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* “[|The Savage Allies of England],” August 3, 1812 (reprinted in The Independent Chronicle) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* “[|The War],” September 19, 1812 (reprinted in The American Mercury) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* David Thompson, [|History of the Late War Between Great Britain and the United States] (1832)

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> a. Describe the civilizing mission of the United States and explain how this concept related to Thomas Jefferson's Indian Policy. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> b. How did Americans in the early 19th century understand their relationship to Native peoples? Was there a place in the republic for Indian peoples? Base your answers on public policy and popular discourse in the early republic. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> c. Explain the concept of taming the wilderness. How did this idea relate to America's western expansion? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> d. What were the implications of American ideas about the wilderness and civilization for Indian peoples? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> e. Why did American officials believe it to be important that the Native peoples of the Northwest Territory recognize and accept U.S. sovereignty? Based on the assigned texts how do you think Indian peoples understood the concept of sovereignty during the treaty negotiations at Greeneville? =<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Week Three: A New Nation Moves West = <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Topic 1:The Iconography and Ideology of American Expansion
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Study Questions: **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Readings: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* John Filson, [|The Adventures of Col. Daniel Boone] also read the section subtitled Trade of Kentucke.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> * Bryan Daniel, [|The Mountain Muse] (browse through the poem but make sure to read images 24 to 44, marked in the text as pages 28-48)

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> * Timothy Flint, [|Indian Wars of the West, Section V and VI] (p. 49-105).

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> * Watch: Mell-O-Toons, "[|Daniel Boone]" <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Study Questions: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a. John Filson’s narrative is often seen as the first popular Western adventure. Does it seem like a typical "western" to you? In what ways does it seem different from later narratives of the West? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> b. Daniel Bryan’s “The Mountain Muse” is an unusual interpretation of Daniel Boone's story. In what kind of framework is he trying to cast Boone's history? How is this similar or different from John Filson's narrative? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> c. In “Indian Wars of the West,” how does Timothy Flint narrate the Indian attacks? What aspects does he focus on, and which are left out? How does Flint characterize the Indians’ motivations? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> d. How has the frontier influenced American history according to Frederick Jackson Turner? Can you see Turner's understanding of the frontier in the writings of Filson, Flint and Bryan? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> e. According to Flint, Daniel Boone despised the trappings of civilization, and yet he was widely regarded as having brought civilization to the west. How would explain and make sense of this contradiction. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> f. Flint writes on page 56 that settlers built cabins in the Kentucky Territory and lived in them for a single season before returning to their homes in the British colonies in order to establish "a future claim on the land on which they built." How was this process of claiming and settling the west linked to the American Revolution and the creation of the republic? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> g. For writers like Filson, Flint, Bryan, and Jackson what role did American Indians play in the development of America?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Topic 2: Encountering the American Indian Past - Case Study
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Readings: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Stephen Aron, "Pigs and Hunters: 'Rights of the Woods' on the Trans-Appalachian Frontier" <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Noah Webster, [|Letter to Ezra Stiles I], [|Letter to Ezra Stiles II] in the American Museum

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> * Winthrop Sargent, [|A Letter from Winthrop Sargent] in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> * Images: [|Map] and [|Lithograph] of the “ancient works” near Marietta, Ohio, from "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley (1848) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Study Questions: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a. Try to look up some information about the authors of these letters – who were they? And what was the American Philosophical Society? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> b. What questions does Noah Webster try to answer in his letter to Ezra Stiles? What kinds of evidence does he cite, and what conclusions does he come to? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> c. Who does Webster refer to as “Madoc” (p. 325)? Can you find out anything about this reference? (Hint: search for "Madog" in the "[|First American West]" database.) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> d. What do these sources tell you about how white American intellectuals tried to make sense of the American Indian past? What kind of philosophical problem did they run into trying to explain these archeological findings? What are the differences in how Noah Webster and Winthrop Sargent try to tackle this issue? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> e. How does Frederick Jackson Turner's understanding of America's western expansion compare with Stephen Aron's history of the Trans-Appalachia frontier? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> f. According to Aron what was the significance of the commons on this frontier? How did the Indians utilize the common, and how was the common used by the settlers? =<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Week Four: The Native New World –Western Transformations =

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Topic 1: The Evolution of a Native New World on the Great Plains
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Readings: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">*Selected Readings from[|//Native American Resources from Ancestry.com//] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Pekka Hamalainen, “[|The Rise and Fall of Plains Indian Horse Cultures],” Journal of American History, 90.3 (2003) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Optional: [|additional background information] on the tribes encountered by La Verendryes; see The Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Video: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Ken Burns, The West, Episode 1, Section 7, Dog Soldiers <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Study Questions: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a. What are some of the major tribal nations that existed west of the Mississippi and how did they differ from each other in language, economy, and culture? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">b. According to Hemelainen why did the U.S. fight a long war with the Dakota and quickly defeat the Comanche? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> c. What does Hemelainen mean when he describes the Comanche as pastoralists? And, what is the significance of this transformation in terms of ecology, economy, social structure, politics, and diplomacy? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> h. Describe the military impact of plains Indians adopting horses. How did this process facilitate U.S. expansion onto the Great Plains? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">i. In the Ken Burn’s The West series it discusses Native American names. Why are names so important in a tribe? What names did you find interesting and insightful in your understanding of Native American culture. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Week 5: The Rise of Native American Power in the Southwest <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Topic 1: Native American Culture of the Southwest <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Topic 2: Interaction with Europeans in Trade, and Culture <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Readings: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">*The American West, Hine and Faragher, pp. 29-38, 95-100. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">*Selected Readings from Indians.org on [|Southwest Indians] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Juliana Barr, “[|Geographies of Power: Mapping Indian Borders in the Borderlands of the Early Southwest]," The William and Mary Quarterly, 68.1 (2011) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">*[|Native Americans Overview: Interaction with Europeans] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|Interactive map] of Indian, French, English, and Spanish territorial boundaries <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Debbie S. Cunningham, ed., “[|The Domingo Ramon Diary of the 1716 Expedition into the Province of the Tejas Indians: An Annotated translation]," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 110.1 (2006) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Study Questions: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a. What are the manor tribal groups that existed in the southwest when the Spanish came to the area in the 1500’s? How did the major tribal groups differ from one another? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> b. What was the significance of Ramon assigning Spanish names to the places he passed through? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> c. How is the Spanish relationship with Native peoples different from the French relationship with Native peoples? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> d. How were the Spanish Missions incorporated into Caddo Society? How did the Caddo's reception of the Spanish compare with the Mandan's reception of the French? Did Spanish interactions with the Caddo differ from their interactions with other Indians they encountered as they traveled? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> e. According to Barr how did Euro-American maps erase Indian Geography? How does this impact the historical narrative of European/American expansion? How is this linked to the mythology (as opposed to the history) of the American West? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> f. What, according to Barr is the link between space and sovereignty among Native peoples. Is this the same for the Karankawa as it is for the Caddo? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">g. What impact did Apache and Comanche raiding have on Spanish settlement? How did these raiding practice influence the relationship between Native peoples? How did Apache and Comanche power influence Spanish imperial power, and how does this influence the way Americans understand the expansion of the U.S. into this region?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Week 6 and 7: The American Empire Enters the West

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Topic 1: Lewis and Clark Expedition
=<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Readings: =

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">*The American West, Hine and Faragher, pp. 136-38, 140-43 (Lewis and Clark Expedition) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Lewis and Clark: [|Rivers, Edens, and Empires]. As you read through this wiki make certain to read the transcripts of Jefferson's secret message to congress, Jefferson's instructions to Lewis, Jefferson's Speech to the Delegation of Indians, and the Indians response to Jefferson. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Rivers of Words: [|Exploring Lewis and Clark]. Click on the numbers 9 and 10. Make certain to read the journal entries and letters highlighted for Lewis and Clark's winter at Fort Mandan, Council and their journal entry for their council with the Sioux. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">*Selected Readings from National Geographic [|Lewis and Clark Site] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Video: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Ken Burn’s The West, Episode One, Section 10 Corps of Discovery <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Study Questions: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a. Explain how kinship and hierarchy influenced Native and American diplomacy as Lewis and Clark made their way through the west. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> b. What is the core idea behind Thomas Jefferson's Indian policy? How was this related to the Lewis and Clark expedition? How was it related to American political power in the west? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> c. What is the back-story regarding trade in Jefferson's secret message to congress? How would you interpret Jefferson's speech to the Indians? How are the speech and message to congress related? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> d. Describe the importance of trade for Jefferson's Indian policy and for the mission of the corps of Discovery. What are the implications of trade with the U.S. for the Sioux and the Mandan and Hidatsas? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> e. What was the diplomatic goal of the Lewis and Clark expedition in Jefferson's instructions? How well did Lewis and Clark implement Jefferson's diplomatic goals? What was the diplomatic goal of the Sioux? How would you describe the encounter with Lewis and Clark from a Sioux perspective? From a Mandan perspective? (Be sure to read the full journal entries for September 25-28, 1804). <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> f. Why were there so many Natie villagers at the Mandan-Hidatsa villages? What were the significance of these villages for trade and diplomacy among Native peoples in the Upper Missouri Basin? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> g. How were trade and sovereignty linked in the Upper Missouri from an American perspective? How would they be viewed from a Native perspective?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Topic 2: The Santa Fe Trail and the Republic of Texas
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Readings: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">*The American West, Hine and Faragher, pp. 167, 200-215 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|Texas in 1840 or, The Emigrant's Guide to the New Republic], pages xiii-xxii and Ch. 17, Ch. 20, Ch. 21 (226-237, 257-272). <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* George Wilkins Kendall, [|Narrative of the Texan Santa Fé Expedition: Comprising a tour through Texas, and Capture of the Texans] (1846) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Read pages 1-7, 40-55, 85-100, 148-154, 190-195, 202-212 and 216-229. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|George Wilkins Kendall] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|The Texas Santa Fe Expedition] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Study Questions: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a. Texas in 1840 is one of many nineteenth-century guides for people emigrating to the West. Guides ranged from detailed descriptions of the region to guidebooks with step-by-step maps and instructions on how to get to the new region, such as emigrant guides to Utah. Keeping this genre in mind, who was the authors' ideal audience? Think about specific examples from the text that demonstrate the authors' motivations. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> b. What image of the Republic of Texas (1836-1846) does this text create? If you were looking for a new country to emigrate to, would Texas appeal to you? Why or why not? Consider specific examples and think about variables based on sex, age, occupation, marital status etc., that would help determine the appeal of Texas. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">c. Who is George Wilkins Kendall? (You may need to look up information on Kendall in an outside source.) What role did he play in the Texas Santa Fé Expedition? According to Kendall, why did he join the expedition? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> d. How does Kendall depict the goals of the expedition? Upon joining the expedition, how did Kendall think he and others on the expedition would be received by Sante Fé’s inhabitants? How did their expectations differ from reality and what can we determine about the individuals on the expedition and the regions' politics? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> e. The Texas Santa Fé Expedition set out in 1841, a year after the publication of Texas in 1840. What does the juxtaposition of these two texts suggest about Texas' economy, goals, society, and relationship with Mexico and the United States. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> f. Throughout the excerpts Kendall mentions encounters with American Indians. How does he perceive the Indians he sees and hears stories about? How does he differentiate between the different groups he meets? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> g. Kendall claims, “The desperation of their [the Indians’] hunger was such as to overcome any astonishment or intimidation the appearance of our wagon might have caused…” (87). What other reasons may explain why the sight of wagons and Texan traders did not astonish the southwestern Indians? What do the Indian attacks imply about this region?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Week Eight and Nine: Nation Building in the West

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Topic 1: The Mexican-American War
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Readings: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">*The American West, Hine and Faragher, pp. 205-12 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|“The War with Mexico,”] from The American Whig Review 3, no. 6 (June 1846): 571-580.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Courtesy of Cornell University Library, Making of America Digital Collection. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* “[|The Mexican War-Its Origin and Conduct,”] from The United States Democratic Review 20, no. 106 (April 1847): 291-299.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Courtesy of Cornell University Library, Digital Collections. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Ulysses S. Grant, [|//Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant//] (1885). Read p. 92-100, 103-106, and 162-174. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|The Annexation of Texas] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|The Mexican-American War] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Study Questions: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a. What are the causes of the Mexican-American War given by The American Whig Review and how do they compare to the reasons provided by The United States Democratic Review? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">b. How is President Polk portrayed in each article? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">c. What are the similarities and differences in how Mexicans are portrayed in each article? How do the articles compare to the cartoon that includes Mexican soldiers? How does each piece describe relations with Mexico? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">d. Paired with the cartoon prints from the Library of Congress, what do these articles demonstrate about how the Mexican-American War affected political parties and elections in the 1840s? What are the major political issues that the war highlights? How did the war affect the Election of 1848? View the “About this item” section on the LOC’s website to help consider these questions. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a. How does Grant portray American soldiers in comparison to Mexican soldiers? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">b. How is Grant’s account different from the articles that appeared in The American Whig Review and The United States Democratic Review? What are his views on the Mexican-American War? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Topic 2: Exploring the West – John C. Fremont and the Corps of Topographical Engineers <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Readings:

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> * John C. Fremont, [|The Life, Explorations, and Public Service of John Charles Fremont] (1856). Rd chapters 4 and 5.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Explore the [|Reports of Expeditions and Surveys] of the Secretary of War. Browse through [|Volume 3], [|Volume 6], and [|Volume 7] (front to back) and read the introductory materials. Click on the links to the other volumes to get a general sense of their contents. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Study Questions: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a. What did it take to plan a railroad? These "Reports of Explorations and Surveys" are a remarkable record of how the Corps of Topographical Engineers conducted their explorations of the trans-Mississippi west, as they surveyed the territory to find the best routes for future railroads. In the process these expeditions mapped the west's geology, zoology, and plant life--and gave detailed impressions of the landscape, as well as Indian people they encountered on their way. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Consider the following questions as you explore these volumes: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> 1. What kind of resources (labor, supplies, and expertise) went into these expeditions? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">2. For what audience are these volumes intended? When were they published and who published them? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">3. Who are the writers of the various texts that make up the volumes? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">4. What is the extent of the territory that these reports cover? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> For our class discussion, different groups of students will prepare a short presentation on the themes below. As a group, try to point your fellow students towards passages that you find historically relevant, unusual, or otherwise of interest. Discuss your questions and observations about these passages, and what you think they tell us about how the American military brought the American west into the reach of U.S. bureaucracy. We will explore the following themes: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> - Geology, zoology, and botany <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">- Building the railroads: routes and strategy <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">- Indians of the west <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">- Artists' impressions of the west (lithographs and drawings)

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Week 10: Overland Migration =<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Topic 1: The Oregon Trail and Mormon Migration = <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Readings: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">*The American West, Hine and Faragher, pp. 187-88, 192-94 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|Whitman Letters]. Read the letters for: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">June 3, 1836, July 18th – August 7th, 1836; September 21, 1836; September 22, 1836; June 25 1839; May 2, 1840; March 1, 1842; September 29, 1842; May 27, 1843; October 9, 1844; April 22, 1846; May 15, 1846; April 6, 1848 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">*Melvin L. Bashore, "Where the Prophets of God Live”: A Brief Overview of the Mormon Trail Experience, available at [|//Trails of Hope//]. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">*From the NPS the [|//Mormon Pioneer//] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">In addition, look through the [|map] detailing Mormon migration. Pay close attention to numbers 4, 5, and 6 (more background information is available in "Mormon Developments" and "Why They Left/Building a Community" at the top right of each window). <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Video: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Ken Burn’s The West: Episode 2, Empire Upon the Trails, Selected sections <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Study Questions: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The Oregon Trail and "pioneers" moving west are familiar images, popularized in television shows, movies, trail days/festivals, games, and monuments. [|The Oregon Trail game], for example, takes players through the trail, narrates certain events, and requires decisions on what to buy for the trip and how to react to certain situations (broken wagon axle, dysentery, fording a river vs. taking a ferry, when to hunt etc.…). <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Pulling examples from the Whitman's letters and the journal entries quoted in Bashore's essay on the Mormons, consider how you would create a game about traveling west in the mid-nineteenth century. How would you rewrite The Oregon Trail? Be prepared to discuss your ideas in class. You are to put yourself in the shoes of the travellers using the information you have learned from your readings. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Questions you might consider: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">-What are important decisions travelers had to make? What difficulties did they run into? What motivated their movement west and how did these motivations affect their trip? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">-Compare and contrast the Mormons' trail experience to that of the Christian missionaries, such as the Whitman's.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Week 11: California <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Readings <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Susan L. Johnson, “ ‘Domestic’ Life in the Diggings: The Southern Mines in the California Gold Rush,” in Over the Edge: Remapping the American West

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">From "California As I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years" at the American Memory collection (for each piece in this collection, read the link, Bibliographic Information): <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* "[|A Frenchman in the Gold Rush: The Journal of Ernest De Massey]" -- Read Chapter X: "In the Trinity Mines" <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* "[|California: Four months among the gold finders]" by J. Tyrwhitt Brooks -- Read Chapters IX, X, XI, XII <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* out” by Eliza W. Farnham --Read Chapter XXXI <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* "[|California Gold Rush Merchant]": The journal of Stephen Chapin Davis. Read the Introduction, which provides Davis' biography and read [|August 26, 1850- February 16, 1851]. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">*Edmund Booth. Forty-Niner: The Life Story of a Deaf Pioneer. Read the following letters: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Jacksonville, Tuolumne Co., California Aug. 18th, 1850.] (3 pages) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Sonora, Tuolumne Co., California Nov. 3, 1850] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|"Ho! For California,"]The Weekly Herald. December 2, 1848. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|**“**][|Ho! For California,”] Alexandria Gazette, December 8, 1848. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* The Days of Forty Nine, Song [|lyrics]. In addition, hear Leon Ponce sing a version of the[| song] in 1939. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Study Questions: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a. Do the primary sources further support Johnson's argument that the world that emerged around the gold mines was "a world upside down"? How do the primary sources add to or contest Johnson's discussion of gender, class, and race? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> b. How do these accounts define "civilization"? What is associated with civilization and what is its opposite? How do these men and women see themselves and their lifestyles in California? How might you connect their accounts to previous discussions regarding civilization? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> c. Like the "pioneers" of the Oregon Trail, miners during the California Gold Rush are emphasized by textbooks and other narratives centered on the West. Why? What makes the Gold Rush an "American" experience? How do the different types of readings support the images the Gold Rush evokes and how do these accounts differ or conflict with the popular narrative of the Gold Rush? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> d. For this discussion, there are many different types of sources, which each provide a small snapshot of California or the Gold Rush. What information does this material provide when considered in juxtaposition? What is the significance of 1848 newspaper articles placed next to letters from a miner to his wife in 1850? Taken together, what type of picture of the Gold Rush does this material create? Is it an accurate depiction? Are certain perspectives missing?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Week 12: Gold Rush

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Topic 1: Colorado and the Dakotas
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Readings: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">*The American West, Hine and Faragher, pp. 258-60, 235-51, and 262-66 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> * Elliot West, "The Miseries of Failure," in The Contested Plains: Indians, Gold seekers, and the Rush to Colorado (1998) (Ctools/Coursepack) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* PBS case study with [|documents] on the Sand Creek Massacre <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* John Evans, Letter to Edwin M. Stanton, December 14, 1863: [|Page 1] [|Page 2] [|Page 3]. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Video: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">*Ken Burn’s The West, Episode Three, Speck of the Future <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Study Questions: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The Pike's Peak Gold Rush in 1858 led to the rapid creation of the Colorado Territory in 1861. What was the result of such a major territorial reorganization in such a short time? What environmental, military, and social effects did the influx of settlers have on the Indians inhabiting the region? And how did "a clash of visions in Mid-America" (Elliott West) contribute to the famous Sand Creek Massacre in 1863? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> John Evans letter: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a. Find out some information about John Evans and Edwin Stanton: what was their involvement in the Colorado Indian conflicts? What is Evans's assessment of the situation of Indian relations on the Colorado frontier, and what is the proposed solution? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> PBS case study: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a. The author of the first editorial calls the Sand Creek Massacre "a remarkable feat": what information does this eyewitness account offer, and what aspects are not mentioned so much? Can you detect a more sarcastic tone in the second editorial? What purpose do you think the author's rhetoric serves? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">b. What might these two editorials lead you to assume about the image of the Sand Creek massacre as it is portrayed in the Rocky Mountain News? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">c. How would you describe John Smith's role in mediating between the U.S. military and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians? Based on his deposition, does Smith seem a reliable witness to you? How does Smith characterize Colonel Chivington's actions? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">d. On what points do John Smith's and Chivington's testimony differ most clearly? What different accounts do the two witnesses have of the number of Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians who were involved in the conflict?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Week 13: Manifest Destiny—Expansion and Conflict

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Topic 1: Kansas, Nebraska, and Expansion
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Readings: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|The Compromise of 1850]. Read the "Document Info" section. Also, glance over the document, which the National Archives provides as an image and as a transcript copy. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|The Kansas-Nebraska Act.] Read the "Document Info" section. Also, glance over the document. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Letter], S. C. P. [Samuel Clarke Pomeroy] to Dr. [Thomas H.] Webb, December 19, 1855. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|“Startling news, our border in danger, Missouri to be invaded,”] The Western Dispatch, September 3, 1856. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Letter], George W. Hunt and C. Stearns to Blood, Hutchinson, et al., September 29, 1856. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Letter], G. W. Smith, Jr., to Gentlemen of the Kansas Central Committee, July 17, 1857. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Video: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Ken Burn’s The West, Episode 4, Death Runs Riot <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Study Questions: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a. After looking over the Kansas-Nebraska Act, consider the letters, newspaper article, and political cartoons (note the letters are listed in chronological order), consider the following questions: What were the effects of the Kansas-Nebraska act on the nation and the West? How did the Act affect Kansas and Missouri? What were the prevalent emotions embodied in the letters and newspaper article? What are the main issues that appear in both the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas Nebraska Act? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> b. Considering the information provided by the letters, legislation, and background information--how would you explain each cartoon to somebody who does not know anything about this time period or the issues? Summarize the issues using these cartoons as illustrations and launching points. What does each cartoon—Liberty the Fair Maid of Kansas, Forcing Slavery Down the Throat of a Freesoiler, and The Balls are Rolling—represent? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> c. How is Union different from the other illustrations? What is the artist attempting to convey and why might the message of this piece be important during the 1850s? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Topic 2-Indian Wars on the Plains <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Readings: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">*The American West, Hine and Faragher, chapter 7. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Richard White, "[|The Winning of the West: The Expansion of the Western Sioux in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries],” Journal of American History 65.2 (1998) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Jeffrey Ostler, “[|Conquest and the State: Why the United States Employed Massive Military Force to Suppress the Lakota Ghost Dance],” Pacific Historical Review 65.2 (1996) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Paul Rosier, "Indian Country in the Twenty-First Century," in Serving Their Country: American Indian Politics and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century (2009) (Ctools/Coursepack) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Elizabeth Custer, [|Boots and Saddles] (1899). Read the last chapter (XXIX). <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Aaron Beede, [|Sitting Bull - Custer] (1913) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Study Questions: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Jeffrey Ostler writes about the increased U.S. military presence in the West following the Civil War. Today we will think about how military intervention came to be seen as an increasingly central "solution" to the Indian-U.S. relations on the Great Plains. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a. How would you characterize Elizabeth Custer's portrayal of both the Indian and American women in "Boots and Saddles"? And what kind of masculinity do the soldiers evidence? What is the dramatic pay-off of how Custer recounts the events of Little Bighorn here? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">b. Who was Aaron Beede? What prompts him to present himself as an authority on the Battle of Little Bighorn? How is he portrayed in the "Publisher's Preface"? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">c. Beede writes in his introduction that he wants to give "a picture of the 'Custer Massacre,' so called, as the Indians themselves saw the battle." When you read his note on "Sources" at the end of the book, do you think Beede is successful in doing this? To what extend does he succeed or not? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">d. Scene IV: "Sitting Bull and Custer Face to Face" stages a dialogue between Sitting Bull and the dead Custer's spirit. What kind of resolution does the play offer? What is the final word on Custer?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Week 14-Making the West American

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Readings:
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> *The American West, Hine and Faragher, chapters 9 and 10.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> * Daniel Belgrad, “[|Power’s Larger Meaning: The Johnson County War as Political Violence in an Environmental Context],” Western Historical Quarterly XXXIII.2 (2002) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Watch: Shane (George Stevens, 1953) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* From Richard White’s [|Railroaded] website: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|The Alfred Hart Collection] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Interactive Visualizations] (Click on "Transcontinental Railroad," "Cattle Production in the American West," and "Rise of the American Railway Union.")

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Video: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Ken Burn’s The West, Episode 5, The Grandest Enterprise Under God

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Study Questions: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a. What do the photographs in the Alfred Hart collection tell you about the immediate environmental impact of building the railroads? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">b. What do the interactive visualizations suggest was the long-term impact of the railroads in terms of labor and social and economic change in the American West? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">c. Daniel Belgrad writes that the history of the Johnson County War found its way into history in “two archetypal forms” (p. 159). What archetypal story does Shane tell about the Johnson County War? What does its depiction in the film show about general US conceptions of the American West? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">d. Discuss the character of Shane as a “western hero.” Does he seem like the archetype of the gunfighter? Do you sense a change in the way he is presented throughout the film? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">e. Try to keep track of different characters’ accents, backgrounds, and their family situation. Of what kind of people is this community in Wyoming composed? And what do you make of the confrontation between Wilson and “Stonewall”? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">f. In a confrontation with Ryker, Joe tells him that trappers and Indian traders “tamed” the country long before Ryker did. In this short dialogue, what is Joe implying? What cultural ideas about cultivating the shine through in Joe’s dialogue? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">g. Belgrad suggests that the co-existence of private land and public land led to insurmountable tensions. Are these the terms in which Shane depicts the conflict at the heart of the film? What are the central tensions in the film’s retelling of the Johnson County War history? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">i. How did the government aid in the building of the railroads? Why were the railroads so important to expansion of the west? How did the Homestead Act of 1862 and the Pacific Railway act work together to create growth in the West? What were some of the issues faced by the railroad companies as they built the railroads?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">*The American West, Hine and Faragher, pp. 245-47, 286-87
==<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Lissa Wadewitz, “[|Pirates of the Salish Sea: Labor, Mobility, and Environment in the Transnational West],” Pacific Historical Review 75.4 (2006) == <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Dorothy Fujita-Rony, “[|Water and Land: Asian Americans and the U.S. West,]” Pacific Historical Review 76.4 (2007) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* “The Wasp” article: “[|The Chinese Must Go]” <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* The Workingmen's Party, “[|An][|Address From the Workingmen of San Francisco to Their Brothers Throughout the Pacific Coas]t" (Focus especially on pp. 1-2 ; 8-10; 17-24) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Dennis Kearney, [|Appeal from California: The Chinese Invasion], Indianapolis Times, 28 February 1878.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Study Questions:

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a. How does Fujita-Rony propose to rethink how we look at the American West? And how does her argument compare to that of Lissa Wadewitz's article? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">b. The Wasp was a San Francisco satirical magazine that became known for its cartoons -- including a score, which stereotype immigrants. Besides their anti-immigration message, what do these cartoons try to convey about Chinese immigrants? What are some recurring visual elements that strike you? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">c. The cartoon "The Chinese Must Go: But Who Keeps Them?" poses a provocative question. What, according to the visuals, is the intended answer to this question? What does the donkey in the middle of the cartoon signify? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">d. Look up some information on Dennis Kearney and the Workingmen's Party. What rhetorical moves does Kearney make in his "Appeal" in order to legitimate his anti-Chinese message? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">e. In the Address from the Working Men How is the tariff linked to the labor force and how are labor, the tariff and "the trusts" linked to Chinese immigration? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">f. What role did the Chinese play in the development of the railroads? Why were they so valuable in this project? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Week 15: The Mythic West

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Topic 1: The Wild West and the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Readings: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* The American West, Hine and Faragher, Read Chapter 15. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Louis Warren, “[|Cody’s Last Stand: Masculine Anxiety, the Custer Myth, and the Frontier of Domesticity in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West],” Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. XXXIV, No.1 (Spring 2003) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Ned Buntline, [|Buffalo Bill and His Adventures in the West] (1886). Read pp. 1-43. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Photographs: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|Buffalo Bill posing with Nez Perce Chief Joseph] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|Buffalo Bill and his Company]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Study Questions: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a. What are the similarities and differences in the story of America and western expansion as told by Frederick Jackson Turner, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Ned Buntline? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">b. What is the significance of Custer’s Last Stand for Cody according to Richard White? How does Warren interpret this event and its meaning in the Wild West Show? How does violence lend itself to story telling for Cody and for Buntline? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">c. How did newspapers of the East and novels shape Americans view of the West? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">d. Why was the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show and other “Wild West” shows so popular with Americans? How has this view of the west shaped American today and our view in the world?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Readings:
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Phil Deloria, "Representation," in Indians in Unexpected Places (2004) (Ctools/Coursepack) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Watch: John Ford's Fort Apache (1948)

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Early films: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|Buffalo Dance] from the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show by Thomas Edison (1894) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|Wild West Show Parade] by Thomas Edison (1902) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|Annie Oakley] from the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show by Thomas Edison (1894) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|The Great Train Robbery] by Edwin S. Porter (1903) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|White Fawn's Devotion] by James Young Deer (1910)

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Study Questions: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a. Consider Thomas Edison's films and Edwin S. Porter's "The Great Train Robbery" in relation to Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. Is the early western simply a continuation of the Wild West Shows, or is it a new art form? What are the similarities and difference in terms of their production, content, and audiences? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">b."White Fawn's Devotion" is directed by James Young Deer, the first Native American film director. Phil Deloria writes that "Young Deer's Pathe films rejected squaw man story lines--even while remaining cognizant that these narratives structured the cultural expectations of audiences" (96). Can you support this statement, using "White Fawn's Devotion" as an example? To what extent does it reject traditional Indian captivity stories, and to what extent does it uphold them? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">c. How are these films, like the Wild West Show, a form of American self-representation? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">d. What does Deloria mean when he suggests that actors in westerns are preforming Indianness? What does this say about the relationship between Indian peoples and modernity? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">e. What do these films say about idea of Indian assimilation? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">f. Deloria argues that Cowboy and Indian films offer a collection of messages. What are the messages offered to the viewer in the Film Fort Apache?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">g. What do you make of the conclusion of Fort Apache? What is John Ford's message? What is he saying about the relationship between myth and history, legend and truth? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Week 16: The West and Environmental History

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Readings:
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* PBS [|Timeline] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Henry David Thoreau, "Walking" in [|Excursions] (1863). Read pp. 185-199. (LOC) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* John Muir, [|Our National Parks]. Read pp. 1-36.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> * [|John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt in Yosemite], "The National Parks: America’s Best Idea" (PBS). <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Theodore Roosevelt, [|Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter] (1908). Read pp. 315-317.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> * Theodore Roosevelt and George Bird Grinnell, [|Hunting in Many Lands]: The Book of the Book of the Boone and Crockett Club (1895). Read pp. 439-441, 403-423 and 433-438.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Video: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Ken Burn’s The National Parks, Various Sections for viewing in class.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Study Questions: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Before completing the readings, look over the timeline. How would you describe the creation of the national parks? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a. Carefully consider how the material this week is interconnected. For instance, note that Theodore Roosevelt was President of the Boone and Crockett Club in 1895 when he coauthored Hunting in Many Lands with George Bird Grinnell. Roosevelt also helped found and name the club in 1887. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">-- Can you identify the influence of Thoreau in the writings and ideas of John Muir or Theodore Roosevelt? If so, be specific in forming an answer. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">--Where are the Indians in Muir's wilderness? How would contrast Muir's wilderness with Turners? How would you contrast Muir's idea of wilderness with Joe Start and his ideas of land use in the movie Shane? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">--What did Muir mean when he described eastern Americans as over civilized? And how did he relate this concept to the National Parks and National Forests? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">b. Consider how these readings revisit themes discussed in previous classes. Does Muir, Roosevelt, present the ideas and Thoreau connected to earlier discussions? How do you think each man would define the West? How is the concept of the West we have discussed throughout the course connected to the creation of the National Park System? What do these men value and what do they wish to preserve? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">c. Why according to Karl Jakoby, should we not treat nature or wilderness as self-evident categories? What does he mean when he describes the cultural construction of nature? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">d. Why did Roosevelt work so hard to establish national parks? How is our system of parks unique in the world? What unique features are present in the western national parks that are not found anywhere else in the world?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Topic 2: Depression and the Dust Bowl
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Readings: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* William Cronon, “[|A Place for Stories: Nature, History, and Narrative],” The Journal of American History 78.4 (1992) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Read the [|Migrant experience]. Make sure to click on the scrapbook link and the links for the Charles L. Todd articles. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Read Dorothea Lange's [|Migrant Mother photos] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Go to [|Voices from the Dust Bowl] in American Memory and search (by Keywords) for the following audio interviews: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Study Questions: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* "Interview about FSA camp governance, camp work, non-FSA migrant camps, labor issues, attitude toward Okies" (do a keyword search for "FSA camp governance") <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* "Interview about the Mexican family, discrimination against Mexicans, and life in the FSA camp" (do a keyword search for "Mexican Family") <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* "Interview about lemon picking, FSA camp" (do a keyword search for "lemon picking") <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Read through the FSA camp newsletter [|The Hub for July 1940] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Selected readings from [|Voices from the Dust Bowl] in American Memory <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Video: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, 1940 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Study Questions: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a. Describe the narrative arc of the John Ford movie The Grapes of Wrath. What story is Ford trying to tell? Give specific examples. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">b. How is this related to the stories you find in the primary source texts assigned for this class? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">c. Cronin argues that narrative story telling imposes an artificial structure onto past events and this structure, in turn, shapes the meaning of the story. Do you agree or disagree? How does plot and character choice shape Ford's interpretation of the Great Depression? What is the framing device used by Ford to shape the meaning of his film --(how does he begin and set up the film and how does end it and conclude his story)? How does this contrast and compare with Dorthea Lange's migrant mother photos, the FSA interviews, and the reporting of Charles Todd? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">d. Discuss the significance of narrative or plot line in telling this history of the Dust Bowl and Great Depression.

=<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Week 17: World War II =

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Topic 1: Militarization and the War Industry
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Readings: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">*The American West, Hine and Faragher, Chapter 14. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Robert Carriker, [|Ten Dollars a Song]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Study Questions: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> a. How did electrification come to signify progress? How was this representation of progress related to other earlier narratives about the relationship between American expansion and the settlement and civilization of North American wilderness? Does the idea of bringing civilization to the wilderness in the film Columbia strike you as comparable to Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis or not? How do the ideas expressed in the film compare with Thomas Jefferson's idea of American expansion? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">b. With rural electrification in the Columbia River Valley the federal government is the agent of change and promoter of progress. How is this different or similar to other historical moments of America's western expansion in places like Texas, Kansas/Missouri, or California? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">c. What does Gold mean when he describes Guthrie’s songs as technological utopianism? How would you relate this to the writing of Frederick Jackson Turner? How would you compare Guthrie’s understanding of the relationship between humanity and nature with the ideas of John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt on the same subject? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">d. What factors led to the massive wartime industrial development of the West? What resources were available in the West that helped fuel economic development? How did the WWII industrial development impact post-war western growth?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Topic 2: Internment
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Readings: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Watch the Office of War information film on [|Japanese Relocation] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Ansel Adams, [|Born Free and Equal], read pages 1 through 55 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|Civilian Exclusion Order Number 5] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|Executive Order 9066] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|Hirabayashi v. United States] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|Yasui v. United States] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* [|Korematsu v. United States]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Study Questions:

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a. How does the office of war information film utilize the themes, ideas, images, and iconography of America's western expansion to tell the story of Japanese internment? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">b. How does the text by Ansel Adams address the following questions -- was internment of the Japanese necessary? Was it just, and did it live up to the ideals represented by the constitution of the United States?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">c. How does the Adams text use images and words by administration officials to explain internment? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">d. What are the rationales offered by the Supreme Court for the exclusion act and the internment of the Japanese occupants of Military area number 1 in the Hirabayashi case? Do you agree with the courts assessment that internment did not constitute a denial of the 5th amendment right to due process? What do you make of the concurring opinion written by Justice Murphy? What does he have to say about assimilation, racial difference, and the idea of liberty afforded to American citizens by the constitution? Does Murphy's concurrence read like a dissent, and if so how does he reconcile his reasoning with the majority opinion? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">e. In the Korematsu ruling Chief Justice Black denies that relocation occurred because of racial prejudice, but rather because of issues of national security. How does Black's argument compare with the dissent offered by Justice Murphy? What argument against relocation and internment is advanced by Murphy, and what are the points of disagreement with Black?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Week 18: The Modern West

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Topic 1: “Go West Young Man” <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Readings: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* The American West, Hine and Forager, Chapter 16 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Rick Tejada-Flores, [|The Fight in the Fields]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Study Questions:

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a. What has been the impact of the large migration of “Okies” on the economy of the West? What new immigrant groups have moved to the West and what has been the economic and cultural impact on the area? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">b. What was the cultural and political impact of Okie migration in California? What are the ideological dimensions of Okie cultural production? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">d. How would you compare the experience of Japanese or Chinese immigrants in the West to the “okies?” <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">e. How have economic outcomes for Okie immigrants compared to the economic outcomes of Latino and Asian immigrants in the mid to late 20th century?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Topic 2: The Urban West
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Readings: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Richard Nixon, [|Philosophy of Government], radio address 1972 <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Robert Self, "To Plan our Liberation: Black Power and the Politics of Place in Oakland California, 1965-1977," in The Journal of Urban History, September 2000 26/6 759-792. (On Ctools) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* Daniel Martinez HoSang, "[|Racial Liberalism and the Rise of the Sunbelt West: The Defeat of Fair Housing on the 1964 California Ballot]," in Sunbelt Rising: The Politics of Place, Space, and Region

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Study Questions:

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a. According to Robert Self what is metropolitanism and how was it challenged by the Black Panther party? How is this concept linked to what Self calls "the urban crisis? What is the relationship between the city, the suburbs, and black radicalism in Oakland California? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">b. What did the Black Panther mean when they called for the creation of a "peoples economy" and how was this different from the New Deals liberal economic policies? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">c. How was black power defined and understood by the different constituencies in Oakland? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">d. Can you interpret Richard Nixon's speech on the philosophy of government as a reaction against movements like the black power movement in Oakland? What was Nixon's philosophy and how would you contrast it with the idea of a people’s economy advanced by the Black Panther Party? Who does Nixon refer to when he mentions "the silent Majority"?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Topic 3: The suburban West/Emergence of the Sun Belt in national politics
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Readings: