Instructor: Janet Valentine
Office Hours: 8/2647; MW 3-4:15; Thursday 2:30-4:15 & By Appt.
Phone: 620-2886 (History Dept); 215-0312 (home, between 8 AM and 8 PM)
E-mail: jvalenti@unf.edu
Course Description The 1950s is still popularly perceived as
politically stable, economically prosperous, intellectually placid and
sexually chaste. It was a languid, happy, suburbanite decade. But was it
really so bland? In reality, anxieties and dissatisfactions percolated
just beneath the calm exterior of American society. This course will examine
these cultural and intellectual undercurrents and their outward manifestations
in the contest of everyday social and political events.
Required Texts
Arthur M. Schlesinger, The Vital Center: The Politics of Freedom.
Either Addison Terry, The Battle for Pusan: A Korean War Memoir or William D. Dannenmaier,We Were Innocents: An Infantryman in Korea.
Wini Breines, Young, White and Miserable: Growing Up Female in the Fifties.
Philip Jenkins, The Cold War at Home: The Red Scare in Pennsylvania.
Pete Daniel, Lost Revolutions: The South in the 1950s.
Alison J. Clarke, Tupperware: The Promise of Plastic in 1950s America.
Films
There will be screenings of two films for a written review - Rebel Without a Cause (Tuesday, October 30, 6:30 PM) and Gidget (Tuesday, November 13, 6:30 PM). Room locations will be announced after August 31. Attendance is required unless your absence is excused in advance, in which case students will be responsible for viewing these films on their own.
I. Attendance and Participation Regular attendance and
active participation are expected. Attendance will be recorded at each
class meeting. Poor attendance and failure to participate in class discussion
adversely affect your grade.
II. Classroom Civility Students are expected to treat each member of the class with respect. Tardiness and leaving class early are not acceptable classroom behaviors. If you find that this is unavoidable please sit near the door, and enter or exit as quietly as possible. I will do my best to see that class begins and ends on schedule. Cell phones should be turned off.
III. Grading There will be two exams, two 2-3 page book reviews and a 6-8 page comparative film review. Each student will also be assigned responsibility for preparing a discussion question/topic for one of the books. The plus-minus system will be used.
Exam I 150 points (15% of total grade)
Final 250 points (25%)
Book Review I 150 points (15%)
Book review II 150 points (15%)
Film Review 250 points (25%)
Questions/
Participation 50 points (5%)
Total 1000 pts.
Plagiarism or cheating in any form will result in a grade of F.
A. Exams will include identification and essay questions. On the mid-term each section will count for 50% of the exam grade. On your final exam the essay portion will comprise 75% of your grade, and you will be required to answer two essay questions. Material for each exam will be gleaned from both lecture and reading material. Students will also be responsible for information presented in films or by guest lecturers. There will be no make-up exams unless the absence is cleared with me IN ADVANCE.
Exam I October 4
Final December 13, 11-12:50
B. The film review will be a 6-8 page, typed (10 or 12 point font), double-spaced critical comparison of the conflicting perceptions of gender and young people as portrayed in Rebel Without a Cause andGidget. We will discuss the elements of a good film review as the due date draws near. No late papers accepted.
Each student will review The Cold War at Home and Lost Revolutions.
As you read the books take notes, recording the author's thesis and particularly
important supporting evidence, as well as any questions or criticisms.
We will discuss the elements of a good book review as the due date draws
near. Your paper should be 2-3 pages, typed (10 or 12 point font) and double
spaced. No late papers accepted.
Book Review I October 11
Book Review II November 15
Film Review November 29
IV. Course Calendar
AUGUST
27 Greetings!
29 Victory Culture
SEPTEMBER
Week of 4-6: Consensus. Read Schlesinger for 6th.
Week of 11-13: Truman and Containment
Week of 18-20: Korean War: Causes & Early Days
Week of 25-27: Korean War: Final States. Read Terry or Dannenmaier
for 27th.
OCTOBER
2 Korean War & American Society
4 Exam
Week of 9-11: Anti-Communism & loyalty issues. Read Jenkins.
Review due Thursday, October 11.
Week of 16-18: Gender & the Family
Week of 23-25: Popular culture, mass culture & the development
of a youth culture
30 Read Breines
NOVEMBER
1 Domestic Politics
Week of 6-8: Economic Prosperity. Read Clarke for 8th
Week of 13-15: Civil Rights. Read Daniel. Review due, Thursday,
November 15.
20 and Week of 27-29: Eisenhower, Foreign Policy & Vietnam. Film
review due, Thursday, November 29.
DECEMBER
Week of 4-6: From Consensus(?) to Division
13 Final Exam, 11-12:50