History 3394– America Since 1945

M, W 2:30–3:45

AH 201

Buzzanco

buzz@uh.edu

 

 

Books:

 

Pearson Package, includes Reelin’ in the Years, Beat Down to Your Soul, and Four Hours in My Lai.

Walter LaFeber, Inevitable Revolutions

Bruce Schulman, The Seventies

 

 

Grading:

 

There will be two tests in this class–one in the middle of the semester and a final exam at the end, on December 14th, 2-5 p.m.,  and also a paper on a topic that I will give you in a few weeks.  If you miss either of the exams, you MUST have a valid excuse that is documented and then I will give you a makeup at my discretion–point being: be there on the exam date!

 

Email List:

I’m not using WebCt for this class, but instead will just have a yahoo listserve that I expect you to subscribe to–all you have to do is send an email to  ussince45-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and then you will get a message and you just have to reply to that one.  I’ll use the list to post information on the class, to post articles relevant to subjects studied or current historical issues, and especially to have virtual discussions about the topic we cover.

 

Deadlines and important dates:

Dates for drops, applying for graduation, etc, can be found at  http://www.uh.edu/academics/catalog/general/Cal_event_f05s06.html

 
If you want to drop the class, that’s your responsibility.  To drop, get a drop form and bring it to me to sign.  It’s not my responsibility to drop the class for you.  If you want to drop, check the deadlines and meet them.  Don’t come to me at the end of the semester and ask me to drop the class for you.  Also, don’t ask me for an “incomplete” unless you have serious mitigating circumstances–incompletes are allowed only for “emergency” situations and not simply because you’ve fallen behind in class or aren’t doing well.  If you sense that you’re not going to perform at the level you want to and do not want to complete the class, withdraw from it rather than asking me for an incomplete. 

 

Topics and Readings:

 

1.   The US and the World in 1945

    Reelin', chapter  1


2.  National Security and the Military-Industrial Complex

    John Bellamy Foster, "The Rediscovery of Imperialism"  
    Gert Krell, "Capitalism and Armaments"    
    John Gallagher and Ronald Robinson, "The Imperialism of Free Trade"  
    Benjamin Fordham,  "Domestic Politics, International Pressure, and Policy Change: The Case of NSC-68" 
    Michael T. Hayes, "The Republican Road Not Taken: The Foreign-Policy Vision of Robert A. Taft"      

3.  “Domestic Containment”
     Reelin', chapter 2

 

4.  The US Attack on the 3d World

     Reelin', chapter 3
     Begin LaFeber, Inevitable Revolutions
     Walt Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growth (ch. 2)
     Walt Rostow, "The Stages of Economic Growth (1959 article)

 

5.  From June Cleaver to the Beats
    Reelin', chapter 4
    Begin Beat Down to Your Soul

 

6.  Heyday of the Liberals

     Continue Inevitable Revolutions and Beat Down to Your Soul

 

7.  Why Viet Nam?
    Reelin' chapter 7

    Buzzanco, "The Vietnam War"     
    Sim and Bilton,  Four Hours in My Lai

 

8.  Civil Rights
    Reelin', chapter 6

 

9.  Movements and (Counter)Culture
    Reelin',  chapters 5 and 8

 

10.  From Nixon to the 1970s

       Reelin', chapter 9
       Schulman, The Seventies

 

11.  Ronald Reagan’s World and the “New” Cold War
    Reelin', chapter 10
    William Hartung and Michelle Ciarrocca, "The Military-Industrial Think Tank Complex . . ."   
    Frida Berrigan and William Hartung, "US Arms Transfers and Security Assistance to Israel" 
    Michelle Ciarrocca, "Too Much is Never Enough: Bush's Military Spending Spree" 

  12.  Globalization and its Discontents   

    IMF, "Globalization: Threat or Opportunity," http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/ib/2000/041200.htm#I
    Immanuel Wallerstein, "New Revolts Against the System"
    Immanuel Wallerstein, "The World System after the Cold War"
    Dependency Theory: An Introduction, http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/depend.htm
    Giovanni Arrighi,  Globalization, State Sovereignty, and the 'Endless' Accumulation of Capital"
    Amartya Sen, "How to Judge Globalism," http://www.prospect.org/print/V13/1/sen-a.html
    Mark Weisbrot, "The Mirage of Progress," http://www.prospect.org/print/V13/1/weisbrot-m.html
    Thomas Friedman on Globalization
 

13.  US and the Middle East
    Reelin', chapter 11
    Arno Mayer, "Beyond the Drumbeat: Iraq, Preventive War, 'Old Europe'"
    Basic Statistics for U.S. Imperialism    
   

 

14.  9/11 and its Aftermath
    Reelin', chapter 12
    9/11 Commission Report, Executive Summary   (complete report)    

 

15.  The Commodification of Everything
    Tom Frank, excerprt from The Conquest of Cool   
    Buzzanco, "Fear and (Self) Loathing in Lubbock"    

 
Final Exam, Wednesday, December 14th, 2-5