Course Description:

In this course we shall study American society and culture during the years from the Panic of 1929 to the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941.  We shall examine the causes of the Great Depression and its impact upon the lives of people in the Thirties.  We shall look at the policies undertaken by the federal government and intended to alleviate economic hardship and put the country back to work–and the criticisms of these policies by conservatives and radicals as well as their counterproposals for dealing with the nation's problems.  We shall look at the movies, drama, architecture, music, painting, and photography of the Thirties and analyze the ways in which they represent the mood and experiences of the decade.  Finally, we shall consider the reasons for the ending of the Depression and the return to prosperity in the early 1940s.  In studying these aspects of the Thirties, we shall rely upon written historical accounts, web sites, autobiographies, fiction, and visual materials.

Course Objectives:

You should be able to demonstrate in your on-line comments and questions, your papers, and your final examination answers:

• Familiarity with the historical trends of the Thirties presented in on-line discussions and in class readings.
• Awareness of the fact that race, class, and gender affected the ways in which individuals and groups were impacted by the Depression.
• Ability to subject primary source material (fiction, photographs, radio shows, paintings, oral histories, etc.) to critical interpretation, to use such material as evidence of the attitudes, assumptions, and values of the era.
• Ability to read secondary source material (historical essays and website material) critically; to gain practice in historical and cultural analysis, interpretation, and evaluation.

Course Goals:

By the end of the semester, you should come to realize that the Thirties was more than a series of "important" political events.  You should become more aware of the interconnections among the political, social, cultural, and economic trends of the decade; thus, you should become more proficient in viewing a period of the American past from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Course Expectations:

This course is based primarily upon on-line discussions.  You are expected to participate fully in the weekly discussions.  Because this course depends heavily upon your involvement,  class participation is assigned a separate grade for the course.

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Required Texts:

T.H. Watkins, The Great Depression:  America in the 1930s

Illustrated with over one hundred photographs, this companion volume to the 1993 PBS series on the Great Depression is a readable and comprehensive account of the political, social, and economic trends and events of the decade.

Clifford Odets, Waiting for Lefty and Other Plays

Perhaps the best-known and most significant American playwright of the 1930s, Odets' social realist dramas, including Waiting for Lefty, Awake and Sing, and Golden Boy, were popular on the Broadway stage and in union halls alike, and his body of work remains a lasting contribution to the American theater.

Richard Wright, Uncle Tom's Children

This collection of four novellas and one short story is set in the Deep South.  These pieces deal with the lives of African-American people in the Thirties and explore their resistance to white racism and oppression.

Selected Articles

Several scholarly articles have been scanned and posted on the course website.  These articles are intended to supplement the picture of the Thirties presented in the assigned course books.  You will need to download Adobe Acrobot Reader in order to access these materials.  This program is free and can be downloaded from the Adobe website.

Websites on the Thirties

There are a number of excellent websites dealing with various aspects of the Thirties, from oral histories to photographic collections to archives of radical materials to radio programs.  We shall be visiting many of these sites.

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Grading:

Three Short essays:           45%  (15% each)
Class participation:            35%
Final examination:              20%

Grading Policies:

Short Essays:  For the first short (4- to 5-page) essay, you will analyze several of Richard Wright's stories in Uncle Tom's Children as documents of the Southern rural African-American experience during the Depression;  for the second paper, you examine some of Farm Security Administration photographs as documents of the Depression experience;  for the third assignment, you will write about Clifford Odets' plays.

On-line Participation: As a participant in this course, you are expected to take part in each week's discussion.  You are also expected to complete the readings assigned for each discussion so that you can participate intelligently.   Participation will be graded based upon the following criteria:
• Answers all assignment questions posted by instructor
• Posts messages on at least two of the discussion days
• READS all messages posted by other students and responds directly to some of these messages
• Posts comments which are thoughtful and demonstrate the ability to apply information and ideas from the readings and other course material to the questions and issues being discussed.
 

Final Examination: The final will be an essay exam which will required that you reflect over the issues and themes of the courses.

Extra Credit: Completing all course requirements with distinction will keep you occupied for the semester.  I do not give extra credit assignments.

How to Reach Me:

I can be reached by e-mail and by telephone, at 401-421-0639.  (Please phone only between the hours of nine a.m. and nine p.m.).  I am also willing to meet you on campus.

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