Stanford University HISTORY 250: The United States from the Great Crash to Pearl Harbor - Syllabus Winter 2003

Professor Sean L. Malloy Time: Thursday, 2:15-4:05 Room: Bldg. 160, rm. 318 Office: History 317 (bldg. 200) Office Hours: Wednesday 2-4 and by appt. Office Phone: 723-4953 Email: seanm@stanford.edu Course Web Site: www.stanford.edu/class/history250/ Course Description This colloquium explores one of the most dramatic decades in the history of the United States. The 1930s were a time of tremendous upheaval as Americans struggled to come to terms with the economic catastrophe of the Great Depression, the ensuing political turmoil, and the rising threat of war in Europe and Asia. The American people often responded in strikingly divergent ways to these multiple challenges. While the 1930s are traditionally portrayed as the decade of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, they were also the decade of California socialist Upton Sinclair, union stalwarts John L. Lewis and Harry Bridges, arch-isolationist Charles Lindbergh, and the anti-New Deal millionaires of the Liberty League. As these larger-then-life figures jostled for position on the national stage, millions of ordinary Americans struggled to find work or put food on the table. In this course we will examine the multiple responses of the American people and their leaders to the crises of the 1930s. The emphasis of the class will be primarily on domestic developments and the political culture of the 1930s, though we will spend the penultimate week on foreign policy and the debate over American intervention in World War II. Students will read a wide variety of primary documents and discuss them with an eye toward developing a better understanding of the way Americans thought and argued about the pressing issues of the day. We will also consider how the controversies of the 1930s helped to shape modern America and continue to linger in contemporary life. As indicated by the title of this course, we will be dealing with the “long 1930s,” going backward to the 1920s to examine the origins of the Great Depression and forward to 1941 to follow the debate over American participation in World War II. Course Materials Texts: Required: Robert S. McElvaine, The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941. Justus D. Doenecke and John E. Wilz, From Isolation to War, 1931-1941. 3rd ed. Course Reader Optional: Lizabeth Cohen, Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939. Note: I have assigned 118 pages from the Liz Cohen book for week seven. If you wish, you may buy the book at the Bookstore. If you do not want to purchase the book, there are several copies on reserve in Green library. The course reader and all other required books are also available on two-hour reserve at Green library. Audio: Audio segments listed in the syllabus are available for listening in the Course Materials section of the class CourseWork website. Course Requirements and Grading The reading and writing requirements for this course are demanding. Students are expected to complete all the reading. On one occasion you will be required to pair with another student in the course to present approximately 10 min. of oral comments at the start of a class session. Your comments should touch on the major themes of the readings for that day and offer your own thoughts and analysis. On the day of your presentations, you must also submit a 3-5 page essay. This essay should take the form of an editorial or opinion piece written from the perspective of a contemporary observer and using the primary sources assigned for that week as the basis for your discussion. Students who are not presenting are expected to post a 1-2 paragraph reading reflection on the course discussion list by 10 A.M. on the day of class. The major written requirement of the course is the completion of a 12-15 page essay. Your essay may be one of two types. One option is to select a particular historical moment or event from the “long 1930s” and use primary sources to explore the public debate over that issue. You might, for example, use contemporary newspaper and magazine coverage to examine the response to the stock market crash of 1929, the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, the 1936 gubernatorial campaign of Upton Sinclair in California, or the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. These papers must be analytical; you will be expected to consult some current scholarly literature on your subject in addition to using primary sources and you should be prepared to offer original historical interpretations. The other option is to pick a broad theme or issue from the 1930s and, after consulting a wide body of scholarly literature, offer your own interpretation. Possible topics include questions such as: why was there no revolution in the United States during the Great Depression? Was Franklin Roosevelt an isolationist or an internationalist prior to 1939? Why did so many African-Americans support Roosevelt? Was the New Deal a “third American revolution” or a “half-way revolution?” Why did the United States go to war in December 1941 rather than sometime in 1939-1940? I will provide a bibliography that will help you to begin to locate books on these and many other topics. By week five of the course (February 6), you must submit a 1-2 page proposal that includes a summary of your topic and research questions as well as a preliminary bibliography. Students are encouraged to see me in office hours if they have any questions about picking a topic or locating sources. Grading Breakdown: Course participation: 30% Five-page reading reflection paper: 10% Research paper: 60% Course Schedule Week 1 (January 9): Course Overview Week 2 (January 16): American Life in the “New Era” Reading: [ 176 pp.] Books: McElvaine, 3-71 [68 pp.] Reader: [108 pp.] Robert S. Lynd, Middletown: A Study in Contemporary American Culture. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1929, 53-89, 251-271, 413-434. [79] Herbert Hoover, Campaign Address at Madison Square Garden, October 22, 1928, The New Day: Campaign Speeches of Herbert Hoover. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1928, 149-178. [29] Audio: Warren G. Harding on “Normalcy,” 1920 [00:29] Calvin Coolidge, “The Duty of Government,” 1920 [1:27] Week 3 (January 23): The Great Depression in the United States Reading: [75 pp.] Books: McElvaine, 72-94 [22 pp.] Reader: [53 pp.] "Let's Go!" editorial, Business Week, November 2, 1929, 52. [1] "A Note on the Servant Problem," Fortune, December 1932, 49. [1] Elmer Davis, "Miniature Golf to the Rescue," Harper's Magazine, December 1930, 4-14. [11] "The Editor's Forward," The Forum, January 1932, 1. [1] "Henry Ford on Self-Help," advertisement, The Literary Digest, June 18, 1932. [1] "It's Hard for A Hungry Citizen to be a Good Citizen," advertisement, Fortune, November 1932, 127. [1] Charles L. Walker, "Relief and Revolution," in two parts, The Forum, August 1932, 73-78 and September 1932, 152-158 [13] Lorena Hickok Reports on the Great Depression in Robert Lowitt and Maurine Beasley, eds., One Third of a Nation (Urbana, IL, 1981), 26-28, 35-44. [14] Testimony of Oscar Ameringer in Unemployment in the United States: Hearing Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Labor. . . (Washington D.C., 1932) [8] John Dos Passos, "The Veterans Come Home to Roost," The New Republic, June 29, 1932, 177-178. [2] Audio: Herbert Hoover, "Radio Address to the Nation on Unemployment Relief," October 18, 1931. [9:54] Week 4: The Campaign of 1932 and Roosevelt's First 100 Days Reading: [140 pp.] Books: [74 pp] McElvaine, 95-169 [74] Reader: [66 pp.] The Campaign of 1932: Franklin D. Roosevelt, The "Forgotten Man" Speech, April 7, 1932, The Public Papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 624-627 [4] Franklin D. Roosevelt, Commonwealth Club Address, September 23, 1932, The Public Papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 742-757. [14] Herbert Hoover, "Address at the Coliseum in Des Moines, Iowa, October 4, 1932, The Public Papers of the Presidents, Herbert Hoover, 1932, Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1977, 459-463, 471-474, 485-486. [11] The First 100 Days: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933, The Public Papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 11-16. [6] A. A. Berle Jr., "The Social Economics of the New Deal," The New York Times Magazine, October 29, 1933, 4-9, 19. [3] The National Industrial Recovery Act [excerpt], June 16, 1933. [5] Henry Wallace, "The Rules of the Game," Survey Graphic, July 1934, 317-321. [5] Audio: Herbert Hoover, campaign address, 1932. [1:52] Fraklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933. [1:15] Bill Cox, "NRA Blues," August 30, 1933. [2:50] Wayne "Gene" Dinwiddie, "Home in the Government Camp." [1:22] Week 5: Voices of Protest Reading: [88 pp.] Books: McElvaine, 224-249 [25 pp.] Reader: [63 pp.] "Smilin' Through," cartoon, New Masses, May 1, 1934. [1] Father Charles E. Coughlin, "The National Union for Social Justice," radio address of November 11, 1934, Coughlin, A Series of Lectures on Social Justice (Royal Oak, Michigan, 1935), 7-19. [13] Huey Long, "Every Man a King," in The Congressional Record, March 1, 1934, 3450-3453. [4] Upton Sinclair, I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked (Pasadena, CA, 1935), 3-18, Appendix I-VIII. [24] Randolph M. Shaw, "The New Deal: Its Unsound Theories and Irreconcilable Policies," address before the Georgia Bar Association, May 31, 1935, America Liberty League pamphlet, 3-14, 22-30. [21] Audio: Huey Long, "Barbeque" speech, December 11, 1934. [1:10] Father Charles E. Coughlin, radio broadcast, November 1935. [3:44] Week 6: The New Deal at High Tide Reading: [91 pp.] Books: McElvaine, 196-223; 250-286 [63] Reader: [28 pp.] Social Security: A Case Study: Franklin D. Roosevelt, "A Message to Congress Reviewing the Broad Objectives and Accomplishments of the Administration," June 8, 1934, The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt: the Advance of Reform and Recovery, 1934. New York: Random House, 1938, 287-293 [7] Francis Perkins, "Social Insurance for U.S.," national radio address delivered on February 25, 1935, Social Security Online, (http://www.ssa.gov/history/perkinsradio.html). [4] Alfred M. Landon, "I Will Not Promise the Moon," September 26, 1936, Vital Speeches of the Day, October 15, 1936, 26-29. [3] Abraham Epstein, "'Social Security' Under the New Deal," The Nation, September 4, 1935, 261. [3] Steve Forbes, "How to Replace Social Security," The Wall Street Journal, December 18, 1996. [1] "'Saving' Social Security by Destroying It?," U. E. News, July 1998. [4] A Second New Deal? Franklin D. Roosevelt, Second Inaugural Address, January 20, 1937, The Public Papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1-6. [6] Audio: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Campaign Address at Madison Square Garden, October 31, 1936. [14:42] Week 7: The American Labor Movement in the 1930s Reading: [144 pp.] Books: [136 pp.] McElvaine, 287-305 [18] Cohen, 251-368, [118]. Reader: [9] John L. Lewis, "The Future of Labor," Vital Speeches of the Day, October 15, 1936, 22-23. [2] Paul S. Taylor and Norman Leon Gold, "San Francisco and the General Strike," Survey Graphic, September 1934, 405-411 [7] Week 8: "Waitin' on Roosevelt?" African-Americans in the 1930s Reading: [62 pp.] Books: McElvaine, 187-195 [9 pp.] Reader: [53 pp] Ricard Wright, "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch," (1937) Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Nellie Y. McKay, eds., The Norton Anthology of African-American Literature, 1388-1396. [9] Richard Wright, "Joe Louis Uncovers Dynamite," New Masses, October 8, 1935, 18-19. [2] James H. Robinson, "A Pilgrimage with Mr. Jim Crow," The Crisis, March 1936, 23-24. [2] Hilton Butler, "Lynch Law in Action," The New Republic, July 22, 1931, 256-258. [3] Jesse O. Thomas, "Will the New Deal be a Square Deal for the Negro?" Opportunity, Journal of Negro Life, October 1933, 308-311. [4] Langston Hughes, "Ballad of Roosevelt," The New Republic, November 14, 1934. [1] Bonita Golda Harrison, "Social Security: What Does it Mean for the Negro?" Opportunity, Journal of Negro Life, June 1936, 171-173, 189. [3] Robert C. Weaver, "The New Deal and the Negro: A Look at the Facts," Opportunity, Journal of Negro Life, July 1935, 200-202. [3] Eleanor Roosevelt, "The Negro and Social Change," Opportunity, Journal of Negro Life, January 1936, 22-23. [2] Harold L. Ickes, "The Negro as Citizen," The Crisis, August 1936, 230-231, 242, 253. [4] Harvard Sitkoff, "The New Deal and Race Relations," Harvard Sitkoff, ed., Fifty Years Later: The New Deal Evaluated (Philadelphia, 1985), 93-113 [20] Audio: Jesse Owens on the 1936 Olympics. [2:02] Week 9: From Isolation to Intervention: American Foreign Policy, 1929-1941 Reading: [223 pp.] Books: Doenecke and Wilz, 1-17, 47-187. [158 pp.] Reader: [65 pp.] The Neutrality Period Charles Beard, The Devil Theory of War (New York, 1936), 107-124. [18] The Neutrality Act of 1937, The United States Statutes At Large, 1937, vol. 50, part I, 121-128. [8] The Great Debate, 1940-1941 Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Four Freedoms" speech, January 6, 1941, The Public Papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 663-673. [10] Address by Charles A. Lindbergh, April 23, 1941, America First Committee pamphlet. [12] Franklin D. Roosevelt, Fireside Chat on National Defense, September 11, 1941, The Public Papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 384-89. [9] Audio: Franklin Roosevelt, fireside chat on the war in Europe, September 3, 1939. [4:05] Charles Lindbergh, address on American neutrality, September 11, 1941. [9:15] Franklin Roosevelt, request for a declaration of war, December 8, 1941. [7:44] Week 10: The Legacy of the 1930s Reading: [72 pp.] Reader: [72 pp.] Carl Degler, "The Third American Revolution," Out of Our Past: The Forces That Shaped America (New York, 1959), 384-416. [33] Barton Bernstein, "The New Deal: The Conservative Achievements of Liberal Reform," Bernstein and Allen J. Matusow, eds., Twentieth-Century America: Recent Interpretations, 2nd ed. (New York, 1972), 242-264. [22] David M. Kennedy, "What the New Deal Did," Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 (New York, 1999), 363-380. [17] Audio: Franklin Roosevelt, Third Inaugural, January 1941. [1:15] Franklin D. Roosevelt, Fourth Inaugural, January 20, 1945. [5:24] Radio Report on the death of FDR, April 12, 1945. [1:03]