Documemts below marked
"ANALYSIS:" indicates
documents for which you must prepare and submit a Document
Analysis Worksheet on the Thursday of that week.
Documemts below marked
"ANALYSIS:" indicates
documents for which you must prepare and submit a Document
Analysis Worksheet on the Thursday of that week.
Please note the dates
below for the exams and exam review postings.
Exam
#1 Review Posted
9/28/99
Exam #1
10/5/99
Exam
#2 Review Posted
11/10/99
Exam #2
11/16/99
Research Paper Draft Due
12/2/99
Peer
Review of Paper
12/2/99
Final Draft of Paper Due
12/13/99 IN MY MAILBOX BY 4pm
Final
Exam Posted
11/29/99
READINGS:
Readings:
Walter LaFeber. The American Age: U.S. Foreign Policy at Home and
Abroad, 1750-Present. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1996. (Second
Edition) (ISBN: 0393964744 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.29 x 9.24 x 6.18).
Check it out at Amazon.com
Additional readings electronically linked below.
Resources:
Search the
Internet
U. of Dayton Library and Online
Resources from Ohiolink
U. of Dayton
Department of History Homepage (History Resources)
U. of South Dakota History
Students Web Project
U. of Dayton Humanities Base
Homepage
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course will examine U.S. Foreign relations from the founding of the republic through the 20th century. We will place particular emphasis on American economic, political, ideological, territorial, and cultural continental expansion and its subsequent global expansion of interests and influence. Historiographically, therefore, this course will deal not only with U.S. diplomacy, but also with the many interconnected and multifaceted sources of American foreign relations.
REQUIREMENTS:
General:
Reading all the assignments by the assigned date, regular attendance
to lectures, occassional short "thought" essays, one research paper, two
exams, and a comprehensive final exam. All students are strongly encouraged
to ask questions throughout the lecture, participate in discussion, and
come to office hours.
Attendance:
Students are required to attend classes regularly and not miss more
than three classes in the semester. Please remember that the lectures,
discussion, and the readings are the core of this course and therefore,
you are expected to attend all classes. Every two class periods missed
after the first six, for example absences seven and eight, will result
in an automatic one half grade reduction for the final grade. Due dates
are cast in stone! There will be no make up exams and late assignments
will not be accepted. Only in the case of extreme family or personal emergency,
with prior notification, will I consider a deviation from this policy.
Papers:
The
document review worksheets and research paper serve two purposes. One
is to give practice to students in critical thought and writing. The second
is to acquaint the student more deeply in areas of importance to us in
the course of U.S. foreign relations. Thought papers will be required at
various intervals through the semester. The research paper will be due
2 weeks prior to the end of the semester. You will receive detailed instructions
in class as the semester progresses.
Course Evaluation:
DISCUSSION/THOUGHT PAPERS 10% (50 points)
RESEARCH PAPER 20% (100 points)
EXAMS 40% (200 points)
FINAL 30% (150 points)
TOTAL 100% (500 points)
Students can earn a maximum of 500 points throughout the semester. The grading scale is:
450-500 points = 90-100% = A
400-449 points = 80-89% = B
350-399 points = 70-79% = C
300-349 points = 60-69% = D
299-below = = F
STUDENT PROGRESS WILL BE TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION!
THEMES OF COURSE:
1. Landed and Commercial Expansion of the US from 1750-1940.
2. Concentration of Power in Hands of the President--"The Imperial
Presidency."
3. Isolationism--freedom of action, not withdrawal from foreign affairs.
4. The US became a great power and wanted to preserve the status quo
or effect slow change when the economies and political systems of the world
were in revolution.
5. Social policy, domestic events, and technology's influence on foreign
policy.
WEEKLY SCHEDULE:
Week 1
Course Introduction. Guidelines, requirements, goals, themes and etc.
Discussion: Sources of American Foreign Policy
Week 2 READ: LaFeber, Chapters 1 and 2
From Colony to Nation: Early American Foreign Relations, 1750-1815
Discussion: The American Revolution/Independence War
DOCUMENTS FOR DISCUSSION:
ANALYSIS: The
Virginia Declaration of Rights (June 12, 1776)
ANALYSIS: The
Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776)
The Articles of Confederation
(Nov. 15, 1777)
The Federalist Papers
Week 3 READ: LaFeber, Chapters 3 and 4
Setting the Stage for A New Age: The Monroe Doctrine and Economic Expansion,
1815-1850
Discussion: Economic Sources of American Foreign Policy
DOCUMENTS FOR DISCUSSION:
ANALYSIS: The
Monroe Doctrine (December 2, 1823)
Biography
of President James Monroe
Week 4 READ: LaFeber, Chapters 5 and 6
Setting the Stage for Overseas Expansion: The Civil War and Continental
Mastery, 1850-1896
Discussion: Economic Aspects of the Civil War
DOCUMENTS FOR DISCUSSION:
ANALYSIS:
The Declaration of Causes of Seceding states (Winter 1861)
First Inaugural Address
of President Abraham Lincoln (March 4, 1861)
The Constitution
of the Confederate States of America (March 11, 1861)
The Battle Hymn of
the Republic
McClellan's Letter
to President Lincoln (July 7, 1862)
ANALYSIS:The
Gettysburg Address (Nov. 19, 1863)
The Emancipation Proclamation
(1864)
Second Inaugural
Address of President Abraham Lincoln (1865)
Photographic Time
Line of the Civil War
Selected
Civil War Photographs for Class
Week 5 READ: LaFeber, Chapters 7 and 8
Parting the Seas: U.S. Expansion South Toward China, 1896-1913
FILM: Theodore Roosevelt
Discussion: Effects of American Interference in the Cuban Independence
War
DOCUMENTS FOR DISCUSSION:
ANALYSIS: First
Open Door Note (1899)
Other
Link to Open Door Note
William McKinley Second
Inaugural Address (March 4, 1901)
ANALYSIS: Theodore
Roosevelt Inaugural Address (March 4, 1905)
Week 6-7 READ: LaFeber, Chapters 9 and 10
The Prize and the Price: Europe and Asia, 1913-1920
Discussion: The Price of Expansion
DOCUMENTS FOR DISCUSSION:
ANALYSIS: President
Woodrow Wilson's First Warning to the Germans (February 10, 1915)
ANALYSIS: President
Woodrow Wilson's War Message (April 2, 1917)
The
Reichstag Peace Resoilution (July 19, 1917)
President
Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points (January 8, 1918)
Conditions
of an Armistice with Germany (November 11, 1918)
***EXAM 1***
Week 8 READ: LaFeber, Chapter 11
A New World Order?, 1920-1933
Discussion: International Cooperation Possible?
DOCUMENTS FOR DISCUSSION:
The
Espionage Act of 1918
Inaugural Address
of President Warren G. Harding (1921)
Inaugural Address
of President Calvin Coolidge (1925)
Inaugural Address
of President Herbert Hoover (1929)
ANALYSIS: First
Inaugural Address of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933) http://www.cc.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/inaugural/pres49.html
Week 9-11 READ: LaFeber, Chapters 12 and 13
The Rise of American Supremacy, 1933-1945
Discussion: World War II
DOCUMENTS FOR DISCUSSION:
The Nuetrality Acts of 1937 & 1939 gopher://wiretap.spies.com/00/Gov/US-History/Pre-WWII/neutral.37
Third Inaugural Address
of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1941)
ANALYSIS: The Atlantic Charter
(Aug. 14, 1941) http://www.msstate.edu/Archives/History/USA/WWII/charter.txt
ANALYSIS: Roosevelt's Infamy
Speech (Dec. 8, 1941) http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/infamy.html
The Declaration of War on Japan (Dec. 8, 1941) http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/japwar.html
The Declaration of War on Germany (Dec. 11, 1941) http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/germwar.html
Fourth Inaugural Address
of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1945)
The German Surrender Documents of World War II (May 8, 1945) http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/germsurr.html
The Japanese Surrender Documents of World War II (Sept. 12, 1945) http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/japsurr.html
The Mahattan Project Documents http://www.dannen.com/decision/
HST 375 student JUNIOR UPTON'S Manhattan Documents Project Presentation
Week 11-12 READ: LaFeber, Chapters 14 and 15
A Challenge to Supremacy: The Cold War, 1945-1952
Discussion: The Cold War
DOCUMENTS FOR DISCUSSION:
The Truman Doctrine (Mar. 12, 1947) gopher://gopher.law.cornell.edu/00/foreign/historical/truman.txt
Inaugural Address
of President Harry S. Truman (1949)
The North Atlantic Treaty (Apr. 4, 1949) gopher://wiretap.spies.com/00/Gov/Treaties/Treaties/north.atl
ANALYSIS: NSC-68 (1950) http://www.seattleu.edu/artsci/departments/history/us1945/docs/nsc68.htm
NSC-68 --Background to Document http://ppl.nhmccd.edu/~craigl/primary_folder/27.e.01.nsc68.html
NSC-68 --Historiography and the Document http://www.adfa.oz.au/HISTORY/hist196/NSC68.html
***EXAM #2***