Office Hours: TTh
1:30-4:00 p.m. Telephone:
328-1024
MWF by
appointment Website:
Email: zipfk@mail.ecu.edu http://core.ecu.edu/hist/zipfk
Gender and the
Cold War
Reading Assignments:
Nielsen, Un-American
Womanhood: Antiradicalism,
Antifeminism, and the First Red Scare
Schrecker,
The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief
History with Documents
May,
Homeward Bound: American Families in
the Cold War Era
Corber,
Homosexuality in Cold War America
Dean, Imperial Brotherhood: Gender and the Making of Cold War Foreign
Policy
Reserve Materials and Selected Materials on the Web
Course Description: Passions flared in America from 1945-1991. This period, known to many as the “Cold War,” spurred heated debate about the fundamental purpose of this nation and its citizenry. Americans, angry and fearful at the rise of the new world order, challenged preconceived definitions of communism, democracy, freedom, and capitalism. Within this ideological turmoil new understandings about gender emerged as well. This course examines the effect of Cold War politics on Americans’ assumptions of gender relations from 1945-1991. By a thorough study of cold war politics and culture, students will learn where views of gender and anti-communism intersect and how Americans defined masculinity and femininity in the Cold War era. Specific topics include the red scare of the 1920’s, World War II, McCarthyism, women, the family, civil rights, sexuality, the Vietnam war, and the Reagan era.
The purpose of the course is to test and challenge the student’s capacity to successfully employ the full range of abilities and skills that are central to good historical research and writing. These abilities and skills include the following: to express ideas in clear and cogent writing, to do extensive and fruitful research in history, to solve issues by employing analytic and critical thinking, to understand the scope and implications of a historical issue, and to communicate in an oral presentation the results of one’s work.
Course Requirements: History requires skills in critical reading and thinking. This course requires intensive and focused concentration on reading and writing. You MUST read the assigned material. Thinking critically requires active listening and note-taking. Discussion (oral participation by all students) is crucial in every class. In addition, you must take weekly quizzes (Thursdays, unless announced otherwise) on notes, books, and website materials, write a short paper, maintain a journal, complete a 15-20 page research paper, and deliver a presentation on research at the end of the semester.
Attendance: Attendance is mandatory. Sometimes unforeseen circumstances, such as an accident or a death in the family, require students to miss class. Therefore, this professor allows students three class absences without penalty. But, students must use their absences wisely. Students exceeding three absences will by penalized 1% of their final grade for each absence exceeding three. If you miss an assignment due to unexpected illness you must provide a doctor’s note. Students are expected to come to class ON TIME.
Pop Quizzes: Pop quizzes will measure students’ ability to absorb material. Pop quiz questions may come from lecture, texts, or websites. There will be NO MAKEUPS for pop quizzes. If you miss a pop quiz (e.g. Skip class or arrive late to class) you are OUT OF LUCK. It is in your best interest to come to class PREPARED.
Assignment Deadlines: Unless otherwise noted by the professor, students must meet all assignment deadlines as noted on the syllabus. Assignments must be turned in to the professor by 5pm on the day of the deadline. Any late papers will receive a penalty of one letter grade for each day the document is late. Of course, I will accept papers early.
Websites:
Students must consult the sites included in the syllabus in preparation for the
week’s discussion. These websites
illuminate the complex ideas and events relating gender issues and the cold
war. Images, maps, biographies, comic
books, audio tapes, essays, literature, and chronologies on the sites will
provide students with a more comprehensive understanding of relevant issues.
Reserve Materials and Other Readings: Students must read several articles and book chapters throughout the semester that are located in the library or available through the library web page. Some items are on reserve at the Reserve Desk.
Disability Services Notice: East Carolina University seeks to comply fully with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Students requesting accommodations based on a covered disability must go to the Department for Disability Support Services, located in Brewster A-117, to verify the disability before any accommodations can occur. The telephone number is 252-328-6799.
Paper Assignments:
Project 1: Journal/Sourcebook. Students will maintain a journal (a simple notebook or loose-leaf folder will do) that will document their research and readings. Students must construct three questions due on each Thursday, for the week’s reading. These questions may reflect on any relevant topic for the week. In addition, students must use the journal to document visits to the Special Collections library. The journal will serve as a sourcebook in which students will identify and provide notations for the items examined on each visit. By the end of the semester, the journal/sourcebook will become a bibliography of research.
Project 2: Short Paper.
Undergraduate students will write a short critical essay (4-6 pages) that examines one of the movies viewed in class and two books, Ellen Schrecker’s The Age of McCarthyism and Elaine Tyler May’s Homeward Bound.
Graduate students will write a historiography essay (5-7 pages) that provides a critical analysis of 4-5 readings conducted during the course of the semester. This paper is more than merely content-oriented. Graduate students are expected to critically assess the authors’ motivations, objectives, and goals, for each reading addressed. In preparation for this assignment, graduates students will provide 2 (10 minute) reports on historiography during the course of the semester.
Project 3: Research Paper. All students will complete a research paper on a topic that relates gender issues and the cold war in America. This research paper may focus on any topic that the student desires, but must make primary use of the Hoover Collection in the Joyner Library Special Collections Department. This exercise is intended to train students in the fundamental skills of library research, thesis development, outline construction, and writing. Students are expected to submit a proposal, bibliography, outline, introduction and a draft in addition to the final paper. Undergraduate papers must meet a 15-page minimum. However, graduate papers must meet a 20-page minimum, and they must include a 4-5 page historiography discussion on the topic. The historiography section may address some of the same sources used in the short paper assignment, but the material should be rewritten as appropriate to the research paper. Finally, all students will present their papers to the class at the end of the term.
Here is the grade distribution:
Journal/Sourcebook 5%
Short Paper 15%
Discussion/Participation 10%
Quizzes 10%
Research Paper 60% (Proposal=5%, Bibliography=5%, Outline=10%, Draft= 20%, Final Paper=20%)
Schedule of Classes:
Week 1: Defining
Communism
Jan. 8&10 Marx, Lenin and Stalin
Russian Revolution
Disillusionment
Reading: Communist Manifesto, excerpt
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/marx.html
General Overview and vocabulary
www.marxists.org/history/ussr/revolution/index.htm
“Stalin” and “Stalinism”
http://www.marxists.org/glossary/people
Emma Goldman, “Petrograd”
www.marxists.org/reference/archive/goldman/works/1920s/disillusionment/ch02.htm
Jan. 15&17 Women
Peace Organizations
WWI
Reading: Emily S. Rosenberg, “Gender,” The Journal of American History, vol. 77, issue 1 (June 1990), 116-124. Locate on J-STOR.
Nielsen, Un-American Womanhood, full text
Website: “Pacifism vs. Patriotism in Women’s Organizations in the 1920s,” Binghamton University
http://womhist.binghamton.edu/milit/introduc.htm
Jan. 22 STATE
HOLIDAY MAKEUP DAY – NO CLASSES
Jan. 24 Allies
George Kennan
Wonder Woman
Reading: Schrecker, pps. 1-24 and 110-125
Frank Costigliola, “’Unceasing pressure for penetration’: Gender, pathology, and emotion in George Kennan’s formation…” Journal of American History vol. 83 (March 1997) no. 4, 1309-1340.
Jan. 29&31 Joe McCarthy
HUAC
Hollywood 10
Reading: Schrecker, pps. 25-106, 126-274
Assignment: Graduate Students’ reports on historiography
Exercise: Library Reference/Hoover Collection
sessions at Joyner Library, January 29
Feb. 5&7 Women’s Roles
Defining Masculinity and Femininity
Reading: May, Homeward Bound, full text
Susan Hartmann, “Women’s Employment and the Domestic Ideal in the Early Cold War Years,” in Joanne Meyerowitz, Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America, 1945-1960, pps. 84-100. ON RESERVE.
Assignment: Proposal due, February 7
Website: "Women--Russia's Second-Class Citizens,"
and “The Iron Curtain Look in Here!” Life, 1952. Both excerpts from The Literature and Culture of the American 1950’s, University of Pennsylvania
Exercise: Salt of the Earth, January 5
Feb. 12&14 Capitalism and Consumption
American Century
Asia
Atomic
Café
Reading: Andrew Rotter, “Gender Relations, Foreign Relations: The United States and South Asia, 1947-1964,” The Journal of American History, vol. 81 (September 1994), no. 2, 518-542. Locate on J-STOR.
Emily S. Rosenberg, “Consuming Women: Images of Americanization in the ‘American Century,’ Diplomatic History, vol. 23 (summer 1999), 479-498.
Laura MacEnaney, “Living Underground: The Public Politics of Private Shelters,” chapter 2 in Civil Defense Begins at Home. ON RESERVE.
Assignment: Undergraduate short paper due, February 14
Homosexual underground
State Department
Reading: Corber, Homosexuality in Cold War America, chs. 1, 3, 4, 6
Donna Penn, “The Lesbian, the Prostitute, and the Containment of Female Sexuality in Postwar America,” in Joanne Meyerowitz, Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America, 1945-1960, pps. 358-381. ON RESERVE.
“Gays in Government.” The Congressional Record, 81st Congress, 2nd Session, March 29-April 24, 1950. On homosexuals in government. From The Literature and Culture of the American 1950’s, University of Pennsylvania
Assignment: Bibliography due, February 19
Assignment: Graduate Students’ reports on historiography
Exercise: Dr. Strangelove
Feb. 26&28 Race Relations
White Supremacy
Civil Rights
Reading: Ruth Feldstein, “’I Wanted the Whole World to See’: Race, Gender, and Constructions of Motherhood in the Death of Emmett Till,”in Joanne Meyerowitz, Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America, 1945-1960, pps. 263-303. ON RESERVE.
Regina G. Kunzel, “White Neurosis, Black Pathology: Constructing Out-of-Wedlock Pregnancy in the Wartime and Postwar United States,” in Joanne Meyerowitz, Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America, 1945-1960, pps. 304-334. ON RESERVE.
Mary Dudziak, “Josephine Baker, Racial Protest, and the Cold War,” The Journal of American History, vol. 81 (September 1994) no. 2, 543-570. Locate on J-STOR.
Reagan
Reading: Dean, Imperial Brotherhood: Gender and the Making of Cold War Foreign Policy
Assignment: Graduate historiography paper due March 7
March 21
Week 11: Reports on
Research
March 28
Week 12: Reports on
Outlines
April 4 Assignment: Outline due April 4
Week 13: Thesis,
Introductions
April 11 Exercise: Writing Lab
Week 14: Drafts
April 18 Assignment: Draft due April 18
Week 15: Peer
Review
April 25 Assignment: Critical Appraisal due April 25
Week 16: Discussion
of Final Drafts
Final Exam: Presentations,
Discussion, Pizza
Thursday, 5/9/01, Assignment: Deadline (NO EXTENSIONS!)
11am-1pm For Final Paper