HISTORY OF MEN IN THE U.S.

FALL 2005
KAREN TAYLOR
Luce 346

• Office Hours: Tues. 10:00 am to 3:00 pm
• M-W- 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm
• Or by appointment

Example of a Historiography

Final Cut Lyrics

Required Readings:

• James Fenimore Cooper, Last of the Mohicans
• Mark Twain, The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson
• Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward
• Langston Hughes, Simple Takes a Wife, a Negro Comedy

Tentative Weekly Schedule:

WEEK 1: Aug. 29, 31, Sept. 2.

Introduction: Why Does Men's History Suck?

In-Class Discussion: The Origins of Gender, Patriarchy, and Surplus Accumulation.

WEEK 2: Sept. 5, 7, 9.

Recognizing Interpretation

• Reading: "The Puritans and Sex" (Morgan)

In-Class Discussion: Colonial Men

WEEK 3: Sept. 12, 14, 16.

Patriarchs, Warriors, and Autonomy

• Reading: Kathleen Brown, "Vile Rogues and Honorable Men: Nathaniel Bacon and the Dilemma of Colonial Masculinity," in Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1996) (on eRES)

WEEK 4: SEPT. 19, 21, 23.

In-Class Discussion: Revolutionary Men

When is a revolution really revolting?

• Reading: Mark Kann, "Disorderly Men," in The Gendering of American Politics (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1999). (on eRES)
• PAPER 1 DUE SEPT. 19

WEEK 5: Sept. 26, 28, 30.

In-Class Discussion: Why are Men Such Beasts?

Re-forming Men

• Reading: Anthony Rotundo, in American Manhood (on eRES)
• PAPER 2 DUE SEPT. 26

WEEK 6: Oct. 3, 5, 7.

In-Class Discussion: Industrial Men

Does work make us equal?

• Reading: Michael Kimmel, "The Birth of the Self-Made Man," in Manhood in America (New York: Free Press, 1996) (on eRES)
• PAPER 3 DUE OCT. 3

WEEK 7: Oct. 10, 12, 14.

In-Class Discussion: Imperial Men

Playing for Keeps

• Reading: James Oliver Horton and Lois E. Horton, "Violence, Protest, and Identity: Black Manhood in Antebellem America," in A Question of Manhood (on eRES)
• PAPER 4 DUE OCT. 10

WEEK 8: Oct. 17, 19, 21.

In-Class Discussion: Supermen and Hobos

Depressed and Dreaming

• Reading: Rupert Wilkinson, "Americans and Toughness," in American Tough (on eRES)
• PAPER 5 DUE OCT. 19
  FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL DUE OCT. 21

WEEK 9: Oct. 26, 28.

In-Class Discussion: Liberated Men

At Home with the Wild Man

• Reading: Susan Faludi, "The Son, The Moon, and the Stars," in Stiffed (on eRES)
• PAPER 6 DUE OCT. 26

WEEK 10: Oct. 31, Nov. 2, 4.

Are We Liberated Yet?

• Tough Guise

WEEK 11: Nov. 7, 9, 11.

How the West Was Won

• Evidence: Last of the Mohicans (BOOK AND MOVIE)
  EMAIL RESPONSE DUE NOV. 9, 10 PM

WEEK 12: Nov. 14, 16, 18.

Is Competition Domination?

• Evidence: Pudd'nhead Wilson
• Movie: Birth of a Nation
  EMAIL RESPONSE DUE NOV. 17, 10 PM

WEEK 13: Nov. 21.

What Does a Male Vision of a Better World Look Like?

• Evidence: Looking Backward
• Movie: Modern Times

*************************THANKSGIVING BREAK********************

WEEK 14: Nov. 28, 30, Dec. 2.

Uncivilized Heroes and New Women

• Monday Evidence: Simple
• Movie: Cimarron

Are Men the Enemy?

• Wednesday Music - The Final Cut (Pink Floyd)
• Friday Movie: Full Metal Jacket

WEEK 15: Dec. 5, 7, 9.

To Die For.

• Reading: TBA
• Evidence: Movie - American Beauty
  EMAIL RESPONSE DUE DEC. 7, 10 PM

Wrap-up.

REQUIREMENTS:

DISCUSSION PAPERS: These papers are designed to refine your skills in writing - particularly as historians do. They will focus on reading for interpretation, comparing interpretations, analyzing evidence, placing evidence in historiographical context, and writing historiography. For individual paper topics, click on "PAPER" for the appropriate day. I will drop the lowest grade on these 6 papers and average the remaining 5 grades together to make up 40% of your total grade.

FINAL PROJECT: Your final project will be a 5-7 page essay discussing IN DETAIL the historiography of a particular topic in men's history. (Note: a historiography is a review of the literature. See the sample historiography at the beginning of this syllabus.) The first draft of this essay is due NOV. 28, and will be read and critiqued by a group of your peers in this class, and by me, after which you will revise it. (I will select those groups after you have turned in your proposals.) Your final project is worth 40% of your total grade.

PARTICIPATION: Since learning and teaching are really two sides of the same coin, your ACTIVE participation in this class is neccessary. While I completely understand that you may not want to talk in every class, I will expect you to feel free to speak whenever, and as often, as you like. Because some people feel more comfortable writing their thoughts, half of your participation grade will be based on Email responses to questions posed in the class. Because participation also requires the presence of your physical body, I will keep a random record of your attendence, and your absence from class, if great, will lower your participation grade. Your participation is worth 20% of your total grade.

If you have any questions about the class, or just some random observations you'd like to share, you'll find my door and mind both open (except when I'm avoiding extra-terrestrials or the thought police). Or you could send me an email: ktaylor@wooster.edu