R 8-10/CDB 224
Professor Jack E. Davis
Fall 2004
davisjac@ufl.edu
Ofc. Flint 235
Ofc. Hrs.: T 2-4:00/R 2-3:00 PM
392-0271, ext. 251
The primary focus of this course will be the historical evolution of
the U.S. South (the former Confederate states) from Reconstruction to the
present. Significant demographic, political, and physical change has occurred
during our period of study. This change has arguably made southern history
the most dynamic among the fields of regional history. Exceptionally talented
minds have and continue to work in southern history, often doing cutting-edge
scholarship in a range of interpretative categories-from labor history
to environmental history. The annual conference of the Southern Historical
Association (www.uga.edu/~sha/)
attracts scholars from all over the United States and Canada and from many
countries abroad. The Journal of Southern History is regarded as
a major journal in American history, and several book series with leading
academic presses represent southern history.
Course Objectives:
Not only do we want to broaden our knowledge of the historically distinctive characteristics of the South as a region; we are interested in better understanding the place of southern society and culture in a larger American culture. For example, we will explore historical problems that have seemed constant in the South (e.g., race, poverty, and localism) and their intersection with broader currents in American history (e.g., farm mechanization, industrialization, civil rights, and the rise of pop culture). The syllabus has been organized around several interpretative categories to help give you a working knowledge of the methodologies and historiography in southern history. With this knowledge should come a deeper understanding of southern history, its potential impact on other fields of history, and its contributions to the study of the past.
Regardless of your primary field of choice in the graduate program, you should treat this course as an opportunity to improve your skills as an academic historian--critically analyzing works of history, asking heuristic questions, researching all types of sources in any number of environments, and presenting their findings in a cogently argued and clearly written text.
Course Requirements:
Required Texts (available at Goering's Bookstore):
Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (New York: Bantam Books, 1983 or later), ISBN 0553279378 Paper.
Pete Daniel, Lost Revolutions: The South in the 1950s (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000), ISBN 0807848484 Paper.
Jack E. Davis, Race Against Time: Culture and Separation in Natchez Since 1930 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2001), ISBN 080713630273 Paper.
Eli N. Evans, The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South (New York: Touchstone Books, 1997), ISBN 068483412X Paper.
Kari Frederickson, The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South, 1932-1968 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001), ISBN 0807849103 Paper.
Elna C. Green, Southern Strategies: Southern Women and the Woman Suffrage Question (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, ISBN 0807846414 Paper.
Thomas W. Hanchett, Sorting Out the New South City: Race, Class, and Urban Development in Charlotte, 1875-1975 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998), ISBN 0807846775 Paper.
Brian Kelly, Race, Class, and Power in the Alabama Coalfields, 1908-21 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001), ISBN 0252069331 Paper.
Janisse Ray, The Ecology of a Cracker Childhood (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 1999) ISBN 1571312471 Paper.
Stephen G. N. Tuck, Beyond Atlanta: The Struggle for Racial Equality in Georgia, 1940-1980 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2003), ISBN 0820325287 Paper.
Charles Reagan Wilson, Judgement and Grave in Dixie: Southern Faiths from Faulkner to Elvis (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1995), ISBN 0820319074 Paper.
C. Vann Woodward, The Burden of Southern History (Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State University Press, 1993, 3rd edition) ISBN 0807101338
Paper.
Week I (August 26): Introduction: Southern History
Woodward, The Burden if Southern History
Week II (September 2): Labor
Kelly, Race, Class, and Power in the Alabama Coalfields
Week III (September 9): Women and Gender
Green, Southern Strategies
Week IV (September 16): Black Life and Migration
Angelou, I know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Week V (September 23): Ethnicity
Evans, The Provincials
(I will be out of town on this date, so we will need to plan an alternative
meeting date.)
Week VI (September 30): Politics
Frederickson, The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South
Week VII (October 7): Community Studies/ Social Memory
Davis, Race Against Time
Week VIII (October 14): Civil Rights
Tuck, Beyond Atlanta
Week IX (October 21):Religionsm Secular and Spiritual
Wilson, Judgement and Grace in Dixie
Week X (October 28): Post-World War II Change and Continuity
Daniel, Lost Revolutions
Week XI (November 4): New South Urban
Hanchett, Sorting Out the New South City
Week XII (November 11): Veteran's Day Holiday
Week XIII (November 18): Earth South
Ray, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood
Research Papers Due
Week XIV (November 25): Thanksgiving Holiday
Week XV (December 2): The Last Hurrah
Final-paper presentations (Dinner at my house)
Course Requirements Descriptions:
All written work for the course must be typed or computer generated
and in 12-point double-spaced print. Your work must also be presented in
third-person language.
Class participation has two requirements. First, students must
complete the assigned readings of the week and come to class prepared to
discuss the scholarly merit of the work. Second, they will be responsible
for leading one class discussion. The discussion leaders should come prepared
with a set of questions to direct the seminar.
Historiography contribution asks one or two students to assume
the responsibility of making an oral presentation summarizing scholarly
work on the theme of the week. The student or students should compile a
written bibliography of that work and provide copies to his/her classmates.
Review essays should be approximately 750 words in length each
and cover the reading for one's assigned weeks. The written reviews will
be due the week after the assigned reading has been discussed in class.
With book reviews from academic journals serving as a model, the essays
should identify the author's central argument; evaluate the author's research,
empirical analysis, and success in supporting her/his interpretation; and
assess the book's organization and quality of presentation. Essay grades
will in part be determined by the student's consistency in following the
rules covered in the Chicago Manual of Style worksheet.
Research paper grades are based on (1) turning in a prospectus/bibliography
on the assigned date, (2) an in-class presentation of the research undertaken
for the paper and the conclusions articulated in the paper, (3) consistency
in following the rules of the Chicago Manual of Style worksheet,
and (4) content of work completed. Part of the exercise of writing a research
paper requires one to choose and conceptualize one's own topic. Students
may pursue any topic that is related to the subject (and chronology) of
the course, and research papers (approximately 5,000 words, separate of
notes and bibliography) must represent original work. Please ensure that
you read, consult, memorize, and otherwise obey the "Research Paper" handout
provided on my web site.
Other Business:
Plagiarism:
Keep in mind that your written assignments must represent original work.
You cannot copy the words, phrases, arguments, ideas, and conclusions of
someone else or of another source (including Internet sources) without
giving proper credit to the person or source by using quotation marks and
a foot note. Do not cobble together paragraphs or passages of separate
texts and then try to claim that you have done original and legitimate
work. You must write with your own ideas and in your own words. If you
copy the words of someone else without putting those words in quotation
marks, REGARDLESS OF CITING THE SOURCE, you are plagiarizing. Plagiarism
is theft, and it is academic dishonesty. Plagiarism is grounds for an automatic
failing grade in the course, a grade that is final and that cannot be made
up. If you have any questions about how you are citing or using sources,
come to me for the answers. Please
also review the university's honesty policy at: {http://www.dso.ufl.edu/judicial/academic.htm}.
Classroom Assistance:
Please do not hesitate to
contact the instructor during the semester if you have any individual concerns
or issues that need to be discussed. Students requesting classroom accommodation
must first register with the Dean of Students Office {http://www.dso.ufl.edu/drp/}.
The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student who
must then provide that documentation to the instructor when requesting
accommodation.
Alpata: A Journal of
History
Keep in mind that the undergraduate- and graduate-student members of Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society at the University of Florida publish an academic journal each spring. In the fall, the journal editors will be sending out a a call for submissions (articles and book reviews) to the journal.