The South Since 1869

University of Florida

Spring 2008

Wednesday 12:50-3:50

AMH 4930 Prof. Jack E. Davis

R 5-7, FLI 113 FLI 235/ 392-0271, ext. 251

Ofc hrs: M & W 10:30-12:00 davisjac@ufl.edu



The primary focus of this course will be the historical evolution of the U.S. South (the former Confederate states) from approximately 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. This course is not a survey of the period of history under study. In other words, you will not get a blow-by-blow accounting of history. You will instead explore some, and certainly not all, of the major themes of study in souther 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, urbanization, civil rights, the environment, 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.

Course Requirements:

Presentation

Writing Mechanics exercise

Prospectus/Bibliography 30%

Required Texts:

Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Victoria Byerly, Hard Times Cotton Mill Girls: Personal Histories of Womanhood and Poverty in the South

Jack E. Davis, Race Against Time: Culture and Separation in Natchez Since 1930

Kari Frederickson, The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South, 1932-1968

Thomas W. Hanchett, Sorting Out the New South City: Race, Class, and Urban Development in Charlotte, 1875-1975

Jack Temple Kirby, The Mockingbird Song: Eoclogical Landscapes of the South

Melton McLaurin, Separate Pasts: Growing Up White in the Segregated South

Charles Reagan Wilson, Judgement and Grace in Dixie: Southern Faiths from Faulkner to Elvis

Week I (Jan 9): Course Introduction: The American South and Southern History; What Is It?

Week II (Jan 16): The Urban South

(Writing-Mechanics Exercise Due)

Readings: Hanchett, Sorting Out the New South City, introduction-chapter 6; Kirby, Mockingbird Song, chapter 6

Week III (Jan 23): The Urban South

Reading: Hanchett, Sorting Out the New South City, chapters 7-9

Week IV (Jan 30): Labor

Readings: Byerly, Hard Times Cotton Mill Girls; Davis, Race Against Time, chapter 4

Week V (February 6): No Class

Week VI (Feb 13): Small Town and Race

Readings: McLaurin, Separate Pasts; Davis, Race Against Time, chapter 3

Film: Intruder in the Dust

Week VII (Feb 20): Segregated Past

Readings: Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings; Kirby, Mockingbird Song, chapter 5

Film: To Kill A Mockingbird

(Prospectus/Bibliography Due)

Week VIII (Feb 27): Memory and History

(1st Take-Home Essay Due)

Reading: Davis, Race Against Time, chapters 1 and 2

Week IX (March 5): Race and Politics

Reading: Frederickson, The Dixiecrat Revolt

Week X (March 12): Spring Break

Week XI (March 19): Civil Rights

Reading: Davis, Race Against Time, chapters 5-8

(Oral History Project Due)

Week XII (March 26): Faiths

Reading: Wilson, Judgement and Grace in Dixie, section1

Week XIII (April 2): Faiths

Reading: Wilson, Judgement and Grace in Dixie, section 3

(Research Paper Due)

Week XIV (April 9): Landscapes

Reading: Kirby, Mockingbird Song, prologue, chapters 3 & 4, epilogue

Week XV (April 16): Presentations

Week XVI (April 23): Presentations

(2nd Take-Home Essay Due)

Course Requirements Descriptions:

All written work for the course must be typed or computer generated and in 12-point double-spaced print. Your work also must be written in third-person language.

Class participation means that students must come to class prepared to participate in discussions. Classes will be conducted as a seminar, and attendance is required. Beyond one absence, each additional absence occurring without a written excuse will result in two points deducted from your final grade. If the class is particularly lethargic when it should be animated and eager to discuss the reading assignment, the frustrated professor deserves the right to give a pop (i.e., surprise) quiz. Your experience in the course will largely depend on how prepared you come to class.

The Oral history project requires that you conduct interviews with two individuals who can share their experience related to some theme or themes in southern history. The subjects of your interviews should be contemporaries whose lives were similar in some ways but different in others. For example, you might choose to interview a woman and a man, or a white person and a black person, or a gentile and a Jew. Your objective is to compare and contrast the experiences of these individuals. Once you've completed the interviews, you will write a 750-1,000-word paper describing the interview experience and the historical information gleaned from the interviews. With the paper, you will turn in a taped copy of the interviews. Your grade will in part be determined by your consistency in following the rules covered in the "Writing Mechanics" exercise.

Take-home essays will represent responses to a list of questions handed out in class. The questions will be drawn from the assigned readings, and you will be expected to use the course readings and your class notes as sources to answer the questions. Each answer must be presented in essay format, using formal, academic language and style (i.e., complete sentences, tightly constructed paragraphs, no colloquialisms). Do not, in other words, provide answers in lists or bullets. Those essays that address each question in a rigorous and organized manner are more likely to earn a decent grade. These grades, too, will be dependent in part on your compliance with the rules in the "Writing Mechanics" exercise.

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 "Writing Mechanics" exercise, (4) the quality of work completed, and (5) the class presentation. Part of the exercise of writing a research paper requires one to choose and conceptualize one's own topic of research. Students may pursue any topic that is related to the subject of the course, and research papers (approximately 2,500 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 with the syllabus. Doing so will improve your chance for a favorable grade.

Plagiarism:

Keep in mind that your written assignments must represent original work. You cannot copy the work of anyone else or text from the Internet. 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, 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. Please, if you have any questions about how you are citing or using sources, come to me for the answers.

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.



Welcome, and good luck!