US Civilization (History 151, 152) :
A Study Guide Overview

Introduction

This is a survey course -- a college-level introduction to US history presented mainly with non-history majors in mind.

General Expectations

My philosophy concerning 100-level courses is simple:  Many of you are non-history majors, so my main objective is for you to have an enjoyable learning experience.  Equal emphasis on enjoyable and learning.

Enjoyable – I want you to experience the pleasure that can come from studying the human past.

Learning – Georges Clemenceau, the French head of government during World War I, famously said that war is too important to be left to the generals.  By that he meant that war should be left to the political leadership.  But in a democracy, war is too important to be left to the political leadership, either.   As citizens, you have a responsibility to hold your leadership closely accountable.  This, in turn, requires enough knowledge to think for yourself.  More importantly, it requires the conviction that you owe it to your country to take the time and make the effort.

Attendance

 Attendance is not mandatory, but consistent attendance is vital  because a good deal of material presented in lecture is not necessarily in any of the course textbooks.  Moreover, the lectures that will help keep you on track, so that you don't overemphasize some issues while ignoring others.  Moreover, good attendance helps generate a certain good will between instructor and student, because it more or less demonstrates that the student is trying. That can come in handy if you fall down on the midterms and need a little extra help. Finally, there is almost always a strong positive correlation between good attendance and good course performance. So while lecture attendance is not required, it is strongly encouraged.

Office Hours

Similarly, I encourage you to take full advantage of my office hours.  It benefits both of us—you get additional assistance; I get to talk to you, which trust me, I usually enjoy more than whatever else I might find to pass the time.

The Course Requirements

Midterm Examinations have two parts:  the objective section and  the essay.  The objective section is short answer and multiple choice.  It’s designed to test your general familiarity with the material and to take no more than fifteen (15) minutes to complete.

The objective section is concerned primarily with the student's understanding of the facts. By contrast, the essay is centrally concerned with the student's grasp of the overarching concepts and how these concepts organize and give meaning to the facts themselves. Students frequently assume that the essay is just another way for them to demonstrate their purely factual knowledge. This leads them to do a "memory dump," which has unpleasant consequences because whatever else it may yield, a memory dump does not yield an essay.

 An essay answers the exact question that is asked.  It takes and argues a position while showing an awareness of potential objections and counter arguments.  It makes use of factual information but places that information firmly in the service of analysis.  This involves

 a. an ability to write clearly, so that the reader is not baffled by misspellings, grammatical faults, run‑on sentences, and so on;

 b. an ability to articulate a thesis—in other words, to orient the reader to the question that will be answered and to explain why the question is important;

 c. an ability to prioritize. What issues are most important in answering the question? What is the most logical order in which to present them? What examples most clearly illustrate these critical issues?

 d. an ability to avoid the irrelevant: everything you write should relate directly and explicitly to the question posed;

 e. an ability to write an essay that is proportional to the time allowed for its completion. If you have 20 minutes to complete an essay, you must tailor your depth of coverage so that you cover the whole question in 20 minutes, without omitting important points or overemphasizing one point to the detriment of another.

The Final Examination is essentially a midterm examination with an additional comprehensive essay requirement.  (By comprehensive I mean an essay that in some way addresses all the material covered in the course.)

Additional Help

Typically, I will continue to update the course web site throughout the quarter.

 A study guide tailored to each examination will be made available online beforehand (study guides from previous versions of the course are available in the meantime), and an online chat room review session will be held prior to each examination as well.

My basic belief is that you deserve all the appropriate assistance I can provide, clean up to the moment when I am required to evaluate your performance.  But please do not confuse my desire to assist you with a lenient grading policy.

A Final Note:  Letters of Recommendation

Students who have taken this course sometimes approach me for letters of recommendation.  If you think you might do so, make a point of coming to my office hours on a regular basis, so that I am in the best possible position to write an informed evaluation.  If you do not earn an A or A- for the course, as a general rule you will not have equipped me to write a letter strong enough to assist you, and I will therefore decline.

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