Unit 1: The Gilded Age Issue: Has the Democratic Peace Theory Helped Lead U.S. Style and Other Western Democracies to a New Historical Stage of Human Freedom? YES: Jeffrey Pugh , from "Democratic Peace Theory: A Review and Evaluation," CEMPROC Working Papers Series (2005) NO: William Appleman Williams , from "Conclusion: History as a Way of Breaking the Chains of the Past," Verso (2011) Jeff Pugh suggests that the Democratic Peace Theory remains a viable way to examine democratic relations internationally. He also notes legitimate critiques of the theory: that a democratic nation''s desire to maintain power is a means of ensuring self-preservation (not necessarily democracy), that data presented by democratic peace theorists is limited and causal, and that it is also important for us to trouble the ways we perceive, define, and apply the theory. William Appleman Williams argues that Liberal Democracy has been a means of imposing a gentler form of empire that has served to contain class and race tensions at home and allowed for imperial expansion abroad. Issue: Did a "New South" Emerge Following Reconstruction? YES: Ronald D. Eller , from "A Magnificent Field for Capitalists," University of Tennessee Press (1982) NO: James Tice Moore , from "Redeemers Reconsidered: Change and Continuity in the Democratic South, 1870-1900," Journal of Southern History (1978) Ronald D. Eller describes the post-Reconstruction entrepreneurial spirit that altered the traditional rural economy of the Mountain South through the introduction of the railroad and the development of coal, iron, and lumber industries in Appalachia.

James Tice Moore challenges the view that the white, Democratic political elite that ruled the post-Reconstruction South abandoned antebellum rural traditions in favor of business and commerce and concludes that these agriculturally oriented "Redeemers" actually represented a continuity of leadership from the Old South to the New South. Issue: Should We Understand Modern U.S. Imperial Power as Primarily Emerging from Its Financial Diplomacy following the World Wars? YES: Michael Hudson , from "Introduction to Super Imperialism," Pluto Press (2003) NO: James Monroe , from "Transcript of Monroe Doctrine (1823)," OurDocuments.gov (1823); Carl Schurz , from "Platform of the American Anti-Imperialist League," The Policy of Imperialism (1899); John Hobson , from "The Economic Bases of Imperialism," Imperialism: A Study (1902) Michael Hudson suggests that the imperial watershed moment is when United States used their position as world creditor to establish the economic conditions that would evolve lead to future economic mechanisms such as the IMF and World Bank, which would plunge certain countries into a debt crisis to maintain US economic and imperial dominance worldwide. James Monroe writes that the United States would oppose European colonialism in the Americas beginning in 1823. Carl Schurz argues that the United States was becoming an imperial nation, committing criminal aggression by annexing the Philippines. John Hobson provides us with the reasons for and state of imperialism around the world.

He discusses the economic basis for imperial expansion suggesting it is driven by the search for new markets and investment opportunities overseas. He names how the United States was entering this imperial quest in relations to other world powers at the turn of the century. The authors provide examples of historical shifts in imperial policy prior to the World Wars. Unit 2: Reform, War, and Depression Issue: Did the Progressives Succeed? YES: Ronald J. Pestritto and William J. Atto , from "Progressive Party Platform of 1912," Progressive Party National Convention (1912); Woodrow Wilson, from "The New Freedom," Doubleday (1913) NO: Richard M. Abrams , from "The Failure of Progressivism," Little, Brown and Company (1971) Ronald J. Pestritto and William J.

Atto provide significant evidence from the Progressive Party Platform of 1912 and Woodrow Wilson''s 1913 campaign addresses demonstrating the impact of progressivism''s influence of policy and practice throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century. Professor of history Richard Abrams maintains that progressivism was a failure because it tried to impose a uniform set of values upon a culturally diverse people and never seriously confronted the inequalities that still exist in American society. Issue: Was Woodrow Wilson Responsible for the Failure of the United States to Join the League of Nations? YES: Thomas A. Bailey , from "Woodrow Wilson Wouldn''t Yield," Appleton-Century-Crofts (1969) NO: William G. Carleton , from "A New Look at Woodrow Wilson," The Virginia Quarterly Review (1962) Thomas A. Bailey argues that a physically infirm Woodrow Wilson was unable to make the necessary compromises with the U. S. Senate to join the League of Nations and convince America that the United States should play a major role in world affairs.

The late William G. Carleton believed that Woodrow Wilson understood better than any of his contem¬poraries the role that the United States would play in world affairs. Issue: Is Media Propaganda Helpful in Supporting United States Democracy? YES: Edward Bernays , from "Speak Up for Democracy," Current History (1940) NO: Noam Chomsky , from "Democracy and the Media," Pluto Press (1989) Edward Bernays believes that the media propaganda plays a vital role in developing the opinions, habits, tastes, and ideas within a democratic society. He suggests that this conscious and intelligent manipulation is vital because it helps to establish a basic framework by which citizens can understand the world, thereby avoiding chaos. Noam Chomsky rejects the idea that this type of propaganda is helpful, instead suggesting that it and other media mechanisms limit the exchange of democratic ideas by furthering the interests of those in power and business elites. Issue: Were the First 100 Days of the New Deal Essentially Political Maneuvering? YES: Gabriel Kolko , from "The New Deal Illusion," CounterPunch (2012) NO: Franklin D. Roosevelt , from "On the Purposes and Foundations of the Recovery Program, July 24, 1933," Marist College (1933) Gabriel Kolko asserts that instead of implementing a successful progressive New Deal agenda President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his administrative cabinet of advisors closely aligned with conservative "big business" interests that took advantage of the economic crises during America''s twentieth century Great Depression to protect their financial and social power bases at the expense of the common person. To counter Gabriel Kolko''s critical analysis of the FDR''s New Deal motives, a primary document representing one of President Roosevelt''s many "fire side chats" is offered as evidence that FDR''s New Deal policies called upon all segments of the U.

S. population to enter into a common commitment of sacrifice and service to address the economic and social crises of the day. Issue: Was the World War II Era a Watershed for the Civil Rights Movement? YES: James Nuechterlein , from "The Politics of Civil Rights: The FEPC, 1941-46," Prologue: The Journal of the National Archives (1978) NO: Harvard Sitkoff , from "African American Militancy in the World War II South: Another Perspective," University Press of Mississippi (1997) James Nuechterlein insists that the efforts to improve employment opportunities for African Americans during World War II, as exemplified by the establishment of the Fair Employment Practices Commission (1941-1946), marked the beginning of the modern civil rights movement in the United States and set the stage for broader civil rights successes in the 1950s and 1960s. Harvard Sitkoff challenges the "watershed" interpretation by pointing out that, after Pearl Harbor, militant African American protest against racial discrimination was limited by the constraints imposed on the nation at war, the dwindling resources for sustained confrontation, and the genuinely patriotic response by black Americans to dangers faced by the nation. Unit 3: The Cold War and Beyond Issue: Was President Truman Responsible for the Cold War? YES: Walter LaFeber , from "America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945-2000," McGraw-Hill (2002) NO: John Lewis Gaddis , from "The Origins of the Cold War: 1945-1953," McGraw-Hill (1990) Walter LaFeber argues that the Truman administration exaggerated the Soviet threat after World War II because the United States had expansionist political and economic global needs. John Lewis Gaddis argues that the power vacuum that existed in Europe at the end of World War II exaggerated and made almost inevitable a clash between the democratic, capitalist United States and the totalitarian, communist USSR and that Joseph Stalin, unwilling to accept any diplomatic compromises, was primarily responsible for the Cold War. Issue: Was Rock and Roll Responsible for Dismantling America''s Traditional Family, Sexual, and Racial Customs in the 1950s and 1960s? YES: Jody Pennington , from "Don''t Knock the Rock: Race, Business, and Society in the Rise of Rock and Roll," Aarhus University Press (1992) NO: Bruce Harrah-Conforth , from " Rock and Roll, Pro.