Mark Atwood Lawrence

This course explores the history of American foreign relations from the eighteenth century to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. During this period, the United States established many of the patterns of thought and behavior that have characterized the nation in more recent times. Understanding these early years of America's relationship with the wider world can help us gain important insight into current dilemmas, debates, and controversies.

The course aims for both breadth and depth. Some lectures and readings are aimed at providing a broad view of the political and ideological currents that fed into the making of foreign policy. Other lectures and readings go into depth on particular topics - the American Revolution, the Louisiana Purchase, the Texas Revolution, and especially the the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars that marked the emergence of the United States as a world power.

There are no prerequisites for the course, but students are expected to have a basic grasp of U.S. history from 1776 to 1914.

Nearly fifty years after it ended, the presidency of Lyndon Johnson continues to inspire enormous interest and controversy. What sort of person was LBJ? What motives underpinned his greatest achievements and biggest errors in both the domestic and international arenas? How can we reconcile the triumphs of civil rights and other transformational Great Society initiatives with the disaster of the Vietnam War? What is LBJ’s legacy? What importance does the Johnson presidency hold in the long flow of history, and why does he remain a contentious figure? These are among the major questions at the heart of this seminar. In addressing them, we will read and discuss scholarship and primary sources on President Johnson and his times. We will also meet with various participants in – or close observers of – the Johnson administration. 

Students will be evaluated largely on their preparation for, and participation in, seminar meetings.  They will also be graded on the basis of three papers of varying lengths.  The largest one – the course’s central writing requirement – will be a research paper of approximately 15 pages based on materials housed in the LBJ Library archive.  This assignment challenges students to evaluate primary-source materials and arrive at their own conclusions about key aspects of the Johnson presidency. We will devote considerable time early in the term to identifying promising topics and learning how to use the library’s reading room. Over the remainder of the semester, students will be expected to conduct research and produce a polished paper. 

Required texts

Maurice Isserman and Michael Kazin, America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s (5^th ed., 2015)

Mark Atwood Lawrence, The Vietnam War: A Concise International History (2008)

Bruce J. Schulman, Lyndon B. Johnson and American Liberalism (2nd ed., 2007)

Photocopied material on the course Canvas site

Description: In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Great Britain was the world’s dominant power and chief proponent of a liberal international order.  By the middle of the twentieth century, a badly weakened Britain was mostly replaced by the United States in those roles.  But British thinking about diplomatic and military affairs exerted a strong influence on American strategy, and the two nations formed what became known as the “Special Relationship.”  This course, to be held in London as a Maymester, will explore the diplomatic and military history of the United Kingdom and Great Britain and especially how the two nations have interacted and shaped each other’s national security policies and visions of global order.  Classroom sessions will include faculty guest instructors from the renowned War Studies Department of Kings College London, and the course will be supplemented with regular field visits to historic sites in London and throughout the United Kingdom.  The group will also make a visit to the battlefields of Normandy.  

Possible readings include:
Andrew Roberts, Masters and Commanders: How Four Titans Won the War in the West, 1941-1945
Robert Kagan, The World America Made
Packet of photocopied essays and documents

Active participation in seminar (40 percent of course grade); daily reading response papers (20 percent); journal of approximately 20 pages due at the end of the program (40 percent).  

This course introduces undergraduates to the complex and controversial history of the wars fought in Vietnam from 1941 to the 1980s.  It will focus especially on American intervention, but students should be aware that the course will devote careful attention to Vietnamese history as well as the history of French, Japanese, British, and Chinese interventions in Indochina.  In this way, the course will attempt to place the American war in the broad context of colonialism, nationalism, communism, and cold war.  

The class will begin by considering the development of Vietnamese nationalism and communism during the period of French colonialism.  It will then examine the profound impact of the Second World War, which brought about, in succession, Japanese, Chinese, and British intervention before the country fell once again under French domination.  The French war (1946 to 1954) will receive careful attention before the class shifts its focus to the United States for the second half of the semester.  Lectures and readings will consider many of the major controversies associated with the American war:  Why did the United States intervene despite the lack of tangible American interests in Vietnam?  To what extent and why did American policymakers misunderstand the nature of the war?  Was the war “winnable” in any meaningful sense?  If so, why did the United States fail to achieve its objectives?  What social, cultural, and political legacies has the war produced in the United States and Vietnam?

Class time will consist of lecture, film clips, and discussion.  Students will be expected to read approximately 150 pages a week.
Possible readings include:
Mark Philip Bradley, The Vietnamese War
Christian Appy, Working Class War
Robert S. McNamara, In Retrospect
George Herring, America’s Longest War
William Lederer and Eugene Burdick, The Ugly American

Requirements will likely include a few reading quizzes (25%), a paper of approximately 5-6 pages (25 %), a midterm examination (25 %), and a final (25%).  Students will have the opportunity to improve their grades through class participation but not through extra credit assignments.

This course provides students with the opportunity to write a substantial research paper on a topic in the broad field of international history.  Students are free to explore diplomatic relations between governments, but they are also encouraged to consider delving beyond state-to-state relations to consider the roles of non-governmental and international organizations, cultural interactions across national borders, the history of globalization, or other new approaches to the study of global affairs.

Over the first six weeks or so, the seminar will also consider a handful of readings selected to promote discussion of some of the major problems of doing research of this kind.  Most of the semester, however, will be devoted to working through the various stages of the research project:  selection of a topic, assembly of a bibliography, and then preparation of a prospectus, outline, rough draft, and final draft.  The seminar will meet as necessary to bring each other up to date on the projects and to discuss common problems.  In the last two weeks, the seminar will stage a mock conference in which each student will present her/his work as a 10-15-minute conference paper.  Ideally, each student will emerge from the course with a substantial piece of original research that, with additional polishing, can be submitted for publication in a scholarly journal.
Possible readings include Matthew Connelly, Fatal Misconception:  The Struggle to Control World Population; Akira Iriye, Global Community:  The Role of International Organizations in the Making of the Contemporary World; Piero Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions:  Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976; Max Paul Friedman, Nazis & Good Neighbors:  The United States Campaign Against the Germans of Latin America in World War II; and Campbell Craig and Fredrik Logevall, America’s Cold War:  The Politics of Insecurity.
Requirements will include a short review early in the term, an oral presentation, and a series of writing assignments culminating in a final paper.

This course surveys the rich and controversial history of the United States since the nation’s entry into the Second World War, arguably the most important breaking point in American history.  Above all, the course focuses on the rise of the United States as a global power, the expansion of rights for women and minorities, and the debate over the appropriate role of the federal government in regulating the American economy and society.  At the end of the course, students should be prepared for more specialized coursework in recent American history.  The course also aims to encourage students to think like historians.  That is, it encourages students to evaluate primary sources and competing opinions about the past and arrive at their own conclusions.  

Likely texts include:

Michael C.C. Adams, The Best War Ever:  American and World War II

Joshua B. Freeman, American Empire:  The Rise of a Global Power, the Democratic Revolution at Home, 1945-2000

Robert B. Horwitz, America’s Right:  Anti-Establishment Conservatism from Goldwater to the Tea Party

Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound:  American Families in the Cold War Era

Ann Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi

Course requirements will be one midterm, a paper of approximately 5 pages, a final exam, and several quizzes scattered throughout the term.

50 years after it ended, the presidency of Lyndon Johnson continues to inspire enormous interest and controversy.  What sort of person was Johnson?  What motives underpinned his greatest achievements and biggest errors in both the domestic and foreign-policy arenas?  How can we reconcile the triumphs of civil rights with the setbacks of the Vietnam War?  What is LBJ’s legacy, and what place does he deserve in the long flow of American history?  These will be among the major questions at the heart of this seminar.  In addressing them, we will read and discuss scholarship on the Johnson administration and the 1960s.  We will also meet with various participants in – or close observers of – the Johnson administration who live in and around Austin. 

Course requirements will include two short essays as well as a 10-12 page research paper based on materials in the LBJ Library archive.  We will devote considerable time early in the term to identifying promising topics and learning how to use the library’s reading room.  Over the remainder of the term, students will be expected to conduct research and, in consultation with the instructors, produce a polished paper. 

Required readings will likely include Mark K. Updegrove, Indomitable Will:   LBJ in the Presidency; Maurice Isserman and Michael Kazin, America Divided:  The Civil War of the 1960s; and Mark Atwood Lawrence, The Vietnam War:  A Concise International History, as well as a packet of photocopied chapters and documents. 

This course introduces the history of American foreign relations from the First World War to the present.  During this period, the United States fully joined the ranks of the great powers and then, following a period of hesitation, surpassed all its rivals in exercising influence around the world.  We will explore the course and causes of this rise to power and seek to understand current dilemmas and debates within their historical context.

The class aims for both breadth and depth.  Some lectures and readings are aimed at providing a wide view of the political, economic, and ideological currents that fed into the making of foreign policy.  Other lectures and readings focus on particular topics – the debate over the League of Nations, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Vietnam War, the American interventions in Central America during the 1980s, and the American response to the September 11 attacks, among others.

Possible readings include:

Emily Rosenberg, Spreading the American Dream;

James Mann, Rise of the Vulcans;

Melvin Leffler, The Specter of Communism;

Mark Danner, Massacre at El Mozote;

Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, Fail-Safe.

Students will be evaluated on the basis of a midterm (30 percent of term grade), paper (30 percent), and final (40 percent).

Description: In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Great Britain was the world’s dominant power and chief proponent of a liberal international order.  By the middle of the twentieth century, a badly weakened Britain was mostly replaced by the United States in those roles.  But British thinking about diplomatic and military affairs exerted a strong influence on American strategy, and the two nations formed what became known as the “Special Relationship.”  This course, to be held in London as a Maymester, will explore the diplomatic and military history of the United Kingdom and Great Britain and especially how the two nations have interacted and shaped each other’s national security policies and visions of global order.  Classroom sessions will include faculty guest instructors from the renowned War Studies Department of Kings College London, and the course will be supplemented with regular field visits to historic sites in London and throughout the United Kingdom.  The group will also make a visit to the battlefields of Normandy. 

Possible readings include:

Alan P. Dobson and Steve Marsh, editors, Anglo-American Relations:  Contemporary Perspectives (Routledge, 2013).

Walter Russell Mead, God and Gold:  Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World (Vintage, 2008). 

David Reynolds, From World War to Cold War:  Churchill, Roosevelt, and the International History of the 1940s (Oxford University Press, 2007).

Mark A. Stoler, Allies and Adversaries:  The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Grand Alliance, and U.S. Strategy in World War II (University of North Carolina Press, 2003).

Active participation in seminar (40 percent of course grade); daily reading response papers (20 percent); journal of approximately 20 pages due at the end of the program (40 percent).

This course provides students with the opportunity to write a substantial research paper on a topic in the broad field of international history.  Students are free to explore diplomatic relations between governments, but they are also encouraged to consider delving beyond state-to-state relations to consider the roles of non-governmental and international organizations, cultural interactions across national borders, the history of globalization, or other new approaches to the study of global affairs.

Over the first six weeks or so, the seminar will also consider a handful of readings selected to promote discussion of some of the major problems of doing research of this kind.  Most of the semester, however, will be devoted to working through the various stages of the research project:  selection of a topic, assembly of a bibliography, and then preparation of a prospectus, outline, rough draft, and final draft.  The seminar will meet as necessary to bring each other up to date on the projects and to discuss common problems.  In the last two weeks, the seminar will stage a mock conference in which each student will present her/his work as a 10-15-minute conference paper.  Ideally, each student will emerge from the course with a substantial piece of original research that, with additional polishing, can be submitted for publication in a scholarly journal.

Possible readings include Matthew Connelly, Fatal Misconception:  The Struggle to Control World Population; Akira Iriye, Global Community:  The Role of International Organizations in the Making of the Contemporary World; Piero Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions:  Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976; Max Paul Friedman, Nazis & Good Neighbors:  The United States Campaign Against the Germans of Latin America in World War II; and Campbell Craig and Fredrik Logevall, America’s Cold War:  The Politics of Insecurity.

Requirements will include a short review early in the term, an oral presentation, and a series of writing assignments culminating in a final paper.

This course explores the history of American foreign relations from the eighteenth century to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. During this period, the United States established many of the patterns of thought and behavior that have characterized the nation in more recent times. Understanding these early years of America's relationship with the wider world can help us gain important insight into current dilemmas, debates, and controversies.

The course aims for both breadth and depth. Some lectures and readings are aimed at providing a broad view of the political and ideological currents that fed into the making of foreign policy. Other lectures and readings go into depth on particular topics - the American Revolution, the Louisiana Purchase, the Texas Revolution, and especially the the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars that marked the emergence of the United States as a world power.

There are no prerequisites for the course, but students are expected to have a basic grasp of U.S. history from 1776 to 1914.

Charles Edel, Nation-Builder;

Jonathan Dull, The Diplomacy of the American Revolution;

Louis Pérez, The War of 1898;

Matthew Frye Jacobson, Barbarian Virtues.

Nearly 50 years after it ended, the presidency of Lyndon Johnson continues to inspire enormous interest and controversy.  What sort of person was Johnson?  What motives underpinned his greatest achievements and biggest errors in both the domestic and foreign-policy arenas?  How can we reconcile the triumphs of civil rights with the setbacks of the Vietnam War?  What is LBJ’s legacy, and what place does he deserve in the long flow of American history?  These will be among the major questions at the heart of this seminar.  In addressing them, we will read and discuss scholarship on the Johnson administration and the 1960s.  We will also meet with various participants in – or close observers of – the Johnson administration who live in and around Austin. 

Course requirements will include two short essays as well as a 10-12 page research paper based on materials in the LBJ Library archive.  We will devote considerable time early in the term to identifying promising topics and learning how to use the library’s reading room.  Over the remainder of the term, students will be expected to conduct research and, in consultation with the instructors, produce a polished paper. 

Required readings will likely include Mark K. Updegrove, Indomitable Will:   LBJ in the Presidency; Maurice Isserman and Michael Kazin, America Divided:  The Civil War of the 1960s; and Mark Atwood Lawrence, The Vietnam War:  A Concise International History, as well as a packet of photocopied chapters and documents. 

This course will examine the tensions and transformations in citizenship and everyday life that accompanied the emergence of the United States as a global power. In 1940, the United States was slowly making its way out of the Great Depression.  Men and women faced changes in the role of the state in society, challenges in the economy and the links between citizenship and political participation. World War II transformed American life, ushering in the heightened presence of the federal government in everyday life and a more thorough involvement of American society in the world.

Besides being an introduction to larger themes in United States history, students should learn that history is not ‘just the facts’; that history is not prepackaged in textbooks or studios of the History Channel, that reasonable people can arrive at different understandings of an event even when they read the same evidence. That is, our past, like the present, is open to interpretation.

John Dower, War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War

Laurie Green, Battling the Plantation Mentality: Memphis and the Black Freedom Struggle

Susan Douglass, Where the Girls are: Growing up Female with the Mass Media

Roberto Suros, Strangers Among Us: Latino Lives in a Changing America

Tamim Ansary, East of Kabul, West of New York

Doug Rossinow & Rebecca Lowen, The United States since 1945: an interpretation*

Quizzes & Response Papers:  15%

Thematic Review:  15%

Midterm 1:  25%

Midterm 2:  30%

Participation:  15%

This course introduces the history of American foreign relations from the First World War to the present. During this period, the United States fully joined the ranks of the great powers and then, following a period of hesitation, surpassed all its rivals in exercising influence around the world. We will explore the course and causes of this rise to power and seek to understand current dilemmas and debates within their historical context.

The class aims for both breadth and depth. Some lectures and readings are aimed at providing a wide view of the political, economic, and ideological currents that fed into the making of foreign policy. Other lectures and readings focus on particular topics – the debate over the League of Nations, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Vietnam War, the American interventions in Central America during the 1980s, and the American response to the September 11 attacks, among others.

Texts:

H.W. Brands, Woodrow Wilson

James Mann, Rise of the Vulcans;

Melvin Leffler, The Specter of Communism;

Mark Lawrence, The Vietnam War:  A Concise International History

Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, Fail-Safe.

Grading:

Students will be evaluated on the basis of a midterm (25 percent of term grade), paper (25 percent), and final (40 percent), and several quizzes.

Nearly 50 years after it ended, the presidency of Lyndon Johnson continues to inspire enormous interest and controversy. What sort of person was Johnson?

What motives underpinned his greatest achievements and biggest errors in both the domestic and foreign-policy arenas? How can we reconcile the triumphs of civil rights with the setbacks of the Vietnam War? What is LBJ's legacy, and what place does he deserve in the long flow of American history? These will be among the major questions at the heart of this seminar. In addressing them, we will read and discuss scholarship on the Johnson administration and the 1960s. We will also meet with various participants in-or close observers of-the Johnson administration who live in and around Austin.

The central course requirement will be a research paper of approximately 25 pages based on materials in the LBJ Library archive. We will devote considerable time early in the term to identifying promising topics and learning how to use the library's reading room. Over the remainder of the term, students will be expected to conduct research and, in consultation with the instructors, produce a polished scholarly paper.

Required readings will likely include Mark K. Updegrove, Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency; Maurice Isserman and Michael Kazin, America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s; and Fredrik Logevall, Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam, as well as a packet of photocopied chapters and  documents.

This course surveys the rich and controversial history of the United States since the nation’s entry into the Second World War, arguably the most important breaking point in American history.  Above all, the course focuses on the rise of the United States as a global power, the expansion of rights for women and minorities, and the debate over the appropriate role of the federal government in regulating the American economy and society.  At the end of the course, students should be prepared for more specialized coursework in recent American history.  The course also aims to encourage students to think like historians.  That is, it encourages students to evaluate primary sources and competing opinions about the past and arrive at their own conclusions. 

Course requirements will be one midterm, a paper of approximately 5 pages, a final exam, and several quizzes scattered throughout the term.

Possible texts include H.W. Brands, American Dreams; Julian E. Zelizer, The Fierce Urgency of Now; Ann Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi; Lisa McGirr, Suburban Warriors; Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound; James Mann, Rise of the Vulcans; Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle; and Gregory Schneider, ed., Conservatism in America Since 1930. 

THE UNITED STATES, BRITAIN, AND THE GLOBAL ORDER

Lawrence, MarkWilliam InbodenPaul Miller

Description: In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Great Britain was the world’s dominant power and chief proponent of a liberal international order.  By the middle of the twentieth century, a badly weakened Britain was mostly replaced by the United States in those roles.  But British thinking about diplomatic and military affairs exerted a strong influence on American strategy, and the two nations formed what became known as the “Special Relationship.”  This course, to be held in London as a Maymester, will explore the diplomatic and military history of the United Kingdom and Great Britain and especially how the two nations have interacted and shaped each other’s national security policies and visions of global order.  Classroom sessions will include faculty guest instructors from the renowned War Studies Department of Kings College London, and the course will be supplemented with regular field visits to historic sites in London and throughout the United Kingdom.  The group will also make a visit to the battlefields of Normandy. 

Texts:

Alan P. Dobson and Steve Marsh, editors, Anglo-American Relations:  Contemporary Perspectives (Routledge, 2013).

Walter Russell Mead, God and Gold:  Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World (Vintage, 2008). 

David Reynolds, From World War to Cold War:  Churchill, Roosevelt, and the International History of the 1940s (Oxford University Press, 2007).

Mark A. Stoler, Allies and Adversaries:  The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Grand Alliance, and U.S. Strategy in World War II (University of North Carolina Press, 2003).

Grading:

Active participation in seminar (40 percent of course grade); daily reading response papers (20 percent); journal of approximately 20 pages due at the end of the program (40 percent).

This course aims to introduce graduate students to the historiography of U.S. foreign relations, ideally to prepare them for research in this field.  The course will sweep broadly across American history, with the emphasis falling on the twentieth century.  More important than chronological coverage, however, is the goal of grappling with the major interpretive controversies and methodological innovations that have arisen over the past fifty years. 

For the first few weeks, the seminar will consider the evolution of the field from the 1950s until the early 1990s, tracing the development of the “orthodox,” “revisionist,” and “post-revisionist” schools of thought about the basic motives driving U.S. decision-making.  The course will then examine the three most important recent trends in writing about America’s interactions with the outside world.  First, it will consider several works that draw on newly available archival sources from abroad, especially the former communist bloc.  Second, the class will explore scholarship emphasizing culture and ideology.  Third, the class will examine books that reach beyond government policymaking to investigate the role of private citizens, activist groups, and expert communities.

Texts:

Possible texts include: William Appleman Williams, The Tragedy of American Diplomacy; George F. Kennan, American Diplomacy; Brad Simpson, Economists with Guns; Greg Grandin, Empire’s Workshop; David Milne, Worldmaking; Charles Edel, Nation Builder; Daniel Sargent, A Superpower Transformed; Barbara Keys, Reclaiming American Virtue; Kristin Hoganson, Fighting for American Manhood; and Jeremy Friedman, Shadow Cold War.

Grading:

Requirements will include active participation in seminar, several book reviews, and a longer historiographical essay.

This course introduces the history of American foreign relations from the First World War to the present. During this period, the United States fully joined the ranks of the great powers and then, following a period of hesitation, surpassed all its rivals in exercising influence around the world. We will explore the course and causes of this rise to power and seek to understand current dilemmas and debates within their historical context.

The class aims for both breadth and depth. Some lectures and readings are aimed at providing a wide view of the political, economic, and ideological currents that fed into the making of foreign policy. Other lectures and readings focus on particular topics – the debate over the League of Nations, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Vietnam War, the American interventions in Central America during the 1980s, and the American response to the September 11 attacks, among others.

Texts:

Emily Rosenberg, Spreading the American Dream;

James Mann, Rise of the Vulcans;

Melvin Leffler, The Specter of Communism;

Mark Danner, Massacre at El Mozote;

Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, Fail-Safe.

Grading:

Students will be evaluated on the basis of a midterm (30 percent of term grade), paper (30 percent), and final (40 percent).

Nearly 50 years after it ended, the presidency of Lyndon Johnson continues to inspire enormous interest and controversy. What sort of person was Johnson? What motive underpinned his greatest achievements and biggest errors in both the domestic and foreign-policy arenas? How can we reconcile the triumphs of civil rights with the setbacks of the Vietman War? What is LBJ's legacy, and what place does he deserve in the long flow of American history? These will be among the major questions at the heart of this seminar. In addressing them, we will read and discuss scholarship on the Johnson administration and the 1960s. We will also meet with various participants in - or close observers of - the Johnson administration who live in and around Austin.The central course requirement will be a research paper of approximately 25 pages based on materials in the LBJ Library archive. We will devote considerable time early in the term to identifying promising topics and learning how to use the library's reading room. Over the remainder of the term, students will be expected to conduct research and, in consultation with the instructors, produce a polished scholarly paper.

Required readings will likely include Mark K. Updegrove, Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency; Maurice Isserman and Michael Kazin, American Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s; and Fredrik Logevall, Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam, as well as a packet of photocopied chapters and documents.

Great Britain’s rise and eventual decline on the world stage gave way to the emergence of the United States as a global power after World War II.  In the process, British thinking about diplomatic and military affairs exerted a strong influence on American strategy, embodied in what became known as the “Special Relationship” between the United States and United Kingdom.  This course, to be held in London as a Maymester, will explore the diplomatic and military history of the United Kingdom and how it historically shaped, and continues to shape, American national security policy today.  Classroom sessions will include faculty guest instructors from the renowned War Studies Department of Kings College London, and the course will be supplemented with regular field visits to historic sites in London and throughout the United Kingdom.

Texts:

Alan P. Dobson and Steve Marsh, editors, Anglo-American Relations:  Contemporary Perspectives (Routledge, 2013).

Jeffrey A. Engel, The Cold War at 30,000 Feet:  The Anglo-American Fight for Aviation Supremacy (Harvard University Press, 2007).

Walter Russell Mead, God and Gold:  Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World (Vintage, 2008). 

David Reynolds, From World War to Cold War:  Churchill, Roosevelt, and the International History of the 1940s (Oxford University Press, 2007).

Jay Sexton, The Monroe Doctrine:  Empire and Nation in Nineteenth Century America (Hill and Wang, 2012). 

Mark A. Stoler, Allies and Adversaries:  The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Grand Alliance, and U.S. Strategy in World War II (University of North Carolina Press, 2003).

Grading:

Active participation in seminar (40 percent of course grade)

Four paper of approximately 1,500 words each (40 percent)

Occasional quizzes (20 percent)

This course introduces undergraduates to the complex and controversial history of the wars fought in Vietnam from 1941 to the 1980s.  It will focus especially on American intervention, but students should be aware that the course will devote careful attention to Vietnamese history as well as the history of French, Japanese, British, and Chinese interventions in Indochina.  In this way, the course will attempt to place the American war in the broad context of colonialism, nationalism, communism, and cold war. 

The class will begin by considering the development of Vietnamese nationalism and communism during the period of French colonialism.  It will then examine the profound impact of the Second World War, which brought about, in succession, Japanese, Chinese, and British intervention before the country fell once again under French domination.  The French war (1946 to 1954) will receive careful attention before the class shifts its focus to the United States for the second half of the semester.  Lectures and readings will consider many of the major controversies associated with the American war:  Why did the United States intervene despite the lack of tangible American interests in Vietnam?  To what extent and why did American policymakers misunderstand the nature of the war?  Was the war “winnable” in any meaningful sense?  If so, why did the United States fail to achieve its objectives?  What social, cultural, and political legacies has the war produced in the United States and Vietnam?

Class time will consist of lecture, film clips, and discussion.  Students will be expected to read approximately 150 pages a week.

Texts:

Mark Philip Bradley, The Vietnamese War

Christian Appy, Working Class War

Robert S. McNamara, In Retrospect

George Herring, America’s Longest War

William Lederer and Eugene Burdick, The Ugly American

Grading:

Requirements will likely include a few reading quizzes (25%), a paper of approximately 5-6 pages (25 %), a midterm examination (25 %), and a final (25%).  Students will have the opportunity to improve their grades through class participation but not through extra credit assignments.

This course provides students with the opportunity to write a substantial research paper on a topic in the broad field of international history.  Students are free to explore diplomatic relations between governments, but they are also encouraged to consider delving beyond state-to-state relations to consider the roles of non-governmental and international organizations, cultural interactions across national borders, the history of globalization, or other new approaches to the study of global affairs.

Over the first six weeks or so, the seminar will also consider a handful of readings selected to promote discussion of some of the major problems of doing research of this kind.  Most of the semester, however, will be devoted to working through the various stages of the research project:  selection of a topic, assembly of a bibliography, and then preparation of a prospectus, outline, rough draft, and final draft.  The seminar will meet as necessary to bring each other up to date on the projects and to discuss common problems.  In the last two weeks, the seminar will stage a mock conference in which each student will present her/his work as a 10-15-minute conference paper.  Ideally, each student will emerge from the course with a substantial piece of original research that, with additional polishing, can be submitted for publication in a scholarly journal.

Texts:

Possible readings include Matthew Connelly, Fatal Misconception:  The Struggle to Control World Population; Akira Iriye, Global Community:  The Role of International Organizations in the Making of the Contemporary World; Piero Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions:  Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976; Max Paul Friedman, Nazis & Good Neighbors:  The United States Campaign Against the Germans of Latin America in World War II; and Campbell Craig and Fredrik Logevall, America’s Cold War:  The Politics of Insecurity.

Grading:

Requirements will include a short review early in the term, an oral presentation, and a series of writing assignments culminating in a final paper.

This course introduces the history of American foreign relations from the First World War to the present.  During this period, the United States fully joined the ranks of the great powers and then, following a period of hesitation, surpassed all its rivals in exercising influence around the world.  We will explore the course and causes of this rise to power and seek to understand current dilemmas and debates within their historical context.

The class aims for both breadth and depth.  Some lectures and readings are aimed at providing a wide view of the political, economic, and ideological currents that fed into the making of foreign policy.  Other lectures and readings focus on particular topics – the debate over the League of Nations, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Vietnam War, the American interventions in Central America during the 1980s, and the American response to the September 11 attacks, among others.

Texts:

Emily Rosenberg, Spreading the American Dream;

James Mann, Rise of the Vulcans;

Melvin Leffler, The Specter of Communism;

Mark Danner, Massacre at El Mozote;

Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, Fail-Safe.

Grading:

Students will be evaluated on the basis of a midterm (30 percent of term grade), paper (30 percent), and final (40 percent).

The Vietnam War has been called “the war that never ends” – and for good reason.  A half century after Americans went to war in Indochina, the war still weighs heavily over American politics, culture, intellectual life, military affairs, and foreign policy.  This course will consider the war’s legacy in all of these arenas, asking above all why the war remains so controversial.  The class will spend the first two weeks on the history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam and then shift for the remainder of the term to the war’s afterlife.  We will focus above all on memory of the war in the United States, but, for comparative purposes, we will also consider who Vietnamese remember the conflict.  On the American side, we will focus on, for example, controversies over Americans categoriezed as “missing in action,” normalization of U.S.-Vietnamese relations, the construction of the Vietnam memorial in Washington, the “swift boat” controversy of the 2004 presidential campaign, and the debate over the similarities between the Vietnam and Iraq/Afghanistan wars.  Readings will consist of scholarly studies as well as novels, memoirs, poems, song lyrics, films, and other kinds of texts.  Students will be evaluated on the basis of class participation, one or two short papers, and a lengthier research paper of their own designing.  

TEXTS:

George C. Herring, America’s Longest War:  America and Vietnam, 1950-1975

Duong Thu Huong, Paradise of the Blind

Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried

Lloyd C. Gardner and Marilyn B. Young, Iraq and the Lessons of Vietnam

Jerry Lembcke, The Spitting Image

H. Bruce Franklin, MIA, or Mythmaking in America 

James Mann, Rise of the Vulcans

Requirements:

Students will be evaluated on the basis of class participation, one or two short papers, and a lengthier research paper of their own designing.  

This course explores the history of American foreign relations from the eighteenth century to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. During this period, the United States established many of the patterns of thought and behavior that have characterized the nation in more recent times. Understanding these early years of America's relationship with the wider world can help us gain important insight into current dilemmas, debates, and controversies.

The course aims for both breadth and depth. Some lectures and readings are aimed at providing a broad view of the political and ideological currents that fed into the making of foreign policy. Other lectures and readings go into depth on particular topics - the American Revolution, the Louisiana Purchase, the Texas Revolution, and especially the the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars that marked the emergence of the United States as a world power.

There are no prerequisites for the course, but students are expected to have a basic grasp of U.S. history from 1776 to 1914.

This reading seminar aims to introduce graduate students to the historiography of U.S. foreign relations, ideally to prepare them for research in this field.  The course will sweep broadly across American history, with the emphasis falling on the twentieth century.  More important than chronological coverage, however, is the goal of grappling with the major interpretive controversies and methodological innovations that have arisen over the past fifty years. 

For the first few weeks, the seminar will consider the evolution of the field from the 1950s until the early 1990s, tracing the development of the “orthodox,” “revisionist,” and “post-revisionist” schools of thought about the basic motives driving U.S. decision-making.  The course will then examine the three most important recent trends in writing about America’s interactions with the outside world.  First, it will consider several works that draw on newly available archival sources from abroad, especially the former communist bloc.  Second, the class will explore scholarship emphasizing culture and ideology.  Third, the class will examine books that reach beyond government policymaking to investigate the role of private citizens, activist groups, and expert communities. 

Requirements will include active participation in seminar, several book reviews, and a longer historiographical essay.

Texts:

Required texts will likely include some or all of the following: William Appleman Williams, The Tragedy of American Diplomacy; George F. Kennan, American Diplomacy; Brad Simpson, Economists with Guns; Greg Grandin, Empire’s Workshop; Robert Kagan, Dangerous Nation; Craig & Logevall, America’s Cold War; and Hal Brands, Latin America’s Cold War.

This course introduces undergraduates to the complex and controversial history of the wars fought in Vietnam from 1941 to the 1980s.  It will focus especially on American intervention, but students should be aware that the course will devote careful attention to Vietnamese history as well as the history of French, Japanese, British, and Chinese interventions in Indochina.  In this way, the course will attempt to place the American war in the broad context of colonialism, nationalism, communism, and cold war. 

The class will begin by considering the development of Vietnamese nationalism and communism during the period of French colonialism.  It will then examine the profound impact of the Second World War, which brought about, in succession, Japanese, Chinese, and British intervention before the country fell once again under French domination.  The French war (1946 to 1954) will receive careful attention before the class shifts its focus to the United States for the second half of the semester.  Lectures and readings will consider many of the major controversies associated with the American war:  Why did the United States intervene despite the lack of tangible American interests in Vietnam?  To what extent and why did American policymakers misunderstand the nature of the war?  Was the war “winnable” in any meaningful sense?  If so, why did the United States fail to achieve its objectives?  What social, cultural, and political legacies has the war produced in the United States and Vietnam?

Class time will consist of lecture, film clips, and discussion.  Students will be expected to read approximately 150 pages a week.

Texts (subject to final confirmation):

Mark Philip Bradley, The Vietnamese War

Christian Appy, Working Class War

Robert S. McNamara, In Retrospect

George Herring, America’s Longest War

William Lederer and Eugene Burdick, The Ugly American

Photocopy reader of documents and essays. 

Grading:

Requirements will likely include a few reading quizzes (25%), a paper of approximately 5-6 pages (25 %), a midterm examination (25 %), and a final (25%).  Students will have the opportunity to improve their grades through class participation but not through extra credit assignments.

This course examines how U.S. leaders have conceived of their nation’s place in the world and sought to use power to achieve national objectives.  We will consider military affairs, economics, and diplomacy, but the class is mostly concerned with ideas.  How have leaders from James Madison to George W. Bush thought about U.S. vulnerabilities, resources, and goals, and how have those ideas influenced foreign policy decisions?  How did key leaders balance competing objectives and navigate difficult international circumstances?  Which leaders were successful in managing U.S. statecraft, and which were not? Which leaders developed coherent grand strategies?  What lessons might we derive for our own times from studying this history?  The course will sweep across American history but will not attempt to be exhaustive in any way.  Rather, it will focus on certain moments that highlight changing grand strategic thought.  We will carefully consider, for example, the drafting of the U.S. Constitution, continental expansion in the Manifest Destiny period, the Civil War, overseas expansion in the late nineteenth century, the presidency of Woodrow Wilson, the Second World War, the Cold War, and the “War on Terror.”

Texts

Possible texts include Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, The Federalist Papers; Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History; George Kennan, American Diplomacy; Richard Immerman, Empire for Liberty; Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy; James McPherson, Tried by War:  Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief; and a collection of primary sources.

Requirements

Attendance and active participation in class; two short essay (5-6 pages each) and one longer research paper (approximately 15 pages).  

This course provides students with the opportunity to write a substantial research paper on a topic in the broad field of international history.  Students are free to explore diplomatic relations between governments, but they are also encouraged to consider delving beyond state-to-state relations to consider the roles of non-governmental and international organizations, cultural interactions across national borders, the history of globalization, or other new approaches to the study of global affairs.

Over the first six weeks or so, the seminar will also consider a handful of readings selected to promote discussion of some of the major problems of doing research of this kind.  Most of the semester, however, will be devoted to working through the various stages of the research project:  selection of a topic, assembly of a bibliography, and then preparation of a prospectus, outline, rough draft, and final draft.  The seminar will meet as necessary to bring each other up to date on the projects and to discuss common problems.  In the last two weeks, the seminar will stage a mock conference in which each student will present her/his work as a 10-15-minute conference paper.  Ideally, each student will emerge from the course with a substantial piece of original research that, with additional polishing, can be submitted for publication in a scholarly journal.

Grading

Requirements will include a short review early in the term, an oral presentation, and a series of writing assignments culminating in a final paper.

Texts

Possible readings include Matthew Connelly, Fatal Misconception:  The Struggle to Control World Population; Akira Iriye, Global Community:  The Role of International Organizations in the Making of the Contemporary World; Piero Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions:  Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976; Max Paul Friedman, Nazis & Good Neighbors:  The United States Campaign Against the Germans of Latin America in World War II; and Campbell Craig and Fredrik Logevall, America’s Cold War:  The Politics of Insecurity. 

This course introduces the rich and complex history of the United States from the end of the Civil War until roughly the present day.  The course will focus on three major themes:  the impact of economic change on American thought and politics; the struggles by traditionally marginalized groups to gain political rights; and the debate over the appropriate role of government in regulating social and economic relations.

Grading

Requirements for the course will consist of a midterm exam (30 percent of the term grade), a take-home paper of 5-6 pages (30 percent), and a final exam (40 percent).

Texts

Readings will likely include Horatio Alger, Ragged Dick; Upton Sinclair, The Jungle; Ann Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi; Tom Hayden, The Port Huron Statement; and Class Matters by correspondents of the New York Times.  It is also recommended that students read US:  A Narrative History.  

History 333M, U.S. Foreign Relations, 1914 to the Present

Unique #39540, Spring 2010

Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30 - 11 a.m., JGB 2.218

Dr. Mark Lawrence

malawrence@mail.utexas.edu

475-9304, Garrison 3.204

Office Hours:  Tuesday, 2-3 p.m.; Thursday, 11-12:30; and by appointment

This class introduces the history of American foreign relations from the First World War to the present.  During this period, the United States fully joined the ranks of the great powers and then, following a period of hesitation, surpassed all its rivals in exercising influence around the world.  We will explore the course and causes of this rise to power and seek to understand current dilemmas and debates within their historical context. 

The class aims for both breadth and depth.  Some lectures and readings are aimed at providing a wide view of the political, economic, and ideological currents that fed into the making of foreign policy.  Other lectures and readings focus on particular topics – the debate over the League of Nations, American diplomacy during the Second World War, the Vietnam War, the American interventions in Central America during the 1980s, and the American response to the September 11 attacks, among others.

There are no prerequisites for the course, but students are expected to have a basic grasp of U.S. history from 1865 to the present.  Ideally, students will have taken History 315 “The United States Since 1865.”  Students should also be aware that this course does not require a textbook laying out the basic narrative of U.S. foreign-relations history.  Anyone lacking familiarity with the basic history is strongly encouraged to read such a textbook alongside the required reading.  Two good choices are Walter LaFeber’s The American Age and Robert Schulzinger’s U.S. Diplomacy Since 1900. 

Requirements

1. attendance at lecture
2. midterm exam (30 percent of term grade)
3. final exam (40 percent)
4. one essay of 1,200-1,600 words (30 percent)

Required texts

Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, Fail-Safe (1962)

Mark Danner, The Massacre at El Mozote (1993)

Jon Krakauer, Where Men Win Glory:  The Odyssey of Pat Tillman (2009)

Mark Atwood Lawrence, The Vietnam War:  A Concise International History (2008)

Melvyn P. Leffler, The Specter of Communism:  The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1917-1953 (1994)

James Mann, Rise of the Vulcans:  The History of Bush’s War Cabinet (2004)

Emily Rosenberg, Spreading the American Dream:  American Economic and Cultural Expansion, 1890-1945 (1982)

Important notes

• · The instructor will routinely hand out photocopies for use during class.  These should be treated as required reading.
• · Class time will occasionally be devoted to discussion.  Participation is not a course requirement, but students should be aware that regular and constructive participation can improve their semester grades.
• · Each student will be required to sign in at the start of each lecture period.  This sign-in process will verify attendance at that day’s class.  Each student may miss three class periods without explanation.  Each unexcused absence thereafter will result in a three-point deduction from his/her term score. 
• · Neither the instructor nor the teaching assistant will provide lecture notes under any circumstances.
• · Students who attend class are required to arrive on time, stay for the entire session, and to obey basic rules of civility and decorum.  Students may enter or leave in the middle of the class period only with permission of the instructor.  Using cell phones, sending or receiving text messages, and using laptops for purposes unrelated to the course are strictly forbidden.
• · Late papers will be penalized one-third of a grade (for example, from a B+ to a B or from a B- to a C+) for each day they are overdue.
• · The course will use the new UT-Austin grading system, which permits the use of pluses and minuses (A-, B+, etc.). 
• · The University of Texas provides, upon request, appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities.  For more information, contact the Office of the Dean of Students at 471-6259 or 471-4641.
• · This syllabus and all materials presented in lectures are copyrighted by Dr. Mark A. Lawrence.  No materials may be directly or indirectly published, posted to internet or intranet distribution channels, or rewritten for publication or distribution in any medium.  Neither these materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and non-commercial use.

· Students must be fully aware of university rules regarding academic dishonesty.  The instructor assumes full compliance throughout the semester and will rigorously enforce all university procedures in cases of violations.

Schedule of Topics and Assignments

January 19:  Introduction

January 21:  Ideals and Interests:  U.S. Foreign Policy before 1920

READING:  Rosenberg, chapters 1-2

January 26:  The Collapse of Wilsonianism and the “Return to Normalcy”

READING:  Rosenberg, chapters 3-4

January 28:  The Promotional State

READING:  Rosenberg, chapters 5-7

February 2:  The Great Depression and the Isolationist Reaction

READING:  Rosenberg, chapters 8-9

February 4:  Overcoming Isolationism

READING:  Rosenberg, chapters 10-11

February 9:  The Rise of a Superpower

READING:  Leffler, preface-chapter 1

February 11:  The Collapse of the Soviet-American Alliance

READING:  Leffler, chapters 2-3

February 16:  Years of Crisis

READING:  Leffler, chapter 4; Burdick and Wheeler, preface-chapter 2

February 18:  NSC-68 and the Korean War

READING:  Burdick and Wheeler, chapters 3-7

February 23:  Strategies of Containment:  The New Look and Flexible Response

READING:  Burdick and Wheeler, chapters 8-13

February 25:  MIDTERM

March 2:  Berlin, Cuba, and the Watershed of 1963

READING:  Burdick and Wheeler, chapters 14-23

March 4:  Nationalism, Decolonization, and the Cold War

READING:  Lawrence, introduction-chapter 2

March 9:  Into the Quagmire

READING:  Lawrence, chapters 3-5

March 11:  America at War

READING:  Lawrence, chapters 6-8

March 23:  Nixon, Kissinger, and Détente

READING:  Danner, chapters 1-4

March 25:  The Carter Experiment

READING:  Danner, chapters 5-6

March 30:  The Reagan Revolution

READING:  Danner, chapters 7-9

April 1:  The “Second Cold War”

READING:  Mann, introduction-chapter 5

April 6:  New Confrontations in the Third World

READING:  Mann, chapters 6-10

April 8:  Gorbachev, Reagan, and the End of the Cold War

READING:  Mann, chapters 11-15

April 13:  Debating the Post-Cold War Future

READING:  Mann, chapters 16-20

April 15:  Unipolarity and the Search for a New Global Role

READING:  Mann, chapter 21-conclusion

April 20:  September 11

READING:  Krakauer, prologue-chapter 7

April 22:  Neoconservatism and the Bush Doctrine

READING:  Krakauer, chapters 8-16

April 27:  The “War on Terror”:  Iraq

READING:  Krakauer, chapters 17-22

April 29:  The “War on Terror”:  Afghanistan 

READING:  Krakauer, chapters 23-28

May 4:  New Foreign Policy Challenges

READING:  Krakauer, chapters 29-32

May 6:  Current Dilemmas in Historical Context

READING:  Krakauer, chapter 33-postscript

TC 357
Key Debates in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations
Unique #43590
Tuesday and Thursday, 3:30-4:45 p.m.
CRD 007B

Mark A. Lawrence
malawrence@mail.utexas.edu
Office:  GAR 3.204, 475-9304
Office Hours: Tuesday, 2-3 p.m.; Thursday, 11-12:30;
and by appointment


This course has three goals.  First, it aims to familiarize students with some of the most contentious and enduring debates in the history of U.S. foreign relations.  The class cannot, of course, survey the entire flow of the American past.  Rather, we will focus on particular episodes that have generated intense controversy and are, in various ways, representative of disputes surrounding other events.  

Second, the course aims to push students to think like historians.  Students will be encouraged to view the discipline of history not so much as an endeavor to uncover objective “truth” as an endless argument influenced by the concerns of the present.  We will spend a good deal of time critiquing scholarly works that present conflicting interpretations of contentious historical events.  For each of our case studies, we will ask why different authors have come to different conclusions.  For some of the cases, we will also read primary sources that will enable students to make their own judgments about disputed topics.  All of this work will, it is hoped, make students more sophisticated readers and researchers and help them frame their own research projects in the future.  

Third, the course is designed to help students hone their skills in writing argumentative essays – skills with enormous value not only inside the academy but also in law, journalism, business, and other career fields.  Each student will be required to write four papers of different styles and lengths, one of which will be revised based on comments from the instructor.  

Requirements
1.    attendance and active participation in class, including two brief presentations (20%)
2.    paper of 1,200-1,500 words on the Spanish-American War (15%)
3.    paper of 1,200-1,500 words on the A-bomb (15%)
4.    paper of 3,000-4,000 words on Vietnam, with rewrite (40%)
5.    op-ed of roughly 800 words on the “war on terror” (10%)




Required texts
Kristin Hoganson, Fighting for American Manhood:  How Gender Politics Provoked the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars (1998)
Stephen Kotkin, Armageddon Averted:  The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000 (2001)
Fredrik Logevall, Choosing War:  The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam (2000)
Louis A. Pérez Jr., The War of 1898:  The United States and Cuba in History and Historiography (1998)
J. Samuel Walker, “Prompt and Utter Destruction”:  Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs Against Japan (revised ed., 2004)
Photocopy packet

Other important notes
•    All of the required books are available for purchase at the University Coop.  The photocopy reader is available at Jenn’s Copy & Binding at 2200 Guadalupe Street.
•    The instructor may occasionally hand out additional photocopies for use during class.  These should be treated as required reading.
•    This syllabus and all materials presented in class are copyrighted by Dr. Mark A. Lawrence.  No materials may be directly or indirectly published, posted to the internet, or rewritten for publication or distribution in any medium.  Neither these materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and non-commercial use.  
•    Students should be fully aware of university rules regarding academic dishonesty.  The instructor assumes full compliance throughout the semester and will strictly observe all university procedures in cases of violations.
•    The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities.  For more information, contact the Office of the Dean of Students at 471-6259 or 471-6441.


Schedule of topics and assignments

January 19        Introduction to the Course

Case Study I:  The Spanish-American War

January 21        The Problem of Imperial America:  The “Orthodox” View
READING:  Ernest May, Imperial Democracy:  The Emergence of America as a Great Power, chapters 1, 17, 18 (packet)

January 26        The “Revisionist” View
READING:  Walter LaFeber, The American Search for Opportunity, 1865-1913, chapters 2, 6, 7 (packet)

January 28        Writing Workshop:  Argument and Organization
READING:  Hoganson, Fighting for American Manhood, introduction-chapter 4

February 2        The “Cultural Turn”:  Gender
            READING:  Hoganson, chapter 5-conclusion

February 4        The “Cultural Turn”:  Race
    READING:  Pérez, The War of 1898

Case study II:  The Atomic Bomb

February 9        Film:  “The Day After Trinity”
    ASSIGNMENT DUE:  You have now read several works purporting to explain why the United States went to war against Spain in 1898.  On the basis of this reading, how would you explain the U.S. decision?  Write an essay of 1,200-1,500 words stating your position on the matter.  Draw on the readings as you see fit, using footnotes as necessary.

February 11        The A-Bomb:  Orthodoxy and Revisionism
READING:  Henry L. Stimson, “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb,” Harpers Monthly, February 1947; Joseph Grew’s letter to Stimson, February 1947;  Gar Alperovitz, Atomic Diplomacy:  Hiroshima and Potsdam, excerpt; Barton J. Bernstein, “A Post-War Myth:  500,000 U.S. Lives Saved” (packet)

February 16        Assessing the Evidence
            READING:  Documents 1-19 (packet)

February 18        Writing Workshop
            READING:  Walker, Prompt & Utter Destruction, preface-ch. 4

February 23        Toward a Post-Revisionist Synthesis
            READING:  Walker, chapters 5-7

February 25        Writing about the Bomb (Guest visit by Professor Michael Stoff)
            ASSIGNMENT:  Work on paper due March 2

Case Study III:  The Vietnam War

March 2        Lecture:  Debating U.S. Intervention in Vietnam
ASSIGNMENT DUE:  Imagine that it is July 25, 1945, and you are ether the U.S. Secretary of War or Secretary of State.  (Make clear which role you are assuming.)  Write a memorandum of 1,200-1,500 words advising the president what to do with the A-bomb.  Do your best to confine yourself to information you could reasonably have known at the time and to offer an opinion that would have been regarded as reasonable.  Remember that the president is a busy person and needs a succinct, well-argued memo that presents its case forcefully.

March 4        Structure and Continency
            READING:  Logevall, Choosing War, preface-chapter 2

March 9    Designing Research Projects
            READING:  Logevall, chapters 3-5

March 11        Film:  “LBJ Goes to War”
            READING:  Logevall, chapters 6-8

March 23        Visit to the LBJ Library (meet in Library lobby at 3:20)
            READING:  Logevall, chapters 9-10

March 25        No Class
READING:  Logevall, chapters 11-12
ASSIGNMENT:  individual meetings and research

March 30        No Class
            ASSIGNMENT:  individual meetings and research
    
April 1            No Class
            ASSIGNMENT:  individual meetings and research

April 6            Writing Workshop    
            ASSIGNMENT:  individual meetings and research

April 8            Presentations of Research Results
ASSIGNMENT:  continue research and writing; half of class gives presentations

April 13        Presentations of Research Results
ASSIGNMENT:  continue research and writing; half of class gives presentations

Case Study IV:  The End of the Cold War

April 15        Lecture:  Explaining the End of the Cold War
ASSIGNMENT DUE:  Research papers on U.S. intervention in Vietnam

April 20        Reagan and Gorbachev
READING:  Mevin Leffler, “For the Soul of Mankind,” chapter 5 (packet)

April 22        Writing Workshop
READING:  Stephen Kotkin, Armageddon Averted, introduction-chapter 1

April 27        The Disintegration of the Soviet Union
            READING:  Kotkin, chapters 2-5
            ASSIGNMENT DUE:  Revised papers on Vietnam War

April 29        In-Class Debate on the End of the Cold War
            READING:  Kotkin, chapters 6-7

Case Study V:  Debating the War on Terror

May 4             Debating Recent American Diplomacy
            READING:  Op-ed collection TBA

May 6            Debating Recent American Diplomacy (continued)
ASSIGNMENT:  Write a brief (approximately 800 words) op-ed of the sort you might find in the New York Times taking a position on the conduct of U.S. foreign policy in the Bush/Obama years.  You are free to choose any issue or line of argument you like, but be sure to keep a tight focus on a specific issue or set of events.  The reading material for the May 4 class will help orient you about the range of possible issues and the writing style usually featured in editorial writing.

History 333L
U.S. Foreign Relations, 1776-1920

Unique #39910
Fall 2009
Tuesday and Thursday, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
GSB 2.126

Dr. Mark Lawrence
malawrence@mail.utexas.edu

This course has two major objectives.  First, it aims to introduce students to the history of American foreign relations from the eighteenth century to the settlement of the First World War in 1920 – a period too often overlooked by commentators professing expertise in world affairs.  During its first century and a half, the United States established many of the patterns of thought and behavior that have characterized the nation in more recent times.  Understanding these early years of America’s relationship with the wider world can help us gain important insight into current dilemmas, debates, and controversies.

Second, the course aims to encourage students to think like historians.  That is, it requires students to evaluate readings of different types, weigh competing interpretations of historical events, and defend their own conclusions in argumentative essays.  Indeed, students will be evaluated largely on the basis of a series of such essays (both the take-home paper described at the end of this syllabus and essays written as parts of the midterm and final exams).

There are no prerequisites for the course, but students are expected to have a basic grasp of U.S. history from 1776 to 1920.  Ideally, students will follow this course with History 333M, which covers U.S. foreign relations from 1920 to the present.

Requirements:
attendance at lecture
midterm exam
final exam
one essay of 5-8 pages (1,200-1,600 words)


Required texts
H.W. Brands, Woodrow Wilson (2003)
Paul Foos, A Short, Offhand Killing Affair:  Soldiers and Social Conflict during the Mexican-American War (2002)
Matthew Frye Jacobson, Barbarian Virtues:  The United States Encounters Foreign Peoples at Home and Abroad, 1876-1917 (2000)
Walter Nugent, Habits of Empire:  A History of American Expansion (2008)
Louis A. Pérez, Jr., The War of 1898:  The United States and Cuba in History and Historiography (1998)
Stacy Schiff, The Great Improvisation:  Franklin, France, and the Birth of America (2006)
Course reading packet available at Jenn’s Copy & Binding at 2200 Guadalupe

Important notes:

·  The instructor will routinely hand out photocopies for use during class.  These should be treated as required reading.
·  Class time will occasionally be devoted to discussion.  Participation is not a course requirement, but students should be aware that regular and constructive participation can improve their semester grades.
·   Each student will be required to sign in at the start of each lecture period.  This sign-in process will verify attendance at that day’s class.  Each student may miss three class periods without explanation.  Each unexcused absence thereafter will result in a three-point deduction from his/her term score.
·   Neither the instructor nor the teaching assistant will provide lecture notes under any circumstances.
·   Students who attend class are required to arrive on time, stay for the entire session, and to obey basic rules of civility and decorum.  Students may enter or leave in the middle of the class period only with permission of the instructor.  Using cell phones, sending or receiving text messages, and using laptops for purposes unrelated to the course are strictly forbidden.
·   Late papers will be penalized one-third of a grade (for example, from a B+ to a B or from a B- to a C+) for each day they are overdue.
·   The course will use the new UT-Austin grading system, which permits the use of pluses and minuses (A-, B+, etc.).
·   The University of Texas provides, upon request, appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities.  For more information, contact the Office of the Dean of Students at 471-6259 or 471-4641.
·   This syllabus and all materials presented in lectures are copyrighted by Dr. Mark A. Lawrence.  No materials may be directly or indirectly published, posted to internet or intranet distribution channels, or rewritten for publication or distribution in any medium.  Neither these materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and non-commercial use.
·   This course does not require a textbook.  However, students who would like to read a basic narrative of U.S. foreign relations may wish to consult Walter LaFeber, The American Age (2d ed., 1994).  Students who wish to read a basic narrative of American history more generally may wish to consult Davidson, et al., Nation of Nations (any edition).
·   Students must be fully aware of university rules regarding academic dishonesty.  The instructor assumes full compliance throughout the semester and will rigorously enforce all university procedures in cases of violations.

Schedule of Topics and Assignments

August 27:  Introduction

Part I:  Securing the Republic

September 1:  Ideology and Interests
READING:  Schiff, introduction and chapter 1
September 3:  Colonial America and the European Powers
READING:  Schiff, chapters 2-4

September 8:  Rebellion and the Problem of Allies
READING:  Schiff, chapters 5-6
September 10:  The French Alliance and the Treaty of Paris
READING:  Schiff, chapters 7-8

September 15:  Institutions and Foreign Policymaking:  The Articles of Confederation
READING:  Schiff, chapters 9-10
September 17:  Institutions and Foreign Policy:  The Constitution
READING:  Schiff, chapter 11-epilogue

September 22:  The Federalist Era
READING:  Nugent, foreword and chapter 1
September 24:  Jefferson and Madison
READING:  Nugent, chapter 2

September 29:  A Second War for Independence?
READING:  Nugent, chapter 3
October 1:  The Monroe Doctrine
READING:  Nugent, chapter 4

Part II:  The Era of Territorial Expansion

October 6:  Empire-Making and the “Indian Problem”
READING:  Foos, introduction and chapters 1-2
October 8:  Empire-Making and the Problem of Slavery
READING:  Foos, chapters 3-4

October 13:  The Texas Revolution
READING:  Nugent, chapter 5; Foos, chapter 5
October 15:  The Mexican War
READING:  Nugent, chapters 6-7; Foos, chapter 6

October 20:  Manifest Destiny to Slave Empire:  U.S. Filibusters in Latin America
            (Guest lecturer:  Storm Miller)
READING:  Foos, chapters 7-8
October 22:  MIDTERM

October 27: The U.S. and the World at Midcentury
READING:  Nugent, chapter 8
October 29: The Diplomacy of the Civil War
READING:  Nugent, chapter 9; : James M. McPherson, “Blockade and Beachhead:  The Salt-Water War, 1861-1862” and “’The Whole Family of Man’: Lincoln and the Last Best Hope Abroad” (reader)

Part III:  The Making of a Global Power

November 3: Industrial Crisis and the Economics of Empire
READING:  Jacobson, introduction and chapters 1-2
November 5:  Ideological Motives of Empire
READING:  Jacobson, chapters 3-4

November 10: The Spanish-American War
READING:  Pérez, preface and chapters 1-2; cartoon collection (reader)
November 12: Varieties of Empire:  Colonial Conquest
READING:  Pérez, chapters 3-4

November 17: Anti-Imperialism
READING:  Pérez, chapter 5
November 19:  Varieties of Empire:  The Open Door
READING:  Jacobson, chapters 5-6 and conclusion

November 24:  Varieties of Empire:  Semi-Colonialism
READING:  Nugent, chapter 10; Brands, chapter 1

December 1:  From Neutrality to Intervention
READING:  Brands, chapters 2-3
December 3:  The Collapse of Wilsonianism
READING:  Brands, chapters 4-5; Nugent, Postscript


ESSAY TOPICS

Each student must write ONE essay on a topic drawn from the list below.  The essay should be between 1,200 and 1,600 words in length (roughly 5-7 pages of double-spaced, 12-point type).  No matter which question you choose, be sure to state a clear thesis and to support your argument with specific evidence drawn from readings and lectures.  Also, be sure to use either footnotes or parenthetical notes to cite all information, argumentation, and quotations drawn from your sources.  Provide a title and a word count.


DUE September 22.  Imagine that an editor at the New York Times or Washington Post has just asked you to review Stacy Schiff’s The Great Improvisation for the Sunday paper.  Write a review that would be suitable for such a publication.  You may wish to read a few reviews from recent weeks to get a feel for what a newspaper of that caliber might expect.  In any case, be sure to take a clear position on the book and to write in a lively way.  Among the questions you might consider addressing:  What are the book’s strengths and weaknesses?  How well does it achieve its aims?  To what extent does the book depart from the conventional wisdom about Benjamin Franklin?  What’s new and notable in it?

DUE October 15.  How well has Hollywood done in depicting the Texas Revolution?  Answer this question by comparing what you have learned about the history of Texas from lectures and readings with the two most celebrated films about the Alamo, the 1960 version starring John Wayne and the 2003 version starring Billy Bob Thornton.  Be sure to consider how Hollywood has distorted the history of the battle and why you think it has done so.  You may also wish to think about how interpretations have changed over time?  Please note that these films may be borrowed from the AV library but are widely available in local video shops.

DUE October 20.  Imagine you are living in the United States in 1848 and you have just learned that your government has gone to war with Mexico.  Write an editorial column for your local newspaper commenting on this development.  You are free to support the war, to oppose it, or to advance some other view.  The key is to use what you have learned from the course readings to develop a line of argument that would have been plausible at the time.  You are free to define your character as you see fit.      (Are you a man or woman?  An elite or a working person?  White or black?  From the North or South?  Etc.)  Do your best to capture the tone and syntax of the day.

DUE November 12.  Examine the political cartoons dealing with the Spanish American War in the course reader and write an essay analyzing the contents of at least six of them.  Be sure to include discussion of cartoons from both sides of the Atlantic.  What do the cartoons tell us about the opinions of Spaniards, Americans, and others at the time?  What major issues are raised?  What symbols are used to represent the two combatants?  Explore the cartoons imaginatively, but remember that your essay requires a clearly stated and supported central argument.

DUE November 24.  Write an op-ed of the sort you might find in the New York Times or the Austin American-Statesman commenting on the connection between some aspect of the history of U.S. foreign relations before 1920 and a current problem in U.S. foreign policy.  You are free to choose any issue or line of argument that you like,     but be sure to keep a tight focus on a specific issue or set of events.  Please note that if you choose this topic you are responsible for educating yourself on recent U.S. foreign policy.

Please check back for updates.

SEMINAR IN HISTORIOGRAPHY: HONORS PROGRAM

Open only to students admitted to the History Honors program.

This seminar introduces students to a range of historical methods, topics, and sources, with no claim to being comprehensive. We will consider how “history” has changed along with other forms of knowledge. We will read different kinds of history (social, intellectual, cultural, and so on). We emphasize research with primary sources that students will be able to use in their theses.

Faculty from the Department of History will lead discussions about their areas of expertise, giving the class examples of documents and sources that historians use, or showing how they generate questions for research.  By the end of the semester, each student will have come up with an advisor and a prospectus for the senior thesis she or he will write next year.

This is a reading- and writing-intensive course, and it moves quickly from introductory to advanced work.

 REQUIREMENTS:

1)   preparation for and participation in each weekly seminar, including short writing assignments (40%). Reading is about 200 pages a week.

2)   the various steps in drafting and revising a 10-12 page research prospectus as described below (60%). The preliminary stages of research entail reading at least 10-15 books, review essays, and articles.

You will meet with me individually to consult on your topic a little over halfway through the semester. Short topic statements and bibliography are due a week later. We will spend the last three weeks of class in editorial session: discussing the structure, prose, style, and subject of each prospectus.

PROSPECTUS

         A prospectus is a “description in advance of a proposed undertaking.” It sets out your topic based on preliminary research. It should identify the problem or event that will be investigated, explain why it is important, survey the historical literature on the subject, describe the primary sources you will use, and discuss how you intend to carry out the work.

 The prospectus is not binding; you will certainly change your topic in some way during your senior year, and you may change it entirely. It is nonetheless very important preparation. It also requires substantial background work. I expect you to have looked at and read in at least 10 books, articles, and review essays.

The prospectus should also include a bibliography and four to six photocopied samples of primary sources. You may discuss the usefulness of the sources in either the text of the prospectus or in notes attached to the copies of the sources.

This course introduces the history of American foreign relations from the First World War to the present. During this period, the United States fully joined the ranks of the great powers and then, following a period of hesitation, surpassed all its rivals in exercising influence around the world. We will explore the course and causes of this rise to power and seek to understand current dilemmas and debates within their historical context.

The class aims for both breadth and depth. Some lectures and readings are aimed at providing a wide view of the political, economic, and ideological currents that fed into the making of foreign policy. Other lectures and readings focus on particular topics – the debate over the League of Nations, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Vietnam War, the American interventions in Central America during the 1980s, and the American response to the September 11 attacks, among others.

Texts:

Emily Rosenberg, Spreading the American Dream;

James Mann, Rise of the Vulcans;

Melvin Leffler, The Specter of Communism;

Mark Danner, Massacre at El Mozote;

Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, Fail-Safe.

Grading:

Students will be evaluated on the basis of a midterm (30 percent of term grade), paper (30 percent), and final (40 percent).

Please check back for updates.

This course introduces the history of American foreign relations from the First World War to the present. During this period, the United States fully joined the ranks of the great powers and then, following a period of hesitation, surpassed all its rivals in exercising influence around the world. We will explore the course and causes of this rise to power and seek to understand current dilemmas and debates within their historical context.

The class aims for both breadth and depth. Some lectures and readings are aimed at providing a wide view of the political, economic, and ideological currents that fed into the making of foreign policy. Other lectures and readings focus on particular topics – the debate over the League of Nations, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Vietnam War, the American interventions in Central America during the 1980s, and the American response to the September 11 attacks, among others.

Texts:

Emily Rosenberg, Spreading the American Dream;

James Mann, Rise of the Vulcans;

Melvin Leffler, The Specter of Communism;

Mark Danner, Massacre at El Mozote;

Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, Fail-Safe.

Grading:

Students will be evaluated on the basis of a midterm (30 percent of term grade), paper (30 percent), and final (40 percent).