FSEM 134:

Home, Sweet Home?: The History of the Family and Childhood in America

Spring 2001, 9:30-10:50 MWF, Hinsdale 218

Professor Rodney Hessinger

phone: 569-5466 email: hessingerrj

Office: 2^nd Floor, Pendleton House

Office Hours: 3:00-4:30 MWF, by appt.

Teaching Assistant: Jennifer Simon

Course Description:

This course will look at wives and husbands, fathers and mothers, and children too. Our topic will be the history of childhood and the family from the age of European colonization up to our own times. Starting with a look at Native American family life, we will consider the varieties of family experience across geographic and cultural boundaries. Were gender roles within the Indian family different from those brought by the English? We will explore the colonists’ notion of childhood. Why have historians said that colonists thought of children as “miniature adults”? As we move out of the colonial era into the era of the American Revolution we will consider the impact of the philosophies and political events of those times. Were adolescent children granted the freedom to follow their own hearts in courtship and marriage? Was there sexual freedom in the wake of the Revolution? In considering the history of the American family in the nineteenth century we will discuss the impact of capitalism, industrialization, and Southern slavery on family structures. Did the emerging notion that women’s place was in the home bear any relation to changes in the American economy? What family forms and practices did immigrants bring with them to America? How did the growing prominence of Catholicism in the American urban landscape affect family life? The twentieth century will present other questions. Were families crushed under the pressure of the Great Depression? As wives moved into the workforce to help support World War II did they shed their homemaker roles? We will also explore the impact of the Cold War on the family. Did fears of Communism shape family life? Did the youth protests of the 1960’s create a “generation gap” within families? What direction is the family taking as we enter the 21^st century?

Goals and Objectives:

This course is designed to familiarize students with the basic analytical approach of the practice of history. In addition, as a First Year Seminar, this course has several broad aims consistent with the liberal arts mission of Hiram College. This class is designed to: 1) to instruct students in the process of historical writing, teaching above all that history is always a process of interpretation, not a list of facts or an official chronicle of events; 2) to familiarize students with the analytical tools of the historical profession, emphasizing the cross-disciplinary possibilities of a field that assumes the challenge of studying human behavior in arenas where all forms of causal factors (economic, social, cultural, political, psychological, physical, geographic, etc.) can act; 3) to develop students' argumentation skills, stressing above all the relationship between evidence and interpretation. 4) to imbue students with basic research and writing skills which will enable them to write independent research papers in future courses.

Course Readings:

In addition to occasional documents and readings handed out in class, students are responsible for the following texts:

Lisa Wilson, Ye Heart of a Man: The Domestic Life of Men in Colonial New England

Susanna Rowson, Charlotte Temple, ed. Cathy N. Davidson

Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, ed. Nell Irvin Painter

Robert Orsi, The Madonna of 115^th Street: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem,

1880-1950

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

Course Requirements, Grading:

Students will be graded on classroom participation. Attendance is a responsibility. It does not in and of itself count as participation. Students must come to class ready to discuss assigned readings. Other graded components of this course are listed and described below.

Final grades will be determined as follows:

--reading and class participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15%

--Paper 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15%

--Paper 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15%

--Quizzes 1 & 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20%

--Discussion Paper. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10%

--Final Exam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25%

Assignment Descriptions:

Discussion Questions and Paper:

Students are to prepare at least 3 questions or discussion points related to the assigned readings they choose. These questions can concern matters they wish to see clarified or elaborated upon by the instructor or fellow students. They can also be questions designed to encourage fellow students to articulate some of the central ideas expressed in the assigned readings. Students might also give reactions to the readings, encouraging fellow students to share their response. These questions or observations should avoid being both too broad and too narrow. For example, “I think this chapter was difficult to understand” is too broad and not content-specific enough. On the other hand, asking “At what age did Cotton Mather’s daughter die?” is trivial and not sufficient grounds for meaningful discussion.

Students will be asked to pre-distribute their questions at least 2 hours before our scheduled meeting, so that other students might prepare answers.

In addition, students will hand in a 3-4 page paper summarizing and critiquing the argument(s) in the work they are considering. In evaluating argumentation students should consider the following: (1) What is the author's main point (thesis)? (2) What supporting points does the author offer to build his/her case? (3) What specific evidence does the author offer for each of the supportive points he/she makes? The final portion of these papers should be a critique of what they have read: Was the author's argument convincing? Why or why not? What weaknesses or strengths do you find in the author's use of evidence? Might this same evidence be interpreted differently? Suggest inconsistencies in logic and evidence.

Papers 1, 2, and Final Paper:

Guidelines for these papers will be distributed in class. The 1^st two papers based on Charlotte Temple and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl will ask you to treat these two texts as primary sources which you can ask research questions of and test theses against. The final paper will ask you to synthesize and interpret the wide array of sources and texts that we will read in this course.

Quizzes:

Students will be given a set of terms or phrases, a subset of which they will have to identify and explain the significance of. In outlining a term’s significance, students should think about matters of cause and effect. In other words, what factors created this phenomena?; and what effects did this phenomena have on society?

Lateness, Attendance, and Plagiarism Policies:

Papers handed in late will be penalized one full grade for every week late (and smaller increments of one-third a grade per class). Attendance will affect a students’ participation grade. More than five unexcused absences in a semester will result in an automatic grade reduction in participation. Academic honesty is central to the progress of learning both for the individual, as well as society at large. As a community of learners we must all be able to trust what our colleagues tell us is true. Plagiarism is a fundamental violation of the ethical standards of academic honesty and will not be tolerated. Penalties might be as light as a failure on that particular assignment or as serious as expulsion from the school. Students uncertain about citation procedures should consult either the professor or Diana Hacker’s Rules for Writers, pgs. 398-402 (this book was handed out to you during Orientation).

Weekly Schedule:

Week 1 (January 8, 10, 12)

Course Introduction: Does the Family Have a History?; What is History?; Contesting Cultures, Contesting Families

Reading:

Friday:

Joseph Illick, “Childhood in Three Cultures in Early America”

John Demos, “Conclusion” in A Little Commonwealth

Week 2 (January 17, 19)

Miniature Adulthood And Extended Adolescence?; Varieties of Colonial Childhoods;

Reading:

Wednesday: Wilson, Ye Heart of a Man, 1-71

Friday: Wilson, Ye Heart of a Man, 75-114

Week 3 (January 22, 24, 26)

Husbands and Goodwives in Colonial America; Planters’ Wives and Women of Light

Reading:

Monday: Wilson, Ye Heart of a Man, 115-143

Wednesday: Wilson, Ye Heart of a Man, 143-188

Quiz #1, Friday

Week 4 (January 29, 31, February 2)

A Domestic Revolution?: Youth Rising and Women Rising

Reading:

Monday: Rowson, Charlotte Temple, Introduction

Wednesday: Rowson, Charlotte Temple, 1-57

Friday: Rowson, Charlotte Temple, 57-120

Week 5 (February 5, 7, 9)

Competition for Youth in Schools and Churches; Piety, Domesticity and Childhood Reborn; Communes and Experimental Families

Paper #1 on Charlotte Temple Due, Monday

Reading:

Wednesday: Jan Lewis "Mother’s Love: The Construction of an Emotion in 19^th

Century America”

Friday: Jacobs, Incidents in the Life, Introduction

Week 6 (February 12, 14, 16)

The African American Family in Slavery and Reconstruction; Confederate Wives

Reading:

Monday: Jacobs, Incidents in the Life, 1-69

Wednesday: Jacobs, Incidents in the Life, 70-117

Friday: Jacobs, Incidents in the Life, 118-178

Week 7 (February 19, 21, 23)

Industrialization and the Family: Daughters in Factories; Changing Values of Work, School and Children

Rewrite of Paper #1 Due, Monday

Reading:

Wednesday: Jacobs, Incidents in the Life, 179-225

Friday: Orsi, Madonna of 115^th St., Introduction, 1-49

Week 8 (February 26, 28, March 2)

The Immigrant Family;Youth in the Streets; The Victorian Body and Fertility

Paper #2 on Jacobs Due, Monday

Reading:

Wednesday: Orsi, Madonna of 115^th St., 50-106

Friday: Orsi, Madonna of 115^th St., 107-149

Week 9 (March 12, 14, 16)

New Models for Manhood; Age of Adolescence and Age Consciousness; The Freudian Mind

Quiz #2, Wednesday

Reading:

Monday: Orsi, Madonna of 115^th St., 150-231

Friday: May, Homeward Bound, 3-36

Week 10 (March 19, 21, 23):

Progressive Interventions in the Family; Strains of the Depression; Rosie the Riveter

Rewrite of Paper #2 Due, Monday

Reading:

Wednesday: Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound, 37-91

Friday: Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound, 92-134

Week 11 (March 26, 28, 30):

The Cold War Family; Generational Rebellion in the 60's; Feminism, Divorce and the ERA

Reading:

Monday: May, Homeward Bound, 135-226

Wednesday:

Keniston, The Young Radicals (excerpt)

Katz, Home Fires (excerpt)

1^st Draft of Final Paper Due, Friday

Week 12 (April 2, 4, 6):

Career Couples and Gay Marriage; Dissapearing Childhood?: School Shootings, Jon Bonet Ramsay and Beyond

Reading:

Monday: to be announced

Wednesday: to be announced

Final Draft of Final Paper Due, Wednesday, April 11, 3 pm

Final Note: Students should understand that this syllabus is a set of guidelines for this course. Reading assignments and other matters are subject to change. Attendance in class is necessary to be fully up to date on course expectations and developments. Please do not hesitate to contact me at any time if you have any questions.