This course explores the fundamentals of the historian's craft through case studies of collective violence in 19th and 20th century America.  We will read some of the latest historical literature dealing with incidents of violence including strikes, political protests, racial and ethnic riots, and vigilantism.  Using primary sources such as congressional investigations, riot reports, personal memoirs, newspapers, and periodicals, students will write a major research paper analyzing a selected historical incident.
 
 

Required Readings	Class Schedule
Course Requirements	Choosing a Paper Topic

Required Readings (available for purchase at bookstore):

• Paul Gilje, Rioting in America
• W. Fitzhugh Brundage, Lynching in the New South
• Jules R. Benjamin, A Student's Guide to History  (7th ed.)
• Coursepack available at the bookstore

Course Requirements:

The course will meet once a week for two hours, although in the latter half of the semester two sessions will be devoted to individual consultation.  Attendance and participation at seminar meetings and consultations is absolutely essential; as few as two absences will put your continuation in the seminar in jeopardy.  The completed research paper (it should be 20-25 pages, not counting notes and bibliography) will account for two-thirds of your grade.  Class participation and assignments will make up the remaining third.  Timely completion of assignments and paper drafts is essential.  No incompletes will be given.
 

Schedule of Class Meetings:

Sept. 14   Introduction to Course; Hands-on Tour of Library and Internet Research Tools

Sept. 21   Rioting in the Early 19th Century

• Gilje, Rioting in America,  Chapter 4
• Reader: Way, "Shamrock & Shovel" & Davis, "Making Night Hideous"
• Benjamin, A Student's Guide to History, pp. 59-76

Sept. 28   Evaluating the Sources

• Reader: Platt, "The Politics of Riot Commissions"
• Benjamin, A Student's Guide, pp. 76-89

Oct. 5   Lynching

• Brundage, Lynching in the New South

Oct. 19   Race Riots, 1800-1930

• Gilje, Chapter 5
• Benjamin, A Student's Guide, pp. 92-108 and scan 109-135

Research Assignment:  In preparation for the film, find out as much as you can about the Rosewood, Florida race riot of 1923.  There are very few secondary works dealing with this subject (if you find any--please use them in the library so others may also).  Your best bet is the internet.  One useful site to get started is:  www.dos.state.fl.us/fgils/rosewood_bib.htm

Oct. 26   Collective Violence, 1865-1935

• Gilje, Chapter 6
• Reader: Frank, "Housewives, Socialists, & the Politics of Food,"
• Reader: Brown, "Violence"
• Reader: Long, "The Voice of the Gun"

1)  identifies the major thesis
2)  shows how the argument is made (methodology)
3)  identifies the types of sources used and adequacy thereof
4) describes the organization of the paper
5) discusses the author's contribution to the historiography

• Gilje, Chapter 7 & Epilogue
• Reader: Fogelson, "The Ghetto's Grievances"
• Reader: Miller, "Peoples' Park"

Nov. 9   Typed draft of first 7 pages and an outline of remainder of paper due in my mailbox (history department, Carney 168) by 5 p.m.

Nov. 16   Consultations: Group A

Nov. 23   Consultations: Group B

Typed draft of first 15 pages and an outline of remainder of paper due in my mailbox by 5 p.m.

Nov. 30   FINAL PAPERS DUE IN CLASS

Group A Presentations--Each member of the seminar will give a short presentation, explaining the main conclusions of his or her paper and the problems encountered in research and/or writing.

**PLEASE NOTE:  Students turning in late papers will lose a third of a letter grade for each late day. NO papers will be accepted after Friday, Dec. 4.  Be sure to keep all of your notes from this project and be prepared to submit them to me upon request.

Dec. 7   Group B Paper Presentations

PAPER TOPICS

Many instances of civil disorder in the United States that have been documented by government commissions, congressional committees, and other types of investigative bodies.  I have include some examples below along with citations for reports on these disturbances.  The list is by no means exhaustive--it is just a starting point for your research.  If you choose to write on a case of collective violence other than those listed here, you will need to locate a substantive primary source (e.g., riot report) on that event and get my approval in advance.  In either case, you will also want to consult the two general bibliographies listed below (both on reserve at O'Neill Library) as well as the index and endnotes of Gilje's Rioting in America.

General Bibliographies

--Jarol B. Manheim and Melanie Wallace, US Political Violence (1975)
--Dirk Hoerder, Protest, Direct Action, Repression (1977)

Boston Riots

Charlestown riot, 1834
--Boston.  Committee Relating to the Destruction of the Ursuline Convent, Report of the Committee (1834)
--Louisa G. Whitney, The Burning of the Convent (microform), 1877

Broad Street riot, 1837
--Edward Savage, Police Records and Recollections (1873)

Draft riot, 1863
--Edward Savage, Police Records and Recollections (1873)

Boston Police Strike, 1919
--Boston, "Report of Committee Appointed by Mayor Peters to Consider the Police Situation," Documents of the City of Boston for the Year 1919 (Boston Public Library)
--See also bibliography of primary source documents in Frederick Koss, "The Boston Police Strike of 1919" (Ph.D. diss., Boston University, 1975).

Busing Crisis, 1974-75
--U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Desegregating the Boston Public Schools (1975)
 

Lynching and Mob Violence in the South

--U.S. Congress, Joint Select Committee to Inquire into the Condition of Affairs  in the Late Insurrectionary States, Report of the... (1872)

--Arthur Raper, The Tragedy of Lynching (1933)

--NAACP, Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States, 1889-1918 (1919)

--Southern Commission on the Study of Lynching, Lynchings and What They Mean (1931) [available thu consortium]

Strikes and Labor Unrest

Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, 1892
--U.S. Congress, House, Coeur d'Alene Mining Troubles, 56th Cong., 1st sess, HR 1999.
--U.S., Congress, Senate, Coeur d'Alene Mining Troubles, Sen. doc. 140, 56th cong., 1st sess.

Homestead Strike, 1892
--U.S., Senate, Investigation of Labor Troubles, Sen. Rept. 1280, 52nd Cong., 2d sess., 1892.
--U.S., Congress, House, Committee on the Judiciary, Employment of Pinkerton Detectives (microform), 1893.

Pullman Strike, 1894
--Leon Stein, ed., The Pullman Strike (1969)
--U.S., Strike Commission, Report on the Chicago Strike of June-July 1894,  sen. doc. no. 7, 53rd cong., 3rd sess.

Lawrence, MA Textile Strike, 1912
--U.S., Bureau of Labor, Report on Strike of Textile Workers in Lawrence, Mass. (microfiche), 1912
--U.S., Congress, House, Committee on Rules, Hearings on the Strike at Lawrence, Mass. (1912)

Colorado Coalfield War, 1913-14
--Leon Stein, ed., Massacre at Ludlow: Four Reports (1971)
--U.S., Commission on Industrial Relations, Report on the Colorado Strike (microfiche), 1915

Memorial Day Massacre, Chicago, 1937
--U.S., Senate, Committee on Education and Labor, Violation of Free Speech and Rights of Labor: The Chicago Memorial Day Incident (1937)

Race Riots:

Tenderloin (N.Y.), 1900
--Citizens Protective League, Story of the Riot, 1900

East St. Louis, 1917
--Elliott Rudwick, The East St. Louis Race Riot of 1917 (microfilm), 1985

Chicago, 1919
--Illinois, Chicago Commission on Race Relations, The Negro in Chicago (1922)

Harlem, 1935
--New York, Mayor La Guardia's Commission on the Harlem Race Riot, The Complete Report of...  (1935)

Watts (Los Angeles), 1965
--Robert Fogelson, ed., The Los Angeles Riots (1969)
--California. Governor's Commission on the Los Angeles Riots, Violence in the City--An End or a Beginning? (1965) [available thru consortium]

General--1960s
--U.S., National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission), Report of... (1968)
--U.S., National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, To Establish Justice, To Ensure Domestic Tranquility  (1969)

Antiwar and Student Unrest (1960s-70s):

Chicago, 1968
--Daniel Walker, Rights in Conflict (1968)

Columbia University Protest, 1968
--Fact-Finding Commission on Columbia Disturbances (Cox Commission), Crisis at Columbia (1968)

Kent State & Jackson State, 1970
--U.S., President's Commission on Campus Unrest, Report of... (1970)

General
--U.S., National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, To Establish Justice, To Ensure Domestic Tranquility  (1969)

Other Riots
--Astor Place Riot, New York, 1849
Account of the Terrific and Fatal Riot at the New York Astor Place Opera House... (1849) [available thru consortium]

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