Political Science 399

Southern Politics

Winter 2012

Tues-Thurs 2-3:20pm

128 Chiles Business Center

Prof. Will Terry

Email: wterry{at}uoregon.edu

Office hours: Tues 11:30-1pm; Thurs 3:30-5pm

Office: 917 Prince Lucien Campbell Hall

Website: http://pages.uoregon.edu/wterry/PS399

GTFs

Joe Deckert <jdeckert@uoregon.edu> OH: Thurs 1-2pm

Jane Lukinova <evgeniya@uoreong.edu>

Content: This course will tackle the social, economic, and especially the political aspects of life in the twentieth-century U.S. South. We will begin by briefly reviewing the salient features of the pre-Civil War slave economy and the challenges facing that regime. We will also (briefly) discuss the causes and consequences of the U.S. Civil War (1861-65) and the Reconstruction Era (1865-77) that followed it. Having sketched the historical context, we will try to understand how the Reconstruction Era gave way to the repressive Jim Crow regime (~1900-1965), and how this in turn gave way to the famous Civil Rights Era (~1948-1971).

We will wrap up the course by attempting to understand why, in the wake of the Civil Rights movement, the South went from becoming effectively a one-party state dominated by Democrats to a region where Republicans gained a strong, if not dominant, position in regional politics.

Though the course will be very much rooted in understanding the Southern experience, we will attempt to use the South for broader pedagogical purposes. For example, we will attempt to draw generalizable lessons about how repressive regimes operate, particularly ones predicated on racial or ethnic differences between citizens.

Grading: The final grade will be based on the following allocation of points.

Participation: 10%

Bi-weekly quizzes: 40% (four total, worth 10% each)

Final paper rough draft: 5%

Final paper: 30%

Final exam: 15%

Note! Quizzes will be taken before lecture on the following dates: January 26; February 14; February 28; March 13. A rough draft of the final paper will be due in week 5 (on February 9) and returned in week 6 (on February 16). The final paper will be due in week 10 (on March 13) and available for pick-up during finals week.

I will hand out a detailed description of my expectations for the class paper and the final exam when I assign them. As I will explain, a large part of your course grade will depend on the clarity and technical quality of your writing.

Expectations: My expectation is that you attend every class and make a serious effort to engage the material. To help facilitate paying attention to the lecture, I will post my notes the day prior to class. You should take notes on the slides themselves and focus on the lecture. There will be approximately 40-50 pages of reading per class. If you are reading correctly, the assigned readings will not take more than 5 hours per week. This is a very reasonable amount of reading for a college student and I expect everyone to read the assigned readings before class.

Academic Dishonesty: Cheating, plagiarism, and other forms of academic dishonesty will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Do not engage in this behavior!

Texts: There are 3 required textbooks and a course reader. The textbooks are:

Klinkner, Philip & Rogers Smith (2002). The Unsteady March.

Key, V.O. (1984). Southern Politics in State and Nation.

Black, Earl and Merle Black (2002). The Rise of Southern Republicans.

Valelly, Richard (2004). The Two Reconstructions.

Supplemental Readings: In addition to the three textbooks there will be numerous other readings which I will make available on Blackboard.

Course Outline: All the readings in the outline below are either in one of the textbooks or available on Blackboard. Articles found on Blackboard are denoted with a “*”. The dates next to each section give a rough idea of when we will discuss the topics in class. After each lecture I will assign the readings that should be done before the next lecture.

I. Introduction and Overview

(1.) Read the syllabus. Ask questions if you have any.

II. The Politics of the Slave Economy

(1.) Fogel & Engerman (1974), pp. 3-37. “Portrait of the global slave trade” *

(2.) Cain & Hughes (1997), pp. 182-199. “Cliometric studies of slavery.” *

(3.) Klinkner & Smith (1999), pp. 10-46. “An overview of the U.S. slavery era.”

Valelly (2004)?

III. The Civil War (1861-1865)

(1.) Klinkner & Smith (1999), pp. 47-71. “Overview of the Civil War”

(2.) Goodwin (2005), pp. 377-409; “Inside the Lincoln White House” *

(3.) Cain & Hughes (1997), pp. 253-272. “The economic effects of the War.” *

IV. The Reconstruction era (1865-1877)

(1.) Foner (2002), pp. 228-280. “The making of Radical Reconstruction.” *

(2.) Klinkner & Smith (1999), pp. 72-105. “Reconstruction becomes Redemption”

(3.) The 14^th and 15^th Amendments to the Constitution

V. The Redemption era (1877-1899)

(1.) Kousser (1974), pp. 11-44. “From Reconstruction to Restriction” *

(2.) Tolnay & Beck (1995). pp. 4-54. “Violence during Redemption”

VI. Jim Crow (1900-1965)

(1.) Mendelberg (2001) pp. 28-66. “A history of racial appeals in U.S. politics.” *

(2.) Klinkner & Smith (1999), pp. 106-135. “Jim Crow in a national perspective”

(3.) Caro (2002) pp. ix-49. “The Senate is a Dam against change (Part I)” *

(4.) Caro (2002) pp. 50-108. “The Senate is a Dam against change (Part II)” *

(5.) Key (1984), pp. 3-12. “An overview of the Solid South”

(6.) Key (1984), pp. 315-344. “Two exceptional elections prove the rule”

VII. The Civil Rights Era (1948-1970)

(1.) Klinkner & Smith (1999), pp. 202-241. “Change is in the air”

(2.) Thurmond (1956), pp. 1-3. “The Southern Manifesto” *

(3.) King (1963), pp. 1-11. “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” *

(4.) Klinkner & Smith (1999), pp. 242-287. “The Civil Rights Revolution” Switch with Valelly (2004)?

VIII. The reemergence of the Southern GOP (1964-Present)

(1.) Black & Black (2002), pp. 1-39. “The Southern realignment (Part I)”

(2.) Black & Black (2002), pp. 40-71. “The Southern realignment (Part II)”

(3.) Lublin (2007), pp. 8-32 “Charting the GOP’s rise.” *

IX. Review: The South in perspective

(1.) Marx (1998) pp. 1-25, “Brazil, South Africa, and the U.S. South” *

(2.) Marx (1998) pp. 217-249, “A comparativist’s view of the South” *

Valelly (2004)?