SYLLABUS: HIST 344 – SPRING 2009

Contents: Work Required, Elements of the Course, Textbooks, Professor, Grading, Incompletes and Grade Changes.

      This course is entirely online, although you may have the option of attending showings of five of the seven films you are required to see (three documentaries and four fiction films) and discussing them with the professor.
      You must have an e-mail address, access to an internet-capable computer, and a basic working understanding of the internet to take this course. You also must be able to take responsibility for your own learning. Although you should have as much or more individual intellectual contact with the instructor as in a conventional course, and deadlines to meet, you will do most of your work independently.
      Historians, politicians, artists, novelists, and filmmakers have shaped a pervasive but ambiguous national mythology from the history of the American frontier.
      This course is about how that mythology has evolved in response to the needs of its authors and their audiences and constituencies, and how it has influenced economic, political, and social development. By understanding the processes and interests that have produced this mythology, you can begin to understand how mass media influence society generally.
      You will be assigned a number for this class when you have submitted the first assignment, the Unit 1 introductory exam. You will use the number to submit one assignment, and to identify your grades when interim grades are posted online. This number is for this class only and is not your university student number. All numbers for this class have six digits and begin with "4409," identifying you as a student in this specific class.
      Current grades will be posted as frequently as possible using the assigned numbers to identify students.

Work Required. Graded assignments for this course include the following (deadlines are in parentheses):

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Introductory exam (Monday, February 2 – see Unit 1).

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Participation in fourteen online discussions about issues raised by the textbook (White):

•	Chapter 1 (deadline extended to midnight Wednesday, February 11)
•	Chapter 2 (Thursday, February 12)
•	Chapter 3 (Monday, February 16)
•	Chapter 4 (Thursday, February 19)
•	Chapter 5 (Monday, February 23)
•	Chapter 6 (Thursday, February 26)
•	Chapter 7 (Monday, March 2)
•	Chapter 8 (Thursday, March 5)
•	Chapter 9 (Monday, March 9)
•	Chapter 10 (Thursday, March 12)
•	Chapter 11 (Monday, March 16)
•	Chapter 12 (Thursday, March 19)
•	Chapter 13 (Monday, March 23)
•	Chapter 14 (Thursday, March 26)

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Participation in nine online discussions based on study questions for Unit 3 films (see Unit 3 page for links to films) and readings from Smith and Turner (see Unit 3 for links).

•	Films about western/frontier art and Buffalo Bill (Thursday, April 16)
•	Reading 1: Smith 81-132 (Thursday, April 23)
•	Reading 2: Smith 165-200, 250-260, and Turner (Thursday, April 30)

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Final assignment analyzing two western films in a minimum of fifteen hundred words submitted as hard copy – see Unit 4 (Thursday, May 7)

      Elements of the Course. Unit 1 deals with western movies, the principal medium of frontier mythology during the last century. You will watch a documentary film about westerns and two complete films, and you will write an online response (the introductory exam). The documentary required for this unit will be available online and in the library.
      In Unit 2, you will read much of Richard White's history of the West (see "Textbooks") and prepare to answer study questions in class based on the readings. The goal of this unit is a basic understanding of the history which frontier mythology has bent for artistic and political purposes.
      Unit 3 deals with other media through which the frontier myth has been expressed, including novels and art, and with the political and intellectual dimensions of the myth. As part of this unit, you will discuss ideas put forward in documentary films and readings from Henry Nash Smith and Frederick Jackson Turner.
      Like the films required for Unit 1, the two documentaries required for this unit will be available online and in the library.
      Unit 4, at the end of the course, involves writing you will writing a comparative analysis of two other films chosen from among four sets of two films with similar plot elements but made in different periods. You will considering how particular topics were covered, how well or poorly the films matched reality, and whether the films themselves can be understood as cultural artifacts of the periods in which they were made.

Textbooks. The texts are:

•	"It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own": A New History of the American West by Richard White
•	Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth by Henry Nash Smith (also available online – see the Unit 3: Other Media.)

      Professor. E.A. Schwartz (PhD Missouri 1991) is an associate professor at Cal State San Marcos and has taught courses in American history, including American Indian history, history of the American frontier, and California history, since 1988.
      You may contact him through e-mail at schwartz@csusm.edu, and you may call him at 760-744-8363. (This is a message phone. Do not call if you are not prepared to leave a message.) You may also make an appointment to meet him on campus. His office is in Markstein 261 and his formal office hours are noon-115PM Mondays and 4-515PM Tuesdays when classes are in session. Appointements are available at other times.
      For additional information, see http://www.csusm.edu/schwartz/.

Grading. Your score, used to calculate the final grade, will be based on a 100-point scale.

Assignment	%
Unit 1 introductory exam	10
Unit 2 discussions	35
Unit 3 discussions	20
Unit 1 final assignment	35
Total	100.0

Grade ranges are A 90-100, B 80-89.9, C 70-79.9, D 60-69.9, F 0-59.9.

      Incompletes and Grade Changes. An incomplete will not be given unless the alternative is an F and, in the opinion of the professor, based on work completed, the student has a reasonable chance of completing course requirements with a passing grade. An incomplete not finished within one year automatically becomes an F.
      Other grades may be changed only if additional work was available to be submitted on time but, because of a technical problem, clerical error, or other problem due the actions of someone other than the student, was not received by deadline. After sixty days, until one year after the original grade was assigned, a signed letter explaining the special circumstances justifying the grade change must be given to the instructor, and the grade change must be approved by the dean of the college of arts and sciences. After one year, grade changes are no longer possible.
      The professor cannot take responsibility for work not received, whatever the reason.