Communication Studies 677
Rhetoric of the 1960s
Spring 2005
Dr. Bert Gross
Office: Smith 244
Office Hours: 10-12 daily; 2-3:30 M; other hours by appointment.
Telephone: 696-2808 (office) 757-8712 (home) 696-2814 (FAX)
E-mail: gross@marshall.edu
Textbook: Anderson, T. W. (2004). The Sixties, 2nd ed. New York: Pearson.
Course Objectives:
1. Students will become familiar with methods of rhetorical criticism which are useful for interpreting the rhetorical acts and artifacts of the period.
2. Students will become familiar with the major rhetorical events of the 1960s, with the contexts in which they occurred, with the principal participants, and with the consequences of the rhetoric of the period.
3. Students will learn to develop a research project on an issue of interest and will experience the planning and execution of that project.
4. Students will engage in collaborative learning experiences in which they teach a class for fellow students and where they learn from the teaching of other students.
Course Requirements:
1. Each student is expected to attend class prepared to participate fully in the discussion of the topic for the day. Students who are not able to fulfill this requirement will be asked to withdraw from the course.
2. Each student is responsible for selecting a topic as the focus of his or her work for the semester. Each person will be responsible for teaching a portion of a class and for writing a research paper on some aspect of the topic. Each of these responsibilities is outlined in greater detail elsewhere.
3. Each student will complete a written final examination.
Grading:
Research Paper (50%) Teaching a Class (25%) Final Exam (25%)
Tentative Course Outline:
Jan 10 Introduction to the Course
Jan 17 Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday -- No class
READ: Anderson, The Sixties
Jan 24 Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement from Montgomery to Washington and Southern Resistance
READ: King, “I Have a Dream” http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/Ihaveadream.htm
George Wallace, Inaugural Address
http://www.archives.state.al.us/govs_list/inauguralspeech.html
John F. Kennedy, Civil Rights Address
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/johnfkennedycivilrights.htm
Jan 31 From Sit-ins to Mass Marches: Civil Rights and the Rhetoric of Protest
READ: Ch. 2 from Bowers, Ochs, and Jensen, The Rhetoric of Agitation and Control, 2nd. Ed. (on electronic reserve)
Lyndon Johnson, “We Shall Overcome”
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/lbjweshallovercome.htm
Feb 7 Alternative Voices: From Malcolm X to Black Power
READ: Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet”
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/malcolmxballot.htm
Stokely Carmichael, “Black Power”
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/stokelycarmichaelblackpower.html
Feb 14 open
Feb 21 The Rhetoric of the Cold War: The Roots of Vietnam
READ: John Kennedy, “Inaugural Address”
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/johnfkennedyinaugural.htm
John Kennedy, “Cuban Missile Crisis Address”
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkcubanmissilecrisis.html
Feb 28 The Rationale for U.S. Involvement in Vietnam
READ: Lyndon Johnson, “The Gulf of Tonkin Incident”
http://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/speeches/rhetoric/lbjgulf.htm
http://www.vietnamwar.com/TonkinGulfPresAddress.htm
Lyndon Johnson, “Renunciation Speech”
http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/speeches.hom/680331.asp
Mar 7 Anti-War Protest
READ: Randall Fisher, Ch. 10 in Rhetoric and American Democracy (on electronic reserve)
Mar 14 Vietnam and the Nixon Years
READ: Richard Nixon, The Silent Minority
http://web.nwe.ufl.edu/~jgoodwin/f98/silent.html
Richard Nixon, The Cambodian Incursion
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/richardnixoncambodia.html
Mar 21 Spring Break -- No class
Mar 28 and beyond Terra Incognita
Student Seminar Project
Selecting the topic
It is essential that the choice be made very quickly so that the second half of the semester can be scheduled and you can get your work underway. Ideally, students will select a range of topics that go beyond those treated in the first part of the semester. It is possible though for a student with a particularly keen interest to focus in much greater detail on some aspect of the Civil Rights or Vietnam issue. I have attached a list of additional ideas that you may wish to consult. These are only suggestions, however, and I invite you to make your own proposal.
Between January 10 and January 31 you should submit a one to two page statement of the topic which interests you, any particular focus that you have thought about and a statement of the reasons for your interest. You are welcome to discuss your thoughts with me in advance. Because we must avoid duplication, priority will be given to requests in the order in which they are received.
Teaching a class
A schedule for the second half of the semester will be published on Feb 7 in which you will be assigned a date to teach. Ideally each student would have a full class period, but the number suggest that it is likely to be necessary to double up.
Your tasks include the following: 1) Selecting and making available (if necessary) appropriate readings for your class. 2) Selecting and assigning appropriate activities to better prepare students for the class. 3) Outlining the discussion materials for your class. 4) Actually conducting the class.
Students must receive assignments, in writing, two weeks in advance. You must review with me your plans for the class, including your outline, at least one week in advance.
Writing the paper
Your research paper will be on a topic that is associated with the class which you teach, but the paper will be different in important ways. The topic for the class will necessarily be fairly broad as my suggestions indicate. For the research paper, however, you will need to have a much more narrow focus.
My objective is that your paper will have the significance and quality that will make it, with further revisions perhaps, acceptable for a presentation at a professional meeting. In order to earn an A for the course, your paper must meet that standard. In general, fifteen to twenty pages, typed and double-spaced, using APA style, will be an appropriate target.
To meet the standard of excellence, your paper should satisfy three important tests:
1. Significance - The paper must address an issue or rhetorical act of some importance. That concern should be addressed in the introduction of the paper.
2. Originality - Your analysis should do more than repeat what has already been written. You should be familiar with other related work, and you should be able to distinguish your work from that of others.
3. Quality - Your paper needs to develop a clear thesis that serves as the central organizing point. The paper should present well supported arguments which advance the thesis. Arguments should be developed in language which is clear, direct, and appropriate.
The paper is due on April 25. A prospectus is due on March 28 which should include a statement of your thesis, the rationale for it, a brief review of relevant literature, and the identification of materials that are available to you for analysis.
Topic Suggestions:
War on Poverty
Influence of Harrington’s The Other America
Idealism expressed through the Peace Corps, VISTA, etc.
Johnson’s “Great Society”
The “discovery” of Appalachia
Development of Space Program
The “space race” with the U.S.S.R.
Space as a manifestation of American technology
Civil Unrest and the response
Urban riots
Campus disturbances
Kerner Commission Report
Development of the Counterculture
Origins of the Environmental Movement
Origins of the Feminist Movement
Student Protest and University Reform
The Warren Court and the Expansion of Civil Liberties
The roots of a new conservatism
Etc.
Rhetorical Analysis
Some of the reading will come from primary sources—speeches or other rhetorical documents. The following questions may help in the analysis of this material:
1. What did the speaker say? What were the major lines of argument?
2. What appeals and techniques of persuasion were employed?
3. What assumptions does the text reveal about the speaker’s self-concept, hierarchy of values, world-view, audience, and view of rhetoric?
4. For what reasons might the speaker have made the rhetorical choices revealed in the text?
5. What rhetorical functions does the text perform?
Academic Honesty
All students should be familiar with the Marshall University Policy on Academic Dishonesty which can be found in the Graduate Catalog. It is particularly important that students understand the need to submit their own work. To submit as one’s own work that was created in whole or in part by another is plagiarism which is a serious violation of university policy and subjects the offender to sanctions ranging from failure in the course, to dismissal from the university.