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Sociology W21900: American Society (Fall 2009)

Jack HammondHours: M Th 2:45-3:45

Office: West 1605 or by appointment

Phone: 212-7725573e-mail:

The changing face of the United States. We will begin by examining the recent financial crisis: mortgage defaults, bank meltdown, recession, and unemployment. We will then look at the background to these events in the last half of the twentieth century: industrial decline and the rise of the service economy; growing inequality by race and income; consumption and the American dream; women's status and family structure; race and ethnicity; immigrants: assimilation, competition, exclusion attempts. We will conclude with a discussion of the possibility and desirability of a society of greater equality.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

This is a writing-intensive course and meets the college's writing requirement. That means there is a lot of writing, graded and ungraded. Since most of the writing is based on reading, there is also a lot of reading. You must plan to complete the reading and written assignments on time and come to class prepared to talk intelligently about them.

At the end of most classes we will take a few minutes to write a "One-Minute Paper" to answer two questions: what is the most important thing that you learned today, and what questions remain unanswered from today's class. These will be handed in anonymously and will not be graded. You may want to keep a copy for review purposes.

The following assignments will be required:

1. Before the second class, send me an email message from your preferred address. The subject line should read "Sociology W21900, Section" followed by your section number, and the body of the message should contain only your name and email address. If you have any other communication for me, send it in a separate message.

I will add all addresses from which I receive mail by September 3 to my address book. Anyone who does not get included during the first week will not get on the class e-mail list, and messages sent to me later will be rejected as spam.

2. A short paper handed out in the first class and due September 21. This assignment will be read but not graded.

3. A short paper on an assigned topic. Details of the assignment will be handed out. The process will have several stages; intermediate due dates are October 5 and October 19. Because these are part of a longer process, class attendance is required with the completed assignment on October 5 and October 19. The final paper will be due November 2.

4. Research paper on a topic of your choice. Writing the research paper will be a multistep process leading up to the completed paper. We will devote a great deal of attention and class time to this process.

A proposal stating your thesis and discussing the evidence you will need to prove it is due November 5. You must meet with me in my office at least once by November 1 to discuss the proposal. It will be returned with comments. It will not be graded, but if it is not handed in on time it will affect the grade on your paper. It must be returned to me with the research paper.

A draft of the paper is due November 23 with the proposal previously submitted. It will be returned with comments for revision.

The completed paper is due December 10.

Further details of the assignment will be provided. It is essential that you keep on top of the process and complete the preliminary assignments on time. You will only be graded on the final version of the paper but all the preliminaries must be completed on time or they will affect your grade on the paper.

5. Final exam.

6. A portion of the grade will be based on class participation in general discussions and small group discussions. Participation means contributing constructively to discussions based on your reading of the assignments and your personal knowledge of the topic being discussed. It does not mean always knowing the answers. A question can be as valuable as a statement; admitting that you are confused just means that you are more honest than most people, and can give rise to a clarification that others need too.

All papers must be handed in in hard copy on the day due (no fax, no e-mail). Late papers will be penalized one-third of a grade for each day late. (If the grade is a B and the paper is one day late you will receive a B-; if it is two days late you will receive a C+; etc.) If an ungraded paper is preliminary to a graded assignment, the penalty will be applied to the final grade for that assignment.

Handing in a paper on the day due means handing it in in class the day it is due. Papers handed in later the same day will be counted as one day late. Saturdays and Sundays do not count in determining lateness penalties.

The grade will be based on the following:

1. Class participation: 6%

2. Short paper: 20%

3. Research paper: 37%

4. Final exam: 37%

All assignments, graded and ungraded, must be handed in to receive a passing grade. Ungraded assignments which are preliminary to a graded assignment must be handed in with enough time to get feedback before completing the assignment.

EXTRA CREDIT may be earned in two ways (you may do either or both):

1. Optional midterm, November 1

2. An in-class oral report sometime between October 1 and December 1. The date and topic must be confirmed with me in advance. If you want to do an oral report, you must consult with me well ahead of time, so you should look at the oral report assignment on the course page right away. To give an oral report in October, you must consult with me by September 25. To give an oral report in November, you must consult with me by October 15.

For details on the oral report, see Course Materials on the course page.

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION: Everyone in the class is expected to have an e-mail address and to check your e-mail regularly. Information distributed by e-mail will also be given in class but you will sometimes get it sooner by e-mail.

Every student is assigned a Hunter e-mail address but many prefer to use an outside Internet Service Provider. Before the second class, send me an e-mail message from your preferred address. The subject line should read "Sociology W21900, Section [your section number]" and the body of the message should contain only your name and e-mail address. If you have any other communication for me, do not include it in this message.

Feel free send me e-mail. When you do, always sign your full name and include the course number and section number. To avoid having your message discarded as spam, include the course number in the subject line. (Also see point 1 under requirements.)

While I recognize that everyone is busy and not always free to come see me in my office, there will be times when e-mail is not a substitute for a conversation. If I answer your e-mail and say you must come to see me to discuss your question, you must come to see me. If I say I will answer the question in class, you must come to class. If I ask you to raise this question in class so that I can tell everyone at once, you must come to class and raise the question in class.

ONLINE COURSE PAGE: Some course materials will be available on the Blackboard course page: go to and log in with your portal ID. (If you do not have a portal ID, go to

The syllabus for the course is available on line. From the online syllabus, you can click on the link given for some readings and access them directly. Blackboard will also have copies of class handouts. However, in case not all handouts are on Blackboard, the official source for all handouts is in class.

There is also an online discussion board for optional participation. I will read the discussion board and try to answer any questions that arise.

REQUIRED READINGS can be found in several places. Some are in the required books. Some are in the course pack, for sale at Shakespeare's. If a link is given in the syllabus, the reading is available online from any computer; you can get them by going to the online syllabus and clicking on the link.

Full text readings on line: Many of the readings (and many other journals, magazines, and newspapers) are available on line through the Hunter College library. You will find a journal article on line by going to the library home page ( Click on "journal title list" on the left side of the screen, then type in the name of the journal you are looking for. Log in using your Hunter e-mail address. You will then be taken to the index page for that journal and can find the article by date.

When you find an online article, you can print it or save it on a hard drive or flash drive. If you have a choice of formats, choose the PDF format which will show you the article exactly as it appears in the original. Other formats may not include page numbers and illustrations.

To save or print a text that appears on a web page with a lot of advertisements or other extraneous material, highlight the text you want, then copy it (click on edit, copy or type control-c), switch to MSWord, and paste it (click on edit, paste or type control-v).

For students who will be using offcampus computers to access Blackboard and get readings online, Prof. Manfred Kuechler has prepared a handout detailing what you should have on your computer and how to check whether you have it. Go to

CURRENT EVENTS READING: Because we are studying very recent events, many assignments are news reports and documentary TV and radio broadcasts. When you are studying these, pay close attention to the dates. What was true in November, 2008 changes by March, 2009 and again by July, 2009.

The broadcast links include both transcripts and complete shows on audio or video. You can read, watch, or listen but the best way to study them will be to print out the transcript, follow it while you are watching or listening, and write notes on it.

The quality of information in news reports and online sources is frequently different from that in printed books and journals. We will be discussing the evaluation of different kinds of sources in class.

A personal note: I have a physical disability. My right ear is extremely sensitive to noise: loud noise most of all, but also noise coming steadily from my right side. I sometimes do strange-looking things, like facing sideways to avoid noise, or covering my right ear. When talking to me, please keep to my left. Do not unwrap crinkly food wrappers in class. If you are coughing or sneezing, I may ask you to change your seat. Please don't take it personally. Listening is hard in a room with noise coming from several directions, so I ask that you not ask me questions right after class. Come to see me in my office. (I am not hard of hearing. Talking louder may make it worse.) Thanks for your consideration

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY. Hunter College regards acts of academic dishonesty (e.g., plagiarism, cheating on examinations, obtaining unfair advantage, and falsification of records and official documents) as serious offenses against the values of intellectual honesty. The college is committed to enforcing the CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity and will pursue cases of academic dishonesty according to the Hunter College Academic Integrity Procedures. (Hunter College Senate Resolution, May 11, 2005)

Academic dishonesty is prohibited and punishable by a variety of penalties, including failing grades, notation on a student's record, suspension, and expulsion. It should be noted that plagiarism detection services are available for use by faculty.

Do not plagiarize. Any words or ideas that come from other sources must be properly credited. Documentation has at least three purposes: to give credit where it is due, as evidence which a reader can go and check, and to suggest sources of further information. If you use information or ideas from someone else in your paper, the sources must be cited even when they are not quoted directly. Failure to cite sources constitutes plagiarism and it is wrong whether it is intentional or unintentional. Submission of a paper which presents someone else's work as your own will be grounds for failure. Definitions and examples of academic dishonesty can be found in the Hunter College Undergraduate Catalog (2004-07) on page 251. The catalog is online at

See also "Avoiding Plagiarism: When and What to Cite" in the Guide to Writing Sociology Papers, 5th ed., 38-43 (coursepack).

REQUIRED BOOKS:

Lardner and Smith, Inequality Matters (New Press)

Massey, Categorically Unequal: The American Stratification System (Russell Sage)

Portes and Rumbaut, Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation (University of California)

These books have been ordered at Shakespeare's and HC bookstore. Additional readings are in a course pack for sale at Shakespeare's.

The First Measured Century: An Illustrated Guide to Trends in America, 1900-2000, by Theodore Caplow, Louis Hicks and Ben J. Wattenberg, is a book based on a PBS series giving data on American society during the twentieth century. It is also available on the Internet. See separate handout. In the syllabus below, this book is referred to as FMC; the pages to be consulted are listed under the sections of the syllabus when we will be discussing them.

SYLLABUS (All Readings are required)

1. Introduction

Lardner, What's the Problem? in Lardner and Smith, 15-24

Hammond, Using the World Wide Web for Research (on Blackboard)

Kamp, Rethinking The American Dream. Vanity Fair 51, No. 4 (April 2009), 118.

Mills, The Sociological Imagination, 3-15

FMC: Chapter One: POPULATION: Size and Growth Rate, Age Structure

2. Mortgage crisis

The Giant Pool of Money May 9, 2008

Caruthers, A Sociology of Bubbles. Contexts 8, No. 3 (Summer 2009), 22-26. (on Blackboard)

Chuck Collins, Talking Points: Economic Meltdown

Packer, The Ponzi State. New Yorker February 9, 2009

Steinhauer, A Cul-de-Sac of Lost Dreams, and New Ones. New York Times, August 23, 2009

FMC: Chapter Five: LIVING ARRANGEMENTS: Household Size, Housing

Starts, Home Ownership

3. The Culture of Materialism

Bakan, Corporations Unbound, in Lardner and Smith, 188-202

Frank, 'What, Me Save?'; Wall Streeters Put Bonuses In Homes, Art, Not Banks, Wall Street Journal, Feb 23, 2007, and Millionaires Need Not Apply; SEC and Others Rewrite The Definition of 'Rich', Wall Street Journal. March 16, 2007. See "Richistan" on Blackboard/course materials

Frank, How the Middle Class is Injured by Gains at the Top, in Lardner and Smith, 138-49

Leonhardt and Fabrikant, Rise of the Super-Rich Hits a Sobering Wall. New York Times, August 21, 2009 (graphs to accompany this article are on Blackboard/Course Materials)

MacEwan, Inequality, Power, and Ideology. Dollars and Sense 281 (March-Apr 2009), 23-31.

Schor, "The New Politics of Consumption. Boston Review, Summer 1999.

Robert Skidelsky, Where do we go from here? Prospect Magazine Issue 154 , January 2009.

Twitchell, "Let Them Eat Cake: Luxe 'R' Us." American Spectator, May/June 2002, 70-75

Weissman, Executive Pay and "The Market Economy."

FMC: Chapter Nine: MONEY: Personal Consumption, Personal Debt

4. The Banking Crisis

Another Frightening Show About the Economy. This American Life Program #365, National Public Radio, October 1, 2008

Bad Bank. This American Life Program #375, February 23, 2009

Inside the Meltdown, PBS Frontline (February 2009)

Bello, A Primer on Wall Street Meltdown

(note the date: 10/01/2008 outside of the US means October 1, 2008)

Cassidy, The Minsky Moment. The New Yorker, February 4, 2008

Johnson, The Quiet Coup. The Atlantic, May 2009.

FMC: Chapter Fourteen: BUSINESS: Gross Domestic Product, Business Cycles, Trading Volume, Dow Jones Average, Stockholders

5. Income Inequality and Social Mobility

Boushey and Weller, What the Numbers Tell Us. in Lardner and Smith, 27-40

Ehrenreich, Earth to Wal-Mars, in Lardner and Smith, 41-53

Jencks, Why do So Many Jobs Pay So Badly, in Lardner and Smith, 129-37

Marmot, Understanding Social Inequalities in Health. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 46, No. 3 Supplement (2003) S9-S23

Piketty and Saez. 2006. "The Evolution of Top Incomes: A Historical and International Perspective." American Economics Review, Papers and Proceedings 96(2):200- 205.

Sawhill and Morton, Economic Mobility: Is the American Dream. Alive and Well?

FMC Chapter Two: WORK: Men's Occupations, Farm Operators, Working Women, Women at Work: Values, Women's Occupations; Chapter Three: EDUCATION: Educational Attainment, Graduate Education; Chapter Nine: MONEY: Average Earnings, Minority Earnings, Average Incomes, Income Distribution, Poverty

6. Models of Accumulation: From Growth for Everyone to Winner-Take-All

AFLCIO, The Silent War: The Assault on Workers' Freedom to Choose a Union and Bargain Collectively in the United States (June, 2002).

Bello, A Primer on Wall Street Meltdown (review)

Johnston, The Great Tax Shift, in Lardner and Smith, 165-77

Kinsley, We Try Harder (But What's the Point?) New York Times, May 16, 2007 (coursepack)

Krugman, "For Richer." New York Times Magazine, October 20, 2002.

Levy, Institutions and Income Inequality in 20th Century America: The Bernie Saffran Lecture. Swarthmore College, November 15, 2007.

Massey, 28-50, 158-210

FMC Chapter Two: WORK: Labor Unions

7. The Changing Family

Cherlin, "Should the Government Promote Marriage?" Contexts, 2, No. 4 (Fall 2003) 22-29

Gerson and Jacobs, "The Work-Home Crunch." Contexts 3, No. 4 (Fall 2004), 29-37

McLanahan, "The Consequences of Single Motherhood," The American Prospect vol. 5 no. 18, June 23, 1994.

Massey, 211-41

Meadow and Stacey, "Keywords: Families." Contexts 5, No. 4 (Fall, 2006), 55-57.

Schwartz, "Peer Marriage." In Ferguson, Shifting the Center: Understanding Contemporary Families, 3d ed. 222-31

Seltzer, "Families Formed Outside of Marriage." In Ferguson, Shifting the Center: Understanding Contemporary Families, 3d ed. 232-50.