NEW! FINAL GRADES

General Histories of the Auto on Reserve
Research Assignment
Research Assignment Grade Sheet
History Style Guide (links to History Website)
Plagiarism Statement
UVic Calender
Auto-Biographies  
Consent Form for Interviews
Consent Form to Archive Auto Biography Paper
Seminar Facilitation Guidelines
UVic Library Links: History of the Automobile
UVic MacPherson Library Partial Auto Bibliography
Other Links
 

 

This course uses the automobile as the entrée to an understanding of the history of the United States since the 1820s.   It starts before the automobile itself, with an examination of the rise of the factory system and the system of interchangeable parts that made mass-production possible, and follows the automobile from its invention through its time as a status symbol for the rich to an essential part of North American life; from offering access to the wilderness to becoming the wilderness’ public enemy #1.  It draws on approaches from cultural, gender, environmental, economic, urban, labour, and technological history.

 

Format: The course follows a lecture-seminar format. Once we have established some background with lectures, normally Monday’s classes will be a seminar divided in two, one group meeting from 10-10:40 and the second from 10:40-11:20. Thursdays the class will normally be a lecture with some time for discussion.  This is not an invariable rule so check the outline regularly. Readings are assigned as background for both seminars and lectures and students should be prepared to discuss the readings in both types of classes.

Assignments and Evaluation:  The final evaluation will be the sum of four separate grades; participation worth 25%, seminar facilitation 10%, a 2,000-3,000 word research assignment worth 35%; and a the combined total of 5 short in-class tests worth 30% in total.  More information about each will be provided in the next few classes.  There will be no final exam.

  Participation:    Seminar participation will be evaluated on a ten point scale:  4 marks for showing up. 6 marks for clearly having read all the assigned reading and making some contribution to the discussion.  7.5 for clearly having read all the assigned reading, making a significant contribution to the discussion and showing an understanding of some the main points in the articles under discussion. 8-10, as above but showing a critical understanding of the material under discussion.  Your seminar marks may be adjusted according to the quality of your admission ticket and participation in non-seminar classes. The lowest grade from your seminar marks will not be counted. This means you may miss one seminar without penalty. If you miss another seminar you may make up the missing grade by handing in a 1,000 word answer to the seminar questions. YOU MUST ATTEND AT LEAST FIVE OF THE SEMINARS OR YOU WILL GET A GRADE OF INCOMPLETE FOR THE COURSE.

 Seminar Facilitation:   Students will be assigned to facilitate one of the seminars.  In common with the other facilitators for that seminar, they will propose readings and reading questions and lead the seminars.  Half the grade will be for the group for the readings, questions, and  the other half for the individual for the facilitation and summary.  More details to follow.

 Research Assignment: The research assignment must be based, at least in part, on primary sources - ie. sources that were created at the time the essay focuses on.   It may be an essay, a website, an auto design, a tour, exhibit or other research project.  Group projects will be considered.  Two copies of a preliminary outline and bibliography are to be submitted Thursday October 8^th, one digital and one print, and a digital and print copy of the final essay are due on Friday November 6^th.  Both are due at 4pm.  The penalty for late outlines and papers is 1% a day.  Students who are doing standard research essays will be required to submit their essays to TurnItIn.com a plagiarism detection software. Cheating, plagiarism and other forms of academic fraud are taken very seriously by both the University and the Department. You should consult http://web.uvic.ca/calendar2004/ FACS/UnPr/UARe/PoAcI.html for the UVIc policy on academic integrity. Note that the university policy includes the statement that "A largely or fully plagiarized assignment should result in a grade of F for the course".

 Tests: There will be 6 short in-class tests which will be in the form of pop-quizzes.  No warning will be given as to which class they will be held to encourage students to keep up with the reading and lectures.  Each will have 5 questions.  Students who miss class without a doctor’s note will receive 0 on the quiz.  One quiz will related to the automobile in film and will draw from a lecture on that topic as well as a series of films which students will be expected to watch outside of class. The top five scores will be calculated from the pop quizes.

                        

Readings: Assigned readings are an integral part of the course.  The text for the course is Rudi Volti, Cars and Culture: the Life Story of a Technology (John Hopkins, 2006).  Other readings will be available on line via the class website.

1	Thursday	Sept. 10	Welcome. Introduction.  Background to the Course.
2	Monday	Sept. 14	Interchangeable Parts and  Revolt of the Workers
3	Thursday	Sept. 17	Bicycle to Automobile  Link to Powerpoints Reading Volti 1-20. Question: Which of the “Key Actor” or Social Construction of Technology Approaches better describes the development of the automobile and why?
4	Monday	Sept. 21	Henry Ford and the Model T Reading Volti 21-42 Question:  What were the secrets of Ford’s success?
5	Thursday	Sept. 24	Automobility – the Car in American Life Reading Volti 43-63. Question: what allowed GM to overtake Ford?
6	Monday	Sept. 28	Guest Tina Bebbington (Library) on Finding Resources for Research Papers The Automobile as a Weapon & Globalization of Automobility Reading Volti 65-86. Question: What were the differences between American auto culture and European?
	Tuesday	Sept. 29	FILM: Grindhouse, Cincenta, 7pm
7	Thursday	Oct. 1	Rubber hits the Road: the Automobile as a System
8	Monday	Oct. 5	Seminar A: Taylorism and Fordism
	Tuesday	Oct. 6	FILM: American Grafitti, Cincenta, 7:15 and 9pm
9	Thursday	Oct. 8	Futurama, Suburbia  and The Auto-city Research Assignment Outlines and Bibliography Due due 4 pm at History Office and by email.
	Monday	Oct. 12	Thanksgiving No Class
10	Thursday	Oct. 15	Labour and the Auto Reading: Volti 87-114. Question: What were the distinctive features of the auto industry in the 50s and 60s?
11	Monday	Oct. 19	Seminar B: Public vs Private Transit
12	Thursday	Oct. 22	Landscape of the Automobile
13	Monday	Oct. 26	Seminar C: Conspicuous Consumption
	Tuesday	Oct. 27	FILM: Easy Rider, Cincenta, 7 and 9 pm.
14	Thursday	Oct. 29	Culture of Automobility - Detroit Guest Speaker Marc Christensen
15	Monday	Nov. 2	Seminar D:  Autos and the Environment
16	Thursday	Nov. 5	Design and Marketing of the Auto
	Friday	Nov. 6	Research Assignments due 4 pm at History Office and by email.
	Monday	Nov. 9	READING BREAK
17	Thursday	Nov. 12	Seminar E: Fetishization and Eroticization
18	Monday	Nov. 16	Seminar F: Revolt vs the Auto
19	Thursday	Nov. 19	Car as American Way of Death Reading Volti, 115-136. Question: what were the major changes to the auto industry in the 70s?
20	Monday	Nov. 23	Seminar G: The Future of the Automobile
21	Thursday	Nov. 26	Win-Win Solutions to Transportation Problems Guest Speaker Todd Litman from Victoria Transport Design Institute
22	Monday	Nov. 30	Cars, Oil and American Foreign Policy
23	Thursday	Dec. 3	The Decline of the American Dream  Reading Volti 137-156. Question Is Volti optimistic about the future?  Are you?