HSTRY 494B - THE ROARING TWENTIES
Department of History - University of Washington - Autumn 2025
W 10:30-12:20 - Smith 306
Professor Margaret O’Mara - momara@uw.edu
Office hours: W 2:30-3:30, Smith 312A
This undergraduate seminar explores the fast-moving and consequential decade of the 1920s in the United States. We will explore many dimensions of the national experience, moving beyond pop-culture representations to understand the critical role this period played in the formation of modern politics, social relations, economics, and culture. Work in the course will culminate in a research project exploring one aspect of the 1920s (both history and historiography) in greater depth.
Readings:
Books are available for purchase at the University Bookstore. Articles and chapters are available as PDFs on Canvas. Expect to read 125+ pages per week.
- Linda Gordon, The Second Coming of the KKK: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political Tradition
- Lisa McGirr, The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State
- Joshua Zeitz, Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern
Class technology and AI policy:
Small seminars work best with laptops closed and phones put away. Thus, this is a screen-free class. I ask that you bring a notebook and pen to take notes, your physical copies of the book(s) assigned that week, and a printed-out copy of your reading response post (see below) and any associated notes you have made on the readings. You are also welcome and encouraged to print out, read, and bring Canvas PDFs to class, if feasible. The only week we will use our personal devices (and fully online readings) is the AI discussion on Week Six.
This seminar teaches you about sources, methods, and tools of historical research, including large language models (ChatGPT et al.) and other AI tools. We will experiment with the constructive use of LLMs in data gathering and analysis (see assignment 3 below) and discuss how to use these tools with discernment. However, this is a class also intended to teach and hone your historical writing skills. Thus, while you may use LLMs judiciously as a research aid, using such tools to write or create any of your class assignments is strictly prohibited.
Assignments:
- Participation in seminar (25% of course grade): active, sustained, and collegial engagement in live class discussion, reflecting preparation for class and careful engagement with assigned readings. Unbroken and on-time attendance in class is key to a strong participation grade, and conflicts with other courses or extracurricular commitments are not considered to be excused absences.
- Reading response posts (3% each x 8, 24% total): 150-200-word posts to Canvas discussion board. Your post should 1) note one thing you found interesting in the week’s reading(s), and why; and 2) pose a question about the readings that you’d like the class to consider in discussion. This is an informal, conversational space to get the in-person class discussion going. We post each week there is reading, and you can skip one week of your choice. Post by 10PM on the Tuesday prior to class, beginning the second week of term.
- AI research presentation (10%): a 10-minute recorded presentation, shared with your class peers on Canvas, that introduces, contextualizes, and analyzes a primary source with the assistance of an LLM. The presentation should also critically evaluate how well the tool performed its analysis. Due the end of the sixth week of class.
- Film/TV review (6%): watch and write a 300-400-word review of a film, television series, or web series that depicts America in the 1920s, evaluating its historical accuracy, narrative choices, and how effectively it portrays the decade’s events and people. This should be a scripted and acted production, either fiction or based on actual events, and it should have been produced after the decade (1930s to 2020s). You will choose a film or series by the third week of class, and submit your review by the end of the eighth week. (Watch a full film or at least two episodes of your chosen TV series.)
- Research project (35% total): a two-part assignment, consisting of a 10-minute in-class oral presentation with slides (10%), and final research project (25%) exploring one aspect of American life and history in the 1920s in depth. Your final project may take the form of a 12-to-15-page research report (paper), a scripted and edited 15-minute podcast, or digital history project that presents your research findings graphically and textually online. Choose from a list of suggested topics to be distributed in the fourth week of class, or (in consultation with the professor) develop one of your own.