Advanced topics in American History I 4219-AW101-A
This lecture has three central topics: the origins and development of European colonies in North America, the causes and consequences of the American Revolution, and the 19th century development of American society leading to the Civil War. Woven into these topics will be a consideration of place and fate of Native Americans, the origins and growth of slavery, and the evolving role of women.
Possible topics for more in depth analysis may include
Spanish-Aztec conflict in Mexico
The Salem Witch trails
Life in eighteenth century Massachusetts
Politics in 1790s Philadelphia
Working Women in textile mills
Slave society
Using African Americans in Civil War Armies
General schedule of topics
Week 1 Red, White, and Black
Week 2 First Contact
Week 3 Virginia
Week 4 Massachusetts
Week 5 18th Century Society
Week 6 Road to Revolution
Week 7 War and Social Revolution
Week 8 Constitution and Politics in the New Republic
Weeks 9&10 Northern Antebellum Society
Week 11 Southern Antebellum Society
Week 12 Slave society
Week 13 Road to Secession
Week 14 Civil War
Week 15 Politics of Reconstruction
Type of course
Prerequisites (description)
Learning outcomes
1. Students will gain an understanding of the general themes of American history from the earliest explorations and colonies through Reconstruction.
2. Students will learn to read critically the contributions of historians to our understanding of American history.
3. Students will learn how to analyze primary sources for what they reveal about the era in which they were produced.
4. Students will learn to synthesize this material to make arguments that demonstrate their understanding of American history.
Assessment criteria
Students will be required to take a final, written exam consisting of three short essays on assigned texts (40% of the grade) and one long essay addressing a main theme of the course (60% of the grade). The short essays will be evaluated on how accurately the answer summarizes the argument and evidence of the assigned reading. The long essay will be evaluated on the essay’s comprehensiveness (how well it addresses the various aspects of the question), accuracy (how well the main theme of the essay answers the question and how well the evidence used in the essay supports the essay’s argument), argument (how well the essay develops a coherent, logical argument answering the question), and evidence (the essay’s synthesis of relevant information from the lectures and assigned readings).
Bibliography
Selections from the following:
Wheeling and Becker, Discovering the American Past, vol. 1
Davidson and Lytle, After the Fact
Merrill, “Indians’ New World”
Nash, “Hidden History of Mestizo America”
Morgan, “The First American Boom”
Morgan, “Puritans and Sex”
Nash, “Urban Wealth and Poverty in Pre-Revolutionary America”
Isaac, “Dramatizing the Ideology of the Revolution”
Crow, “Slave Rebelliousness in North Carolina”
Kerber, “The Republican Mother”
Welter, “The Cult of True Womanhood”
Johnson, “The Modernization of Mayo Greenleaf Patch”
McCurry, “Two Faces of Republicanism”
Johnson, “Smothered Slave Infants”
Pierson, “All Southern Society is Assailed by the Foulest Charges”
Goen, “Broken Churches, Broken Nation”
Faust, “The Civil War Soldier and the Art of Dying”
Harris, “The Creed of the Carpetbaggers”
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: