History 15100-002 Section # 62754 American History to 1877 Fall 2013 MWF 11:30am 12:20pm RM: UNIV 201 Instructor: John C. Kennedy Office: Recitation Building RM 409 E-mail: kenned15@purdue.edu Office Hours: Mondays 10-11am, Wednesdays 12:30-1:30pm, and by appointment Course Description Nations have never existed within a vacuum. The United States is no exception. It has always been influenced by events outside of its ideological and geographical borders. This course places the history of the United States in a trans-national context. Beginning with pre-columbian Native American society and ending with the reconstruction of the Union, this course will explore and interrogate how the interactions of peoples and ideas across boundaries shaped the history of the American people(s). Rather than following a linear timeline, this class is organized around three major themes: Cross Cultural Encounters and Exchanges, The Meaning of Freedom, and American Nationalism in an Era of Global Nation Building. The grade for this course will be based on how well students master the goals of this course. Course Goals This course has two main goals. The first goal has two interrelated parts. Students will understand significant themes, events, and peoples so as to have a basic knowledge of American history to 1877. Students will also recognize the importance of using and interpreting primary sources in constructing narratives about the past. The second goal is to assist the student in developing critical thinking and writing skills which will be invaluable in this class and in their own general academic and professional careers. 1
Required Texts The textbook and primary source book can be purchased at the University Bookstore, Follett s, or via websites like amazon.com or half.com. There will also be required readings in PDF format located in the course s Blackboard section. Please buy three blue exam booklets as well. Textbook: Schaller, Michael et al. American Horizons: U.S. History in a Global Context, Volume I to 1877. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. Primary Source Reader: Schaller, Michael et al. Reading American Horizons: Primary Sources for U.S. History in a Global Context, Volume I to 1877. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. Writing Assignments Papers: There is a paper option for each section of the course. Students will choose TWO of three paper options during the semester answering an analytical question, using and interpreting primary sources. The paper should be 3-4 pages (900-1200 words). The papers must be uploaded onto Backboard by the due date. The first paper is worth 60 points and the second paper worth 80 points. Late papers will immediately be penalized 3 points and penalized an additional 1 point for every day it is late. I will gladly look at paper outlines and/or rough drafts. If you wish me to make comments on a rough draft, please email it to me at least three days before the due date. Blogs: Students will maintain a short blog on Blackboard during the section of the course when they are not writing a paper. Students must write at least THREE blog posts between 250-300 words. Each option will ask you to pretend to represent two different perspectives and post entries from those perspectives. The blogs should respond to the arguments made from each perspective, be in the first person, and be based on the primary sources from the course reader and PDF documents. The blog assignment is worth 60 points. The paper and blog assignments are meant to offer opportunities to improve writing skills and stimulate critical thinking about American history to 1877. In addition to seeking help over email and during office hours, I strongly encourage you to visit the Writing Center Lab here on campus. It is located at 226 Heavilon Hall and the phone number is (765)-494-3723. The Online Writing Lab s website also has excellent resources to help you: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/ Paper Prompts Paper Option 1 Due September 13: How did the various cultural encounters and exchanges occurring between 1400 and 1763 affect the lives of European colonists, Native Americans, and African slaves? You may focus on a few specific influences on these groups or you may analyze broad changes over time on the lives of these peoples. Remember to use the documents in Reading American Horizons and the PDF documents in your answer. Paper Option 2 Due October 25: How did late-eighteenth-century challenges to imperial authority in the Atlantic World and political and social movements during the first half of the nineteenth century influence how Americans conceptualized the meaning of freedom? 2
Remember to use the documents in Reading American Horizons and the PDF documents in your answer. Paper Option 3 Due November 25: Why and how was the construction of American nationalism and the nation-state so contested among Americans during the nineteenth century to 1877? Remember to use the documents in Reading American Horizons and the PDF documents in your answer. Blog Posts Blog Post Option 1 Due September 13: Write from any perspective about life in the British Empire and write from any perspective about life in the Spanish Empire to 1763. Remember to use the documents in Reading American Horizons and the PDF documents in your response and to place the posts in conversation with each other. Blog Post Option 2 Due October 25: Write from the perspective of an abolitionist arguing for the immediate abolition of slavery and write from the perspective of a southern planter defending the institution of slavery during the 1850s. Remember to use the documents in Reading American Horizons and the PDF documents in your response and to place the posts in conversation with each other. Blog Post Option 3 Due November 25: Write from the perspective of a person supporting Congressional (Radical) Reconstruction and from the perspective of a person opposing Congressional Reconstruction during the 1870s. Remember to use the documents in Reading American Horizons and the PDF documents in your response and to place the posts in conversation with each other. Exams There will be three in-class exams covering each part of this course and focusing on lectures and course readings. The format will be short answer and essay response. Exam one is scheduled for Wednesday September 18. It will have three short answer and one short essay worth 80 points. Exam two will occur Wednesday October 30. It will have five short answer questions and one short essay worth 100 points. The date of the final exam will be announced in-class. It will have five short answer questions, one short essay covering part three, and a cumulative essay tying together the three main themes of the class worth 150 points. Discussions On some Fridays, students will be asked to discuss issues they found interesting and important to a particular week s theme or the general section theme. During the first half of the discussion, students will divide into smaller groups to discuss and devise a short list of issues. About midway through, the class will reorganize as a whole and discuss each group s list. This will also be a time to discuss the blog and paper assignments. Course Policies Grading 3
Exams will be worth a total of 330 points. Writing assignments will be worth a total of 200 points. Your final grade will be based on your percentage of earned points out of a possible 530 points according to the following scale: 100-93% =A 82-80% = B- 69-67% = D+ 92-90% = A- 77-79% = C+ 63-66% = D 87-89% = B+ 76-73% = C 62-60% = D- 83-86% = B 72-70% = C- 59-0% = F Attendance Coming to lecture regularly is essential to doing well in this course. Regular attendance is the only way to get lecture notes, and being in class will help you comprehend important themes that will be on the exams. Attendance, however, will not be taken. Your success in this course, in college, and in life generally is largely depended upon the decisions you make. I hope you will choose to come to class regularly but, in the end, it is your choice. Make-up Exams Make-up exams will be scheduled for university excused absences and an alternative final exam date will be created for those of you with final exam conflicts. Students will not be allowed to make up exams for unexcused absences. Disclaimer In the event of a major campus emergency, course requirements, deadlines, and grading percentages are subject to changes as necessitated by a revised semester calendar or other circumstances. Any necessary changes will be announced via email and the class Blackboard page. Plagiarism and Cheating Plagiarism is the reproduction of another person s work without the author s consent. Plagiarism is considered cheating by the university and is a serious offense. You are expected to produce your own work and must attribute (cite) other people s work in your writing assignments. If I catch you in a first-time plagiarism offense, you will automatically receive a zero (0) for the assignment. If I catch you in a second or subsequent plagiarism offense, you will automatically receive a zero (0) for the assignment, and I will report you to the Dean of Students Office. For more information about plagiarism please see the following site: http://www.purdue.edu/odos/osrr/academicintegritybrochure.php Civility and Respect A classroom is meant to be a respectful, safe, and open place where the free exchange of ideas and learning can take place. I expect you all to be courteous to your fellow students and to me. I promise to be respectful to you all in return. To that end, please silence your cell phones and refrain from surfing the internet and Facebook on your laptops or ipads. Students who continuously disrupt class will be asked to leave. Learning and Course Accommodations 4
If a student needs a course accommodation due to a learning impairment, then it is the student s responsibility to contact The Office of the Dean of Students Disability Resource Center (DRC). The phone number is (765)-494-1247. The DRC s website is http://www.purdue.edu/drc For students in which English is a second language and requires help with course material and/or assignments please contact the Office of Oral English Proficiency. They are located at 810 Young Hall. The phone number is (765)-494-9380 and e-mail is oepp@purdue.edu Course Schedule Part One: Cross Cultural Encounters and Exchanges, 1400-1763 Part one of this course will examine how the age of exploration and colonization and the American colonial era were periods of cultural encounters and exchanges between different peoples, cultures, and economies. It will begin with a survey of the Atlantic world before Columbus, examining the development of Native American society, the impetus behind European oceanic exploration and settlement, and the establishment of African slavery in the Western Hemisphere. The section will end in 1763, the height of the British Empire in the Americas. For two and a half centuries, European Americans, Native Americans, and African Americans appropriated and amalgamated aspects of each other s cultures. Colonial history should be securitized in the context of a trans-cultural history where, by 1763, cultural encounters and exchanges produced an incipient but increasingly distinct American identity. READ: American Horizons Chapter 1 READ: Reading American Horizons Chapter 1 Monday August 19 Course and Student Introductions Wednesday August 21 The Americas pre-1492 Friday August 23 The Arrival of the Europeans Week One Colliding Worlds 1400-1600 Week Two Colonial Encounters and Exchanges 1600-1700 READ: American Horizons Chapter 2; Chapter 3 pages 84-89, 95-111, 112-120, 121-127 READ: Reading American Horizons Chapter 2; Chapter 3 pages 26-29, 31-36 Monday August 26 Establishment of European Colonies in the Americas Wednesday August 28 5
The International Slave Trade and Chattel Slavery in the Americas Friday August 30 Week Three Colonial Societies in Global Empires 1700-1750 READ: American Horizons Chapter 4 pages 128-152, 158-171; Chapter 5 pages 172-188 READ: Reading American Horizons Chapter 4 pages 40-44; Chapter 5 pages 52-60 Monday September 2 LABOR DAY NO CLASS Wednesday September 4 Migrations and Dispersals Friday September 6 Cosmopolitanism and Domesticity Week Four: American Colonial Identity in a Changing Empire 1700-1763 READ: American Horizons; Chapter 4 pages 152-154; Chapter 5 pages 188-217 READ: Reading American Horizons Chapter 4 pages 46-51; Chapter 5 pages 60-62 Monday September 9 Trans-Atlantic Religious and Intellectual Encounters and Exchanges Wednesday September 11 A Continent in Conflict and Flux Friday September 13 PAPER OPTION 1 DUE BLOG OPTION 1 DUE Week Five Exam Week/ (Part II) A Habit of Self-government 1607-1763 ** READINGS FOR WEEK FIVE WILL BE ON THE EXAM FOR PART TWO** REVIEW/READ: American Horizons Chapter 2 pages 53-55, 58-61, 72-76; Chapter 3 pages 107-111; Chapter 4 pages155-158; Chapter 5 pages 205-212 6
READ: American Horizons Chapter 3 90-95, 111-112, 120-121 REVIEW/READ: Reading American Horizons Chapter 2 pages 17-18, 20-22 READ: Reading American Horizons Chapter 3 pages 29-30, 36-38 Monday September 16 In-class Review for Exam One Wednesday September 18 Exam 1 in Class Part Two: The Meaning of Freedom, 1607-1848 Part two of this course will analyze how the people of what would become the United States defined the meaning of freedom and how freedom influenced the lives of Americans. This section will begin by exploring how British Americans debated and formulated their ideas about freedom in the seventieth and eighteenth century. After 1763, white American colonists increasingly came to question whether the British constitution safeguarded their freedoms as English subjects. When they decided that it did not fully protect their liberties they fought a Revolution, which raised additional questions about who would be free in the new American Republic. The section will conclude with the first half of the nineteenth century, when the meaning of freedom expanded for some but not for others. This will require us to examine how issues like race, class, and gender shaped the parameters dividing those entitled to liberty and those who were not. Americans vigorously debated how much to expand rights and opportunity and reacted to other countries and empires which also struggled with the meaning of freedom. Friday September 20 Colonial Government and Society Week Six Imperial Reform and Liberty 1763-1783 READ: American Horizons Chapter 6; Chapter 7 pages 253-266 (optional pages 266-274) READ: Reading American Horizons Chapter 6; Chapter 7 pages 70-74 Monday September 23 Questioning the Imperial Constitution Wednesday September 25 The American Revolution Friday September 27 7
Week Seven A New Birth of Freedom? 1783-1800 READ: American Horizons Chapter 7 pages 274-287; Chapter 8 pages 288-303 READ: Reading American Horizons Chapter 7 pages 74-76; Chapter 8 pages 77-79 Monday September 30 The Articles of Confederation & Constitutional Convention 1787 Wednesday October 2 A Contentious Decade: 1790s Friday October 4 Week Eight An Expanding and Turbulent Politics and Economy 1800-1840 READ: American Horizons Chapter 8 pages 303-308 (optional pages 309-318); Chapter 9 pages 331-336, 346-349; Chapter 10; Chapter 11 pages 427-430 READ: Reading American Horizons Chapter 8 pages 80-82; Chapter 9 pages 84-86, 89; Chapter 10 Monday October 7 FALL BREAK NO CLASS Wednesday October 9 An Expanding Electorate and Popular Democracy Friday October 11 The Market Revolution Week Nine The Persistence of Oppression 1800-1840 READ: American Horizons Chapter 9 pages 336-344; Chapter 11. READ: Reading American Horizons Chapter 9 pages 87-88; Chapter 11 Monday October 14 The American South s Peculiar Institution Wednesday October 16 Indian Removal Friday October 18 NO CLASS 8
Week Ten The Persistence of Oppression 1800-1840 (cont)/ Antebellum Freedom Movements and Reform 1800-1848 REVIEW/READ: American Horizons Chapter 11 pages 420-427 READ: American Horizons Chapter 9 pages 344-346; Chapter 12 READ: Reading American Horizons Chapter 12 Monday October 21 Gender Roles in Antebellum Society Wednesday October 23 Abolitionism Friday October 25 Women s Rights PAPER OPTION 2 DUE BLOG OPTION 2 DUE Week Eleven Exam Week/ (Part III) Defining American Nationalism 1800-1860 ** READINGS FOR WEEK ELEVEN WILL BE ON THE FINAL EXAM** READ: American Horizons Chapter 9 pages 349-355 Monday October 28 In-class Review for Exam Two Wednesday October 30 Exam 2 in Class Part Three: American Nationalism in an Era of Global Nation Building, 1800-1877 Part three of this course will scrutinized the evolution of American nationalism during almost a century of global nation-state formation and nationalistic wars. The section will begin by considering how revolutionary movements and wars in places like Europe and Latin America affected how Americans thought about nationalism and who were entitled to be considered citizens. It will then explore how nation-building through continental expansion and conquest and the question of slavery s existence and extension into new territories (and possibly beyond) created a crisis over the meaning of American nationalism and identity. The political inability to resolve that crisis proved to be the deciding factor in the break-up of the Union in 1860-1861. The American Civil War (1861-1865), however, was just one of many mid-nineteenth-century nationalistic wars and independence movements seeking to consolidate or reconsolidate nation- 9
states and we will examine the interconnections between these conflicts. We will close the course by scrutinizing the successes and failures of the Reconstruction era (1865-1877) and the difficulties and disagreements Americans had in refashioning an American nationalism and citizenship years after the nation had been reunified. Friday November 1 Nationalism Sweeps the Western Hemisphere Week Twelve Defining American Nationalism 1800-1860 (cont) REVIEW/READ: American Horizons Chapter 11 pages 403-407 READ: American Horizons Chapter 13 READ: Reading American Horizons Chapter 13 Monday November 4 Manifest Destiny and a Continental Republic Wednesday November 6 A Nation of Splintering Nationalisms: The Sectional Crisis Friday November 8 Week Thirteen Nationalism in the American Civil War Era 1848-1871 READ: American Horizons Chapter 14 READ: Reading American Horizons Chapter 14 Monday November 11 1860 Election and Secession Wednesday November 13 Civil War in America 1861-1862 Friday November 15 Week Fourteen Nationalism in the American Civil War Era 1848-1871 (cont) REVIEW/READ: American Horizons Chapter 14 REVIEW/READ: Reading American Horizons Chapter 14 10
Monday November 18 Civil War in America 1863-1865 Wednesday November 20 Significance of the American Civil War in Global Context Friday November 22 Week Fifteen An Unfinished Revolution: Reconstruction 1865-1877 READ: American Horizons Chapter 15 READ: Reading American Horizons Chapter 15 Monday November 25 Political Reconstruction PAPER OPTION 3 DUE BLOG OPTION 3 DUE Wednesday November 27 THANKSGIVING BREAK NO CLASS Friday November 29 THANKSGIVING BREAK NO CLASS Week Sixteen An Unfinished Revolution: Reconstruction 1865-1877 (cont) REVIEW/READ: American Horizons Chapter 15 REVIEW/READ: Reading American Horizons Chapter 15 Monday December 2 African American life in the New South Wednesday December 4 A Shared Nationalism and a Nation Rebuilt? Friday December 6 In-class Review for Final Exam Week Seventeen FINAL EXAM WEEK: DATE/TIME TBA Finis 11