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United States History to 1865 Douglas Egerton LE MOYNE COLLEGE Department of History Required readings: John Murrin, et al., Liberty, Equality, Power, 2nd ed. Jill Lepore, The Name of War Graham Hodges, Root and Branch: African Americans in New York Paul Johnson, A Shopkeeper's Millennium Catherine Clinton, ed., Divided Houses: Gender and the Civil War Students will read all four monographs, which will be discussed in class on the dates indicated below. Students are also expected to keep up in the Murrin text for the purposes of day-to-day class participation. Because of this, students with ten or more unexcused absences will receive an automatic F grade for the course. Discussion is ten percent of the course grade. There will be brief quizzes on two of the above works, which will comprise another ten percent of the class grade. Required paper: A ten page interpretive essay on any topic, person, or event pertinent to the course. A bibliography and footnotes drawn from at least ten sources must be included. The format presented in Prof. John Langdon's A Handbook for Historians, which is available in the bookstore, must be used. The due date is Monday, November 27; late papers will be penalized one full grade for each day they are late. The paper is worth twenty percent of your grade and will be returned on the day of the final with comments and a grade. Students are strongly encouraged to consult with the instructor both on a topic and on progress. There will be one midterm and a noncumulative final. Final grades will be computed as follows.
Schedule of lectures and assignments: Aug 28 Introduction to course and historical method I. THE OLD WORLD MEETS THE NEW 30 North America in 1491 (Murrin, chapter 1) Sept 1 Europe on the eve of colonization (Murrin, chapter 2) 4 (No class--Labor Day) 6 (No class--Mass of the Holy Spirit) 8 Founding of the Chesapeake Colonies 11 New England colonization 13 Puritans and Native Americans (Murrin, chapter 3) 15 Discussion, Lepore, The Name of War 18 Witchcraft and Revolution 20 Bacon's Rebellion 22 Rise of slavery and Stono Rebellion 25 Other new groups: Scots-Irish, Germans, and Jews II. THE MAKINGS OF REVOLT 27 Colonial wars and social change (Murrin, chapter 4) 29 Great Awakening and French and Indian War Oct 2 Dissent: 1763-1776 (Murrin, chapter 5) 4 American Revolution: military and diplomatic (Murrin, 6) 6 (No class) 9 (No class--Lost Mariner Day) 11 The other Revolution: blacks and Native Americans (Murrin, chapter 7) 13 Discussion, Hodges, Root and Branch, chapters 1-6 III. PROBLEMS OF GOVERNMENT 16 Confederation 18 Constitution 20 Midterm! 23 Federalist Era (Murrin, chapter 8) 25 Diplomacy and the Quasi war with France 27 Jeffersonians in power 30 Republican foreign policy Nov 1 The War of 1812 3 Industrial and social change (Murrin, chapter 9) 6 Rise of the cotton South (Murrin, chapter 10) IV. THE SPIRIT OF ANTEBELLUM AMERICA 8 Era of Good and Bad Feelings, 1816-1828 (Murrin, 12) 10 Age of Jackson, 1828-1840 13 Native American removal 15 Reform and abolition (Murrin, chapter 11) 17 Discussion, Johnson, A Shopkeeper's Millennium; Hodges, Root and Branch, chapters 7-8 20 Women and politics 27 Tyler and Texas, 1841-1846 (Murrin, chapter 13); term papers due V. THE UNION COMES APART 29 Mexican War, Proviso, Compromise of 1850 Dec 1 (No class) 4 Kansas, John Brown, and Disunion (Murrin, chapter 14) 6 Civil War, 1861-1862 (Murrin, chapter 18) 8 Discussion, Clinton, ed., Divided Houses 11 Civil War, 1863-1865 (Murrin, chapter 16) |
