United States History to 1877

Maris A. Vinovskis

History 160
United States History to 1877
Fall 2000
Maris A. Vinovskis
 

Required Reading

Mary Beth Norton, et al., A People and a Nation: A History of the United States to 1877, Vol. I (6^th ed.; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000). [paperback]

William Bruce Wheeler and Susan D. Becker, Discovering the American Past: A Look at the Evidence, Vol. I (4^th ed.; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998). [paperback]

Betty Wood, The Origins of American Slavery: Freedom and Bondage in the English Colonies (New York: Hill and Wang, 1997) [paperback]

Joy Day Buel and Richard Buel, Jr., The Way of Duty: A Woman and Her Family in Revolutionary America (New York: W.W. Norton, 1984). [paperback]

William Otter, History of My Own Times, ed. Richard B. Stout (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995). [paperback]

Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself, ed., David W. Blight (New York: Bedford Books, 1994). [paperback]

Robert Hunt Rhodes, ed., All for the Union: The Civil War Diary and Letters of Elisha Hunt Rhodes (New York: Vintage Books, 1992) [paperback]

These books are available for purchase at Shaman Drum Bookshop (313 S. State) on the second floor. They are also on reserve in the UBLI.

Lectures will be given at 2 p.m. on Monday and Wednesday afternoons in Auditorium B in Angell Hall. Each student will also attend a discussion section.

Grades will be based upon your discussion and short quizzes in section meetings, a mid-term examination, and a final. The midterm will be 20 percent of the grade; the final will be 40 percent of the grade (and covers the entire course); and participation and short quizzes will be 40 percent of the grade. There will be four unannounced quizzes (the lowest quiz score will be dropped from the grade calculation).

Students taking the course for honors should be enrolled in section 8--the honors discussion section. Students taking the course for honors will also do a short, 10-page paper. For the honors students, the midterm will be 20 percent of the grade; the final will be 40 percent of the grade; participation and short quizzes will be 25 percent of the grade; and the short paper will be 15 percent of the grade.
 
 

Lecture Topics and Discussion Section Assignments

[Week Sept. 6-15]

September 6
Introduction

Sections: Transfer of People and Culture (Norton, chs. 1-2; Wheeler, 1-28)

September 11
Spanish Colonization

September 13
France and England in the New World

Sections: Origins of Slavery (Norton, ch. 3; Wood)
 

[Week Sept. 18-22]

September 18
Settlement of North America

September 20
Slavery in the New World

Sections: Social and Economic Changes (Norton, ch. 4; Wheeler, 29-70)
 
 

[Week Sept. 25-29]

September 25
Colonial Development in the Eighteenth Century

September 27
Religion in Early America

Sections: Families in Colonial America (Buel and Buel, 1-129; 145-151, 162-211).
 
 

[Week Oct. 2-Oct. 6]

October 2
Family Life

October 4
Death and Dying in Early America

Sections: Causes and Consequences of the American Revolution (Norton, chs. 5-6; Wheeler, 71-89)
 
 

[Week Oct. 9-13]

October 9
Coming of the American Revolution

October 11
The American Revolution and Its Aftermath

Sections: What Did the Constitution Mean to Early Americans (Norton, chs. 7-8)
 
 

[Week Oct. 16-20]

October 16
Formation of the Constitution

October 18
Slavery in the Age of the Revolution

Sections: The Development of the First Party System (Wheeler, 90-113)
 
 

[Week Oct. 23-27]

October 23
Politics in the Early Republic

October 25
Mid-Term examination

Sections: Politics in Antebellum America (Norton, chs. 9, 11; Wheeler, 114-138)
 
 

[Week Oct. 30-November 3]

October 30
Jeffersonians in Power

November 1
Jacksonian Democracy and the Second Party System

Sections: Workers and the Market Revolution (Norton, ch. 10; Otter, 3-137, 181-223)
 
 

[Week Nov. 6-10]

November 6
Workers and Industrialization

November 8
Education and Social Mobility

Sections: Changing Roles of Women in Antebellum America (Norton, chs. 12; Wheeler, 139-172)
 
 

[Week Nov. 20-22]

November 13
Changing Attitudes toward Childbearing and Abortions

November 15
Changing Views of Old Age and the Treatment of the Mentally Ill

Sections: Slaves and Free Blacks (Norton, chs. 13; Douglas; Wheeler, 173-199)
 
 

[Week Nov. 13-17]

November 20
Religious Revivals

November 22
The Institution of Slavery

Sections: Changes in the 1850s and the Coming of the Civil War (Norton, ch. 14; Wheeler, 200-223)
 
 

[Week Nov. 27-December 1]

November 27
Manifest Destiny and the Westward Movement

November 29
The Compromise of 1850 and the Demise of the Second Party System

Sections: The Civil War and the Common Soldier (Norton, ch. 15; Rhodes, pp. 1-86, 129-195; Wheeler, 224-257)
 
 

[Week December 4-8]

December 4
The Rise and Fall of the "Know-Nothing" Party

December 6
The Civil War as the Second American Revolution

Sections: The Civil War and Its Aftermath (Norton, ch.16; Wheeler, 258-285)
 
 

[Week Dec. 11-13]

December 11
The Civil War on the Battlefield and at Home

December 13
Reconstruction

December 15
Final Examination (1:30 pm to 3:30 pm)
 

Office Information for Vinovskis

Office Hours: 11 am - 1 pm on Mondays or by appointment
(Room 4204 ISR--located at 426 Thompson Street)
Telephone Numbers: 763-3407 (ISR office-has voice mail)
663-9744 (home-has voice mail)
E-Mail: vinovski@umich.edu