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Note on Readings
Note on Readings
There are two types of readings listed on this course schedule. The readings that must be completed in preparation for your discussion sections each week are mandatory readings. The readings that are labeled "Suggested Readings" are optional; you may consult them if you want to get a more thorough overview of a particular topic.
Note on Pre-Discussion Quizzes and Activities
Note on Pre-Discussion Quizzes and Activities
During most weeks of this course when you do not have an assignment due, you will have a short annotation activity or quiz that you are expected to complete before your section time. Annotation activities are designed to be done as you read the course texts. It is expected that you will read the texts, write comments, and revisit the texts at least once to respond to your classmates' comments. Expect to spend at least an hour a week doing this. Quizzes take about 10-15 minutes in addition to the time it takes you to read the course text.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Unit 1: Early and Colonial America
Unit 1: Early and Colonial America
Week 1: Studying History in College
Week 1: Studying History in College
8/21—Introduction to the Course
8/23—Why Study History?
8/25—Discussion Section
What to read before your section
The material on the Home and Course Policies sections of this website
American Yawp (hereafter AY), Introduction
James Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (New York: The New Press, 1995), 1-8. (D2L)
Quizzes/Activities to complete before your section
Complete Week 1 Quiz, which focuses on the syllabus and course policies. You can find the quiz under the Week 1 Module on D2L. Be sure to complete it before section.
In your section you will
Introduce yourselves to your classmates
Discuss the readings and your experiences with history education
Week 2: Indigenous Peoples before Columbus
Week 2: Indigenous Peoples before Columbus
8/28—Pre-Columbian America
Suggested Readings: AY, Chapter 1
8/30—Spanish and French Colonization
Suggested Readings: AY, Chapter 2
9/1—Discussion Section
What do read and complete before your section:
Complete and annotate the Columbus and Las Casas readings that are linked as a Perusall Annotation Activity under the Week 2 D2L module
In your section you will
Discuss the week's readings
Week 3: Spanish and English Colonization
Week 3: Spanish and English Colonization
9/4—No Class--Holiday
9/6—English Colonization
9/8—Discussion Section
What to read and complete before your section
Complete and annotate the Haklyt and Smith readings that are linked as a Perusall Annotation Activity under the Week 2 D2L module
In your section you will
Discuss your readings and your writing assignment
Receive your group assignments for next week's discussion sections
Week 4: Seventeenth-Century America
Week 4: Seventeenth-Century America
9/11—Two Cultures of Colonization: The Chesapeake and New England
Suggested Reading: AY, Chapter 3
9/12—Early New England and the Salem Witch Trials
9/15—Discussion Section
What to read before your section
Salem Witchcraft Readings, posted to D2L and assigned by group
Quizzes/Activities to complete before your section
Week 4 Quiz (D2L)
In your section you will
Discuss the Salem Readings and college writing
Week 5: Life in the Eighteenth-Century Colonies
Week 5: Life in the Eighteenth-Century Colonies
9/18—Citations and Life in Colonies
Suggested Reading: AY, Chapter 4
9/20—Life and Cultural in the Colonies, Cont’d
9/22—Discussion Section
What to read before your section
Ira Berlin, Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003), 51-67. (D2L)
Eighteenth Century African American Identities from the Museum of the American Revolution
Quizzes/Activities to complete before your section
Week 5 Quiz
In your section you will
Discuss the week's readings
Assignment Due to D2L by 11:59pm: Paper #1
Unit 2: Making a New Nation
Unit 2: Making a New Nation
Week 6: Declaring Independence
Week 6: Declaring Independence
9/25—The Causes of the American Revolution
Suggested Reading: AY, Chapter 5
9/27—The Road to Independence
9/29—Discussion Section
What to read before your section
Edward Larkin, "What is a Loyalist?" Common-Place 8 no. 1 (2007), Introduction and first section (i.e read through “Farmer James and the Dilemma of the Revolution”)
Rev. Charles Inglis, The Deceiver Unmasked excerpt
Quizzes/Activities to complete before your section
Week 6 Quiz
In your section you will
Discuss the readings and review arguments for and against the American Revolution
Divide into groups for next week's discussion activity on ratification
Week 7: Creating a National Government
Week 7: Creating a National Government
10/2—The Revolution and the Articles of Confederation
Suggested Readings: AY, Chapter 6
10/4—The Constitutional Convention
10/6—Discussion Section
What to read before your section
1. Victoria Bissell Brown and Timothy J. Shannon, Going to the Source: The Bedford Reader in American History (Boston: Bedford, 2008), Chapter 6 (D2L)
Quizzes/Activities to complete before your section
Week 7 Quiz
In your section you will
Debate the ratification of the U.S. Constitution as either a Federalist or Anti-Federalist (assigned by group last week)
Week 8: The Political Culture of the Early Republic
Week 8: The Political Culture of the Early Republic
10/9—The Emergence of Partisanship
10/11—Midterm Exam
10/13—Discussion Sections
What to read before your section
Albrecht Koschnik, “Political Conflict and Public Contest: Rituals of National Celebration in Philadelphia, 1788-1815,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History & Biography 118, no. 3 (1994): 209-248.
Quizzes/Activities to complete before your section
Week 8 Writing Activity
In your section you will
Discuss the reading
Week 9: Democratic Political Culture and a New Market Economy
Week 9: Democratic Political Culture and a New Market Economy
10/16—The Triumph of the Democratic-Republicans
Suggested Readings: AY, Chapter 9
10/18—Political and Economic Change in the Era of Good Feelings
10/20—Discussion Sections
Reading and Activities to Complete before your section
Week 9 Readings (Annotation Activity) in Perusall, which includes the following:
AY Primary Source, A Traveler Describes Life Along the Erie Canal, 1829
Henry Niles, "Morality of Manufactures," Niles Weekly Register 25, no. 637 (November 29, 1823): 195-196.
AY Primary Source, Maria Stewart Bemoans the Consequences of Racism, 1832
In your section you will
Discuss the readings
Unit 3: Free and Unfree Labor, Inclusion and Exclusion
Unit 3: Free and Unfree Labor, Inclusion and Exclusion
Week 10: Politics, Labor, and Gender Divisions in Jacksonian America
Week 10: Politics, Labor, and Gender Divisions in Jacksonian America
10/23—Democracy and its Limitations in the Jacksonian Era
Suggested Readings: AY, Chapter 8
10/25—Gender, Labor, and the Changing Nature of Work
10/27—Discussion Sections
What to read before your section
AY Primary Source, Alexis de Tocqueville, “How Americans Understand the Equality of the Sexes,” 1840.
Mary Kelley, Learning to Stand and Speak: Women, Education, and Public Life in America's Republic (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006), 16-33 (D2L).
Quizzes/Activities to complete before your section
Week 10 Quiz
In your section you will
Discuss the readings
Week 11: Unfree in America
Week 11: Unfree in America
10/30—Slavery in Nineteenth-Century America
Suggested Reading: AY, Chapter 11
11/1—Slavery and Sectional Tensions
11/3—Discussion Sections
Reading:
What to read and watch before your section
Source Guide: Fugitive Slave Advertisements (D2L)
Quizzes/Activities to complete before your section
Fugitive Slave* Advertisement Analysis Assignment
*Please note that while "fugitive slave" is a common term that is often used in scholarship and in the databases, readings, and guides we'll be looking at today, it is not without controversy. Some scholars have suggested that it would be better to use the term "freedom seeking." Consider why this might be, and be prepared to weigh in on issues of terminology in your sections.
In your section you will
Discuss your writing activity and the video
Week 12: Reforming the Nation
Week 12: Reforming the Nation
11/6—Religious Fervor and the Rise of Moral Reform Movements
Suggested Reading: AY, Chapter 10
11/8—Abolition and Women's Rights
11/10—NO SECTIONS--HOLIDAY. However, you should start your reading and annotation now for next week, as these are long readings. It is absolutely imperative that you do these readings because they are the basis for your second paper. We will talk about them next week in section.
Readings, accessed via Perusall Week 12/13 Readings (Annotation Activity)
Frederick Douglass, “What to an American Slave is the Fourth of July?”
Please note: this is a longer reading, at about 20 pages.
Seneca Falls Convention, The Declaration of Sentiments (1848)
Week 13: Things Fall Apart
Week 13: Things Fall Apart
11/13—The Mexican-American War and the Crisis of Expansion
11/15—Bitter Divides
Suggested Reading: AY, Chapter 13
11/17—Discussion Sections
What to read and complete before your section
Week 12/13 Readings (Annotation Activity) on Perusall, focused on these texts:
Frederick Douglass, “What to an American Slave is the Fourth of July?”
Please note: this is a longer reading, at about 20 pages.
Seneca Falls Convention, The Declaration of Sentiments (1848)
George Fitzhugh, Sociology for the South, Excerpt
Week 14: And the War Came
Week 14: And the War Came
11/20—The Outbreak of War
11/22—Life in Civil War America (No Class Meeting--Watch Video and complete activity)
Suggested Reading: AY, Chapter 14
11/24—No Section--Holiday
Week 15: A New Birth of Freedom
Week 15: A New Birth of Freedom
11/27—Emancipation and the End of War
Assignment Due by 11:59pm: Paper #2
11/29—Defining Citizenship During Reconstruction
Suggested Reading: AY, Chapter 15
12/1—Discussion Sections
What to read before your section
AY Primary Source, Jourdon Anderson Writes His Former Enslaver, 1865
AY Primary Source, Charlotte Forten Teaches Freed Children in South Carolina, 1864
Quizzes/Activities to complete before your section
Week 15 Quiz
Week 16: The End of Reconstruction
Week 16: The End of Reconstruction
12/4—Hope, Terrorism, and Backlash
Read the following:
1. Hannah Tutson testimony from Ku Klux Klan Hearings (D2L)
2. AY Primary Source, Frederick Douglass on Remembering the Civil War, 1877
12/6—The Failure of Reconstruction
Final Exam on 12/11, 10:30-12:30am
Final Exam on 12/11, 10:30-12:30am
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