History 100

• • Jefferson, slavery, and or the shifting historical record.

  • Zheng He and the earlier "discoveries" of America

  • Washington, who could have been king.

  • 12 Years as a Slave. It's a book and a movie.

  • Harriet Tubman

  • Quanah and Cynthia Parker of the Commanches

  • Guerrilla Strategy, "the Indirect Approach" or "The War of the Flea"--see Sun Tzu

  • The Navajo resistance and Carleton.

  • Geronimo

  • Pontiac

  • Osceola, leader of the Seminoles

  • Sequoya

  • Chalmers Johnson on the how and why of revolutions.

  • Spanish Inquisition

  • Any given battle of the American Revolution.

  • The French Revolution and the Jacobins, or Babeuf.

  • The Beard’s interpretation of the Constitution and the related controversy.

  • Intellectual origins of the radical Declaration of Independence.

  • The Triangle Trade (and slavery)

  • Nat Turner’s slave rebellion

  • Rebellion in Haiti

  • The role of slavery in the war of 1812

  • Battle of Gettysburg

  • Kit Carson

  • Compare and Contrast the Outlook of the Typographical Union here http://digitalhistory.hsp.org/node/7500 to the outlook and practices of today’s labor unions.

  • John Brown

  • Compare and contrast rank and status of plantation society with American promise of “All men (sic) are created equal.”

  • What is imperialism? How has it played out in regard to the US in our class’ era?

  • Key elements and actors of the Enlightenment

  • Review the development of weapons in the era our class covers.

  • George III

  • Compare/contrast the Coercive Acts and the Intolerable Acts to our current political climate.

  • Tom Paine and Common Sense

  • Abagail Adams

  • John or Sam Adams

  • Dialectical and historical materialism--how things change in the real world

  • Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne

  • Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox (you might note the tv series too)

  • Nathaniel Greene and Cornwallis

  • Compare/contrast the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution

  • Ben Franklin (perhaps on slavery)

  • Shay’s Rebellion

  • The Whiskey Rebellion

  • Address any or all of these:

  • 1798–Alien and Sedition Acts. To silence Republicans.

  • Alien Enemies Act give prez wartime powers to expel.

  • Alien Law–expel by exec decree

  • Naturalization Law

  • Sedition Law

  • Fulton and the Steamship

  • The Lewis and Clark Expedition

  • Tecumseh

  • Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans (and note his relations with the Indians)

  • Louisiana Purchase (from France???)

  • The unique river system of the US

  • Monroe Doctrine

  • Battle at the Alamo

  • Santa Anna

  • The Trail of Tears

  • The Depression of 1837–why?

  • DeToqueville

  • Paris commune

  • 1848

  • 1877 a violent year

  • Track the demographics of US slavery (how many from decade to decade, who were they, how were they enslaved, etc).

  • William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolitionists

  • Frederick Douglass

  • Sojourner Truth

  • Robert Own and Utopians

  • Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  • Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo

  • California Gold Rush (see works by Carey McWilliams, California’s best historian)

  • Class struggles of 1840 to 1860

  • Radical Republicans

  • William Tecumseh Sherman

  • Southern Slave Society

  • U.S Grant

  • Lincoln

  • Compromise of 1850

  • Dred Scott Decision

  • Examine the strengths and weaknesses of Northern and Southern society before the Civil War.

  • Emancipation Proclamation

  • How US history is presented in the schools today

  • Review "A Short History of Racism," by Frederickson

  • Review 3 Landmark books that deal with the period of our class.

  • Review Gordon Wood, "The Radicalism of the American Revolution."

  • Review "Empire as a Way of Life" by W.C. Williams

  • Grito de Delores and Father Hidalgo

  • Battle of Buena Vista

  • Chief Joseph of the Nez Perez

  • Benito Juarez

  • Crazy Horse (you could also critique his monument)

  • Cochise

  • George Armstrong Custer

  • Battles vs the Nez Pierce

  • Red Cloud

  • Sitting Bull

  • Pocahontas

  • Sacajawea

  • Clara Barton

  • Florence Nightengale

You may make additional suggestions to me but your topic MUST be approved.