Course Schedule


Week 0: Introductions


August 22
Introduction to the course

Week 1: Wild New world

August 30 and September 1

Reading: 

Due before class on Tuesday:

  • Paragraph summaries of Flores.

Thursday Quiz #1: 

  • The Syllabus + Requerimiento

To Consider:

Week 2: contacts and colonies

September 3, 5

Reading:

Due before class Tuesday:

  • Warren Article Summary #1 (Group A)
  • Taylor Graf Summaries

Thursday Quiz #2:

  • Warren and Lepore

To Consider:

  • The monarchy’s institutional role in promoting settlement in North America (Spain, England, France, Portugal, the Netherlands)
  • Native American groups’ relationships with one another before and after contact.
  • How did colonists use the Native American worldview to their advantage?
  • How did the structural modes of Christianity and capitalism influence European settlement of North America? Where did they intersect, where did they come into conflict, how did they impact Native American groups? How did these Native American groups adapt to each system?
  • Intercolonial conflict as a reflection and outgrowth of European rivalries on the North American continent.
  • How did Native Americans hang onto their traditions, how did they create new ones?
  • How did the changes in European governing systems and structures impact North America?
  • How were the Pueblo people manage to unite as the Spanish divided?
  • How effective were the various European powers at a given moment in time in their efforts to subdue people, landscapes, and markets?
  • How and why do historical myths and inaccuracies endure?
  • What are unintended consequences and think of some examples?
  • How did animism impact Native Americans’ ability to resist colonization?
  • How did recent European history impact and influence their efforts in North America?

Week 3: The American frontier

September 10, 12

Reading:

Due before class Tuesday:

  • Rice Article Summary #1 (Group B)

Due before class Thursday:

  • Response Paper #1: Bacon’s Rebellion and the “American” Frontier. Utilize any and all readings

Thursday Quiz #3

  • Lepore and Rice

Tuesday: Response Paper Workshop

To Consider: 

Week 4: becoming Americans

September 17, 19

Reading:  

  • Lapore Chapter 3

Thursday Quiz #4

  • Lepore Chapter 3

To Consider: 

Week 5: rebellion

September 24, 26

Reading:  

  • Review for Response Paper

Tuesday: Response Paper Workshop

Thursday Quizzam #1

  • Lepore Chapters 1-3
  • Taylor
  • Flores
  • Warren
  • Rice

Due before Class Thursday Response Paper #2: The American Revolution as a failure of empire.

  • To Consider: 

Week 6: comancheria

October 1, 3

Reading:

Due before Class Tuesday:

  • Paragraph summaries of Hammalainen.

Thursday Quiz #5: Lepore Chapter 4

Week 7: the empire of texas

October 15, 17

Reading: Hahn, Chapters 1-3

Due before class on Tuesday:  Paragraph summaries of Hahn

Week 8: Americans

October 22

Reading:

Lepore, Chapter 4

Nora Doyle, “‘The Highest Pleasure of Which Woman’s Nature is Capable’: Breastfeeding and the Sentimental Maternal Ideal in America 1750–1860” (JAH, March 2011).

Quiz Tuesday #6: Lepore and Doyle

Due before class Tuesday Response Paper #3:

  • How is this period structured around the idea of the democratization of capitalism, politics, space, and culture?
  • Doyle Article Summary #2 (Group A)

Thursday: No class

Week 9: republicanism

October 29, 31

Reading: 

Lepore, Chapter 5

Discussion: Native Representation in These Truths

Ned Blackhawk, “The Iron Cage of Erasure: American Indian Sovereignty in Jill Lepore’s These Truths

Christine DeLucia,  The Vanishing Indians of “These Truths”: A popular history of the United States has a notable omission.

Week 10: Slavery and American capitalism

November 5,

 

Reading:

Due before class on Tuesday:

Baptist Article Summary #2 (Group B)

Due before class on Thursday: Response Paper #4: Slavery and the development of American capitalism

Thursday Quizzam #2

  • Everything since previous quizaam

Week 11: Borderlands of empire

November 12, 14

Reading:

Baumgartner, “The Line of Positive Safety”

Quiz #8 Tuesday: Baumgartner

Due before class on Tuesday:  Baumgartner Article Summary #3 (Group A)

Week 12: civil war

November 19, 21

Reading:

  • Lepore, Chapter 8

Reading: 

Quiz #9: Turner, West, Lepore

Due before class on Thursday: West Article Summary #3 (Group B)

Week 13: The Bowie Knife frontier

November 26

Reading: 

Quiz #10: Turner, West, Lepore

Due before class on Tuesday: West Article Summary #3 (Group B)

Week 14: The Greater Reconstruction

December 2, 4

 Reading:

White, To the Republic, 1-3

Due before Tuesday Response Paper #5: FJT and the vision of the frontier

Quizzam #3: Takehome. Due December 7th by 5:00 pm.

Final Response Paper (#6) due by 2:30 December 12

Subject: Reconstruction as a failure of will.