Syllabus - HIST 530A/EDUC 507 FALL 07

Social and Political Change in the 19th Century

The U.S. and the World in the 20th Century

HISTORY 530A/EDUCATION 507:
ISSUES IN AMERICAN HISTORY TO 1877

Fall 2007

Professor Adam Laats, Binghamton University

Office: AB 231
Phone: 607-777-3329
Office Hours: Thursdays 10-12 and by appt.
Email:alaats@binghamton.edu

This graduate seminar is intended to assist students pursuing a Certificate in the Teaching of American History by providing a strong foundation of key historical and historiographical issues in American History. The course is organized around three units: Transplanted Empires and Cultural Contacts; Building American Democracy; and Slavery and Sectionalism, War and Reconstruction. Within this framework, the course addresses a range of political, economic, social, and ideological topics.

CLASS MEETINGS

The class meets on Wednesday nights from 4:40-7:40 pm in AB 125. This is a discussion-based course. The assigned readings are the basis for the discussions, and students are expected to carry the bulk of our conversations. Students should come to class prepared to critique the readings assigned for that night's meeting. A high level of participation is expected. For most class meetings we will spend half of our time discussing the reading. The other half of the class will be devoted to developing teaching strategies and lessons with primary documents through the internet.

COURSE DETAILS

Readings/Discussions:

The goal of assigned readings (indicated in schedule of class meetings) is for students to engage one another with regard to the material at hand and unpack the ways in which historians practice their craft through the use of evidence, argument, theoretical paradigm, and methodology. Students do not have to complete the suggested readings, but will find that the list of related works for each unit provides a broader understanding of topics of interest. Students must commit to open and respectful discussions. See Student Handbook for details: http://studenthandbook.binghamton.edu/

Documents:

Throughout the semester I will provide primary documents so that students can work with them as a group and integrate them into their knowledge base/understanding of assigned readings. Lists of documents will be made available at each class meeting.

Assignments:

All student work must be original. Plagiarism and cheating will not be tolerated. See Student Handbook for details: http://studenthandbook.binghamton.edu/, pp. 106-110.

STUDENT REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING

Students will complete a range of written assignments. These include a book review, a medium-length paper, a documents-based question, and an annotated compendium of internet resources.

Class participation: 15% of the course grade:

Students will come to each class prepared to discuss the reading assigned for that day. Discussion formats will vary; at times I will lead the class in the discussion, at other times I will divide the class into smaller discussion groups which will have their own discussions. Students will also lead discussions for the books they choose to review. See appendix for details.

Book Review: 15% of the course grade

Students will be assigned one of the required readings from Units 2 or 3 to review. The book review is limited to five pages. Students will email their book review to me no later than the Monday before class; I will then forward the review to the rest of the class so that all will have read it by the time we meet. When class meets, the reviews and reviewers will help direct our discussion.

A few notes on book reviews: they must critically examine the book's essential facts: identify the main thesis and the major questions/historical problems being addressed; explain and critique how the author develops his/her argument; discuss and evaluate the primary sources that are used. Furthermore, a good book review will present the writer's original analysis: identify where the book fits into historical literature on the subject; identify and critique the theoretical and methodological approaches used by the author; assess the strengths and weaknesses of the author's use of sources. See appendix for more guidelines and details.

Paper: 25% of the course grade

Students have two options for this paper.
Option 1: Primary source analysis paper.
Students will select one well-known primary source document to read and analyze.
Option 2: Historiographical paper.
Students will draw upon the six readings in unit three, "Slavery and Sectionalism," to identify, understand, and assess the development of historical thinking. Each type of paper will be no more than twelve pages in length, and should use Chicago format. See appendix for details.

Documents-Based Question: 25% of the course grade

Students will create a DBQ, based on any topic from this course that consists of two parts: a short-answer section where the scaffolding questions come directly from primary documents and an essay section where students must answer a capstone question using the same documents. The primary documents should come from the semester-long compendium project. See appendix for details.

Annotated Compendium: 20% of the course grade

The purpose of the annotated compendium is to introduce students to using the internet for scholarly and pedagogical purposes, to critically consider methods for using it as a teaching resource, and to help students produce a reference of web-based materials for use in their own classrooms. Students will assemble, organize, and critically comment on websites that track the topics of this course.

UNIT I : TRANSPLANTED EMPIRES AND CULTURAL CONTACTS

Topics: Cultural Exchange, Early European Communities, Native American Culture/resistance to White Settlement

August 29: Introduction to the course and to each other. Issues in history and historical thinking.

September 5: Ned Blackhawk, Violence Over the Land.

September 12: NO CLASS--Rosh Hashanah

September 19: April Lee Hatfield, Atlantic Virginia: Intercolonial Relations in the Seventeenth Century

Suggested Readings for this unit:
William Cronon, Changes in the Land; Richard White, The Middle Ground; Gary Nash, Red, White, and Black; Gregory Dowd, A Spirited Resistance; Daniel K. Richter, Facing East From Indian Country; Alan Taylor, William Cooper's Town; Colin Calloway, New Worlds for All; Ramon Gutierrez, When Jesus Came the Corn Mothers Went Away; Perry Miller, The New England Mind; Boyer and Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed; Kenneth Lockridge, A New England Town; Elizabeth Reis, Damned Women: Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England.

Assignments for this unit:
Begin your annotated compendium of web resources.

UNIT II: BUILDING AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Topics: The American Revolution, The Constitution, Republicanism, The Early Republic, Jacksonian America

September 26: Gordon Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution

October 3: Lance Banning, "Republican Ideology and the Triumph of the Constitution, 1789-1793." William and Mary Quarterly, 31:2 (April 1974):167-188. --and-- Saul Cornell, "Aristocracy Assailed: The Ideology of Backcountry Anti-Federalism." Journal of American History, 76:4 (March 1990): 1148-1172. --and-- Edmund Morgan, "Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox." Journal of American History, 59:1 (June 1972): 5-29.

October 10: Lawrence Kohl, The Politics of Individualism
Students present DBQs.

October 17: Linda Kerber, Women of the Republic
Students present DBQs.

October 24: Nathan O. Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity
Students present DBQs.

Suggested Readings for this unit: Bernard Bailyn, Ideological Origins of the American Revolution; J.G.A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment; Edmund Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom; Joyce Appleby, Capitalism and a New Social Order; Rhys Isaac, The Transformation of Virginia; Harry Watson, Liberty and Power; Arthur Schlesinger, The Age of Jackson; Paul Johnson, A Shopkeper's Millenium; Jean Baker, Affairs of Party; Elizabeth Fenn, Pox Americana.

Assignments for this unit: DBQ due no later than 10/24. Continue annotated compendium of web resources.

UNIT III: SLAVERY and SECTIONALISM, WAR and RECONSTRUCTION
Topics: Westward Expansion, The Market Revolution, Slave-Holding Society, Antebellum Politics, Nullification, the Civil War

October 31: David Brion Davis, Inhuman Bondage

November 7: Tyler Anbinder, Nativism and Slavery

November 14: Drew Gilpin Faust, The Creation of Confederate Nationalism

--and--

Faust, "Altars Of Sacrifice: Confederate Women And The Narratives Of War." Journal of American History, 76:4 (March 1990): 1200-1228.

November 21: NO CLASS -- Thanksgiving Break

November 28: Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men

December 5: David Blight, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory.

Suggested readings for this unit:
Peter Wood, Black Majority; Eugene Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll; John Blassingame, The Slave Community; Sterling Stuckey, Slave Culture; Wilma King, Stolen Childhood; Stephanie McCurry, Masters of Small Worlds; Sean Wilentz, Chants Democratic; James Oakes, The Ruling Race; William Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party; James Roark, Masters Without Slaves; Ellen DuBois, Feminism and Suffrage; Michael Holt, The Political Crisis of the 1850s; James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom; John Ashworth, Slavery, Capitalism, and Politics in the Antebellum Republic; Leon Litwack, North of Slavery, John Hope Franklin, Reconstruction: After the Civil War; Kenneth Stampp, The Era of Reconstruction; David Montgomery, Beyond Equality; Steven Hahn, The Roots of Southern Populism; Julie Saville, The Work of Reconstruction; Laura Edwards, Gendered Strife and Confusion; Amy Dru Stanley, From Bondage to Contract; Jane Dailey, Before Jim Crow; Seymour Mandelbaum, Boss Tweed's New York; Karen Sawislak, Smoldering City: Chicagoans and the Great Fire.

Assignments for this unit:

(1.) Essay. Either an analysis of a primary source, or an analysis of different historical interpretations of the nature of slavery and the Civil War.

The paper is due no later than 12/5.

See appendix for details.

--and--

(2.) Finish annotated compendium of web resources and turn in no later than 12/12.

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