History 1301
United States History to 1865
Course Description
Although this course is a survey of the United States, it resists traditional approaches to the study of US history up to 1865. This course will center significant turning points that relate to bordered regions, which will allow us to traverse local, regional, national, and international boundaries. This North American context will use race, gender, and empire as its analytical lenses. Through a wide range of readings, this course will highlight how peoples such as Canary Islanders, Acadians, Africans, free people of color, Mestizo, Native Americans, Mexicans, Metis, and Creoles who wrestled with imperial authorities over material and political resources. We will also consider the related themes of slavery, identity, and class. We will seek to answer the following questions: How have these different peoples negotiated the border landscape under the forces of colonization? To what extent did these peoples affect the political, economic, and social structure under empire? At points of contact, how did these mixed identities evolve?
Course Objectives:
- We will consider historical meaning and interpretation through the evaluation of both primary and secondary sources.
- We will exercise our ability to understand what is historically significant.
- We will think about and develop empathy for historical actors
- As we think about the concepts of continuity and change through the process of chronological thinking and narrative.
- We will think about the process of progress and the relationship to empathy and teleology.
- We will concentrate on the following important turning points
- French, Spanish, British conquest and Early settlement
- French and Indian War 1763
- American Revolution 1776
- The Frontier
- The US-Canadian Border
- Purchas of the Louisiana Territory 1803
- War of 1812
- Mexican Independence 1821
- US-Mexican War 1848
- Gadsden Purchase 1854
- United States Civil War 1865
Outcomes
- By the end of the course the student will be able to:
- Actively read and extract important information from a text.
- Know the debates about the significant turning points.
Required readings
Textbooks:
- A People’s History of the United States, 1942-Present by Howard Zinn
- American History: a Survey Volume 1 by Alan Brinkley
Books:
- Storey, William Kelleher. Writing History: A Guide for Students. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
- Bean, John C., Virginia A. Chappell, and Alice M. Gillam. Reading Rhetorically. New York: Pearson Education Canada, 2010.
Special Reader:
The special reader will contain excerpts from various secondary and primary sources.
- James Axtell, Natives and Newcomers: The Cultural Origins of North America (Oxford University Press, 2001)
- Jesus F. de la Teja, Choice, Persuasion, and Coercion: Social Control on Spain’s North American Frontiers (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005)
- Carl A. Brasseaux, The Founding of New Acadia: The Beginnings of Acadian Life in Louisiana, 1765-1803 (LSU Press, 1997).
- David J. Weber, “The Spanish Borderlands of North America: A Historiography,” OAH Magazine of History 14, no. 4 (2000): 5–11;
- David J. Weber, The Spanish Frontier in North America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992).
- Chavez, Thomas E., and Thomas E. Chávez. Spain and the Independence of the United States: An Intrinsic Gift. Albuquerque University of New Mexico Press: UNM Press, 2004.
- Sleeper-Smith, Susan. Indian Women and French Men: Rethinking Cultural Encounter in the Western Great Lakes. Univ of Massachusetts Press, 2001.
- Cayton, Andrew Robert Lee, Fredrika J. Teute, and Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture. Contact Points: American Frontiers from the Mohawk Valley to the Mississippi, 1750-1830. Chapel Hill: UNC Press Books, 1998.
- Carroll, Francis M. A Good and Wise Measure: The Search for the Canadian-American Boundary, 1783-1842. 1st ed. University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division, 2001.
- Brasseaux, Carl A. Acadian to Cajun: Transformation of a People, 1803-1877. Jackson: Univ. Press of Mississippi, 1992.
- Hickey, Donald R. The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict. University of Illinois Press, 2012.
- Grimsley, Mark. The Hard Hand of War: Union Military Policy Toward Southern Civilians, 1861-1865. Cambridge University Press, 1997.
- Haycox, Stephen. Alaska: An American Colony. University of Washington Press, 2006.
- White, Richard. The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
- Reséndez, Andrés. Changing National Identities at the Frontier: Texas and New Mexico, 1800-1850. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
- Mora, Anthony P. Border Dilemmas: Racial and National Uncertainties in New Mexico, 1848–1912. Chapel Hill: Duke University Press, 2011
- Johnson, Walter. Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001
Assignments
Exams:
The students will have 3 exams consisting of 5 multiple choice questions and one essay question. These exams will assess superficial knowledge or textbook knowledge. Students will be given essay question prior to the exam to prepare.
Group discussions:
The students will be placed in groups of my choice. This is where we will learn how to “think historically.” Using the special reader, students will read or re-read the primary sources such a letters, newspapers, speeches, and photographs and based on several questions I have proposed, given at the beginning of class. Students will read assigned readings for that day we are doing group discussions. While collectively the students will answer the questions, each student will have to answer a question on their own. Students will receive participation points for being present and group responses.
Paper:
Final paper will be a historiographical essay. Based on our lectures, readings, and discussions, I want students to position themselves within the scholarly debate.
Weekly Reading:
Reading assignments from the special reader are imperative that you actually read them.
Weekly Assessments:
Weekly assignments will assess your comprehension of ongoing debates about the specific turning points we will discuss in class. These assessments will be in the form of one minute paper.
Week 1
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Reading Exercise
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Week 2
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Week 3
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Week 4 –French, Spanish, British conquest and early settlement
| Date | Before Class | Due |
| Tuesday |
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| Thursday |
James Axtell, Natives and Newcomers: The Cultural Origins of North America (Oxford University Press, 2001)
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Week 5—French and Indian War 1763
| Date | Before Class | Due |
| Tuesday |
White, Richard. The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
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Week 6—American Revolution 1776
| Date | Before Class | Due |
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Week 7—The Frontier
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Week 8—The Frontier
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Week 9 Purchase of the Louisiana Territory 1803
| Date | Before Class | Due |
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Week 10—The War of 1812
| Date | Before Class | Due |
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Week 11—Mexican Independence 1821
| Date | Before Class | Due |
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Week 12—US and Canadian Border
| Date | Before Class | Due |
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Week 13—Gadsden Purchase 1854
| Date | Before Class | Due |
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Week 14—US Civil War 1865
| Date | In-Class | Due |
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Jessica DeJohn Bergen 