FALL 2013
SYLLABUS IN BRIEF
HIST-UA 9
United States History to 1865
Professor Nicole Eustace
Office Hours in KJCC 714: Tues 3:45-5:00 PM or by appt.
Office Phone #: (212) 998-8613
Email: [email protected]
Fall 2013
TTh, 2:00-3:15 PM
Silver Center
Room 414
This course will trace the history of the United States in an Atlantic context, charting
massive population shifts that culminated in new ways of organizing society. The first three
centuries of American life were shaped by unprecedented demographic change, from the era
of first contact between Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans in North America, through
the development of colonial settlements, to the founding of a new nation, and then finally to
the testing of that nation.
New patterns of mobility—of ideas and material goods as well as people—
transformed some older forms of economic, social, and political organization and entrenched
others. Monarchy gave way to democracy, but hierarchies of race, class and gender endured.
The rise of market capitalism ended the era of mercantilism, but did nothing to counter
slavery. Though citizens of the new United States emerged from British colonialism, they
strengthened some key traditions of imperialism. To try to make sense of these
interconnected yet often contradictory processes, we will pay as much attention to personal
life as to public developments. Our goal will be to examine the beliefs and experiences of
countless ordinary men and women along with the policies and pronouncements of leading
figures. By analyzing the messy and uneven process by which the population of the United
States became organized, we will attempt to discover when, whether, and how the diverse
inhabitants of America became a unified people.
Throughout the course we will think hard about how historians do history: why they
choose certain topics for study, how they select evidence from the mass of available facts, and
how they take their ideas and put them into writing. Course readings and assignments will
require you to take an active part in analyzing the historical record, critiquing historians’
accounts of the past, learning to construct arguments, and coming to conclusions of your own.
The historical skills you develop in this course will provide a strong foundation for doing
analytic work in many fields.
Course Requirements
1. Lecture Attendance & Attention. The most basic requirement of the course is regular and
prompt class attendance. Lectures will complement course readings, providing context for
and commentary on the themes, evidence, and arguments addressed in the assigned books.
Material from lecture will be an important component of exams. To optimize your learning
and to show courtesy to your professor and fellow students, please turn off all phones
and refrain from texting or using the internet during class sessions.
2. Class Readings and Section Participation (15%). Each week you will be assigned primary
and secondary-source readings that coordinate with the week’s lectures. Secondary-source
readings often present case studies that provide specific examples of the broad topics discussed
in lecture. Or they may provide supplementary information and alternative views of the
arguments and ideas presented in class. Documents provide a look at the kind of original
evidence on which historians base their arguments and give an “up close” view of historical
events. Total reading assignments have been held to about 200 pages per week, a substantial
but manageable amount. Doing history at the college level is about learning to read and write
critically and creatively, so be prepared to do a lot of each!
Students must complete reading assignments in time for discussion section. Section
provides the opportunity to analyze and digest what you have read, to ask questions, and to
integrate information from reading and lecture. It is a critical component of the course. For
that reason, active participation (and not just attendance) will be weighted in your grade. Your
teaching assistant may require small weekly written assignments targeted to class readings.
3. Papers (40%). There will be two 4-5 page papers in this class (each worth 20%). The first
will require you to engage in original analysis of a primary source document, using evidence
from the document (provided by your TA) as well as information from secondary source
accounts to frame and answer a historical question. The second, historiographic, paper will
require you to summarize and comment on the analysis and arguments of historians who
have taken diverse approaches to a common topic. This assignment will ask you to compare
and contrast books you have already read for class. A detailed set of questions to help frame
your writing and thinking will be provided when the assignments are distributed.
4. Exams (45%). There will be both a mid-term and a final exam in this class. The mid-term
exam, on Tuesday, October 22, will be worth 15%, the final exam, on Thursday, December 12
will be worth 30%. A passing grade on the final exam is required in order to pass the course.
5. Academic Integrity. All students are expected to adhere to the highest standards of
integrity. It is your responsibility to avoid even the appearance of impropriety regarding your
work. Cheating, plagiarism, etc. will constitute grounds for failure in this course as well as
referral to university officials. Please share with me any difficulties you are having with your
work and avoid resorting to desperate measures. You are always welcome in office hours
(even if only to chat!). You can also email or phone me with questions or concerns.
Schedule of Lectures
WEEK ONE: Introduction
Tuesday, September 3: Course Introduction
Thursday, September 5: The First Nations Peoples of North America
WEEK TWO: Europe and Africa
Tuesday, September 10: Laws and Life Ways in Africa on the Eve of the Atlantic Slave Trade
Thursday, September 12: Laws and Life-Ways in England in the Age of Colonization
WEEK THREE: The First Century of Contact
Tuesday, September 17: Race, Racism and Bacon’s Rebellion: Life in Seventeenth Century
Virginia
Thursday, September 19: Worlds of Wonder/ Scenes of Horror in Seventeenth Century New
England
WEEK FOUR: Enlightened Awakenings?: The Eighteenth Century
Tuesday, September 24: Awakening Consumption: Life and Culture in the Urban
Marketplace
Thursday, September 26: Slavery and “Chivalry” in the Tobacco South
WEEK FIVE: Testing the Bonds of Empire
Tuesday, October 1: Pagans,” “Papists,” and “English Protestants”: A War for Identity and
Empire
Thursday, October 3: Backcountry Unrest and Contests over Piety and Civility
WEEK SIX: Revolution
Tuesday, October 8: Passionate Politics in the Street and in the Statehouse
Thursday, October 10: Inventing America with Manuscripts and Muskets
WEEK SEVEN: Break and Constitutional Era
Tuesday, October 15: FALL BREAK
Thursday, October 17: Acts of Invention: Federalists Create the Constitution and Define the
Nation
WEEK EIGHT: Forging a New Republic
Tuesday, October 22: MID-TERM EXAM
Thursday, October 24: Jeffersonian Democracy: Agrarian Ideals and Imperial Policies
WEEK NINE: Claim Staking in the New Nation
Tuesday, October 29: The Population Problem: Nationalism, Imperialism, and the War of
1812
Thursday, October 31: Cities of Painted Women, Confidence Men, and Bowery B’hoys
WEEK TEN: Willing and Unwilling Western Migrants
Tuesday, November 5: Andrew Jackson and the Democracy of the Frontier
Thursday, November 7: Andrew Jackson and the Trail of Tears
WEEK ELEVEN: Slavery and the Old South
Tuesday, November 12: Cotton Kings and Small-World Masters
Thursday, November 14: Slave Counterpoint: In the Quarters and down by the Riverside
WEEK TWELVE: The Consolidation and Contestation of Middleclass Culture
Tuesday, November 19: Revivals, Reform, and Women’s Resurgence
Thursday, November 21: Abolitionist Activists and Sojourners for Truth
WEEK THIRTEEN: The Road to Disunion
Tuesday, November 26: A House Divided
Thursday, November 28: NO CLASS: THANKSGIVING
WEEK FOURTEEN: The Civil War and Its Aftermath
Tuesday, December 3: The Second American Revolution?
Thursday, December 5: An Unfinished Revolution: Reunion and Reconstruction
WEEK FIFTEEN: Review
Tuesday, December 10: A Nation under Our Feet
Thursday, December 12: Review