History of American Revolution

History of American Revolution

Course Books (required)

John Murrin, et. al., Liberty, Equality, Power, Compact Fifth Edition, vol. 1
Mary Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God
Thomas Paine, Common Sense
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin

From one’s earliest days in school in this country, one is taught the subject of American history. Rarely do those courses ask about the meaning of “American” in reference to the American continents. Even more rarely do they stop to ask just what the meaning of “American history” is for the period that began before there was a United States. When does American history begin? What are the bounds of the territory covered by that subject? What groups comprised the American people? What are the principal developments that occurred within the Americas to create a United States? How did “American” society and an “American” nation evolve from those beginnings into a large, modern, and often conflicted nation? The assumption of this course will be that we need to re-think not only those questions, but many other of our assumptions about the American founding, in order to begin to comprehend both the history of the United States and the particular place American society and culture have assumed in the contemporary world.

Schedule of Classes:
1. Week of 8/30
Introduction: What is American history?
Pre-Colonial America and its History
Read: Murrin, chap. 1

2. Week of 9/8
The Expansion of Europe: The Atlantic World and Beyond
Read: Murrin, chap. 2, pp. 43-58; Rowlandson, Preface to the Reader; 1st & 2nd removes

3. Week of 9/13
Jamestown: The First American Boom Town
Puritans and the Founding of New England
Read: Murrin, chap. 2, pp. 58-76, chap. 3, pp. 90-109; Rowlandson (finish)

4. Week of 9/20
The Middle and Later Colonies
Atlantic Slavery
Read: Murrin, chap. 2, pp. 76-89, chap. 3, pp. 109-121

5. Week of 9/27
Provincial Societies and Contrasting Empires
The Imperial Framework
Read: Murrin, chap. 4, pp. 121-158

6. Week of 10/4
Great War for Empire
**Midterm exam in class 10/6**
Read: Murrin, chap. 4, pp. 158-180

7. Week of 10/11
Resistance
War and Independence
Read: Murrin, chap. 5, chap. 6 pp. 221-56; Paine, pp. to be announced
Declaration of Independence

8. Week of 10/18
Confederation
Constitution
Read: Murrin, chap. 6, pp. 256-264; The Constitution of the United States

9. Week of 10/25
The New Government
Triumph of the Jeffersonians
Read: Murrin, chap. 7, 8

10. Week of 11/1
Economic and Territorial Expansion
Jacksonian Politics
Read: Murrin, chap. 11, 12

11. Week of 11/8
Age of Reform
Slavery and Southern Culture
Read: Murrin, chaps. 9, 10, Stowe (begin)


12. Week of 11/15
Anti-slavery: moral and political
Manifest Destiny and the West
Read: Murrin, chap. 13; Stowe, (continue)

13. Week of 11/22
View: Amistad
The Coming of the Civil War
Read: Murrin, chaps. 14; Stowe (finish)


14. Week of 11/29
War
*** Second chronological exam in class, 12/1
Read: Murrin, chap. 15, 16

15. Week of 12/6
Emancipation
The Reconstruction of the South
Read: Murrin, chap. 17