History 163: Course Schedule

UNIT I: WORLDS COLLIDE

Week 1 | August 24 – August 26:
Introduction to the Course and Deep Background

Reading : Jared Diamond, “ Why Did Human History Unfold Differently on
Different Continents for the Last 13,000 Years?” [online]


Week 2 | August 29 – Sept 2
The Amerindian World On the Eve of Contact

Reading 1: Tindall and Shi, 9-11 | Early Amerindian Cultures
Reading 2: William Cronon, “Seasons of Want and Plenty” [online]

Week 3 | Sept 5 – Sept 9 [Sept 5: No Class, Labor Day Holiday ]
Contact and the Spanish Empire

Reading 1: Tindall and Shi, 11-15 | Columbus and the Columbian Exchange
Viewing 1: 1492: Conquest of Paradise | website
Reading 2: Tindall and Shi, 16-25 | The Spanish Empire


Week 4 | Sept 12 – Sept 16
The English Delay and Colonial Stirrings

Reading 1: Tindall and Shi, 27-28 | The English Delay and Protestant Reformation
Reading 2: Tindall and Shi, 27-28 | English Exploration

 

REVISED SCHEDULE TO MID-TERM AFTER HURRICANE RITA
Class members must submit a p récis on the “Jamestown Fiasco” and two additional readings from the list below. All work should be turned in during class time. Class members should complete all readings.

UNIT II: BRITISH NORTH AMERICA  

WED – Sept 28: Jamestown Fiasco and the Development of Virginia
Submit précis on “Jamestown Fiasco” [ online pdf ]
Optional: Tindall and Shi, 28-33 | Settlement: Virginia and the Chesapeake

FRI – Sept 30: Slavery and Freedom in Virginia
Reading: Edmund Morgan, “Slavery and Freedom,” read 16-29 [ online pdf ]
Begin with “ Virginia from the beginning was conceived . . . ."
Optional: Tindall and Shi, 66-72, 108-109 | Society and Economy in Southern Colonies

MON – Oct 3: From Virginia to Massachusetts
No reading. Submit précis on "Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox"

WED – OCT 5: Colonial Massachusetts : Settlement
Submit précis on "Seventeenth-Century Nihilism" Chapter Ten of Edmund Morgan's The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop. On Anne Hutchinson and the Antinomian Controversy [ online pdf ]
Optional: Tindall and Shi, 34-45 | Settlement: Massachusetts and New England

FRI – OCT 7: Colonial Massachusetts : Development
Submit précis on "The Devil, the Body, and the Feminine Soul in Puritan New England" by Elizabeth Reis from the Journal of American History 1995, 82 (1): 15-36. [ online ]
Optional: Tindall and Shi, 72-82 | Society and Economy in New England

MON – OCT 10: Colonial Pennsylvania
Submit précis on the movie "Black Robe" [ link ]
To be shown: Olson Auditorium, Thursday, September 29, 6:00 pm

Optional: Tindall and Shi, 49-58 | Settlement: Middle Colonies and Georgia
Optional: Tindall and Shi, 82-88 | Society and Economy in the Middle Colonies

WED – OCT 12: Eighteenth Century Colonial Life
Submit précis on "Convergence & the Creation of a Colonial Culture" [ online pdf ]
Or
Submit précis on "Divergence in Four Colonial Cultures" [ online pdf ]

Optional: Tindall and Shi, 60-66, 88-95 | Colonial Life, Spirit, and Thought
Optional: Tindall and Shi, 97-106, 109-119| Colonial Systems and War for Empire

FRI – OCT 14
Mid-term Exam

October 14: Last day to drop without grade of F. Last day to resign without receiving WP or WF. Degree applications to be filed in Registrar's Office by students graduating in May, 2006.

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Week 9 | Oct 17 – Oct 21
British Colonial Theory and Practice: Background to the American Revolution

-- Notes: British Colonial Theory and Practice [ pdf ]
-- No Assigned Reading

Week 10 | Oct 24 – Oct 28
The American Revolution, 1763-1776

Assigned Reading: Irving Brant, "Tar and Feathers to Sovereignty" [ pdf ]

Assigned Reading 2: Garry Wills, "Minutemen" [ pdf ]

Week 11 | Oct 31 – Nov 4
Defining America: The New Republic , 1776-1789

-- Gordon Wood, "Republicanism" from Creation of the American Republic [ html ]
-- William W. Freehling, "The Founding Fathers and Slavery" [ pdf ]
-- Questions on the Constitutional Convention
-- Film Review: The Patriot

Week 12 | Nov 7 – Nov 11
The Jeffersonian Era and the Market Revolution

-- Reading:Drew McCoy "Jefferson and the Empire of Liberty" [ online ]
-- Roger Brown, "The War of 1812 and the Struggle for Political Permanency" [ online ]
-- Gary Nash, African Americans in the Early Republic | View in: [ pdf ] [ html ]

Week 13 | Nov 14 – Nov 17
The Debate Over Slavery, 1819-1860

-- James McPherson, "The Differences between the North and South" [ pdf ]

Week 14 | Nov 21 – Nov 22 [WTF Thanksgiving]
Open

Week 16 | Nov 28 – Dec 2
The Civil War, 1860-1865

-- “The Doom of Slavery”: Ulysses S. Grant, War Aims, and Emancipation, 1861–1863, Brooks D. Simpson, Civil War History , March 1990  [ pdf  ] [ html ]
-- The Civil War's Deadliest Weapons, Allan W. Howey [ pdf ] [ html ]
-- Absence of Malice, Ronald C. White, Jr.  [ pdf ] [ html ]

Week 17 | Dec 5 – Dec 9 [Dec 9 last class]
Reconstruction, 1865-1877

-- Eric Foner, “The New View of Reconstruction” [ pdf ]

Final Exam
-- His 163.10 MWF 1:00-1:50 | Final Exam: Wednesday, Dec 14 from 2:00-4:00