Course Objectives

1. Class members will explore the deep roots of American history by: (a) studying recent interdisciplinary scholarship on global history and the spread of human culture; (b) analyzing current archeological debates on the peopling of the Americas; and (c) examining the pre-contact Amerindian societies of North and South America.

2. Class members will examine the Contact experience by: (a) studying recent scholarship on Christopher Columbus's intellectual and religious worldview; (b) analyzing current research on the impact that European peoples, plants, animals, and diseases had on Amerindian populations; (c) examining recent findings on the resilience of Amerindian cultures that were facing a dramatic population implosion; and (d) exploring the Spanish colonial system and its principal unintended consequence -- the promotion of competing imperial systems.

3. Class members will analyze the seventeenth century British colonial world by: (a) studying the establishment of the four principal colonial societies -- Virginia , Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and the backcountry; (b) examining the religious, social, economic, political, and intellectual maturation of the colonies; and (c) exploring the evolutionary development of a racial system of slavery in the colonies.

4. Class members will examine the eighteenth century British colonial world by: (a) exploring the general patterns of everyday life in the era; (b) analyzing the colonial contribution to the Great War for the Empire; (c) studying the causes and course of the American Revolution; and (d) analyzing the ideas and identities that shaped the American Constitution.

Required Books (in order of consideration)

Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Available in Hardcover, Paperback, Audio CD, or Audio Download.

Kicza, John. Resilient Cultures: America's Native Peoples Confront European Colonization, 1500-1800.

Morgan, Edmund. American Slavery, American Freedom.

Fischer, David Hackett. Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America.

Wood, Gordon. The Creation of the American Republic.

Royster, Charles. A Revolutionary People at War: The Continental Army and American Character, 1775-1783.

Optional Books

Taylor, Alan. American Colonies: The Settling of North America.

Some Available Purchasing Options

All the books are available online at:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/listmania/list-browse/-/1R0SRDT1BG1DU/ref=cm_aya_av.lm_more/102-9187504-1228964

Assignments

1) Weekly Course Reading
Each week, class members will complete assigned course reading by the due date.


2) Weekly Response Statement to Reading
Each week, class members will respond to the reading assignment by submitting a 500 to 750-word response statement. All response statements will be posted to the discussion board in blackboard, where other class members may view them.


3) Weekly Discussion Board Participation
Each week, class members will be responsible for reviewing and commenting on the response statements of two other class members.


4) Development of a Digital Learning Module
By the end of the term, each class member is responsible for developing a digital learning module, which will be posted on the internet. For specific information on this project see the DIGITAL LEARNING tab on the left menu bar in blackboard.


Grading Scale
Weekly Response Statement to Reading -- 60%
Weekly Discussion Board Participation -- 10%
Digital Learning Module Development – 30%