HIS 163: United States History To 1876 |
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Instructor: Dr. Jeff Littlejohn |
Sam Houston State University | Spring 2008 |
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Office Location: AB4 472 |
Department of History | 3 hours credit |
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Office Hours: TTH 11-12; or appt. |
Section 09: TTH 8:00-9:20 | CID 3437 | AB4 303 |
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Email: littlejohn@shsu.edu |
Section 10: TTH 9:30-10:50 | CID 3438 | AB4 303 |
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http://www.studythepast.com |
Course Description:
HIS 163 is the first part of a two-semester course on the history of the United States. This class offers students an introductory survey of the chief cultural, environmental, intellectual, and political developments in North America between 1400 and 1876.
HIS 163 focuses on four primary topics: 1) the meeting of European, Amerindian, and African cultures during the Age of Exploration; 2) the establishment of the English colonial system in North America;
3) the development of the American Revolution and early Republic; and, 4) the expansion, fracturing, and reconstruction of the American nation in the mid-nineteenth century.
Course Objectives:
1) Students will gain factual knowledge.
Students will gain a more in-depth understanding of the periods covered in this course, including the Age of Exploration, the Colonial period, the American Revolution, the Early Republic, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.
2) Students will learn fundamental principles, generalizations, and theories.
Students will be taught the fundamental principles of historical scholarship as they encounter traditional and recent interpretations of the American past.
3) Students will learn to analyze and critically evaluate ideas, arguments, and points of view.
Students will learn to evaluate primary documents and secondary sources as they consider conflicting historical interpretations.
Required Books:
* David Goldfield, et. al., The American Journey, Volume 1.
Attendance:
Regular attendance and punctuality are indicative of serious scholarship. You should be in class, awake and aware, and prepared for discussion. Students missing more than six classes may receive a grade reduction at the end of the term. Students who are regularly tardy will be denied entrance to class.
Attendance and Religious Holy Days:
Section 51.911(b) of the Texas Education Code requires that an institution of higher education excuse a student from attending classes or other required activities, including examinations, for the observance of a religious holy day, including travel for that purpose. A student whose absence is excused under this subsection may not be penalized for that absence and shall be allowed to take an examination or complete an assignment from which the student is excused within a reasonable time after the absence.
SHSU policy 861001 provides the procedure to be followed by the student and instructor. A student desiring to absent himself/herself from a scheduled class in order to observe (a) religious holy day(s) shall present to the instructor involved a written statement concerning the religious holy day(s). This request must be made in the first fifteen days of the semester in which the absence(s) will occur. The instructor will complete a form notifying the student of a reasonable timeframe in which the missed assignments and/or examinations are to be completed.
Assignments and Grading:
In this course, students will complete 4 exams and multiple participation assignments.
* Each exam is worth 100 points
* Participation is worth 100 points
The following grading scale -- based on 500 points -- will be used to calculate final grades:
A = 500-450 | B = 449-400 | C = 399-350 | D = 349-300 | F = 300-0 points.
Examinations:
Students will complete 4 multiple-choice/essay exams during the term. Each of the exams will cover the section of the course immediately preceding it. The exams will be based on class notes and assigned readings. Review sheets will be posted on the course webpage before each exam.
Participation:
Students should complete reading assignments, attend class, and participate in discussions. Periodically, a short pop-quiz or writing assignment will be given to determine how well each member of the class has prepared. These participation assignments should be easy, but they will require that you attend class and prepare for discussion.
Classroom Demeanor:
HIS 163 is a lecture and discussion course. Students are encouraged to ask questions and initiate discussion. The more you engage the material, the better you will learn it, and the better you will do in the course. To facilitate an open classroom dialogue, students should not: 1) have cell phones turned on; 2) be reading the school paper or doing other homework; 3) leave early or disturb their fellows.
Visitors in the Classroom:
Unannounced visitors to class must present a current, official SHSU identification card to be permitted in the classroom. They must not present a disruption to the class by their attendance. If the visitor is not a registered student, it is at the instructor's discretion whether or not the visitor will be allowed to remain in the classroom.
Study Tips:
I encourage you to contact me if you are feeling confused or out-of-step with the material we are covering. If you would like additional support, you may also contact the SAM Center ( Student Advising & Mentoring Center ), which helps students improve their note-taking, time management, and study skills. The SAM Center is located in room 210 of AB4. You may make an appointment at the Center by email ( SAMCenter@shsu.edu ) or phone (294-4444).
Academic Dishonesty:
All students are expected to engage in all academic pursuits in a manner that is above reproach. Students are expected to maintain complete honesty and integrity in the academic experiences both in and out of the classroom. Any student found guilty of dishonesty in any phase of academic work will be subject to disciplinary action. The University and its official representatives may initiate disciplinary proceedings against a student accused of any form of academic dishonesty including, but not limited to, cheating on an examination or other academic work which is to be submitted, plagiarism, collusion and the abuse of resource materials.
Any violation of the University's Academic Honesty standard will result in a failing grade for the course and a recommendation for University discipline.
Americans with Disabilities Act:
It is the policy of Sam Houston State University that individuals otherwise qualified shall not be excluded, solely by reason of their disability, from participation in any academic program of the university. Further, they shall not be denied the benefits of these programs nor shall they be subjected to discrimination. Students with disabilities that might affect their academic performance are expected to visit with the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities located next to the Counseling Center . They should then make arrangements with the instructor in order that accommodations can be made to assure that participation and achievement opportunities are not impaired.
SHSU adheres to all applicable federal, state, and local laws, regulations, and guidelines with respect to providing reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities. If you have a disability that may affect adversely your work in this class, then I encourage you to register with the SHSU Counseling Center and to talk with me about how I can best help you. All disclosures of disabilities will be kept strictly confidential. NOTE: no accommodation can be made until you register with the Counseling Center.
Instructor's Right to Update Course Schedule
This syllabus is your contract for the course. The instructor will not change the nature of the course, the number of assignments, or the grading system. However, the instructor reserves the right to update the course schedule and reading assignments throughout the term.
Course Topics and Schedule:
UNIT I: WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE
January 17 | Introduction to the Course
January 22 | What Historians Do: The Duel
Reading: Primary documents on the duel [ html ]
January 24 | The Creation Two Worlds | ppt slides in pdf
Reading: Alfred Crosby, “Pangaea Revisited ” [ html ]
Powerpoint Links [ Ages of Earth ] [ humans ] [ journey to new land] [ gualt tx ]
Website: Mystery of the First Americans [ html ]
Website: "The First Americans" by Sharon Begley and Andrew Murr, from Newsweek, April 26, 1999 (v. 133, n. 17): 50-57. [ html ]
Map: The Newsweek Map of the First Americans Debate [ html ]
Website: Kennewick Man Debate [ html ]
January 29 | The Pre-contact Amerindian World | ppt slides in pdf
Reading: American Journey, 4-12.
Resource: John Kizka, “The Native Societies of the Americas Before Contact” [ pdf ]
Group I: Maya: Palenque [ video ] [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ]
Group II: Teotihuacan [ short video ]
Group III: The Aztecs [ video ] [ html ]
Group IV: The Inca [ short video ] [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ]
Group V: Cahokia and the Moundbuilders [ video ]
January 31 | Contact: In 1492, Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue | ppt slides in pdf
Reading: American Journey, 15-20.
Group I: Why Did Columbus Sail? [ pdf ]
Group II: Mappae mundi and Ptolemy’s Geographia (1482 Ulm Edition) [ pdf ]
Video: Columbus and the Taino [ video ]
February 5 | Cortés and the Fall of the Aztecs | no powerpoint
Reading: Excerpts, Camilla Townsend, “Burying the White Gods” [ pdf ]
Video In Class: Conquistadors with Michael Wood [ html ]
February 7 | Littlejohn Ill: Class Canceled
February 12 | Guns, Germs, and Steel: Explaining European Advantages | ppt slides in pdf
Reading: Jared Diamond, “Human History . . . for the Last 13,000 Years? ” [ html ]
Resource: Charts to Accompany Jared Diamonds article [ html ]
February 14 | The Spanish Empire | ppt slides in pdf
Reading: American Journey, 21-25.
February 19 | Exam I | review sheet in pdf
UNIT II: ENGLISH NORTH AMERICA
February 21 | The English Delay: The Protestant Reformation | ppt slides in pdf
Reading: American Journey, 16-17
Website: The Protestant Reformation [ html ]
Website: The Catholic Counter Reformation [ html ]
Website: The Reformation in England [ html ]
Website: Six Wives of Henry VIII [ html ] and [ html ]
POWERPOINT: Early English efforts at Colonialism, 1558-1603 [ pdf ]
February 26 | Virginia and the Colonial South | ppt slides in pdf
Reading: American Journey, 25-27; 36-41
Reading: Edmund Morgan, Jamestown Fiasco [ pdf ]
Online Handout: Slave Codes in Virginia | [ pdf ]
Website: Africans in America: The Terrible Transformation [ html ]
Website: James River Plantations | [ html ]
February 28 |Massachusetts and Colonial New England | ppt slides in pdf
Reading: American Journey, 41-47; 53; 98
Reading: "Instruments of Seduction: A Tale of Two Women," Sandra F. VanBurkleo, OAH Magazine of History, Winter 1995 [ html ]
Reading: "Blessed and Bedeviled: Tales of Remarkable Providences in Puritan New England," Helen Mondloch, The World & I, May 2002 [ html ]
March 4 | Pennsylvania and the Middle Colonies | ppt slides in pdf
Reading: American Journey, 49-55
Reading: Patricia Hudson, "Penning A Legacy" [ pdf ]
March 6 | British North America, 1700-1750 AND EXAM 2
Reading: David Hackett Fischer, " Divergence in Four Colonial Cultures" [ pdf ]
SPRING BREAK: MARCH 11 – MARCH 13
UNIT THREE: THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND EARLY REPUBLIC
March 18 | British Colonial Theory and Practice, 1688-1763 | ppt slides
Reading: American Journey, 104-117
Reading: Jack Greene, “The Preconditions of the American Revolution” [ pdf ]
March 20 | New Measures & the Conservative Colonial Stance, 1763-73 | ppt slides | handout
Reading: American Journey, 123-135
Reading: Robert Cecil, “The Famous Tax Included, Tea Was Still Cheaper Here: An Englishman Re-examines . . . the American Revolution” [ html ]
Optional: Thomas J. Fleming, “Verdicts of History I: The Boston Massacre” [ html ]
March 25 | The Radical Revolution, 1774-1776 | ppt slides
Reading : American Journey, 136-142; 148-156
Reading : Richard Alan Ryerson, “An Expression of the American Mind”: A Review of Pauline Maier's book, American Scripture [ html ]
Optional: Bernard Weisberger, “Paul Revere” [ html ]
Optional: Christine Gibson, How Thomas Paine Launched a Revolution [ html ]
March 27 | The Revolutionary War, 1775-1783 | handout | maps
Reading: American Journey, 156-173; 180-194
View: The Patriot
Reading: Film Review of The Patriot [ pdf ]
April 1 | From the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution | ppt slides | questions
Constitution Questions [ pdf ]
Reading: American Journey, 188-205
Reading: Evan Thomas, “Founders Chic: Live From Philadelphia ” [ html ]
April 3 | Jefferson 's World: Politics, Race, & American Republicanism, 1789-1826 | ppt slides
Biography: Thomas Jefferson [ html ]
Thomas Jefferson: Library of Congress Exhibition [ html ]
Monticello : Jefferson 's Home [ html ]
Jefferson and Sally Hemings [ html ]
William W. Freehling, "The Founding Fathers and Slavery" [ html ]
Drew McCoy, "Jefferson and the Empire of Liberty," [ html ]
April 8 | Exam Three | exam review
April 10 | Hand Back and Review Exam
UNIT FOUR: THE CRISIS OF THE UNION
April 15 | Overview of Unit | powerpoint | handout
April 17 | The Founding Fathers and Slavery
Reading: William W. Freehling, “The Founding Fathers and Slavery” [ pdf ]
April 22 | The Differences Between the Antebellum North and South
Reading: James McPherson, “Differences Between Antebellum North and South” [ pdf ]
April 24 | Regional Conflict and Geographic Expansion, 1831-1850
Reading: American Journey, 344-352; 387-392
April 29 | The Critical Decade 1850-1860
Reading: American Journey, 393-416
May 1 | The Civil War, 1861-65
Reading: American Journey, Chapter 15
Reading: Jeff Littlejohn, “The Civil War” [ pdf ]
May 6 | From Civil War to Reconstruction, 1865-77
Reading: American Journey, Chapter 16
May 8 | Final Exam during regularly scheduled class meeting
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