SYLLABUS
HISTORY 2675.001– HONORS COLLEGE
The Birth and Rebirth of the American Nation
Fall 2011 / Lowe
I. Purpose of Course
To acquaint you with the major events, individuals, and long-term trends in American history so that you will understand how the United States developed and evolved down to the end of the Civil War.
II. Readings
A. Textbook: The textbook, Tindall and Shi, America: A Narrative History, vol. 1, is available in the University Store, or, for half the price, it is available on-line. Read the textbook to keep up with the material covered in class.
- AssignedReadings:American Legacies, vol. 1
A More Perfect Union, vol. 1
Both are available in the University Store. (Look under HISTORY 2675 and LOWE.) Specific readings will be assigned for each exam period.
III. Examinations and Papers
Three one-hour examinations (on September 29, October 20, and November 17), each worth 20 percent of the course grade. One two-hour final examination (30 percent) on Thursday, December 15 (8:00-10:00 AM), that covers the entire course. Questions on all exams will be of three types: multiple choice, blanks, and short essays. Questions will be drawn from class lectures and discussions (mostly), outside reading assignments (a lot), and the textbook (some). Grading system:
90 - 100 = A
80 - 89 = B
70 - 79 = C
60 - 69 = D
0 - 59 = F
In addition, one ten-page paper, summarizing a book on the attached list and analyzing professional reviews of the book, is due no later thanDecember 8. The paper is worth 10 percent of the course grade. Specific instructions on preparing the paper are below.
IV. Office hours
Tues. and Thurs., 9:30-10:30 AM, or by appointment, in Wooten Hall, room 244
E-mail: Telephone: 940-369-8931 (E-mail = usually quicker.)
V. Course Outlines
For outlines of the material that will be covered during the semester, go to click on “Faculty,” then scroll down and click on “Lowe.” On my page, you will see “Course Outlines: 2610.” Click there and then print out all fourteen outlines and take the outlines to class with you every day the class meets. These outlines show you what will be covered in class and in what order, and they can serve as outlines for your own class notes. Caution: these printed outlines do NOT substitute for your own class notes, but they provide the structure around which you can organize your class notes.
VI. Makeup Examinations
Makeup examinations for the three exams administered during the semester will be given if you have a legitimate reason for missing the regularly scheduled exam. Makeup exams will be given at any time during the day on Thursday and Friday the week after the regular exam in the HistoryHelpCenter (Wooten Hall, room 220). Of course, the makeup exam will be different from the regular exam. If you miss the final exam (and if you have a valid reason for missing and are passing the course), you will receive a grade of Incomplete (I) for the course. A grade of I does not affect your grade-point average; it simply allows you to take a make-up final exam later (but within one year of the original exam date). Good advice: don’t miss the final exam.
VII. Special Accommodations
Reasonable adjustments will be made to accommodate the special needs of students with disabilities.
R. Lowe
INSTRUCTIONS FOR REQUIRED PAPER
The purpose of the paper is to help you understand the “quality control” program that professional historians use in publishing the results of their research to the public and to each other. Reputable historians and reputable presses put every proposed publication through a rigorous inspection – mostly from other historians – to be sure that the research is deep, the writing is clear, the conclusions follow from the evidence, etc. Once the work is published, other historians (experts in the same field as the author) review it in order to judge whether the author and the press have produced a good and reliable book that helps readers understand the past.
The required paper for this class allows you to see the review process for one particular book from the attached list of publications.This paper must be typewritten, with one-inch margins on left and right, top and bottom. The paper must (1) provide a short biographical sketch of the author of the book,(2) summarize the book in about six or seven pages, (3) analyze at least three scholarly reviews, (4) give your own opinion of the book, and (5) add a separate page at the end of the paper listing the reviewers and journals that you used. Choose a book with a topic that seems interesting to you. (Nothing worse than plowing through a book you find boring.) Then find at least three reviews of the book that you can analyze for this paper. Look for reviews of at least 400 words in professional journals, magazines, and Web sites. Normally, reviews are published about one or two years after the book is published, so for a 1980 book, you would look for reviews in 1981 and 1982. You can generally find reviews in these scholarly journals: Journal of American History, History: Reviews of New Books, the American Historical Review, Civil War History, Journal of Southern History, and regional or state-level historical journals (e.g., Military History of the West, the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, the Southwestern Historical Quarterly). Some of these journals are on-line. (Look under “Electronic Resources” at and then click on “JSTOR” for the list of on-line journals.) Another potential source of scholarly reviews, H-NET, is on the Web at( Strange but true: not everything is on-line and easy to access from your laptop. You may have to go to the main library on campus and search through the book-review sections in the actual historical journals. Don’t be afraid – it’s painless and kind of interesting. Reviews from popular magazines or short summaries in library journals are not acceptable because the whole point is to introduce you to critical scholarly reviews.
Students routinely encounter three main problems. (1) They read the book and THEN look for the reviews. That’s backward. Make sure you can find at least three scholarly reviews BEFORE you read the book. Otherwise, you may have to read a second book for which reviews are easier to find. (2) They describerather than analyze the reviews. Don’t write “Reviewer A said this, Reviewer B said that,” etc. That’s mere description. ANALYZE the reviews to tell your reader what historians in general (i.e., your reviewers) think about the book. Did they all agree or disagree that it was well written and well researched? Did they split into two camps on the book’s conclusions? What did they say (as a group) about organization? What did your group of reviewers write about the strengths and weaknesses of the book? (3) Students wait until the end of the semester to read, find reviews, and write the paper. Start now and finish as early as you can.
BOOKS FOR REVIEW
HISTORY 2675
European Discovery and Settlement in North America
Axtell, James. The Invasion Within: The Contest of Cultures in . . . America (1986)
Fagan, Brian M. The Great Journey: The Peopling of Ancient America (2004)
Phillips, William D. and Carla Rahn.The Worlds of Christopher Columbus (1992)
Plog, Stephen, Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest (1997)
The Colonial Period
Bridenbaugh, Carl. Vexed and Troubled Englishmen, 1590-1642 (1968)
Fischer, David Hackett. Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America (1989)
Galenson, David W. White Servitude in Colonial America (1981)
Peckham, Howard H. The Colonial Wars, 1689-1762 (1964)
Rosenthal, Bernard. Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692 (1993)
Creation of a New Nation
Appleby, Joyce. Inheriting the Revolution: The First Generation of Americans (2000)
Black, Jeremy. War for America: The Fight for Independence, 1775-1783 (1991)
Calhoon, Robert M. The Loyalists in Revolutionary America, 1760-1781 (1973)
Carp, E. Wayne. To Starve the Army at Pleasure (1984)
Ellis, Joseph J. His Excellency: George Washington (2004)
Labaree, Benjamin W. The Boston Tea Party, 1773 (1964)
Maier, Pauline. American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence (1997)
Morgan, Edmund S. and Helen M. The Stamp Act Crisis (1962)
Szatmary, David P. Shays’s Rebellion (1980)
The Early National Period
Ambrose, Stephen. Undaunted Courage [Lewis & Clark expedition] (1996)
De Conde, Alexander. This Affair of Louisiana (1976)
Groom, Winston. Patriotic Fire[Battle of New Orleans] (2006)
Hickey, Donald R. The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict (1989)
Blassingame, John W. The Slave Community (1979)
Sisson, Daniel. The American Revolution of 1800 (1974)
Slaughter, Thomas P. The Whiskey Rebellion (1986)
Smith, James Morton. Freedom’s Fetters: The Alien and Sedition Laws . . . (1956)
The Jacksonian Era
Feller, Daniel. The Jacksonian Promise: America, 1815-1840 (1995)
Marszalek, John F. The Petticoat Affair [Peggy Eaton affair] (1997)
Remini, Robert Vincent. The Election of Andrew Jackson (1963)
Satz, Ronald N. American Indian Policy in the Jacksonian Era (1974)
The Nation Expands
Eisenhower, John S. D. So Far from God: The U.S. War with Mexico (1989)
Faragher, John Mack. Women and Men on the Overland Trail (2001)
Gordon, Sarah H. Passage to Union: How the Railroads Transformed . . . (1996)
Rohrbough, Malcolm J. Days of Gold: The California Gold Rush . . . (1997)
Schroeder, John H. Mr. Polk’s War [opposition to the Mexican War] (1973)
Sheriff, Carol. The Artificial River: The Erie Canal . . . (1996)
Sutcliffe, Andrea. Steam: The Untold Story of America’s [steamboats] (2004)
Utley, Robert M. A Life Wild and Perilous [mountain men] (1997)
The Sectional Conflict
Etcheson, Nicole. Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era (2004)
Hedrick, Joan D. Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life (1994)
Jaffa, Harry V. Crisis of the House Divided (Lincoln-Douglas debates) (1959 and 1982)
Johannsen, Robert W. The Frontier, the Union, and Stephen A. Douglas (1989)
Maltz, Earl M. Dred Scott and the Politics of Slavery (2007)
Renehan, Edward J., Jr. Secret Six: The . . . Men Who Conspired with John Brown (1995)
The Civil War
Carwardine, Richard J. Lincoln (2003)
Dean, Eric T. Shook over Hell : Post-traumatic Stress, Vietnam, and the Civil War(1997)
Lowe, Richard. Walker’s Texas Division, C.S.A. (2004)
Lowry, Thomas P. The Story the Soldiers Wouldn’t Tell: Sex in the Civil War (1994)
Sears, Stephen W. Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam (2003)
Smith, John David, ed. Black Soldiers in Blue (2002)
Thomas, Emory M. Robert E. Lee: A Biography (1999)