Jan Van der Straet, “America,” 1598
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United States History to 1865 This course examines the political, social, cultural, and ideological history of early America, from the beginnings of European settlement to the Civil War. It will provide students with a chronological narrative of that history, but more importantly, we will focus on several central questions that emerged in early American society and which continue to affect the United States today. The first of these is the question of what it means to be “free,” an idea that was redefined in many eras in relationship to new ideas about slavery, political authority, and the creation of governments. The second is the question of what it meant to be an “American,” and more broadly speaking, who was defined as “them” in contrast to “us.” Finally, we will discuss the pursuit of wealth, the relative importance of capitalism and the market, and its relationship to emerging conceptions of citizenship and democracy. The focus in this course is on reading, interpreting, and criticizing texts that exemplify certain moments in American history—not on the memorization of factual information. It is intended to introduce students to historical thinking. To do so, the course readings will balance original historical documents and scholarship by historians. There is no textbook in this class. |
