A. Course Description
A survey of American history from the Pre-Columbian
Civilization of the New World through the Reconstruction.
B. Text and Study Guide
Irwin Unger - Volume I: to 1877, These
United States The Questions of Our Past, Sixth Editon.
C. Objectives
I. Attitudes and Appreciation
1. To enable the student to distinguish myth
from fact.
2. To enable the student to understand more fully
the cultural complexity of America and to recognize the roles that culturally
diverse groups have played in American History.
3. To develop an appreciation for the basic human rights outlined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
4. To encourage a global perspective that includes:
a) Understanding events in American history
within their global context, and
b) Developing an awareness and appreciation
of the increasing interrelatedness of
nations worldwide.
II. Skills
1. To develop the ability to understand historical
relationships and historical cause and effect.
2 To develop critical thinking skills and the ability to evaluate information and explanations.
3. To develop written and oral communication skills.
III. Learner Outcomes
1. Identify reasons for, and major personalities
involved in early settlement of North America.
2. Identify characteristics and/or major personalities associated with regional settlements of the colonial period.
3. Identify the foundations of religion, education, and/or other aspects of society established in the early colonial settlements.
4. Analyze the role of indentured servants and slaves in the growth of the colonies in North America.
5. Analyze the major causes of the Revolutionary War.
6. Identify the major personalities and/or events of the pre-Revolutionary War period (prior to 1775).
7. Identify the specific contributions of influential political personalities of the pre-Revolutionary War period (e.g., Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson).
8. Analyze the content, purpose, and/or effects of the Declaration of Independence.
9. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.
10. Identify important features of the U. S. Constitution and its principles of government (including the Bill of Rights).
11. Analyze the social and political compromises of the U. S. Constitutional Convention.
12. Identify characteristics and/or policies of early Presidents and their political eras (e.g., Federalist, Jeffersonian).
13. Identify major personalities, issues, and/or events in the formation of political parties in the United States.
14. Analyze the effects of nationalism on the early United States (e.g., Bank of the United States, Clay's American System, Marshall's judicial nationalism, War of 1812).
15. Evaluate characteristics of Jacksonian democracy, and/or its effects on U.S. government.
16. Analyze the causes and effects of various social reforms and policies in the early national period (e.g., utopian, penal and mental institutions, religion, Indian treaties).
17. Analyze the beginnings of women's reform movements or Feminism; roles of women in the nineteenth century, suffrage.
18. Analyze the social consequences of Manifest Destiny during westward expansion in the U.S.
19. Identify the major territorial acquisitions made by the United States during westward expansion.
20. Identify major conflicts and/or events during the period of westward expansion (e.g., Mexican War, gold rush, growth of sectionalism).
21. Analyze major political and economic controversies which led to national dissension and the Civil War.
22. Evaluate the issues connected with slavery which led to the Civil War.
23. Identify the major personalities and events of the Civil War.
24. Analyze the political, social, and/or economic impact of the Civil War or the Reconstruction Period.
25. Evaluate the principal social issues of the Reconstruction Period (e.g., the status of Freedmen).
26. Evaluate the return to racist discrimination
nationwide and major supreme court cases, especially Plessy v. Ferguson.
D. Course Outline
1. Pre-Columbian Civilization, and the European Settlement of the
New World, 1492-1650
A. Europe in the sixteenth century
B. Spanish, English, and the French exploration
C. First English settlements
1. Jamestown
2. Plymouth
D. Spanish and French settlements and long-term
influence
E. Native Americans (Indians)
2. America and the British Empire, 1650-1754
A. Chesapeake country
B. Growth of New England
C. Restoration colonies
D. Mercantilism; the Dominion of New England
E. Origins of slavery
3. Colonial Society in the Mid-Eighteenth Century
A. Social structure
1. Family
2. Farm and town
life; the economy
B. Culture
1. Great Awakening
2. The American
mind
3. "Folkways"
C. New immigrants
4. Road to Revolution, 1754-1775
A. Anglo-French rivalries and Seven Years' War
B. Imperial reorganization of 1763
1. Stamp Act
2. Declaratory
Act
3. Townshend Acts
4. Boston Tea Party
C. Philosophy of the American Revolution
5. The American Revolution, 1775-1783
A. Continental Congress
B. Declaration of Independence
C. The war
1. French alliance
2. War and society;
Loyalists
3. War economy
D. Articles of Confederation
E. Peace of Paris
F. Creating state governments
1. Political organization
2. Social reform:
women, slavery
6. Constitution and New Republic, 1776-1800
A. Philadelphia Convention: drafting the Constitution
B. Federalists versus Anti-Federalists
C. Bill of Rights
D. Washington's presidency
1. Hamilton's financial
program
2. Foreign and
domestic difficulties
3. Beginnings of
political parties
E. John Adams' presidency
1. Alien and Sedition
Acts
2. XYZ affair
3. Election of
1800
7. The Age of Jefferson, 1800-1816
A. Jefferson's presidency
1. Louisiana Purchase
2. Burr conspiracy
3. The Supreme
Court under John Marshall
4. Neutral rights,
impressment, embargo
B. Madison
C. War of 1812
1. Causes
2. Invasion of
Canada
3. Hartford Convention
4. Conduct of the
war
5. Treaty of Ghent
6. New Orleans
8. Nationalism and Economic Expansion
A. James Monroe; Era of Good Feelings
B. Panic of 1819
C. Settlement of the West
D. Missouri Compromise
E. Foreign affairs: Canada, Florida, the Monroe
Doctrine
F. Election of 1824: End of Virginia dynasty
G. Economic revolution
1. Early railroads
and canals
2. Expansion of
business
a. Beginnings of factory system
b. Early labor movement; women
c. Social mobility; extremes of wealth
3. The cotton revolution
in the South
4. Commercial agriculture
9. Sectionalism
A. The South
1. Cotton Kingdom
2. Southern trade
and industry
3. Southern society
and culture
a. Gradations of white society
b. Nature of slavery: "peculiar institution"
c. The mind of the South
B. The North
1. Northeast industry
a. Labor
b. Immigration
c. Urban slums
2. Northwest agriculture
C. Westward expansion
1. Advance of agricultural
frontier
2. Significance
of the frontier
3. Life on the
frontier; squatters
4. Removal of the
Native Americans (Indians)
10. Age of Jackson, 1828-1848
A. Democracy and the "common man"
1. Expansion of
suffrage
2. Rotation in
office
B. Second party system
1. Democratic Party
2. Whig Party
C. Internal improvements and states' rights:
the Maysville Road veto
D. The Nullification Crisis
1. Tariff issue
2. The Union: Calhoun
and Jackson
E. The Bank War: Jackson and Biddle
F. Martin Van Buren
1. Independent
treasury system
2. Panic of 1837
11. Territorial Expansion and Sectional Crisis
A. Manifest Destiny and mission
B. Texas annexation, the Oregon boundary, and
California
C. James K. Polk and the Mexican War; slavery
and the Wilmot Proviso
D. Later expansionist efforts
12. Creating an American Culture
A. Cultural nationalism
B. Educational reform/professionalism
C. Religion; revivalism
D. Utopian experiments: Mormons, Oneida Community
E. Transcendentalists
F. National literature, art, architecture
G. Reform crusades
1. Feminism; roles
of women in the nineteenth
century
2. Abolitionism
3. Temperance
4. Criminals and
the insane
13. The 1850's: Decade of Crisis
A. Compromise of 1850
B. Fugitive Slave Act and Uncle Tom's Cabin
C. Kansas-Nebraska Act and realignment of parties
1. Demise of the
Whig Party
2. Emergence of
the Republican Party
D. Dred Scott decision and Lecompton crisis
E. Lincoln-Douglas debates, 1858
F. John Brown's raid
G. The election of 1860; Abraham Lincoln
H. The secession crisis
14. Civil War
A. The Union
1. Mobilization
and finance
2. Civil liberties
3. Election of
1864
B. The South
1. Confederate
constitution
2. Mobilization
and finance
3. States' rights
and the Confederacy
C. Foreign affairs and diplomacy
D. Military strategy, campaigns, and battles
E. The abolition of slavery
1. Confiscation
Acts
2. Emancipation
Proclamation
3. Freedman's Bureau
4. Thirteenth Amendment
F. Effects of war on society
1. Inflation and
public debt
2. Role of women
3. Devastation
of the South
4. Changing labor
patterns
15. Reconstruction to 1877
A. Presidential plans: Lincoln and Johnson
B. Radical (congressional) plans
1. Civil rights
and the Fourteenth Amendment
2. Military reconstruction
3. Impeachment
of Johnson
4. Black suffrage:
the Fifteenth Amendment
C. Southern state governments: problems, achievements,
weaknesses
D. Compromise of 1877 and the end of Reconstruction
E. Methodology
Varies, but lecture
and class discussion predominate. Various films and filmstrips are
occasionally used.
F. Requirements
1. Multiple choice quizzes
2. Major exams
3. Analyses of outside readings
4. Essays
G. Grading
Grading policies will follow requirements
established by the Board of Regents. A fuller explanation is attached.