Course ID: | HIST 2111. 3 hours. |
Course Title: | American History to 1865 |
Course Description: | American society, politics, thought, institutions, and economic life from the first settlements to the end of the Civil War. |
Oasis Title: | American History to 1865 |
Duplicate Credit: | Not open to students with credit in HIST 2111E, HIST 2111H |
Semester Course Offered: | Offered fall and spring semester every year. |
Grading System: | A-F (Traditional) |
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Course Objectives: | History 2111 is a survey of the experiences of the peoples who met and made a human
habitat in North America from the first settlement of the Eastern woodlands, over
2000 years ago, to the end of the Civil War in the United States. Some of you will
find your ancestors in this story. Some of you or your families came to this country
long after the events we will describe were distant memories. Whether you are old
stock or new blood, you share in the legacy of triumph and tragedy that is American
history.
Above all, our aim, as in all humanities courses, is to promote critical thinking.
This does not mean being critical of everything and everybody. It means learning to
arrive at conclusions through gathering and weighing of evidence, logical argument,
and listening to counter argument.
We follow the golden rule to treat others in the class as you would wish to be
treated. We learn from one another.
Students will be evaluated/graded according to how well they do on assigned essay and
multiple question exams, quizzes, and history essays and or research papers. |
Topical Outline: | The course syllabus is a general plan for the course;
deviations announced to the class by the instructor may be necessary.
This is a sample topical outline from a large HIST 2111 survey course:
Week One: The Why and Wherefore of History. The First Americans. Read AP, 3-34;
Sensory Worlds, introduction
Week Two: Competition for Empire Begins. The First Colonies. Read AP, 35-68; Sensory
Worlds, ch. 1. First exam
Week Three: Later Seventeenth Century Settlements. The Critical Period of Early
American History. Read AP, 69-134; Sensory Worlds, ch.2
Week Four: Provincial Society and Culture. The Economics and Government of Empire.
Read AP, 135-182; Sensory Worlds, ch. 3. Second exam
Week Five: The Causes of Resistance. A People=s War. Read AP, 183-248; Sensory
Worlds, ch. 4
Week Six: The Glories and Perils of Republicanism. Founding the Federal System. Read
AP, 249-284. Third exam
Week Seven: The Party Begins. The Age of Political Ideologies. Jeffersonian Politics
in Peace and War. Read AP, 285-354.
Week Eight: The Transformation of American Society and Politics. Markets and
Mobility. Read AP, 355-376, 416-432; Listening to Nineteenth Century, 93-146.
Week Nine: The Second Party System. Reforms and Reactions. Read AP, 377-394. Midterm
exam
Week Ten: The South as a Region. Slavery. Read AP, 437-474; Listening to Nineteenth
Century, 19-92
Week Eleven: Gone West. The Internal Competition for Empire. Read AP, 395-416. Fourth
Exam
Week Twelve: Sections and Crises. The Cutting of the Ties that Bound the Nation. Read
AP,
475-514; Listening to Nineteenth Century, 147-194
Week Thirteen: The War Comes. Impressions of War. Read AP, 515-558. 404-439; RW,
163-175. Fifth exam
Week Fourteen: The Unfinished Revolution? Review for Final Examination. |
Honor Code Reference: | The university requires the following statements on the syllabus: All academic work
must meet the standards contained in A Culture of Honesty. Each student is
responsible [for informing himself or herself] ...about those standards before
performing any academic work. |