Course Description
Exploration of the history of North America between 1500 and 1800, paying particular attention to the West, Native Americans, and the settlement and development of Spanish, French, and Russian colonies.
Athena Title
EARLY AMERICA
Prerequisite
Permission of Honors
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This course will expose students to a new way of looking at early American history. Instead of focusing on the origins and development of the British colonies, it will explore all of the regions in North America and all of the peoples living in them. Students will gain perspective on the formative events that were occurring west of the Applachians, including the Russian colonization of Alaska and the Spanish colonization of the West and Southwest. The course will place heavy emphasis on the practice of history and therefore will draw as much as possible on primary documents. The principal objective of the course is to teach students to think critically for themselves about the relationships between the past and the present, to learn to ask questions of the past that enable them to understand the present and mold the future, and to become attuned to both the limitations and possibilities of change. The course seeks to acquaint students with the ways in which past societies and peoples have defined the relationships between community and individual needs and goals, and between ethical norms and decision-making. In general students will be expected to: 1. read a wide range of primary and secondary sources critically. 2. polish skills in critical thinking, including the ability to recognize the difference between opinion and evidence, and the ability to evaluate--and support or refute--arguments effectively. 3. write stylistically appropriate and mature papers and essays using processes that include discovering ideas and evidence, organizing that material, and revising, editing, and polishing the finished papers.
Topical Outline
Week 1: What is the subject matter of early American history? Week 2: Early Encounters in North America: The Documentary Record, I Week 3: Early Encounters in North America: The Documentary Record, II Week 4: Early Encounters: What Does Archaeology Tell Us? Week 5: The First Spanish Colonies Week 6: The First French Colonies Week 7: The First British Colonies Week 8: Mapping the Continent by Land and Sea Week 9: The Great Plains before Lewis and Clark Week 10: Russia and the Aleutians Week 11: The Colonization of Alta California Week 12: Slavery from the Southwest to the Great Lakes Week 13: Smallpox: A Continental Pestilence Week 14: Looking West: Trans-Pacific Trade
Syllabus