Catalogue Description: Survey of United States history, with particular attention to the study to the study of major individuals, movements, institutions, and ideas. Also, beginning instruction on historiography, the appraisal of monographs and biographies, the use of primary sources. Designed as an introduction to the major.
Course Features and Purposes: History is not a mere recounting of facts; rather, it is a battleground where historians offer competing explanations. One need only look at the arguments over the causes of the Civil War, the decision to bomb Hiroshima, or who assassinated John Kennedy to understand that there are many convincing ways that historical facts can be arranged. People use history for many reasons. In short, it is impossible to understand the past without understanding the perspectives of those who have interpreted it.
The goal of this course is not only to familiarize students with the major individuals, movements, institutions, and ideas in United States history, but also to introduce students to historiography (the writing and philosophy of history), and to help students develop their own analytical insights into the past through the appraisal of historical monographs, articles, biographies, and primary sources. Special attention will be paid to the major schools of historical thought, to the most common ways of approaching American history (intellectual, political, and social, for example), to recurring historical themes such as continuity and change, to the problem of historical truth and objectivity, and to the problems of defining the meaning and identity of America. Finally, a significant amount of time will be devoted to understanding the relationship between ordinary people and the larger historical context in which they have lived. Students should finish the course with a sound factual knowledge of American history and a good idea of how historians do what they do.
There are several recurring topics and themes that will serve as organizing concepts for a number of our assignments this term. The central question for the term will be what is the meaning of America in global context?.` In addition, we will devote attention to (a)Freedom, Order, and Dissent in American Society (b) the processes of historical reputation, (c) nature and public policy, (d) memory and nostalgia in the lives of ordinary Americans, and (e) historians and the questions of scope, selectivity, and simulteneity.