History
400
The
American Revolution
Second
Semester, 2004-2005
Reed
Browning
This course is designed to
provide an opportunity to explore the events which, between 1763 and 1789,
transformed a set of autonomous North American settlements, discrete outposts
of the British Atlantic Empire, into the world’s largest republic. We will take politics and constitutionalism
as our central themes and ideological differences as the major source of
conflict, and the readings and oral reports will direct attention to the
richness of research – some old, some new – on the era. Our weekly discussions will focus on common
readings for the evening and on special book reviews that seminar members will
deliver. The goal of the seminar is to
provide students with a good understanding of the age and circumstances that
produced the United States of America.
If we are all active in sharing our questions, our doubts, our
impressions, and our knowledge, we will mutually achieve that goal.
Every seminar member should
purchase the following books:
Edmund
Morgan, The Birth of the Republic
Bernard
Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
James
Thomas Flexner, Washington: The Indispensable Man
Pauline
Maier, American Scripture
Forrest
McDonald, Novus Ordo Seclorum
Gordon
Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution
Kate
Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Theses, etc.
Every seminar member should
purchase one of the following six books:
Colin
Calloway, The American Revolution in Indian Country
Gregory
E. Dowd, A Spirited Resistance: The North American Indian Struggle for Unity
Sylvia
Frey, Water from the Rock
Gary
Nash, Race and Revolution
Susan Juster, Disorderly Women: Sexual Politics and
Evangelicalism in Revolutionary New England
Linda
Kerber, Women of the Republic
Jan. 17: Organizational
Meeting
Jan. 24: When
America had a King
All
read: Morgan, 1-14.
Book
reviews:
Edmund
Morgan, American Slavery/American Freedom (1975)
David
Hackett Fischer, Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America (1989)
Patricia Bonomi, Under the Cope of Heaven:
Religion, Society and Politics in Colonial America (1986).
Jan. 31: The
Shattering of Anglo-American Concurrence
All
read: Bailyn
Book
reviews:
Jack Greene, Pursuits of Happiness: The Social
Development of Early Modern British Colonies and the Formation of American
Culture (1988).
Gary Nash, The Urban Crucible: The Northern
Seaports and the Origins of the American Revolution (1986).
Alison Gilbert Olson, Making the Empire Work:
London and American Interest Groups (1992).
Feb. 7: Resistance
to Imperial Legislation
All
read: Morgan, 15-76
T. H. Breen, “Ideology and Nationalism on the
Eve of the American Revolution:
Revisions Once More in Need of Revising,” Journal of American
History, June 1997: 13-39 (on
reserve).
Book
reviews:
Edmund Morgan and Helen Morgan, The Stamp Act
Crisis: Prologue to Revolution (1953).
Peter D. G. Thomas, The Townshend Duties Crisis:
The Second Phase of the American Revolution (1987).
Benjamin
Woods Labaree, The Boston Tea Party (1964).
Feb. 14: The
Declaration of Independence
All
read: Maier, 3-170.
Book
reviews:
Carl Becker, The Declaration of Independence
(1922).
Gary
Wills, Inventing America: Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence
(1978).
Jay Fliegelman, Declaring Independence: Jefferson,
Natural Language & the Culture of Performance (1993).
Feb. 21: The
War for Independence
All
read: Morgan, 77-87
Book
reviews:
Charles Royster, A Revolutionary People at War: The
Continental Army and American Character (1979).
John Shy, A People Numerous and Armed: Reflections
on the Military Struggle for American Independence (1976).
Clare
Brandt, The Man in the Mirror: A Life of Benedict Arnold (1994).
Feb. 28: George
Washington
All
read: Flexner, 3-182.
Book
reviews:
George
Athan Billias, ed. George
Washington’s Generals (1969).
David
Hackett Fischer, Washington’s Crossing (2004).
Don Higginbotham, George Washington and the
American Military Tradition (1985).
Mar. 21: The
Revolution as Social Transformation
All
read: Wood, 3-42, 95-243, 325-69.
Book
reviews:
Ruth
H. Bloch, Visionary Republic: Millenial Themes in American Thought (1985).
Jackson
Turner Main, The Social Structure of Revolutionary America (1965).
Ann Fairfax Withington, Toward a More Perfect
Union: Virtue and the Formation of the American Republics (1991).
Mar. 28: The
Forgotten Participants
Each
student should purchase and read one of these six books. The collective reports will come from teams
of four or five students.
Colin
Calloway, The American Revolution in Indian Country (1995).
Gregory Evans Dowd, A Spirited Resistance: The
North American Indian Struggle for Unity (1992).
Sylvia
R. Frey, Water from the Rock (1991).
Gary
Nash, Race and Revolution (1990).
Linda
Kerber, Women of the Republic (1980).
Susan Juster, Disorderly Women: Sexual Politics and
Evangelicalism in Revolutionary New England (1994).
Apr. 4: No
class meeting - individual meetings to discuss research essays
Apr. 11: What
Do We Make of the Revolution Today?
All
read: Edward Countryman, Philip J. DeLoria, Sylvia R. Frey, and Michael
Zuckerman, “Rethinking the American Revolution,” William and Mary Quarterly
53 (1996): 341-86 (on reserve)
Apr. 18: The
Experiment with Confederal Government
All
read: Morgan, 88-128
Book
reviews:
Jay Fliegelman, Prodigals and Pilgrims: The
American Revolution Against Patriarchal Authority (1982).
Jackson Turner Main, The Anti-federalists: Critics
of the Constitution, 1781-1788 (1961).
Joyce
Appleby, Capitalism and a New Social Order (1984).
Apr. 25: Preserving
the Revolution
All
read: Morgan, 129-56
McDonald, vii-xiii, 1-8, 185-293.
Book
reviews:
Charles Beard, An Economic Interpretation of the
Constitution of the United States (1913).
Jack Greene, Peripheries and Center: Constitutional
Development in the Extended Polities of the British Empire and the United
States, 1607-1788 (1987).
Leonard
Levy, Origins of the Bill of Rights (1999).
APR. 29: RESEARCH ESSAYS DUE!!!
May 2: The
Legacy of the Founding Era
Book
reviews:
Drew McCoy, The Elusive Republic: Political Economy
in Jeffersonian America (1980).
Michael Kammen, A Season of Youth: The American
Revolution and the Historical Imagination (1978).
Louis Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America: An
Interpretation of American Political Thought since the Revolution (1955).
Please keep the following
points in mind:
1. The research essay, on a subject of your choosing (but chosen in consultation with the instructor), is due on Friday, April 29. I do not grant unpenalized extensions.
2. It is imperative for the success of the seminar that students be prepared to present their special reports on the evenings they are scheduled.
3. My regular office hours will be from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If those are not convenient, we can schedule a meeting for another time. My office is Seitz 9, up on the second floor of Seitz House. My office extension is 5642. My home phone is 427-3155, and I do not mind being called at home (at reasonable hours).
4. My e-mail address is BROWNINR. I frequently use e-mail to send messages to the class. It is your responsibility to make sure your account is active.
5. The course grade will be determined by the following formula: two book reviews, 30% (15% for each); informed participation in discussion, 35%; research essay, 35%.
6.
Plagiarism
is the representation of someone else's work as one's own. It is the most serious offense that can be
committed in an academic community. We
are obliged to acknowledge our debts to the labors of others, and recourse to
notes is the most typical way of fulfilling that obligation. Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of
Term Papers, These and Dissertations gives wonderful advice on building
notes and bibliographies. The Student Handbook contains a full discussion of
plagiarism. Please read it. I will be glad to discuss any issues about
plagiarism with any student.
5. If you
have a physical, psychological, medical or learning disability that may impact
your ability to carry out assigned course work, I would urge that you contact
the Office of Disability Services at 5453.
The Coordinator of Disability Services, Erin Salva (salvae@kenyon.edu), will review your concerns and
determine, with you, what accommodations are appropriate. All information and documentation of
disability is confidential.
6. I
encourage the use of foreign languages in student research work. I realize that few students will be
proficient at reading Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian,
Spanish, or Swedish, and so I'll be pleased to make significant adjustments in
expectations if anyone wants to try to do some of the reading for the research
essay in a language other than English.
Please speak to me about the possibility if the prospect seems enticing.