UNITED STATES HISTORY: 1492-1865

 

 

                                             Fall Semester 2004

 

History 101                                                                                         Mr. Scott

Office Hours:                                                                                    Acland 23

Mon, Wed & Fri                                                                           E-Mail/SCOTT

9-10; 11-12                                                                                        PBX 5316

                                                                                                                  

Course Reading:

 

Text:  Ingle et al, Endless Quest Vol. I

 

Required Supplemental Readings:

 

Columbus, Four Voyages

Ulrich, Good Wives

Flexner, Washington

Remini, Andrew Jackson

McLauren, Cecelia

Greenberg, Honor and Slavery

Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Desjardin, Stand Firm ye Boys from Maine

 

Assigned Book-Pairs for Papers:                                       

 

1) Columbus and Ulrich

(Paper due September 17)      

2) Flexner and Remini

                                                (Paper due October 29)                     

3) McLauren and Greenberg

 (Paper due November 19)      

4) Stowe and Desjardin

 (Paper due December 10)      

 

Film:           Black Robe       Sunday, September 12 at 7 p.m.

 Tomsich 101


 

 

Course Requirements:

 

1) Attendance is required for all lectures, film (Sunday September 12, 7:00 pm, Tomsich 101), and discussions.  Students who fail to attend class will have their grades reduced accordingly (at least one letter grade.  Students are excused only with a Dean's excuse or for College-recognized religious holidays or, for team members, away athletic or other collegiate sponsored activities.  In the case of an "excused absence" students should inform me promptly.  No one will miss class the day before or the day after the October Break or the Thanksgiving Vacation or the last day of class. 

 

2)  Choose three of the four pairs of Assigned Readings and write a typed, six-page (2500 word) comment for each of the three, due in class on the day that the second of the pair of readings is scheduled for discussion in syllabus.  These will be graded and represent one third of your final grade.  Any late papers will be reduced at least a letter grade.  I will not accept any papers more than one week late without a compelling excuse.  Papers will be graded on the basis of content, argument, neatness, and writing.  See writing guideline.

 

3) My Extension Policy for papers is that everyone gets one “penalty-free extension automatically.  If you choose to use your free extension the late paper must be turned into my office no later than one week after its due date.  Be sure to write on the top of the paper that you are using your free extension for this paper so that I do not grade it as late.

 

4)  One hour-exam (October 18th); a map quiz (November 8); and a cumulative final exam to be taken during scheduled exam period.  For the exams you will be responsible for lectures, map information, text, all assigned readings, film, and discussions.

 

5) If you have physical, psychological or learning disabilities and require accommodations, please let me know early in the semester so that your course needs may be met.  You may also wish to consult the Coordinator of Services to Students with Disabilities, Erin Salva (5145 or salvae@kenyon.edu) for suggestions and help with your particular needs at Kenyon.  All communication with Ms Salva is confidential.

 


Lecture and Discussion Schedule:

 

Aug.  30               1492

Sept.  1               Europe Before America                                                      

Sept.  3               Discussion: Columbus, Four Voyages, pp. 27-199

 

Sept.  6               Virginia and the Chesapeake

Sept.  8               Conquest of Eastern North America

Sept. 10              God, the Devil, and Massachusetts     

Endless Quest, chapt 1

 

Sept.  12          Black Robe                   Film: Tomsich 101  7:00 PM

 

Sept. 13              The Middle Way

Sept. 15              Servitude: Black and White

Sept. 17               Discussion: Ulrich, Good Wives

Paper # 1 due in class

 

Sept. 20              The Great Awakening         

Sept. 22              On the Eve of Independence

Sept. 24              Justifying the Revolution

 

Sept. 27              The American Revolution

Sept. 29              E Pluribus Unum

Oct.   1                Discussion: Flexner, Washington

Endless Quest, chapt. 2

 

Oct.   4                One Nation                  

Oct.   6                Federalists

Oct.   8                Republicans

Endless Quest, chapt. 3

 

 

Oct.  11                       ***October Break***

 

Oct.  13               Liberty’s Daughters   

Oct.  15               The Marshall Court

 

Oct.  18     MID-TERM EXAM

Oct.  20               Economic Transformation

Oct.  22               Images of the Early Republic

                                      Endless Quest, chapt. 4

 

Oct.  25               Jacksonian America           

Oct.  27               Racial Politics

Oct.  29               Discussion: Remini, Andrew Jackson

Paper #2 due in class

 

Nov.   1                Reformers and Transformers

Nov.   3                Ante-bellum City

Nov.   5                Painting the “New” America: slide discussion      

 

Nov.   8                MAP QUIZ

Nov.  10               Discussion: McLauren, Cecelia

Nov.  12          Reading Day: No Class

 

Nov.  15               Slavery

Nov.  17               Old South

Nov.  19              Discussion: Greenberg, Honor and Slavery

Paper # 3 due in class                                

Endless Quest, chapt. 5

 

                                   ***THANKSGIVING***

 

Nov.   29              Cult of Domesticity

Dec.   1                Rise of the Republican Party

Dec.   3                Discussion: Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, chpts. 1-11                

Dec.   6                The War against the States

Dec.   8                One Nation Indivisible

Dec.  10               Discussion: Desjardin, Stand Firm ye Maine Boys

Paper # 4 due in class

Endless Quest, chapter 6


 

 

Map List

History 101

 


Adirondacks

Alamo

Albemarle Sound

All states and state    capitals

Annapolis Everglades

Finger Lakes

Fort Worth

Front Range

Gadsden Purchase

Gettysburg

Grand Canyon

Great Desert (Utah & Westward)

Great Salt Lake

Great Lakes

High Plains

Appalachian Mountains

Astoria

Atlanta

Bad Lands

Black Hills

Blue Ridge Mountains

Boston

Bunker Hill

Cairo

Cape Cod

Cape Hatteras

Cape Kennedy

Cape May                              

Catskill Mountains

Cascade Mountains

Central Valley (California)

Charleston, S.C.

Chattanooga

Chesapeake Bay

Choctaw

Chicago

Cincinnati

Colorado River

Columbia River

Connecticut River      

Coney Island

Cumberland Gap

Dallas

Delaware Bay

Denver

Detroit

Dust Bowl

Eastern Shore

Erie Canal                   

Horseshoe Bend        

Hudson River

Iroquois

James River

Jamestown

Key West

Lake Champlain

Las Vegas

Little Big Horn

Long-grass Prairie

Long Island

Long Island Sound

Los Angeles

Louisiana Purchase

Mason-Dixon Line

Massachusetts Bay

Michilimackkinac, Fort

Mesa Verde

Mexican Cession

Miami

Milwaukee

Mississippi River

Missouri River

Mobile Bay

Monongahela River

Mount Rushmore

Mount McKinley

Mount Washington

Mount Whitney

Natchez

New Orleans

Ozark Mountains

Paducah

Philadelphia

Piedmont

Pittsburgh

Platte River

Plymouth

Proclamation line of 1763

Puget Sound

Quebec City

Rio Grande/Rio Bravo del Norte

Roanoke

Rocky Mountains

Salem

Salt Lake City

San Antonio

San Francisco

San Francisco Bay

Sante Fe

Saratoga

Savannah, GA

Savannah River

Sierra Nevada Mountains

Snake River

South Pass

St. Augustine

St. Louis

St. Lawrence River

Short-grass Prairie

Sutter's Fort

Sullivan’s Island

Tennessee River

Tidewater

Trail of Tears

Upper Peninsular

Vicksburg

West Point

Wheeling, W.V.

Williamette River

Wounded Knee

Yorktown

Yosemite

Yellow Stone

Yorktown

State Capitols

States of Northwest Territory


Newport, RI

Niagara Falls

Northwest Territory of 1787

Ohio River


 

  WRITING INSTRUCTIONS

 

I        Focus on verbs.  Good writing begins with good verbs.  This means 1) active voice, 2) simple past tense, 3) verbs of action, 4) no redundant, meaningless auxiliaries, and 5) establishing clear causal relationships between the agent of cause (subject), the causal act (verb), and the object of cause (direct object).  Write with clarity, coherence, detail, and artfulness.

 

1)      Always write in the ACTIVE VOICE.  The passive voice drains the life out of your prose obscures the true subject of your sentence, the agent of causation.

 

Examples: 

Wrong:

a) Alexander Hamilton was killed in a duel.  p.v.

b) The woman was beaten.  p.v.

 

Correct:

a) Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton. a.v.

b) The woman's vicious boy friend beat her unmercifully. a.v.

 

2)      Whenever possible use the simple past tense.  The strongest of all verb forms, consistent use of the simple past avoids most tense confusions.  The one acceptable exception is past perfect when you refer to an event that occurred prior to the one you are discussing.

 

Examples:

 

Wrong:

a) Eleanor Roosevelt was going to vote. Past Participle

b) Eleanor Roosevelt would vote.  Future Past Perfect

 

Correct:

a) Eleanor Roosevelt voted.  Simple Past

b) Eleanor Roosevelt had registered before she voted. Past perfect and simple past.


3)      Only occasionally use verbs of being.  Use verbs of action. Like the passive voice, verbs of being kill your prose. They also tell you nothing except that your subject exists or that it is present. Don't waste a verb.  It is, by far, the most important element in writing.  Make it say something.  Use it to hold readers' interest.  Only use verbs of being occasionally for dramatic emphasis (The history teacher was boring!) or to alter the tempo of your writing. 

 

Wrong:

a) John was in the house.

b) Hillary Clinton was the President's wife. 

c) Thurgood Marshall was in court.

 

Correct:

a)      John lay dead in house.

b)      Hillary Clinton stood along side her husband, the much and justifiably maligned President. 

c)      Thurgood Marshall confronted the Supreme Court with the fundamental inequity of racially segregated public schools.

 

4)      Do not use unnecessary phrases or words.

 

Wrong:

a) I stood up in order to go.

b) I started to leave.

c) I began to look.

 

Correct:

a)      I stood to go.

b)      I left.

c)      I looked; I conquered.

 

II       Always have unifying theme. State your theme in the introduction (usually the first paragraph), use it to tie together everything in your essay, and in your conclusion, evaluate the theme and show its significance. All expository essays should have an introduction, an argument, and a conclusion.


III      Transitions knit your essays together.  Make sure that each sentence flows naturally from the preceding sentence, that you link each paragraph to the preceding paragraph, and that you relate each new topic in essay to the preceding topic.  Make your transitions as artful as it. 

 

Wrong:

This essay is about Geronimo.  I will discuss his childhood and how he led the Apache people against the Mexican and American governments.  My theme is ...blah, blah

 

Correct:

Geronimo, the great war-chief of the Apaches, resisted the conquest and taming of his people, first by the Mexican and then by the United States Government.  Even as a young boy, born in the rugged, isolated Sierra Madre Mountains, Geronimo spurned the very idea of western civilization, fighting all efforts to destroy the wildness of his people and land.