This course will examine a selection of key historical periods between 1607 and 1877. Introducing students to the significant events that went on to shape 20th Century America, it will engage with influential historical, political and social works to present a pattern of national development leading from the Puritans through the formation of the Republic and the divisions caused by the Civil War, to the turmultuous political struggles during Reconstruction. The course will address theories of democracy, of state power, and will critically investigate arguments concerning race, gender and identity as a whole.
At the end of the course unit the successful student will have demonstrated:
- A knowledge of American social and political history from 1620-1900, together with a basic comprehension of the cultural and literary influences that have shaped key stages of American development during that period;
- An awareness of the interdisciplinary approach to American Studies;
- An ability to explore the dominant themes of identity, expansion and renewal within the American experience, and the confidence to understand, compare and contrast the contested terrain that these themes have and continue to operate in;
- Skills in written expression and in critical and analytical thinking appropriate to Level One.
The core text is A Concise American History by David Brown, Thomas Heinrich, Simon Middleton and Vivien Miller (Routledge, 2020). The first half of this recent US history textbook is relevant for this module and if you intend to read only one book in preparation for the course, I recommend this. Below are suggested readings on the various topics we will study over the autumn term.
England on the eve of expansion to the 'New World':
Bernard Bailyn, The Peopling of British North America: An Introduction, particularly the essay titled 'Worlds in Motion'.
Puritans and adventurers: the beginnings of Anglo-American settlement:
David Hall, 'Understanding the Puritans', and Sigmund Diamond, 'From Organization to Society: Virginia in the Seventeenth Century', in Stanley N. Katz, ed., Colonial America: Essays in Politics and Social Development; Karen Ordahl Kupperman, Indians and English: Facing Off in Early America
The rising generation: towards the Revolution:
Edmund Morgan, The Birth of the Republic, 1763-89;
Jon Butler, Becoming America: The Revolution Before 1776;
Alan Taylor, American Colonies: The Settling of North America
Winning the war, winning the peace: The Constitution and the birth of the American political nation: Stephen Botein, et al., eds., Beyond Confederation: Origins of the Constitution and American National Identity, particularly John Murrin's essay, 'A Roof Without Walls';
Edward Countryman, What Did the Constitution Mean to Early Americans;
Gordon S. Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution
Native Americans and westward expansion:
John Mack Faragher, Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie;
Gregory Evans Dowd, A Spirited Resistance: North American Indian Struggles for Unity, 1745-1815; Greg O'Brien, 'The Conqueror Meets the Unconquered: Negotiating Boundaries on the Post-Revolutionary Southern Frontier', Journal of Southern History 67 (February 2001): 502-524
The rise of 'Jacksonian democracy':
Harry L. Watson, Liberty and Power: The Politics of Jacksonian America;
Daniel Feller, The Jacksonian Promise: America, 1815-1840;
Charles Sellers, The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America, 1815-1846
Gender and class in industrializing America:
Mary P. Ryan, Cradle of the Middle Class: The Family in Oneida County, New York, 1790-1865;
Karen Halttunen, Confidence Men and Painted Women: A Study of Middle-Class Culture in America, 1830-1870;
Sean Wilentz, Chants Democratic: New York City and the Rise of the American Working Class, 1788-1850
The 'peculiar institution': American slavery:
Peter Kolchin, American Slavery;
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave;
David Brown and Clive Webb, Race in the American South: From Slavery to Civil Rights, chapter 5
The house dividing; sectional conflict:
Robert Cook, Civil War America: Making a Nation, 1848-1877;
Eric Fone