U.S. Survey Syllabus: DONE

Classes at Messiah College begin next Tuesday and I have finally gotten around to writing the syllabus for HIST 141: "United States Survey to 1865."  This course has been my bread and butter for the last decade.  It is my favorite course to teach.  This year the course has 126 students enrolled.  They will hear me (or my co-teacher, Cathay Snyder) lecture on Wednesdays and Fridays and then meet in six different seminars (taught mostly by Cathay) on Mondays and Tuesdays.

I use the abridged version of Of the People: A History of the United States as my main textbook.  It is co-written by James Oakes, Michael McGerr, Jeanne Boydston, Nick Cullather, and Jan Lewis.

The only other secondary sources I use are James Merrell's essay "The Indians's New World: The Catawba Experience" and an unpublished essay of my own entitled "The Power to Transform: A Christian Reflection on the Study of the Past."  I use Merrell because it is the most teachable scholarly essay I have ever encountered.  My own piece provides much of the framework for my forthcoming book by the same title.  The response to this essay has been very positive since I first wrote it a few years ago.

I also use Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's  A Midwife's Tale documentary video.

Here are my lecture titles:

The Old World: Mercantilism
Tobacco Culture in the Early Chesapeake
The Old World: Protestantism
"City on a Hill": Puritans in America
The Middle Colonies
The Enlightenment in America
The First Great Awakening
The Colonies on the Eve of the American Revolution
The Coming of the American Revolution: Part 1
The Coming of the American Revolution: Part 2
The American Revolution
The Articles of Confederation
The Collapse of Virtue
A Federalist Vision for the United Srates
Cementing an International Reputation
Jeffersonian America: Part 1
Jeffersonian America: Part 2
The Market Economy in the North
The Southern Economy
The Age of Jackson
The Age of Democracy
Manifest Destiny
The Sectional Results of Manifest Destiny
The Coming of the Civil War
The Civil War: Part 1
The Civil War: Part 2
Lincoln's Civil War

Students read the following primary sources:

"The Trial Transcript of Anne Hutchinson"
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Thomas Paine, Common Sense
Federalist #10
The United States Constitution
William Lloyd Garrison, "To the Public" (from The Liberator)
George Fitzhugh, "The Blessings of Slavery"
Thomas Dew, "Defense of Slavery"
Excerpts from Tocqueville, Democracy in America
Frederick Douglass, Narrative
Lincoln, "Second Inaugural Address."


We are looking forward to another good semester.