HIST 50bAmerican Transformations: Perspectives on United States History, Origins to the Present

Brandeis UniversitySpring 2014

Tues. & Thurs. 5:00-6:20pm

Abigail Cooper, Assistant Professor of Historyabcooper@brandeis.eduOffice Hours: T & Th 11-12, Olin Sang 121 (& by appointment)

Course Description: This course reimagines what has traditionally been known as "the American History survey"—a two-semester introduction to American history from early conquest to 2014. The classic university American History survey and Advanced Placement U.S. History courses in many American high schools have often had a great deal of overlap in material and approach. By contrast, this course offers a one-semester overview of American history from its origins to the present but from a more unorthodox angle. We start with the

premise that American History itself is a construct of modern empire. When History as professional scholarship rose as a discipline in the late nineteenth century, ninety-five percent of its practitioners were located in America and Europe. Nevertheless, we study it. Only by investigating the roots of power and resistance can we understand the forces that deeply influence our world as we live it today. To avoid grappling substantively with American history is to shrink from the most pressing and intractable questions of democracy and imperialism, equality and order, cultural comity and conflict.

This course beckons to multiple cross-sections of the student body. It speaks to students trained abroad who seek to learn major foundational points of American history. It speaks to students who consider themselves well-versed in American history who want to do something a little different, who want to probe deeper into accepted narratives usually strung together by the political events that made headlines. This course beckons to students who envision a critical engagement with America's past as formative in the course of their life's work. Because in a global 21st century, an American history course is not a relic of parochial thinking but a hard-nosed inquiry into what it means to interrogate claims of American exceptionalism in our current context where transnationalism is all the rage, borders are contested and crossed, but the

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sovereign nation-state remains as the accepted way of demarking community and order within our world systems. This course will tell you stories. Then we will interpret them. America explained. America questioned. In that order. We are studying a land mass in the northern part of the western hemisphere of the globe. We are studying the people who envisioned this space as a palette for ideas in various ways over time. This course seeks to create a common vocabulary of American history across different cultural backgrounds and perspectives and to collectively subject America's past to a new level of critical scrutiny. This course is one approach to offering what every good global citizen should know about the American past.

American Transformations seeks to understand change in American history. Why did this colony of the British Empire gain its independence in 1776 when so many others failed? How did involuntary servitude move from a class- to a race-based system? Why, even after widespread immigration, did the concept of race continue to evolve on the terms of a black-white binary? American Transformations traces revolutions and evolutions on the North American continent. The course progresses roughly chronologically—as our basic method still resides in examining change over time—but also thematically, taking up major topics each week. We begin not with the birth of a nation, but with possible starting points for the idea of nation and conjectures into what could go into a national narrative. So we start with Comanche empires and the dissemination of the printed word to connect people who would never meet each other. We proceed from there through turning points and gradual shifts in the landscape, historicizing major concepts in America's past like liberalism and evangelicalism along the way. We investigate the tension between American ideals deemed to be exceptional and American exceptionalism that compromises those ideals.

Aims of this course (Learning Goals):There is no shortage of information on America and its history. This course aims to provide a guide through the noise. It brings to the fore the work of professional scholars whose methods and research have been peer-reviewed and have made a substantial impact on scholarly understandings. These scholarly understandings are not always the same as public historical understandings. The goal here is for students to differentiate between the construction of an argument based on historical evidence, on the one hand, and the practice of ad hominem polemics, on the other, and to be able to engage and execute the former. The challenge of historical interpretation and the balance of empirical and imaginative methods will be a centerpiece of this course, and ultimately every student will have to defend not only her argument but her method for arriving there. Students will know the difference between a primary and secondary source and will be able to track down a footnote. They will not only gain new information but will also learn how to detect from where different writers' information comes. The assignments are designed to hone skills in reading, writing, and oral presentation. Students will develop and become self-aware of the tools they use in managing and assessing historical data. Students will gain knowledge of the American past and the telling of the American past over time. This will compel students to grapple with how

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historians think and require them to understand the value of thinking historically. If history is what the present chooses to remember about the past, the objective of a student in this course is to question why we remember what we do and how we do.

Organization of course: Tuesdays will consist of a lecture from the professor and an introduction to sources and tools of historical study. Thursdays will consist of student presentations, group discussion, and collaborative historical lab work.

Requirements:

Readings: Our main reading will come from:

Eric Foner's Give Me Liberty!: An American History, Brief Third Edition (NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012) ISBN-13:9780393935516 http://www.barnesandnoble.com/listing/2691262942252?r=1&cm_mmca2=pla&cm_mmc=GooglePLA-_-TextBook_NotInStock_75Up-_-Q000000633-_-2691262942252

ORhttp://www.wwnorton.com/college/history/give-me-liberty3/

OR http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?isbn=9780393935516&clickid=Vw3Wr1zcfyQe0hqT2ozWXyn%3AUkT1NtXyh0GMQg0&cm_mmc=aff-_-ir-_-71954-_-77666&afn_sr=impact

*This book is on reserve at the library and is available at the Brandeis bookstore.

Writing Assignments: Each student will write two short papers—DETAILS TO COME. Papers will be evaluated on your handling of the historical material from the course, on your level of insight into the document itself, on the plausibility and precision of your argument, and on the overall thoughtfulness of your discussion. Late papers will receive the penalty of one half-grade reduction for each day late.

Exams: Midterm Exam: IN CLASS. DETAILS TBA. Final Exam: CUMULATIVE. TBD.

Evaluation Method:Mid-Term Exam — 20%Final Exam — 20%First Paper — 20%Second Paper — 20%Participation — 20%

Academic Accommodations: If you are a student with a documented disability at Brandeis and wish to request a reasonable accommodation for this class, please see me immediately.

Plagiarism and Academic Integrity: Violations of University policies on academic integrity can result in failure in the course or on the assignment, or in

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suspension or dismissal from the University. If you are in doubt about the instructions for any assignment in this course, it is your responsibility to ask for clarification. Please read the University’s policies on academic integrity at http://www.brandeis.edu/studentlife/sdc/ai. I will refer suspected instances of academic dishonesty to the Office of Student Development and Conduct.

Brandeis University Academic Calendar Spr 14 (abridged)Thursday, Jan. 9 – Monday, Jan. 27 Registration period for graduate and undergraduate students.Monday, Jan. 13 First day of instruction.Monday, Jan. 20 Martin Luther King Day: No university exercises, staff holiday.Monday, Jan. 27 Last day to add classes. Monday, Feb. 17 – Friday, Feb. 21 Midterm Recess: No university exercises.Tuesday, Apr. 8 — Monday, Apr. 14 Registration period for fall term 2014.Wednesday, Apr. 9 Grades replacing graduate incompletes from fall term 2013 due.Tuesday, April 15 – Tuesday, Apr. 22

Passover and spring recess: No university exercises.

Tuesday, Apr. 29 Last day of instruction. Last day to withdraw from the term (written notification required).

Wednesday, Apr. 30 - Thursday, May 1

Study days.

Friday, May 2 – Friday, May 9 Final examination period.Monday, May 5 Grades for May degree recipients for all courses without final exams due by 10:00

a.m. For all courses with final exams, such grades are due by 10:00 a.m. on the third day after the examination, and in no case later than Sunday, May 11, at 3:00 p.m.

Saturday, May 10 at 12 noon Residence halls close for undergraduates.Sunday, May 18 Commencement.Tuesday, May 20 All other spring term grades due.

*The only required text (for purchase or on reserve at the library) is Eric Foner's Give Me Liberty! (Brief Third Edition) ISBN-13:9780393935516. All other readings will be posted on LATTE. Please check there for the week-by-week breakdown.

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