Tues. 2-5

Office: 3219 Dwinelle

Hours: 11:15-noon Tu Th, and by appointment.

"CLASSICS" IN AMERICAN HISTORY

             This course is designed especially to introduce college freshmen and sophomores to American history by acquainting them with some of the major works in the literature.  Some are old "classics," e.g., Ben Franklin's Autobiography and Tocqueville's Democracy in America, which have become renowned almost as much as historical documents as for their historical content.  Others, e.g., Kenneth Stampp's Peculiar Institution, Winthrop Jordan's White Over Black, and Matthew Josephsons Robber Barons, have taken on the character of "classics" in that almost from the moment they were published they became, and remained, indispensable reference points for every scholar who thereafter worked on their subjects.  Finally, some of the books we will read (e.g., Kessner's Golden Door) may not deserve the title "classic" in either of the above senses, but rather serve exceptionally well to get into important modern subjects, or use special historiographical techniques, that as yet enjoy no "classic" treatment.  All the books have been chosen also because they make good reading as well as provoke thought about American history.

             The course requires faithful attendance and ACTIVE class participation.  No one who misses more than THREE (of our 12) class discussions for ANY reason can pass the course.  (This is, however, no license to miss as many as three!  Each absence will be noted.)

             Each student will have at least one opportunity during the term to open the class discussion by delivering a 15-minute keynotetalk based on the assigned reading, indicating the direction in which the student wants the discussion to start.  In addition, each student will write TWO PAPERS: the FIRST will be due NO LATER THAN Friday, October 15 at 4 pm, and must be a footnoted 12-20 page historiographical essay (printed in 12-point type, double-spaced, normal margins).  This is not to be a research paper.  Rather the essay should cover how historians have treated any of the historical subjects we consider during the course, with particular reference to historians' reaction or response to the book(s) assigned in the course on that subject.  The SECOND paper will also be a historiographical essay of the same sort, and will be due NO LATER THAN Monday, December 13,  at 4 pm.

ASSIGNMENTS (all books complete except noted otherwise)

August 31: Organizational Meeting

Sept 7: Richard Hofstadter, The American Political Tradition (Vintage).

Sept.14: A. Hamilton, J. Madison, J. Jay, The Federalist Papers (Mentor edition), selected Nos.

Sept.21: Edmund Morgan, The Puritan Dilemma (Little, Brown), complete; and Ben Franklin, Autobiography, any edition.

Sept.28: Winthrop Jordan, The White Man's Burden (abridged version of White Over Black).

Oct.5: Kenneth M. Stampp, The Peculiar Institution.

Oct 12: ** - NO MEETING.  FIRST PAPER DUE FRIDAY, OCT.15 BY 4 p.m.

Oct.19: Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (Vintage edition ONLY, P.Bradley, ed.), Vol. I, complete EXCEPT chs. 6-7;  Vol.2, READ only Bk.1: chs.5, 11; Bk.II: chs. 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 18-20; Bk. III: chs. 5-14, and 19.

Oct.26:  David Potter, People of Plenty (Chicago).

Nov.2: James Willard Hurst, Law and the Conditions of Freedom; - OR - Hurst, Law and Markets (Wisconsin Press).

Nov.9: Matthew Josephson, The Robber Barons (Harcourt, Brace-Harvest Book), complete, but read selectively.

Nov.16:  Alfred D. Chandler, The Visible Hand (Harvard)

Nov. 23: William Kessner, The Golden Door (Oxford).

Nov. 30:  George Kennan, American Diplomacy (Chicago, 1985 edition);  AND,

William Appleman Williams, The Tragedy of American Diplomacy (Norton).

Dec. 7:   No reading assignment.  Final Discussion

FINAL PAPER DUE MONDAY, DECEMBER 13, 4pm