HIST 202 – 900: United States History, 1815-1900

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course examines the history of America from 1815-1900. In the first half of class, we will consider the development of the United States prior to the Civil War. We will talk about the economic, political, and social development of the early nation, paying particular attention to the differences between the various regions that divided the nation prior to the Civil War. We will examine the conflict and its aftermath, focusing on what changed—and what stayed the same—during Reconstruction. Finally, we will look at the major changes that took place in the United States at the end of the century, including westward expansion and settlement, revolutions in transportation, commerce, and agriculture, and the entry of the United States into global politics during the Gilded Age.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. You will consider the development of the United States using an analytical, historical perspective. You will consider major questions: Is history a “progress narrative”? How do factors like technology, trade, and religious belief shape societies, and vice versa? What forces have historically led to growth, failure, or conflict?
2. You will examine different perspectives on the development of American society, especially with regard to regional and cultural variations. Who benefits, versus who is hurt by economic, technological, and political developments? How and why do societies develop organizational hierarchies and economic systems?
3. You will look at historical events using alternative theoretical models and historical approaches. How do different people interpret the same events? Which explanations do you find more or less compelling, and why?
4. You will sharpen writing skills, and you will practice and demonstrate your reading and note taking skills.

TOPIC & TEXT ASSIGNMENTS

Give Me Liberty! An American History, 5th edition, by Eric Foner, ISBN 978-0393283167

Important Note: This is the newest edition of the book (i.e. the 5th edition), but the 4th edition is also acceptable. In general, renting the latest edition from Amazon tends to be the cheapest option, but the text is also available for purchase as a physical or e-book. The key thing is to get the single volume, NOT Volume 1 (of 2). This course uses Chapters 6-16 of the textbook. Volume 1 stops short of Chapter 16.

Weekly reading assignments consist of a chapter of the textbook plus additional assignments made available through Blackboard. In the list below, textbook chapter titles are in bold. The additional reading list usually changes over the quarter. You will be notified of changes in advance, via email.

Week 1: Background – Constitution, U.S. Political Structure, and Poison Pills; Wilentz & Waldstreicher debate over slavery and the Constitution
*This week, you will read selections from Chapters 6 & 7, rather than a whole chapter of the textbook. From Chapter 6, read the Introduction and the sections on “Democratizing Freedom,” “Defining Economic Freedom,” and “Slavery and the Revolution.” From Chapter 7, read the section on “A New Constitution.”

Week 2: The Market Revolution, 1800-1840; Vowell – “French Kiss,” from TAL episode 291; Pursell – “Transportation in America”; Cowan – “More Work for Mother”

Week 3: Democracy in America, 1815-1840; This American Life – “Trail of Tears” (ep. 107); Planet Money – “Bank War!” and “When Andrew Jackson Paid Off the National Debt”; Whistlestop – “The Election of 1840”
Essay 1 due

Week 4: The Peculiar Institution; Oral Argument – Episoode 76: “Brutality”; Slate Academy, the History of American Slavery – Episode 6: “When Cotton Became King”; Baptist, “Picking Cotton Under the Pushing System”

Week 5: An Age of Reform, 1820-1840; Peterson – “The Impact of Sanitary Reform on American Urban Planning”; This American Life – “The Homesick Explorer” (excerpt from ep. 329)

Week 6: A House Divided, 1840-1861; Walther – The Shattering of the Union (Ch. 4, 1855)

Week 7: A New Birth of Freedom: The Civil War, 1861-1865; “The Declaration of Causes of Seceding States” (Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia); Planet Money – “Episode 421: The Birth of the Dollar Bill”
Essay 2 due

Week 8: “What is Freedom?” Reconstruction, 1865-1877; Foner – “Why Reconstruction Matters”; excerpts from White – Railroaded

Week 9: America’s Gilded Age, 1870-1890; Cronon – Nature’s Metropolis (Grain: “The Golden Stream” and “Futures”); Whistlestop – “Episode 7: ‘Ma, Ma, Where’s my Pa?’”; Planet Money, “The Tale of the Onion King”; Planet Money, “How Money Got Weird” (optional)

Week 10: Freedom’s Boundaries, at Home and Abroad, 1890-1900; Yergin – The Prize, ch. 2, “Our Plan”: John D. Rockefeller and the Combination of American Oil”; “Fighting the Previous War,” from TAL, episode 235
Essay revisions due during finals week

GRADING & ASSIGNMENT POLICIES

Your final grade in this course will be calculated according to the following formula: reading quizzes 35%
lecture quizzes 35%
essays (x2) and revisions 30%

Format for Quizzes

Quizzes will be administered through Blackboard. If you have problems with the system, you need to contact Drexel IT support for help. You are highly encouraged to take quizzes and complete assignments with the aid of your textbook and classmates. To find quiz partners, use the class discussion board.

Format for Essays

Over the course of the semester, you will also complete two short essays in response to prompts that will be released as we go along. Writing assignments will be posted on and submitted through Blackboard. The goal is to show that you can synthesize the textbook reading with the other class material and apply it to the historical question(s) raised in each essay prompt. Students can also revise and resubmit essay assignments using the instructor’s commentary as a guide for improvement.

Assignment Submission, Due Dates, and Late Policy

All assignments are submitted through Blackboard. Late assignments will suffer a penalty of at least one letter grade.

Drexel University Policy on Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the inclusion of someone else’s words, ideas, or data as one’s own work. When a student submits work for credit that includes the words, ideas, or data of others, the source of that information must be acknowledged through complete, accurate, and specific references, and, if verbatim statements are included, through quotation marks as well. By placing his/her name on work submitted for credit, the student certifies the originality of all work not otherwise identified by appropriate acknowledgments. Plagiarism covers unpublished as well as published sources. Examples of plagiarism include, but are not limited to:

• –  Quoting an entire piece of written work without acknowledgment of the source
• –  Using another person’s ideas, opinions, or theory, even if it is completely paraphrased in one’s

  own words without acknowledgment of the source

• –  Borrowing facts, statistics, or other illustrative materials that are not clearly common knowledge

  without acknowledgment of the source

• –  Copying another student’s essay test answers
• –  Copying, or allowing another student to copy, a computer file that contains another student’s

  assignment, and submitting it, in part or in its entirety, as one’s own

• –  Working together on an assignment, sharing the computer files and programs involved, and

  then submitting individual copies of the assignment as one’s own individual work

Students are urged to consult with individual faculty members, academic departments, or recognized handbooks in their field if in doubt regarding issues of plagiarism.

Drexel University Policy on Cheating

Cheating is an act or an attempted act of deception by which a student seeks to misrepresent that he or she has mastered information on an academic exercise that he/she has not mastered. Examples include, but are not limited to:

– Copying from another student’s test paper
– Allowing another student to copy from a test paper
– Unauthorized use of course textbook or other materials, such as a notebook to complete a test

or other assignment from the faculty member
– Collaborating on a test, quiz, or other project with any other person(s) without authorization – Using or processing specifically prepared materials during a test such as notes, formula lists,

notes written on the students clothing, etc. that are not authorized
– Taking a test for someone else or permitting someone else to take a test for you

Statement for Students with Disabilities

Students with disabilities requesting accommodations and services at Drexel University need to present a current accommodation verification letter (AVL) to faculty before accommodations can be made. This MUST be done prior to the midterm! AVL’s are issued by the Office of Disability Services (ODS). For additional information, contact ODS at www.drexel.edu/edt/disability.