This class is designed to provide you with a broad overview of American history from its Indian, African, and European origins to the fighting of the Civil War. Students meet in a large lecture room for most of the semester, but also take a discussion section which six times during the semester replaces one of the week's lectures.  We pay particular attention to the following themes: the European and African background of American colonization; the encounters between cultures in the "New World" and Native American history; the causes, fighting and consequences of the American Revolution (and its relationship to the Constitution); the different paths of development of North and South; slavery, abolition, and reform in "ante-bellum" America; African American life before and after the American Revolution; the changing roles and rights of women in early America; the coming and fighting of the Civil War; and "Reconstruction" as it affected African Americans and American politics. 

Each student is required to:

(1) You will have three or four quizzes on the textbook (Liberty, Equality, Power).  Each will be announced and you will be given a set of study questions before each quiz.  The quizzes will require you to write a one-page response to a question based on textbook chapters you have been reading before the date of the quiz.  These will count 10% of your grade.   You will also have multiple choice quizzes on the text  that will be used at the end of lectures to check attendance and which will count as extra credit.   

 (2) Write short essays (3-5 pages) on  Colonial Era and City of Eros (40% of grade).

(3) Take a mid-term and a final (40% of grade).   The mid-term will include document response questions from Discovering the American Past.  The final will include questions from The March.  There will be questions on both exams that ask you to respond to the lectures and textbook reading.  You will receive review questions before the exam.  Please note the final is Wednesday, December 23rd, 12-3pm.

 (4) Attend discussion sections on designated Thursdays (or Tuesdays) during the semester (meets instead of not in addition to every other Thursday lecture) and participate in discussion of assigned documents from Wheeler and Becker, Discovering the American Past (DAP).  For discussion session, you may be asked to submit a short statement (1-2 pages) that week, usually on the documents in DAP.   Discussion and the written document responses (based on DAP) will constitute 10% of your grade. 

(5) Attend class. Beginning Thursday, Sept. 10th, you are expected to sign-in BEFORE class and attend the entire class. More than three unexcused absences will lower your grade one letter grade. Six unexcused absences from lecture and discussion will result in failure. Excused absences (for medical, religious, legal reasons, family emergencies, or, intercollegiate athletic competition with written documentation) do not count in this total.  Multiple late arrivals (ie, three) will count as an absence.  Signing in and leaving early (without notifying your instructor) is a triple absence--quizzes given at the end of lecture will be used to check attendance.  STUDENTS WHO ATTEND EVERY CLASS (except for excused absences) WILL GET A BONUS ON THE FINAL EXAM (enough to raise a B- to a B, or a B+ to an A- , that is, one grade level).

The reading and paper assignments are drawn from the following five books, all of which should be purchased at the Rutgers Bookstore (or on-line):

1. Sept. 1: (Tuesday):  Introduction - Lewis and Clark

Readings:  Liberty, Equality, Power,  Ch.1 (When Old Worlds Collide)                   

4. Sept. 15:  The English Arrive

 Readings: Clemens,  Colonial Era,  Chapters 5 & 6

Readings: Liberty, Equality, Power, Ch. 6 (Revolutionary Republic).

17.  Oct. 29: Defining an Empire of Liberty

18.  Nov. 3:  Jacksonian Politics, and the 2nd Party System

19.  Nov. 5: DISCUSSION: Discovering the American Past, Chapter 6 (Removal of the Cherokees)

20. Nov. 10:  Northern Society

        Readings: Liberty, Equality, Power, Ch. 10 (Toward an American Culture)
                            Discovering the American Past, Ch. 7 (Working Girls of Lowell)
                            Gilfoyle, City of Eros, Chapter 9 (pp. 179-196).  --

                            Paper Due on Gilfoyle

22.  Nov. 17:  Standard Lecture:   Revivals and Reform    Guest lecture:  Reform in the Era of Revivals 

       Reading: Liberty, Equality, Power, Ch. 13 (Manifest Destiny)
                       Doctorow, The March,  Part I

23. Nov. 19: DISCUSSION: Discovering the American Past, Ch. 7 (Working Girls) and Ch. 8 (Slaves Tell Their Own Stories)   

24.  Nov. 24 (Tuesday): Coming of the Civil War: Slavery in the Territories

                         HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING

25. Dec 1:  Lincoln‑Douglas Debate and the Coming of the Civil War    

       Reading: Liberty, Equality, Power,  Ch. 15 (Secession and Civil War)
                         Discovering the American Past, Chapter 9 (Annexation of Texas) and Ch. 10 (Port Royal Experiment)

26. Dec. 3:  DISCUSSION: The March, Part I - be ready to explain the role of at least two characters in the first part of the novel.

27. Dec. 8:  The Civil War

       Reading: Liberty, Equality, Power,  Ch. 15 (New Birth of Freedom)
                         

      Reading:  Liberty, Equality, Power, Ch. 17 (Reconstruction).
   

Beginning Thursday, September 24th (or Tuesday Sept. 22nd), discussion sections will replace Thursday lectures approximately every second week. Your section will either meet on Tuesday or Thursday (depending on which section you registered for). During a week when there is discussion, there will not be a Thursday lecture, but there will be Tuesday lectures. Some of you (those in Sections 1) will go to discussion and lecture on Tuesday and not have class on Thursday.  The rest of you (Sections 2‑7) will attend lecture on Tuesday and discussion on Thursday that week. 

Gateway students will meet in discussion every week, beginning the first week of class.  On weeks when there is no scheduled discussion, Gateway meets 5th period Thursdays in HH-B2.  On weeks when there is discussion, Gateway students meet with the discussion section (also 5th period, HH-B2). See your Gateway instructor.

Updated November 28, 2009.