HSTY 306 Course Schedule

Last updated: January 30, 2020

Except as otherwise noted, readings in academic journals should be available through the Whittemore Library. If you are having difficulty locating a particular reading, please contact Prof. Adelman.

Slide Decks

Course Readings

Readings that require a historiography report are marked [H].

Date	Topic	Reading	Assignment
Tues., Jan. 21	Course Introduction	The American Revolution
Thurs., Jan. 23	The Revolutionary Settlement	Articles of Confederation (1781) Constitution of the United States (1787)
Tues., Jan. 28	Debating Ratification	Resolution on Ratification from Massachusetts Bill of Rights Federalist No. 1, No. 10, No. 84 Federal Farmer, Letter I, Letter VI
Thurs., Jan. 30	Local and National Politics	Hamilton, Report on Public Credit, excerpt [H] Brian Phillips Murphy, Building the Empire State: Political Economy in the Early Republic (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015), ch. 3.
Tues., Feb. 4	Creating a Nation of Citizens	[H] Jeffrey L. Pasley, “The Cheese and the Words,” in Beyond the Founders: New Approaches to the Political History of the Early Republic, ed. Jeffrey L. Pasley, Andrew W. Robertson, David Waldstreicher (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003), 31-56 [H] Joanne B. Freeman, “Explaining the Unexplainable: The Cultural Context of the Sedition Act,” in The Democratic Experiment: New Directions in American Political History, ed. Meg Jacobs, William J. Novak, Julian E Zelizer (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003), 20-49
Thurs., Feb. 6	Politics and Voting in the Early United States	(ALL) Caroline F. Sloat, “A New Nation Votes and the Study of American Politics, 1789-1824,” Journal of the Early Republic 33, no. 2 (2013): 183-86 (ALL) Andrew W. Robertson, “Afterword: Reconceptualizing Jeffersonian Democracy,” JER 33, no. 2 (2013): 317-34 [H] Each person will also read two of the articles in the special issue of the Journal of the Early Republic on the “New Nation Votes” database. We will distribute them in class on Jan. 30.
Tues., Feb. 11	Researching Elections I		Browse databases: A New Nation Votes America’s Historical Newspapers (via Whittemore Library)
Thurs., Feb. 13	An Empire for Liberty?	[H] Alyssa Mt. Pleasant, “Independence for Whom?: Expansion and Conflict in the Northeast and Northwest,” in The World of the Revolutionary American Republic, ed. Andrew Shankman (New York: Routledge, 2014), 116–33. Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XI
Tues., Feb. 18	Researching Elections II		Bring laptop to class
Thurs., Feb. 20	Society and Culture in Post-Revolutionary America		Paper on elections due
Tues., Feb. 25	Ordinary Lives in the Early Republic	Ulrich, A Midwife’s Tale, introduction, chs. 1-3
Thurs., Feb. 27	Ordinary Lives in the Early Republic	Ulrich, A Midwife’s Tale, chs. 4-5
Tues., Mar. 3	Researching Elections III		Bring your laptop and your paper to class
Thurs., Mar. 5	Ordinary Lives in the Early Republic	Ulrich, A Midwife’s Tale, chs. 6-10
Tues., Mar. 10	Elections Presentations
Thurs., Mar. 12	A Nation of Readers	Washington Irving, “Rip Van Winkle,” in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (New York: C.S. Van Winkle, 1819), 57-94. Amelia: or the Faithless Briton (1787)	Essay on Ulrich, Midwife’s Tale due
Tues., Mar. 17-Thurs., Mar. 19	Spring Break No class meetings
Tues., Mar. 24	The War of 1812	[H] Caitlin A. Fitz, “The Hemispheric Dimensions of Early U.S. Nationalism: The War of 1812, Its Aftermath, and Spanish American Independence,” Journal of American History 102, no. 2 (September 2015): 356–79.
Thurs., Mar. 26	Revolutions in Markets, Transportation, and Communications	[H] David Schley, “Tracks in the Streets: Railroads, Infrastructure, and Urban Space in Baltimore, 1828-1840,” Journal of Urban History 39 (2013): 1062-1084.
Tues., Mar. 31	A Slaveholders’ Republic?	Jones, Birthright Citizens, introduction, chs. 1-4
Thurs., Apr. 2	Religion in America	Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, selection Charles Grandison Finney, “Sinners Bound to Change Their Own Hearts” [H] Emily Conroy-Krutz, “Engaged in the Same Glorious Cause:’ Anglo-American Connections in the American Missionary Entrance into India, 1790-1815,” Journal of the Early Republic, Vol. 34, No.1 (Spring 2014): 21-44.
Tues., Apr. 7		Jones, Birthright Citizens, chs. 5-8, conclusion, epilogue
Thurs., Apr. 9	Native Americans and Americanness	[H] Michael Witgen, “Seeing Red: Race, Citizenship, and Indigeneity in the Old Northwest,” Journal of the Early Republic 38, no. 4 (2018): 581–611.
Tues., Apr. 14	Andrew Jackson’s America	In class: Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831) (excerpt) Worcester v. Georgia (1832) (excerpt)	Essay on Jones, Birthright Citizens due
Thurs., Apr. 16	Research Day: Historiography of the Field
Tues., Apr. 21	Masters and Slaves	[H] Caitlin Rosenthal, “Slavery’s Scientific Management: Masters and Managers,” in Slavery’s Capitalism: A New History of American Economic Development, ed. Sven Beckert and Seth Rockman (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016), 62–86.
Thurs., Apr. 23	Research Day: Historiography of the Field
Tues., Apr. 28	Manifest Destiny	Texas Declaration of Independence (1836) John L. O’Sullivan, “The Great Nation of Futurity” (1839) James K. Polk, “Special Message to Congress on Mexican Relations” Abraham Lincoln, Spot Resolutions, December 1847
Thurs., Apr. 30	Politics and Society in Antebellum America
Tues., May 5	A Dividing Nation	John C. Calhoun, “Speech on the Introduction of His Resolutions on the Slave Question,” Feb. 19, 1847, in Ross M. Lence, ed., Union and Liberty: The Political Philosophy of John C. Calhoun (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1992). Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” July 5, 1852.
Thurs., May 7	Conclusion

Workshop Modules

• Primary Sources
• Secondary Sources
• Writing in Your Own Words
• Writing an Effective History Paper
• Citing Sources Using the Chicago Manual of Style