Approaches to American Culture, 1607-1865
Course Calendar, Spring 1999
| Date | Topic or Assignment |
| January 20 | Introduction: "In the beginning, all was America" -- John Locke |
| UNIT I: Approached by Sea | |
| January 25 | European Departures 1524 - 1700 |
| January 27 | Lab: Creating a Website (location to
be announced) DUE: INTRODUCTORY MESSAGE TO BULLETIN BOARD |
| February 1 | Theological Givens, Social Departures in Seventeenth-century New England |
| February 3 | The Atlantic Context DUE: WEB PAGE UP AND RUNNING |
| UNIT II: Cultural Confrontations | |
| February 8 | The Chesapeake: Tobacco and the Resort to Slavery |
| February 10 | Apologies to the Pequots: Puritan Encounters with Native Americans |
| February 15 | The Witches of Salem, the Magistrates of Boston |
| February 17 | Colonial Arts and Material Culture |
| UNIT III: Emerging Cultures 1700 - 1775 | |
| February 22 | Print cultures: Ben Franklin and Jonathan Edwards |
| February 24 | Academic Cultures: Higher Learning |
| March 1 | Civic culture: New York City as a Cultural Resource |
| March 3 | Political culture: The Backdrop of Rebellion |
| March 5 | DUE: PROJECT #1 |
| UNIT III: The Emerging Nation 1775 - 1800 | |
| March 8 | Whose Revolution Anyway? The Rhetoric of Revolution |
| March 10 | Republican Women |
| March 15 | SPRING BREAK -- NO CLASS |
| March 17 | SPRING BREAK -- NO CLASS |
| March 22 | Making Constitutions and Taming Factions |
| March 24 | The American Multiplication Table |
| March 29 | Jefferson and the Fateful Turn West DUE: FIELD TRIP ASSIGNMENT |
| March 31 | NO CLASS |
| UNIT IV: The American Renaissance and the Transparent Eyeball 1835 - 1855 | |
| April 5 | The Transparent Eyeball and the Bottom Line: Boston and New York |
| April 7 | Transcendental Landscapes / Luminous Seascapes (Guest lecture by Professor Robert McCaughey, Department of History) |
| April 12 | The Old Southwest and Beyond the
Missouri DUE: PROJECT #2 |
| April 14 | Jacksonian Architecture |
| UNIT V: Mid-Century Crisis: Slouching toward Appomattox | |
| April 19 | Whaling as Work, Whaling as Metaphor |
| April 21 | The Passing of Melville's Wooden World |
| April 26 | Slavery, the Slave Power, and Abolition: Politics and Configurations of Power |
| April 28 | Women and Reform: Abolition and Woman Suffrage |
| April 30 | DUE: PROJECT #3 |
| May 3 | Abraham Lincoln and the House Divided |