Winter 2007
Wednesday 3:00-6:00 p.m.
2773 Haven Hall
Sue Juster
<sjuster@umich.edu>
2521 Haven Hall
Office Hours: Th. 1-2 pm (and by appt.)
Matt Lassiter
<mlassite@umich.edu>
2513 Haven Hall
Th. 2-4 pm (and by appt.)
This course provides an introduction to the literature of American history, with an emphasis on chronological breadth, thematic diversity, important foundational texts, and key methodological and theoretical innovations of more recent scholarship. History 611 is a core requirement for all first-year graduate students in American history, and the seminar is open to students in Anthro/History, American Culture and Women's Studies. The syllabus is not exhaustive but instead is organized around a series of critical historical episodes and historiographical debates. The reading load is extensive, and most of the weeks revolve around a book pairing that addresses a particular historical topic or historiographical problem, or both. This course is not designed to cover every important debate in U.S. historiography, nor is it possible to present a comprehensive portrait of five centuries of history on the North American continent. Rather the goals of History 611 include 1) the development of critical analytical skills in the assessment of historiographical and methodological trends, especially beyond your particular chronological specialization and subfields of interest, 2) the acquirement of a basic familiarity and fluency in discussing historical themes and scholarly debates that have shaped this profession, 3) an introduction to key texts that should be a staple of reading lists for preliminary exams, especially since the department requires one of your fields to span the chronological divide between early and late U.S. history, and 4) a collective experience that fosters intellectual community among members of the entering Americanist cohort of 2006.
Discussion: The central obligation of this course involves thorough preparation for each weekly meeting and active participation in class discussion. We will use CTools to begin conversation about the weekly readings before the regular class meeting on Wednesday afternoon. Each seminar member will serve as the discussion leader during one week of the semester. The discussion leader should launch the CTools dialogue with a posting no later than Monday afternoon. The goal of this initial response is not to summarize the readings comprehensively but instead to pose a series of questions designed to place provocative ideas in the spotlight and to draw connections among various authors on the syllabus and weekly topics. Students in the seminar should post a response to the readings each week; postings by everyone except the discussion leader should be up by Tuesday at 8 p.m. Postings should be about one single-spaced page in length. Each member of the seminar should read through all of the CTools postings before class on Wednesday. The direct link to the History 611 CTools site:
<https://ctools.umich.edu/portal/site/2ebf5cc5-6e69-4b18-0001-624b8668bcd7>
Course Listserv: We also have established a course listserv (history6112007@umich.edu) for announcements and other information that requires more time-sensitive distribution than CTools provides. Members of the seminar may use the course listserv to forward information for necessary matters that may arise.
Review Essay: In addition to the weekly CTools postings, the primary writing component of this course will be an 8-10 page comparative book review based on your selection of readings from the syllabus. You should focus on 2-3 of the assigned books, including material drawn from at least two different weeks, and write an essay that follows the general format of Reviews in American History. Papers should assess historiographical connections and engage in comparative analysis, not merely summarize the arguments of a couple monographs in list format. The review essay is due in class the week following the discussion about the books that you select.
Evaluations: The grades for History 611 will be determined by the following breakdown of course obligations:
**Discussion participation (50%)
**CTools postings/Review Essay (50%)
Reading Assignments: Seminar members are responsible for securing your own copies of the assigned books. One copy of each book also is on course reserve at the Shapiro Undergraduate Library. A number of journal articles or book chapters are assigned in History 611. These are designated by [ER] on the syllabus and are available as pdf files or through other direct links through the library's Electronic Reserve. The direct link for the History 611 Electronic Reserve:
<http://www.lib.umich.edu/reserves/ures/lists/1/wi2007/wi2007HISTORY611mlassite.php>
Course Outline
Edmund Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia (1975)
Kathleen Brown, Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia (1996)
Richard White, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815 (1991)
Richard White, "Creative Misunderstandings and New Understandings," William and Mary Quarterly 63 (Jan. 2006), 9-14 [ER]
Phil Deloria, "What is the Middle Ground, Anyway?" William and Mary Quarterly 63 (Jan. 2006), 15-22 [ER]
Jane Tompkins, "'Indians': Textualism, Morality, and the Problem of History," Critical Inquiry (1986), 101-119 [ER]
David Hall, World of Wonders, Days of Judgment: Popular Religious Belief in Early New England (1989): Introduction, Chapters 1-2, 4
Jill Lepore, The Name of War: King Phillip's War and the Origins of American Identity (1998)
T. H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence (2004)
Marcus Rediker and Peter Linebaugh, The Many Headed Hydra: The Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic (2000): Chapters 2, 6-7
Week 5 (Feb. 7) Slavery
Eugene Genovese, Roll Jordan Roll: The World the Slaves Made (1974): Book One (3-158) and Book Four (587-660)
Walter Johnson, Soul by Soul: Life inside the Antebellum Slave Market (1999)
Walter Johnson, "On Agency," Journal of Social History (Fall 2003), 113-124 [ER]
Week 6 (Feb. 14) New Western History
Patricia Limerick, The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West (1987): Introduction, Chapters 1, 3-4, 6-8
Susan Lee Johnson, Roaring Camp: The Social World of the California Gold Rush (2000)
Week 7 (Feb. 21) Reconstruction
Eric Foner, A Short History of Reconstruction (1990)
Amy Dru Stanley, From Bondage to Contract: Wage Labor, Marriage, and the Market in the Age of Slave Emancipation (1998)
Barbara Fields, "Ideology and Race in American History," in Region, Race, and Reconstruction: Essays in Honor of C. Vann Woodward (1982), eds. J. Morgan Kousser and James M. McPherson, 143-177 [ER]
Week 8 (March 7) Imperialism
Laura Wexler, Tender Violence: Domestic Visions in an Age of U.S. Imperialism (2000)
Nayan Shah, Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco's Chinatown (2001)
Mae Ngai, Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America (2004): 1-174, 227-264
Week 10 (March 21) Sexuality and Identity
George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male
Henry Abelove, "The Queering of Lesbian/Gay History," in Deep Gossip, 42-55 [ER]
Michael Denning, The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth Century (1996)
T. J. Jackson Lears, "From Salvation to Self-Realization: Advertising and the Therapeutic Roots of the Consumer Culture, 1880-1930," in The Culture of Consumption: Critical Essays in American History (1983), eds. Lears and Richard Fox, 1-38 [ER]
T. J. Jackson Lears, "The Concept of Cultural Hegemony: Problems and Possibilities," American Historical Review (June 1985), 567-593 [ER]
Thomas Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit (2nd ed. 2005)
Lizabeth Cohen, A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America (2003), Chapters 1-5
Melani McAlister, Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and U.S. Interests in the Middle East, 1945-2000 (2001): Introduction, Chapters 1, 3-6, Conclusion
Thomas Borstelmann, The Cold War and the Color Line: American Race Relations in the Global Arena (2002): Prologue, Chapters 2-6