skidmore college's
AMERICAN STUDIES department fall 2007 am 101
am 101 - introduction to american culture: pre-civil war mwf, 9:05-10:OOam and f, 2:30-3~25pm, tlc 201
TLC 306, x5026 Gregory M. Pfitzer
A study of the development of American life and culture up to the Civil War. Topics include utopian visions of the new world, religious settlements, the creation of a national iconography, the social implications of slavery, racial and ethnic conflict, gender roles, and the rise of the American intellectual traditions. Resources include fiction, folklore, satire, sermons, maps, journals, captivity narratives, trial transcripts, autobiography, art, architecture and material culture.
American Studies 101 Introduction Pfitzer to American Culture Fall '07
This course introduces students to the development of American culture from the Age of Discovery to the American Civil War. It differs from ordinary survey courses in American history in two ways: 1) in addition to standard political and institutional sources used in many history courses, it concentrates on a wide variety of cultural expressions, including fiction, folklore, satire, art, poetry, music, maps, journals, trial transcripts, material culture, mass media, etc., and 2) it is episodic rather than comprehensive; that is, it focuses on representative events that are symbolic of the larger patterns of national development. With respect to these representative events, special attention will be paid not only to the "what" of history (the nuts and bolts of what happened in the past) but also to the "how" of history (that is, how people have used the past to "construct" images of self and nationhood in the present).
The thematic emphasis of the course will be on the term "culture"--both how a culture is perceived by others and how a culture perceives itself. The assumption is that American culture, like any culture, is multi-faceted and many-layered. Therefore the assignments are designed to make connections among a wide array of historical sources associated with specific epochs in the American past. On most Mondays throughout the term, students will receive a set of documents related in someway to the specific time period to be covered the following week. On the following Monday students will submit a brief description of each document and a paragraph-long discussion of how they are related (approximately two pages). For instance, you might find the following in your set of documents for the 1670s: an excerpt from Mary Rowlandson's Indian captivity narrative, transcripts from the trials of dissident Quakers, supernatural accounts of catastrophes at sea, a description of Bacon's Rebellion, an account of witch hangings in Connecticut, and newspaper editorials on King Philip's War. After identifying each of these documents, you might then speculate that they have something to do collectively with the growing fear among colonists in the late seventeenth century that "outside influences" (both visible and invisible) were threatening the stability of colonial life. These documents will be used as foundations for Professor Pfitzer's lectures, so students will be able to compare their hypotheses with the themes developed in class. Students will not be judged on their ability to anticipate Professor Pfitzer's connections but on the basis of their ability to present plausible theories about the relatedness of the documents.
Classes will follow a lecture/discussion format, and class participation is an important component of the overall grade. Fridays will be devoted to the informal discussion of a specific primary source geared to the lectures for the week, and students will be asked to lead discussions during those sessions.
Students are expected to attend class, participate in discussion, write two short papers (5-7 pages each), and take a midterm exam and final exam. The two papers will be worth 15% each, the midterm and final exam will be worth 20% each, the cumulative document analyses will be worth 20% (you must complete § of 8), and class participation will be worth 10%. Late documents and papers will be penalized.
Students should purchase the following books from the bookstore:
Christopher Columbus, Four Voyages Ben Franklin, The Autobiography of Ben Franklin Mason Weems, The Life of Washington Alex de T ocqueville, Democracy in America Davy Crockett, The Autobiography of David Crockett Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Robert Penn Warren, The Legacy of the Civil War
There is no assigned textbook for the course. For those students who desire a more comprehensive approach to the period, a survey textbook--Gary Nash, et. aI., The American People--has been put on reserve in Scribner Library.
Unit I: Novus Mundi: Visions of the New World (1492-1692)
Week 1: The "Old World": A Culture of Crisis
Wednesday September 5 -- Introduction: What is American Studies? Definitions of Culture
Friday September 7 -- Ancient and Medieval Images of the New World
Friday September 7 - The Conquest of Paradise: Expectations and Realities
Reading: (travelogue) Christopher Columbus Four Voyages, pp. 115-123; 206226; 265-276; 283-304. Week 2: Cultural Projections and New Beginnings
* * * Document packet #1 due
Monday September 10 -- Fabled Dreams: Spanish EI Dorado
Wednesday September 12 - In Search of the Northwest Passage
Friday September 14 -- The Failed Dream: Jamestown
Friday September 14 - Pocahontas and Myths of American Origins
Reading: (eyewitness accounts) John Smith, "The General History of Virginia," (xeroxes).
Week 3: Puritan New England and the Culture of Dissent
* * * Document packet #2 due
Monday September 17 -- The Epic Pilgrimage: The Separatist Experiment
Wednesday September 19 -- The New Jerusalem: The Mass Bay Colony
Friday September 21 - Making Old England into New England
Friday September 21 -- Trouble in Paradise: New England Dissent
Reading: (narrative and counter-narrative) selections from William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation and Thomas Morton, New English Canaan (xeroxes). Week 4: The American Jeremiad: the Culture of Self-Criticism
* * * First paper due
Monday September 24 -- A City Upon a Hill? The Puritan Interregnum
Wednesday September 26 -- The "Red Devils" and King Philip's War
Friday September 28 -- "Black Devils" and Slavery as Original Sin
Friday September 28 -- The Devil Within: The Salem Witchcraft Trials
Reading: (trial transcripts) selections from the transcripts of the Salem Witchcraft Trials--Carrier, Goode, Mather (xeroxes).
Unit II: Colonial Subcultures and the Idea of America (1692-1783)
Week 5: The New Adam and the Garden of the World
* * * Document packet #3 due
Monday October 1 -- Religious Revivalism and the Great Awakening
Wednesday October 3 -- The Middling Sort: The Pastoral Ideal and Colonial Empire
Friday October 5 - The Nation's Crucible: The French and Indian War
Friday October 5 -- Unity Amidst Diversity: Creating an American Type
Reading: (autobiography) Ben Franklin, The Autobiography of Ben Franklin (Twyford, at the Bishop of st. Asaph's - "Advertisement,"), pp. 16-127. Week 6: Regeneration Through Violence: The Independence Movement
* * * Document packet #4 due
Monday October 8 -- The "Great Drama": The Coming of War
Wednesday October 10 - Olympic Struggle: The American Revolution
Reading: (propaganda/political manifesto) Thomas Paine, Common Sense; (propaganda) Joel Barlow, selections from "The Columbiad" (xerox).
Friday October 12 - American Studies Association (no class)
Week 7: "Exam”ining the Past:
* * * Midterm Examination
Monday October 15-- Midterm Examination (identifications and quotations)
Wednesday October 17-- Midterm Examination (essay)
Friday October 19 - Study Break (no class)
Unit III: The Culture of Legitimacy and Respect (1783-1850)
Week 8: False Starts: The Search for Meaning and Structure
Monday October 22-- Revolutionary Aspirations: The Obligations of Victory
Wednesday October 24 - E Pluribus Unum: The Federal Constitution Friday October 26- Party Politics and Family Squabbles
Friday October 26 -- Symbolic Cultures: National Iconography in the 1790s
Reading: (popular culture) Mason Weems, The Life of Washington chapters I-II, VIII-IX, XI-XVI.
Week 9: Expansion and Empire-Building
* * * Document packet #5 due
Monday October 29 - Adams and Jefferson: Political Strife in the Early Republic
Wednesday October 31- Cloaks and Daggers: A Conspiratorial Culture
Friday November 2- A Culture of Legitimacy: The War of 1812
Friday November 2 - Singing the Nation's Praises: Music and Nationalism
Reading: (music) selections from "Patriotic Music of the Early Republic" (xerox and tapes).
Week 10: Growing Pains: America's Cultural Maturation
* * * Document packet #6 due
Monday November 5 -- The Era of Good Feelings?
Wednesday November 7 - America at 50: Mid-life Crises and the Post-heroic Age
Friday November 9-- From Foreign Shores: The European Image of the American Self Friday November 9 - Tyranny of the Majority: The Common Denominator Culture
Reading (political essays) Alex de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, chapters 11,12,15,18,21-25,32,39-40,43-44,46,51.
Week 11: One Nation, Under God, Indivisible: Manifest Destiny
* * * Second paper due
Monday November 12-- Sermons in Stones: Nature and Providence
Wednesday November 14 - Go West Young Man (and Woman?)
Friday November 16 - The Lost Generation and the Mexican War
Friday November 16 - American Folklore and the Vernacular Tradition
Reading: (folklore) Davy Crockett, Narrative of the Life of David Crockett.
Week 12: Creating Cultural Symbols
Monday November 19-- The Epic Vision: Images of America in Art and Literature
Reading: (art): slides of the works of selected American painters.
Wednesday November 21-- Thanksgiving Break
Friday November 23-- Thanksgiving Break Unit IV: Liberty and Union? A Culture in Crisis (1850-1865)
Week 13: Culture and Counterculture
Monday November 26-- Opening Pandora's Box: The Wilmot Proviso
Wednesday November 28 - Cultural Stereotypes and the Myth of the South
Friday November 30 - Slavery and the "Constitutional" Issue of Race
Friday November 30 -- Abolitionists, Fire-eaters and the Impending Crisis
Reading: (slave narrative) Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
Week 14: Two Nations, Under God, Divisible: Cultural Dissolution
* * * Document packet #7 due
Monday December 3- Ordeal By Fire: The Coming of the Civil War
Wednesday December 5 - Lincoln and the House Divided
Friday December 7 - A Dark and Bloody Ground: The American Civil War
Friday December 7 - Appomattox and the Culture of Conciliation
Reading: (photography): portfolio of Mathew Brady photographs and clips from Ken Burns's "Civil War" Week 15: Closing the Curtain: The End of the Civil War
* 'I< * Document packet #8 due
Monday December 10- Reconstructing America: History and Culture in the Postwar Era
Wednesday December 12 - The "Idea" of America Revisited
Reading: (interpretive essay) Robert Penn Warren, "The Legacy of the Civil War"
* * * Final Exam (December 17,1:30-4:30)