Prof. Joshua Piker
Office:313 DAHT
Phone: 325-6370
jpiker@ou.edu
Fall 1999
Office Hours: W 2:30-4:00,
F 2:30-3:30
Classroom: DAH 200M
Meeting Time: MWF 1:30-2:20
History 1483: American History to 1865
This class provides students with an overview of America's social, political, and cultural development from the beginnings of European colonization through the American Civil War. Two themes will run through the lectures and readings:
1) the emergence of sectional differences and the ways in which they were (and were not) overcome; 2) the varied experiences of Europeans, Africans, and American Indians, and the ways in which each group contributed to the course of American history.
The class will be structured around a combination of in-class lectures and out-of-class readings. Because it is important that you both attend class regularly and complete the reading promptly, there will be approximately ten short (3 question) pop quizzes during the course of the semester. The quizzes will not count toward your final grade, but you must pass (2 correct answers) 7 of the 10 quizzes. If you pass only 6, your grade drops by one letter; if you pass only 5, your grade drops by two letters, and so on. There will be no make-up quizzes; if you are absent the day of a quiz, you fail that quiz.
Students will take two in-class exams and a final. All are closed book/note; all will require you to write essays. I will provide you with study guides prior to each exam to help you prepare efficiently.
Grades will be determined using the following formula:
Exam #1 = 25% Exam #2 = 30% Final Exam = 45%
Assigned Books: Frederick M. Binder and David M. Reimers, The Way We Lived, Vol. 1: 1607-1877, 4th ed. William Cronon, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White. Mary Beth Norton et al., A People and A Nation: A History of the United States, Vol. 1: to 1877, 5th ed. Alan Taylor, William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic.
Lecture 25: The Republican Revolution and the Beginnings of a Democratic America Binder and Reimers, pp. 124-125
Lecture 26: Slavery and Freedom: African-American Experiences
Norton, pp. 178-182, 221-222
Lecture 27: Native Americans and "Civilization": Dealing with a Domestic Imperial Power
Norton, pp. 186-190
Binder and Reimers, pp. 16-18
