Posts Tagged ‘United States’

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The Trouble with “Vocational” Citizenship

Saturday, October 9th, 2010

By Frederick Hess in Education Next

Schools focused intensely on reading and math assessments have deemphasized traditional sources of knowledge related to citizenship, including foundational documents and bodies of thought. While many fourth-graders today are tasked with writing a letter to the president, rare is the classroom where those students will spend much time discussing what it means to be a good American citizen.

School Speaking Event in Montreal

Education

I’m not certain how we tackle this, and I sure prefer vocational citizenship to no citizenship at all. But I think the issue deserves our attention, and at least a little bit of angst. This is doubly true in an era rife with debates over citizenship, religious tolerance, the size of government, and the role of our nation in the world. And I’m pretty confident the first step in addressing it is acknowledging it; discussing it; and arguing about how severe the challenge is, what’s causing it, and how to address it.

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Self Reliance: Benjamin Franklin on American Happiness

Thursday, October 7th, 2010

A wise advisor for troubled times

JERRY WEINBERGER in City Journal

Franklin was as American as apple pie. Talk about a man on the move in the social flux! Born to a poor but hard-working family, he got but two years of formal education and was, at 17,

Benjamin Franklin.

Benjamin Franklin

a runaway apprentice on the lam in Philadelphia with nothing but his wits and some bakery buns on which to subsist. From this bad start, he pulled off the American dream: at 19 in London, a pal of the coffeehouse intellectual elite; rich and retired from his vertically integrated publishing empire at 42; famous scientist soon after; big-time politician and public improver and then bigger-time revolutionary diplomat; Constitutional framer; and everlasting glory as the face of the $100 bill.

There were two things Franklin wasn’t so good at: the family and religion. In matters of faith, he was at best a Deist, denying that God interferes in any way with human life; and in matters of the family, he was a decent father but a poor husband who reacted with indifference to his wife’s death in Philadelphia while he was in London hobnobbing with the rich and famous. So we need to revise a bit: Franklin perhaps was not as American as apple pie, but he was as American as the carnival hustler’s corn dog.

Franklin was, in fact, an American for all seasons. On the one hand, we read in the pages of Poor Richard’s Almanac and elsewhere homilies about sobriety, thrift, hard work, self-reliance, the way to wealth, the virtues of marriage, and especially (as for Tocqueville later on) the importance of tolerant religion and divine reward and punishment. If men are so bad with religion, he once said, imagine what they would be like without it. The famous Autobiography is a tale of self-redemption and self-mastery. There we learn that, from reading the Enlightenment philosophers, Franklin became a free-thinking libertine, even a nihilist, until he realized the practical and moral danger he was in, cleaned up his act, put himself to thrift and incessant work, and then dedicated his life to public service and easy-going, do-good piety.

On the other hand, the bourgeois and pious Ben Franklin is hard to square with much of what he wrote throughout his life, especially about morality, the family, and religion. The bourgeois, believing Franklin is a fiction, and more than a few people who knew him, including John Adams, thought so. But despite his skepticism, he was so happy in his life that he offered to live it over again, exactly as it had transpired. So what was the secret to his felicity? What was Franklin’s idea of happiness and the good life apart from bourgeois virtue and tolerant piety?

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Early American History Position at Colby

Thursday, September 23rd, 2010

Early America
Colby
Waterville, ME

Colby College, assistant professor of history (early America), beginning September 1, 2011. PhD required. The history department seeks to hire a specialist in colonial and early American history (pre-1600 to 1820) with demonstrated excellence in teaching and research. The successful candidate would be expected to teach five courses, including the first half of the American history survey. Ability to teach the American Revolution or Native American history a plus. Review of applications will begin on November 15, 2010, and continue until the position is filled. We plan to interview candidates at the AHA’s annual meeting in Boston. Please send a cover letter, c.v., three letters of recommendation, a statement of teaching philosophy, a statement of research interests, and a sample of your scholarship to Elizabeth D. Leonard, Early American History Search Chair, Dept. of History, Colby College, 5322 Mayflower Hill Dr., Waterville, ME 04901. Colby is an AA/EOE, committed to excellence through diversity, and strongly encourages applications and nominations of persons of color, women, and members of other under-represented groups. For more information about the college, please visit the Colby web site at www.colby.edu.

Application deadline: November 15, 2010

Related URL 1: http://www.colby.edu
Related URL 2: http://www.colby.edu/academics_cs/lobby/?code=HI

Posted to the web: 20-Aug-10

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American Revolution Position at Princeton

Tuesday, September 21st, 2010

American Revolution
Princeton
Princeton, NJ

Tenure-track assistant professor. Anticipated start date, September 1, 2011. The Department of History of Princeton University invites applications from scholars who specialize in the history of North America in the 18th century. Teaching responsibilities would include a course focusing on the American Revolution, its causes, course, and effects. Review of files will begin October 15, 2010, but applications will be considered until the position is filled. Applicants should provide a detailed letter of application, c.v., dissertation abstract, and dissertation chapter outline. Applicants should also provide contact information for at least three recommenders as part of the online application process. AA/EOE. Please apply online at http://jobs.princeton.edu (req. #1000536).

Posted to the web: 30-Jul-10

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American Revolution Center Announces Site in Historic Philadelphia For Nation’s First Museum Commemorating the American Revolution

Wednesday, September 15th, 2010

September 10, 2010, PHILADELPHIA -The American Revolution Center (Center) has secured a site at 3rd and Chestnut Streets in historic Philadelphia to build the nation’s first museum dedicated to telling the entire story of the American Revolution. Located just steps from Independence Hall, the First Bank of the United States and Carpenter’s Hall, where the First Continental Congress met in 1774, the museum will house the Center’s distinguished collection of objects, artifacts and manuscripts from the American Revolution. The site was acquired through a land exchange with the National Park Service. The American Revolution Center exchanged its 78 acres in Valley Forge for the site at 3rd and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia.

American Revolution Center

Bruce Cole, Gerry Lenfest, Mayor Michael Nutter, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Senator Bob Casey and Governor Ed Rendell

A ceremony, attended by over 200 cultural, educational, and civic leaders, was held today to commemorate the historic exchange. Participating in the ceremony were Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter, National Park Service Northeast Regional Director Dennis R. Reidenbach, American Revolution Center Chairman H.F. (Gerry) Lenfest and Center President and CEO Bruce Cole.

Editor’s note: Bruce Cole is a member of the Jack Miller Center’s board of directors.

About The American Revolution Center

The American Revolution Center is a non-partisan, not-for-profit (501(c)(3) organization dedicated to engaging the public in the history and enduring legacy of the American Revolution. The Center owns a distinguished collection of objects, artifacts and manuscripts, and is working to establish a living memorial to the American Revolution–The Museum of the American Revolution.  For more information, please visit www.AmericanRevolutionCenter.org or call toll free, 877-740-1776.

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Benjamin Franklin: An Online GPS

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010
Philadelphia - Old City: Second Bank Portrait ...

Benjamin Franklin

Franklin was born in 1706 at Boston. He was the tenth son of a soap- and candle-maker. He received some formal education, but was principally self-taught. After serving an apprenticeship to his father between the ages of 10 and 12, he went to work for his half-brother James, a printer. In 1721 the latter founded the New England Courant, the fourth newspaper in the Colonies. Benjamin secretly contributed to it 14 essays, his first published writings.

In 1723, because of dissension with his half-brother, Franklin moved to Philadelphia, where he obtained employment as a printer. He spent only a year there, and then sailed to London for 2 more years. Back in Philadelphia, he rose rapidly in the printing industry. He published The Pennsylvania Gazette (1730-48), which had been founded by another man in 1728, but his most successful literary venture was the annual Poor Richard’s Almanac (1733-58). It won a popularity in the Colonies second only to the Bible, and its fame eventually spread to Europe.

Meantime, in 1730 Franklin had taken a common-law wife, Deborah Read, who was to bear him a son and daughter, as was also apparently another nameless woman out of wedlock. By 1748 he had achieved financial independence and gained recognition for his philanthropy and the stimulus he provided to such civic causes as libraries, educational institutions, and hospitals. Energetic and tireless, he also found time to pursue his interest in science, as well as enter politics.

Franklin served as clerk (1736-51) and member (1751-64) of the colonial legislature, and as deputy postmaster of Philadelphia (1737-53) and deputy postmaster general of the Colonies (1753-74). In addition, he represented Pennsylvania at the Albany Congress (1754), called to unite the Colonies during the French and Indian War. The congress adopted his “Plan of Union,” but the colonial assemblies rejected it because it encroached on their powers.

During the years 1757-62 and 1764-75, Franklin resided in England, originally in the capacity of agent for Pennsylvania and later for Georgia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. During the latter period, which coincided with the growth of colonial unrest, he underwent a political metamorphosis. Until then a contented Englishman in outlook, primarily concerned with Pennsylvania provincial politics, he distrusted popular movements and saw little purpose to be served in carrying principle to extremes. Until the issue of parliamentary taxation undermined the old alliances, he led the Quaker party attack on the Anglican proprietary party and its Presbyterian frontier allies. His purpose throughout the years at London in fact had been displacement of the Penn family administration by royal authority—the conversion of the province from a proprietary to a royal colony.

It was during the Stamp Act crisis that Franklin evolved from leader of a shattered provincial party’s faction to celebrated spokesman at London for American rights. Although as agent for Pennsylvania he opposed by every conceivable means the enactment of the bill in 1765, he did not at first realize the depth of colonial hostility. He regarded passage as unavoidable and preferred to submit to it while actually working for its repeal.

Franklin’s nomination of a friend and political ally as stamp distributor for Pennsylvania, coupled with his apparent acceptance of the legislation, armed his proprietary opponents with explosive issues. Their energetic exploitation of them endangered his reputation at home until reliable information was published demonstrating his unabated opposition to the act. For a time, mob resentment threatened his family and new home in Philadelphia until his tradesmen supporters rallied. Subsequently, Franklin’s defense of the American position in the House of Commons during the debates over the Stamp Act’s repeal restored his prestige at home.

The residence at 141 High (present Market) Street between Third and Fourth Streets, Philadelphia, where Benjamin Franklin lived in the period 1751-55 and possibly in 1755-61. He placed the lightning rod on the roof. (Engraving (undated) by an unknown artist. Independence National Historical Park.)

Franklin returned to Philadelphia in May 1775, and immediately became a distinguished Member of the Continental Congress. Thirteen months later, he served on the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence. He subsequently contributed to the Government in other important ways, including service as postmaster general, and took over the duties of president of the Pennsylvania constitutional convention.

But, within less than a year and a half after his return, the aged statesman set sail once again for Europe, beginning a career as diplomat that would occupy him for most of the rest of his life. In 1776-79, as one of three commissioners, he directed the negotiations that led to treaties of commerce and alliance with France, where the people adulated him, but he and the other commissioners squabbled constantly. While he was sole commissioner to France (1779-85), he and John Jay and John Adams negotiated the Treaty of Paris (1783), which ended the War for Independence.

All of Philadelphia, as well as the Nation, mourned the passing of Franklin. This is the “order of procession” for his funeral. (Gazette of the United States (New York City), April 28, 1790. Library of Congress.)

Back in the United States, in 1785-87 Franklin became president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. At the Constitutional Convention, though he did not approve of many aspects of the finished document and was hampered by his age and ill-health, he missed few if any sessions, lent his prestige, soothed passions, and compromised disputes.

In his twilight years, working on his Autobiography, Franklin could look back on a fruitful life as the toast of two continents. Energetic nearly to the last, in 1787 he was elected as first president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery—a cause to which he had committed himself as early as the 1730’s. His final public act was signing a memorial to Congress recommending dissolution of the slavery system. Shortly thereafter, in 1790 at the age of 84, Franklin passed away in Philadelphia and was laid to rest in Christ Church Burial Ground.

Information adapted from the National Park Service and EDSITEment.

Online Recourses

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The Magna Carta: An Online GPS

Sunday, September 5th, 2010

Adapted from the National Endowment for the Humanities website EDSITEment.

Introduction

The “Great Charter” drawn up on the field at Runnymede on June 15, 1215 between King John and his feudal barons failed to resolve the crisis that had been brewing in England ever since the death of John’s brother King Richard I. Over the long term, however,Magna Carta served to lay the foundation for the evolution of parliamentary government and subsequent declarations of rights in Great Britain and the United States. In attempting to establish checks on the king’s powers, this document asserted the right of “due process” of law. By the end of the 13th century, it provided the basis for the idea of a “higher law,” one that could not be altered either by executive mandate or legislative acts. This concept, embraced by the leaders of the American Revolution, is embedded in the supremacy clause of the United States Constitution and enforced by the Supreme Court.

Historical Background

At the death of his brother, Richard the Lionhearted, John assumed the throne of England, intent on exercising power to achieve his own selfish ends. To fund military campaigns in France, he extracted exorbitant fees from nobles, who, in turn, raised the rents imposed on their tenants. At the same time, John reduced the lords’ customary powers over those tenants, restricting, for example, their power to hold court for those living on their feudal lands. He attempted to influence church elections and confiscated church properties, alienating the powerful ecclesiastical establishment and depriving the poor of the only source of relief available to paupers. He restricted trading privileges traditionally granted to London’s merchants and increased their taxes, alienating this constituency as well.

King John’s tyrannical practices extended to demanding sexual favors from the wives and daughters of his barons and to imposing brutal punishments on individuals who challenged his authority. His unbridled exercise of power, coupled with the fact that his administration was both corrupt and inefficient, ultimately led the feudal lords to challenge his authority. Rebellion against the king’s rule surfaced in 1213, when England’s nobles refused to support him in yet another war in France. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton, sided with them. As animosity mounted, the barons grew more determined to reclaim their rights and in early May 1215 renounced their allegiance to the king. Initially, John refused to meet with them, but he changed his mind when London’s merchants opened the gates of the city to the nobles, demonstrating that they, too, were prepared to challenge the king’s authoritarian rule. Threatened with a violent overthrow, John had little choice but to meet with the barons and agree to the terms they presented at Runnymede. The original draft was replaced four days later with a slightly amended version that extended rights to freemen (about 10% of the population at that time) as well as nobles. That official version, though sealed by the king, was annulled on August 24, 1215 by Pope Innocent II, who threatened the barons with excommunication if they attempted to enforce it.

The Great Charter agreed to by King John was part of a movement in both England and Western Europe to restrict the powers of the monarch and assert the rights of the politically influential, i.e. the nobles. The Magna Carta laid the foundation for government based on the rule of law in Great Britain. By the end of the 13th century, England had a representative parliament and had come to recognize Magna Carta as a “higher law.” The first step toward the growing importance of this document was taken by John’s son and successor, Henry III. The new king’s regents—Henry was only nine when he inherited the throne—re-issued the charter in 1216 and 1217 in an effort to win support for the young monarch. Henry himself issued it again in 1225 when he took personal control of the country. All three re-issues contained changes, including omission of the clauses in the original that had provided for enforcement of the agreement by a council of barons. The 1225 version is considered the final version.

Although English monarchs continued to abuse their powers, they also came to recognize the need for baronial support. Henry III instituted the practice of bringing his knights together to obtain approval for new taxes. This meeting, known as “parliamentum,” had become customary by 1254. A decade later, membership had expanded to include representatives from cities and boroughs, and by the end of the century, members of the commons and inferior clergy were invited to participate. Despite the fact that groups within English society had gained a voice in financial decision making, powerful barons continued to protest against expensive foreign wars, the failure of the king to respect established laws and customs, and infringement of basic liberties. A turning point came in 1297 when King Edward I, known as the English Justinian, agreed to the Charter of Confirmation. This document established parliament as a truly representative body by requiring common consent to all tax measures, and it enhanced the importance of Magna Carta by declaring all judgments contrary to this document to be null and void. Recognition of Magna Carta as a higher law ultimately served as precedent for the assertion that the United States Constitution is the “supreme law of the land” and for judicial power to declare statutes unconstitutional.

Sir Edward Coke:

Sir Edward Coke

Magna Carta took on greater significance in the 17th century as a result of the weight given to this charter by Edward Coke(pronounced “cook”), one of the leading legal scholars of that century. In 1610, in what is known as Bonham’s Case, Coke reiterated the claim that the Great Charter represented a higher law. James Otis would cite Bonham’s Case in his attack on the Stamp Act over 150 years later. Thomas Paine would cite the principle in Common Sense, as would leading colonists in their attacks on British rule.

In the meantime, colonial charters issued throughout the 17th and 18th centuries as well as political treatises published by the Commonwealthmen—English libertarians whose radical views influenced the thinking of Enlightenment thinkers in America—reinforced the significance of Magna Carta. Not surprisingly, fundamental rights cited in the Great Charter—habeas corpus and due process of law—found their way into the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as well as virtually every state constitution.

Throughout American history, the rights associated with Magna Carta have been regarded as among the most important guarantees of freedom and fairness. However, these rights have not always been applied equally. Discrimination based on racial and ethnic differences has, for example, resulted in unfair practices. Perceived threats to national security have been used to justify withholding certain rights or have influenced the enforcement of constitutional guarantees. Despite or, in some cases, because of these shortfalls, the fundamental principles have remained very much a part of the American experience, finding expression in judicial decisions, legislation, news reports and editorials, as well as in the thinking of informed individuals.

These ideas not only shaped the institutions and political ideology of England, but they were also transplanted to the American colonies where they were accepted, refined, and embedded in the instruments of government as well as the thinking of the American people.

Online Resources

The National Archives website, offers two essays:

For more links visit the National Endowment for the Humanities website EDSITEment.

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Liberty and Order: Primary Documents

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

One of the most impressive collections of original founding documents, Lance Banning’s Liberty and Order: The First American Party Struggle [1787] is now available online in .pdf format through Liberty Fund’s Online Library of Liberty.

By Lance Banning

Preface

Within three years of the inauguration of the new federal Constitution, America’s revolutionary leaders divided bitterly over the policies most appropriate for the infant nation. Within five years, two clashing groups were winning thousands of ordinary voters to their side. Within a decade, the collision had resulted in a full-blown party war.

Rise and Fall of Political Parties in the Unit...

Rise and Fall of Parites

There has never been another struggle like it. These were the first true parties in the history of the world—the first, that is, to mobilize and organize a large proportion of a mass electorate for a national competition. More than that, these parties argued at a depth and fought with a ferocity that has never been repeated. The Federalists and the Jeffersonian Republicans—the friends of order and the friends of liberty as they sometimes called themselves—were both convinced that more than office, more than clashing interests, and more, indeed, than even national policy in the ordinary sense were fundamentally at stake in their quarrel. Their struggle, they believed, was over nothing less profound than the sort of future the United States would have, the sort of nation America was to be. Each regarded the other as a serious threat to what was not yet called the American way. And from their own perspectives, both were right.

This first great party battle is, of course, completely fascinating for its own sake. Between the framing of the Constitution and the War of 1812, the generation that had made the world’s first democratic revolution set about to put its revolutionary vision into practice on a national stage. This generation was a set of public men whose like has never been seen again. Without significant exception, they believed that the American experiment might well determine whether liberty would spread throughout the world or prove that men were too imperfect to be trusted with a government based wholly on elections. In an age of monarchies and aristocracies, they were experimenting with a governmental system—both republican and federal—unprecedented in the world. They had a never-tested and, in several respects, a quite unfinished Constitution to complete. They represented vastly different regions, and they had profoundly different visions of the nature of a sound republic. To understand why they divided and how they created the first modern parties is a captivating object in itself. It is the more worthwhile because not even in the years preceding Independence or during the debate about adoption of the Constitution have better democratic statesmen argued more profoundly over concepts that are at the core of the American political tradition: popular self-governance, federalism, constitutionalism, liberty, and the rest. Perhaps they still have much to teach about the system they bequeathed us, along with entertaining stories of our roots.

No single volume could pretend to be a comprehensive sourcebook on the first party struggle. This one does, however, aim to make it possible to understand the grounds and development of the dispute. For this reason, it is fuller on the earlier years of the struggle, when positions were being defined, than on the later years, when the arguments had become more repetitive and routine. It focuses tightly on the dispute between the parties, not on national questions such as slavery, which seldom entered directly into the first party conflict, or on the development of constitutional jurisprudence in the courts. Although it tries, at several points, to capture something of the flavor of the grassroots conflict, it is weighted, more than some might like, with the writings of major national leaders. But this was very much a conflict that descended from the top, as major national figures developed their disagreements, took them to the public, and reached out for links with local politicians. Debates in Congress were probably the most widely read political publications of these years.

This is not primarily a work for scholars, who will find more-authoritative versions of the texts in sources such as those identified in the bibliography. Rather, to make the materials as accessible as possible, spelling and punctuation have been modernized, obvious printing errors or slips of the pen have been silently corrected, and abbreviations have been spelled out when that seemed useful. So far as seemed possible, nevertheless, the documents are left to speak for themselves. Every volume of this sort must start with an editor’s decisions, the most important of which are those excluding valuable materials because they would not fit between two covers. This, however, is as much or more of an intrusion than I have wanted to make. Editorial introductions are limited to providing identifications or essential context. Elisions are clearly indicated and seldom extensive. In every case, as with the light modernization, they have been done with conscientious concern for the author’s thought and intent.

Several graduate students, two family members, one secretary, and a few undergraduates at the University of Kentucky provided materials for the collection or carried out the tedious job of typing the transcripts. Thanks are due to Todd Estes, Matt Schoenbachler, Colleen Murphy, Todd Hall, Jennifer Durben, Cheris Linebaugh, Lynn Hiler, JoAnne Shepler, and Clint and Lana Banning. A superb group of fifteen scholars from several disciplines devoted two days to a delightful discussion of a preliminary version of the volume at a Liberty Fund colloquium in Lexington in May 1998. In the process, they corrected some mistakes and made some valuable suggestions for additions. John Kaminski, Kenneth Bowling, and Norman Risjord reviewed the manuscript again. Finally, two of my students, Paul Douglas Newman and David Nichols, acted at different times as coresearchers and contributed essentially to making the project a quicker, fuller, and better one. Special thanks are due to them, and the volume is dedicated to them and their peers.

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“The Age of Experiments”: The United States, 1789-1845

Monday, August 30th, 2010

History 4720

The Lewis and Clark Expedition sights the Grea...

Lewis and Clark

Professor Michelle Orihel

Southern Utah University

Fall 2010

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10-11:20 a.m.

Location: SC 225

―This I hope will be the age of experiments in government, and that their basis will be founded on principles of honesty, not of mere force. We have seen no instance of this since the days of the Roman republic, nor do we read of any before that.‖

Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, February 28, 1796

Course Description

From catalog: ―A study of the new nation, the War of 1812, the Jacksonian era, placing special emphasis on the political, social, and economic democratization of the United States, together with the difficulties created by change.‖

In an era dominated by monarchical powers, a group of British North American colonists in 1776 declared their independence from King George III. They established a republic, a government based on the consent of the people. This republican experiment was a bold move, a ―leap in the dark,‖ as historian John Ferling has called it. Throughout history, most republics had failed. Never before did a people attempt to establish a republican government over such a large and expanding territory. How did Americans confront the challenge of establishing and securing a republican form of government? How did they adjust to their new roles as republican citizens rather than monarchical subjects? What other challenges did Americans face during the early years of the new republic, a period marked by tremendous political, economic, social, and cultural change?

This course will examine these and other questions about the nature of the early republic, providing an overview of the major political, social, economic, and cultural developments in the United States from roughly the late eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. We will cover such topics as the creation of a new national government, the development of conflict between Federalists and Jeffersonian-Republicans during the 1790s, the Jeffersonian Presidency, the Lewis and Clark expedition, the War of 1812, the development of a market economy, religious revivalism, the growth of reform movements and abolitionism, the expansion of slavery in the South, the rise of sectional conflict, Jacksonian democracy, and western expansion. As an upper-division course, this course will combine lectures with discussions. Active student participation is encouraged and expected for students to gain the most from taking the course. Ultimately, this course aims to provide students with an opportunity to enter into an ongoing and vibrant debate about the revolutionary origins of the early republic, the nature of the American founding, and its implications for the United States today.

Learning Objectives.

Students will be able to identify and understand better the main issues, themes, events, and historical actors in the United States from 1789 to 1845.

Through readings in the primary sources and through a variety of active learning exercises, students will gain a vivid understanding of what it meant to live through such a period of tremendous social, economic, and political change.

In this reading-intensive course, readings in primary and secondary sources will help students to develop such practical skills as interpreting evidence, making arguments based on that evidence, and evaluating other historians‘ arguments.

Class discussions and written assignments will further help students to hone the habits of critical thinking, reading, and writing.

Required Books

1. Bookstore: Sean Wilentz, ed., Major Problems in the Early Republic, 1787-1848. 2nd edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. (ISBN-13: 978-0-618-52258-3)

2. Bookstore: Gunther Barth, ed., The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Selections from the Journals Arranged by Topic. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martins, 1998. (ISBN-13: 978-0-312-11118-2)

3. Online: Lance Banning, ed., Liberty and Order: The First American Party Struggle. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2004. (ISBN: 0-86597-418-7)

Note: This textbook is available to download for free as a complete pdf file at the Liberty Fund‘s ―Online Library of Liberty‖ website; go to the following webpage: http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=875&Itemid=27

4. Online: Various items on electronic reserve at the library‘s website

Evaluation

Participation/ Effort: 15%

Reading Journal: 10%

Annotated Bibliography: 10%

Peer Review of Gerrit Smith Document Analysis: 5%

Gerrit Smith Final Document Analysis: 30%

Final Exam: 30%

Assignments

Reading Journal

Over the course of the semester, students will keep a journal that records their reactions to and assessments of the assigned readings for each class. For some classes, the instructor will provide a question for the student to focus on in their reflection. For other classes, the student will decide what question or issues seem most pressing from that day‘s reading. These entries should be between one and two pages. They should demonstrate that you have read and understood the assigned course materials. Students should particularly write about what intrigues them the most about the reading and how that reading helps to advance their understanding of the early American republic. The instructor will collect journal entries at the end of each class. Late entries will not be accepted. These entries will be graded on a Pass/ Fail basis. Therefore, the only grades for this assignment will be 100 (pass) and 0 (fail). These grades will then be tallied at the end of the semester for the final reading journal grade. However, students can opt out of turning in up to three journal entries without it adversely affecting their final grade.

Other Assignments

Information and instructions on the annotated bibliography, the Gerrit Smith essay assignment (peer review and essay), as well as on the final, take-home exam will be forthcoming.

Weekly Schedule of Topics and Readings (Subject to Revision)

Unless marked as optional, all readings are required.

Abbreviations:

MP = Sean Wilentz, ed., Major Problems in the Early Republic, 1787-1848.

LO = Lance Banning, ed. Liberty and Order: The First American Party Struggle

Week One—Aug 23

TUESDAY:

From Subjects to Citizens: Introduction to the History of the Early American Republic

THURSDAY:

The Revolutionary Origins of the Early Republic

Reading:

1. The Declaration of Independence (you can download and print a transcript of the D of I at this website: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration.html )

2. MP, chapter 3, essay by Waldstreicher

3. Online Exhibition: ―Declaring Independence: Creating and Re-Creating America‘s Document, organized by the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia, (http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/declaration/index.html)

Week Two – Aug 30

TUESDAY:

The Constitutional Settlement of 1787-88

Reading:

1. MP, chapter 2: documents 1-4, 6, essay by Wood

2. LO, chapter 1: pp. 3-9

3. (Optional) Online Exhibition: Library of Congress, online exhibition on ―Madison‘s Treasures,‖ which illuminates Madison‘s role in drafting the constitution, in the subsequent debates over ratification, and in producing the Bill of Rights: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/madison/

4. (Optional) Podcast Listening: Monticello podcasts, ―Jefferson‘s Worlds: Three Letters on the New Constitution,‖ listed at: http://www.monticello.org/podcasts/index.html

THURSDAY:

Understanding the Process of Historical Change: Interpreting the Early Republic

Reading:

1. MP, chapter 1: essays by Wilentz, Rossiter, Pasley, Perkins 5 5

Week Three—Sept 6

TUESDAY:

Forming a New National Government and George Washington’s Leadership

Reading:

1. MP, chapter 3: documents 1, 2

2. LO, chapter 2: TBA

3. Simon P. Newman, ―Principles or Men?: George Washington and the Political Culture of National Leadership, 1776-1801,‖ Journal of the Early Republic 12, 4 (Winter, 1992), 477-507. (Electronic Reserve)

4. Online Exhibition: ―Alexander Hamilton and the Creation of the United States,‖ organized by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History:

http://www.gilderlehrman.org/collection/online/hamilton/index.html

THURSDAY:

The Impact of the French Revolution on America: Popular Politics and Partisan Conflict

Reading:

1. LO, chapter 3: pp. 141-150; 169-170

2. Handout of newspaper articles that covered celebrations of the French Revolution

3. Albrecht Koschnik, ―The Democratic Societies of Philadelphia and the Limits of the American Public Sphere, circa 1793-95, ‖ William and Mary Quarterly 58, 3 (2001): . (Electronic Reserve)

Week Four – Sept 13

TUESDAY:

The Deepening of Political Divisions: From Jay’s Treaty to Washington’s Farewell

Reading:

1. MP, chapter 3: documents 5-7

2. LO, chapter 3: 188-197; 203-221

3. Todd Estes, ―Shaping the Politics of Public Opinion: Federalists and the Jay Treaty Debate,‖ Journal of the Early Republic 20, 3 (Fall 2000), 393-422. (Electronic Reserve)

THURSDAY:

The Presidency of John Adams

Reading:

1. MP, chapter 3: documents 8-11 6 6

2. LO, chapter 4: TBA

3. James Morton Smith, ―The ‗Aurora‘ and the Alien and Sedition Laws: Part I: The Editorship of Benjamin Franklin Bache, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 77, 1 (Jan 1953), 3-23. (Electronic Reserve)

Week Five—Sept 20

TUESDAY:

The Second American Revolution?: The Election of 1800

Reading:

1. MP, chapter 3, documents 12-13; two essays in chapter

2. Handout of newspaper editorials on the election

3. Douglas R. Egerton, ―Gabriel‘s Conspiracy and the Election of 1800,” Journal of Southern History 56, 2 (May 1990), 191-214. (Electronic Reserve)

THURSDAY:

Thomas Jefferson: His Presidency and Political Thought

Reading:

1. MP, chapter 4, documents 1-3; 5-10, essays by Appleby, McDonald, Gordon-Reed

2. LO, TBA

3. Website Viewing (Spend some time viewing ONE of the two links from the Monticello website):

For links about Monticello (a virtual tour of the house and images), go to the following website: http://www.monticello.org/house/index.html

For links about the lives of enslaved African Americans who lived and worked at Monticello, go to the following website:

http://www.monticello.org/plantation/index.html

4. (Optional) Website Viewing for additional information:

For links to such topics as ―A Day in the Life of Thomas Jefferson,‖ A ―Brief Biography of Thomas Jefferson,‖ A ―Timeline of Jefferson‘s Life,‖ and ―The Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia,‖ go to the following website: http://www.monticello.org/jefferson/index.html

For an online exhibition of Jefferson‘s life and works organized by the Library of Congress, go to: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/

Week Six—Sept 27

TUESDAY

The First American West: The Settlement of the Ohio Valley

Reading:

1. Gail S. Terry, ―Sustaining the Bonds of Kinship in a Trans-Appalachian Migration, 1790-1811: The Cabell-Breckinridge Slaves Move West,‖ Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (October 1994): 455-476. (Electronic Reserve)

2. Online Reading Assignment: TBA–selected documents from ―The First American West: The Ohio River Valley, 1750-1820,‖ American Memory Project, Library of Congress: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award99/icuhtml/

THURSDAY

Library Instruction Session (preparation for the annotated bibliography)

Week Seven – Oct 4

TUESDAY and THURSDAY :

The Corps of Discovery: the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Reading:

1. Gunther Barth, ed., The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Selections from the Journals Arranged by Topic.

2. (Optional) Website Viewing:

To browse through primary sources on the Lewis and Clark expedition at the American Philosophical Society, including images of the original journals, go to the following website: http://www.amphilsoc.org/library/digcoll/landc

For background on Jefferson‘s role in the expedition, go to:

http://www.monticello.org/jefferson/lewisandclark/index.html

Week Eight—Oct 11

TUESDAY:

The Second War for American Independence: The War of 1812

Reading:

1. MP, chapter 5

THURSDAY:

The Market Revolution: The Modernization of the American Economy

Reading:

1. MP, chapter 7 8 8

2. Online Exhibition: ―Risky Business: Winning and Losing in the Early American Economy, 1780-1850,‖ organized by the Library Company of Philadelphia: http://www.librarycompany.org/Economics/RiskyBusiness/index.htm

3. (Optional) Website Viewing: For maps and historical images of the Erie Canal, go to: http://www.eriecanal.org

Week Nine, Oct 18

TUESDAY

The Expansion of Slavery in the South

Reading:

1. MP, chapter 8, documents 1-2; 4-6; 8-10; essays by Johnson and McCurry

2. MP, chapter 13, essay by Genovese

THURSDAY (Instructor will be away at a conference) The Experiences of Enslaved African Americans

1. Film Viewing (in–class): ―Solomon Northup‘s Odyssey‖

2. Optional Reading: Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853. Electronic edition available at the website, ―Documenting the American South: Primary Resources for the Study of Southern History, Literature, and Culture,‖ University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/northup/northup.html

3. Optional Listening: To listen to recordings of interviews with former slaves, go to the Library of Congress American Memory Project, ―Voices from the Days of Slavery: Former Slaves Tell Their Stories‖: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/voices/

Week Ten – Oct 25

TUESDAY

Finish viewing ―Solomon Northup‘s Odyssey‖ and discuss the experience of slavery

THURSDAY

The Missouri Crisis and the Rise of Sectionalism

Reading:

1. MP, chapter 10

Week Eleven – Nov 1

TUESDAY

Jacksonians, Whigs, and 1830s Politics

Reading:

1. MP, chapter 11 9 9

THURSDAY Native Americans, Western Expansion, and the Trail of Tears

Reading:

1. MP, chapter 9

2. (Optional) Website Viewing:

For an exhibition on eastern Indian wars organized by the Smithsonian Museum of American History, go to: http://americanhistory.si.edu/militaryhistory/printable/section.asp?id=3

For information about the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, go to: http://www.nps.gov/trte/index.htm

For a link to the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, go to: http://www.cherokeemuseum.org/html/collections_tot.html

3. Optional Audio Interview:

For an interview with documentary film maker Philip Coulter who traveled along the Trail of Tears, go to http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/features/trail-of-tears/index.html

Week Twelve – Nov 8

TUESDAY:

Antebellum Reform Movements

Reading:

1. MP, chapter 12

THURSDAY Abolitionism and the Underground Railroad

Reading:

1. MP, chapter 13, documents 1-5; 10; essay by Jeffrey

2. Website Viewing:

Online exhibition from the Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Library: ―‘That laboratory of abolitionism, libel, and treason‘: Syracuse and the Underground Railroad,‖ http://libwww.syr.edu/digital/exhibits/u/undergroundrr/

Week Thirteen—Nov. 15

The Literature of Politics, Reform, and Abolition: The Gerrit Smith Broadside Collection

To view the various pamphlets contained in the Gerrit Smith Broadside collection, go to: http://libwww.syr.edu/information/spcollections/digital/gerritsmith/

TUESDAY

Writing workshop 10 10

Reading:

George Orwell, ―Politics and the English Language,‖ (Electronic Reserve)

THURSDAY

Bring draft of your Gerrit Smith document analysis to class

Peer Review

Week Fourteen – Nov. 22

TUESDAY:

The Second Great Awakening

Reading:

1. MP, chapter 6

2. Website Viewing:

Library of Congress, online exhibition on ―Religion and the Founding of the American Republic,‖ http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel07.html

THURSDAY:

THANKSGIVING

Week Fifteen – Nov. 29

TUESDAY:

Manifest Destiny, Slavery, and the Politics of Western Expansion

Reading:

1. MP, chapter 15

THURSDAY Final Assessment and Review

December 10, 2010: 11am-12:50pm.: Final Exam

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JMC Faculty Gordon Wood on CSPAN2

Monday, August 30th, 2010

Pulitzer Prize winning historian and Jack Miller Center Faculty member, Gordon Wood, will be discussing his current research and book project on CSPAN2’s Book TV September 5th from 12-3 p.m..

Wood has been a frequent guest of BookTV, and a video broadcast of his last appearance is available here.

Buy it Now

Jack Miller Online Book Store

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