American History, 1607-1877
Dr. Patrick D. Reagan
History 2010-009 (#13713) Dr. Reagan
12:20-1:15 MWF Spring 2008
HH 114 HH109
Instructor Information
Office: Henderson Hall 109
Office Hours: 10-11 a.m. MWF and by appointment
Telephone: 372-3342 (office), 372-3332 (message), 528-3998 (home)
E-mail: preagan@tntech.edu
Professional experience of Dr. Reagan
Course Requirements
Read section below on Study Tips for History Classes first week and before examinations.
The objective of the course is to obtain a working knowledge
of U.S. history between 1607 and 1877 through class attendance,
lectures, readings, discussions, and examinations. Be sure to
review the materials in the Study Tips section below for
excellent, practical study advice through the course, especially
as you prepare for examinations. Any student who believes he or
she will require special consideration to meet the course
requirements must consult with the
Office of
Disability Services during the first week of classes.
- Class attendance (up to 5 bonus points)
- Examination-- February 20 (100 points)
- Examination-- March 28 (100 points)
- Final essay examination-- April 30 (100 points)
- Final Grade based on total points earned:
270-300 points= A
240-269 points= B
210-239 points= C
180-209 points= D
below 180 points= F
- No extra credit assignments will be offered,
- To pass course, all requirements must be met on time, no plagiarism or cheating, and all exams taken.
Study Tips for History Classes
- Understanding University Success (Center for Educational Policy Research)
- David Bollier,
"Reclaiming the Commons: why we need to protect our public resources from
private encroachment," Boston Review 27 (Summer 2002)
- Facing History and Ourselves: Examining History and Human Behavior
- Quality, Affordability, and Access: Americans Speak on Higher Education, June 2003 (ETS)
- The Big Payoff: Educational
Attainment and Synthetic Estimates of Work-Life Earnings
July 2002, U.S. Census Bureau Special Report
- Textbook Information on the Internet
- History 201-202 at Tennessee Tech
- Tennessee Tech History web site
- Connecting Information [TTU Computer
center]
- History and the Internet: A Guide by Patrick D. Reagan (McGraw-Hill)
- A Tour Through the Internet for Students of History
- Especially for Researchers (Library of Congress)
- Locating Information on the Internet (Library of Congress)
- A Student's Guide to the Study of History (S. Kreis)
- TTU Student Handbook
- How to Succeed as a Student (K. Bucknall)
- Counseling Center (Tennessee Technological University)
- Counseling Center Workshops, TTU
- How to Read a Book (P.N. Edwards,
University of Michigan)
- Study Guides and Strategies (University of St. Thomas)
- The Learning Strategies Database (Muskingum College)
- Content-Specific Learning Strategies for History
(The Learning Strategies Database, Muskingum College)
- Tips for History Students (Ohio State
University)
- Critical Reading (D. Kurland)
- Guides to Historical Research (University of Washington Library)
- Study Guides for History Classes
- How to Prepare for and Take Essay Examinations
- The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing (M. Harvey, Washington College)
- Reading, Writing, and Researching for History:
A Guide for College Students (P. Rael, Bowdoin College)
- A Student's Guide to Research with the WWW
(C. Branham, St. Louis University)
Required Books
- Text, Steven M. Gillon and Cathy D. Matson. The American Experiment: A
History of the United States, Volume I: To 1877, Second Edition (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 2006). (Text below)
- Web site for Gillon and
Matson text
- Thomas L. Hartshorne, Robert A. Wheeler, John H. Cary, Julius Weinberg, editors.
The Social Fabric: American Life from 1607 to 1877, tenth edition. (New York:
Pearson Longman, 2006) (Hartshorne below).
- Bruce Levine, Half Slave and Half Free: The Roots of Civil War, revised edtion
(New York: Hill and Wang, 2005) Levine below.
Course Themes
- Changes in political values and institutions
- Economic development and its social impact
- Social and cultural change (Indians, dissenters, immigrants, women, and blacks)
- Slavery and freedom: race, nationalism, and sectionalism
- Key role of war in creating the United States
Reading Assignments with
Lecture and Discussion Schedule
Readings should be completed before/during the week assigned.
Assignment: Text, Preface, pp. 1-38; Hartshorne, Preface; and review Study Tips above.
Internet Resources:
January 14--Introduction
January 16--Course syllabus and responsibilities
January 18--No Class; complete readings, review Study Tips section above
From Colonies to Nation, 1607-1776
Assignment: Text, pp. 39-83; Hartshorne, Preface and pp. 3-53
Internet Resources:
January 21--Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, no class
January 23--The European Heritage and Cultural Contact
January 25--Slavery in Colonial Virginia
Assignment: Text, 84-165 and Hartshorne, pp. 3-53, 69-97
Internet Resources:
January 28--Puritan New England
January 30--Pluralism in the Middle Colonies
February 1--Discussion based on Hartshorne, pp. 3-52, 69-97
Creating a Republic, 1776-1815
Assignment: Text, 166-247, Declaration of Independence (A-1-3 in back of Text) and Hartshorne, pp. 99-149
Internet Resources:
February 4--The Rise of the Assemblies, 1689-1763
February 6--Origins of the American Revolution
February 8--Discussion on the Declaration of Independence
Assignment: Text, pp. 248-268 and Articles of Confederation and Constitution and Bill of
Rights (Amendments I-X) (A-3 to A-12 in back of Text); BEGIN STUDY FOR EXAMINATION
Internet Resources:
February 11--The American Revolution, 1776-1783
February 13--From Confederation to Constitution, 1781-1787
February 15--Discussion on the Constitution
Assignment: Study for Examination and Text, pp. 268-325 after examination
Internet Resources:
February 18--Questions and review for examination
February 20--Examination
February 22--The First Party System
National Expansion, 1790-1840's
Assignment: Hartshorne, pp. 151-165 and Text, pp. 326-371, 414-436
Internet Resources:
February 25--Early Economic Growth
February 27--Discussion based on Hartshorne, pp. 151-165
February 29--Frontier Expansion
March 3-7--Spring Break, No Class
Assignment: Hartshorne, pp. 167-179, 213-223, 271-283; and Text, pp. 372-413
Internet Resources:
March 10--Indian Removal
March 12--Discussion based on Hartshorne, pp. 167-179, 213-223, 271-283
March 14--Jacksonian Society, 1824-1840's
Assignment: Text, 415-424, 321-323, 130-133, 332-335, 441-444 and
Hartshorne, pp. 239-267, 181-193
Internet Resources:
March 17--Immigration in Antebellum America
March 19--Discussion based on Hartshorne, pp. 253-267
March 21--Good Friday holiday, no class
Assignment: Review notes and STUDY FOR EXAMINATION
Internet Resources:
March 24--Women and the Family in Antebellum America
March 26--Questions and review for examination
March 28--Examination
Slavery, Reform and Sectionalism, 1830-1860
Assignment: Text, pp. 462-493 and Hartshorne, pp. 225-237
Internet Resources:
- Documenting the American South: The Southern Experience
in 19th Century America
(University of North Carolina)
- In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience
(Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library)
- The African-American Mosaic: A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History and Culture
- Africans in America: America's Journey Through Slavery (PBS)
- Museum of Slavery in the Atlantic (Penn. State
University)
- Voices from the Days of Slavery (American Memory, Library of Congress)
- Harriet Jacobs: Selected Writings and Correspondence (Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, Yale University)
- WPA Life Histories (Federal Writers' Project, 1936-40)
- Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938
(American Memory, Library of Congress)
- "Been Here So Long": Selections from the WPA American Slave Narratives (New Deal Network)
- American Slave Narratives: An Online Anthology (American Hypertext Workshop, University of Virginia)
- American Slavery: A Composite Autobiography [from WPA slave narratives collected in the 1930s] (Greenwood Publishing Group)
- North American Slave Narratives (Documenting the American South)
- Tangled Roots: A Project Exploring the Histories of Americans of Irish Heritage and Americans of African Heritage (Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Abolition, Resistance, and Slavery, Yale University)
- Darrell Reeck, "The Spirit of the Amistad in the United Methodist Church," (New World Outlook magazine of the United Methodist Church)
- The Amistad Case (teaching materials from the National Archives)
- La Amistad Links (New World Outlook magazine of the United Methodist Church)
- Amistad Research Center (Tulane University)
- Frederick Douglass Papers (American Memory, Library of Congress)
- The North Star: A Journal of African-American Religious History
March 31--The Old South
April 2--The Institution of Slavery
April 4--Discussion on slavery based on Hartshorne, pp. 225-237
Assignment: Text, pp. 437-461, 494-532 and Hartshorne, pp. 195-208, 285-295
Internet Resources:
April 7--Antebellum Reform
April 9--The Abolitionists
April 11--The War with Mexico
Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877
Assignment: Text, pp. 533-567 and Levine, pp. ix-xii, 1-120, 121-255
Internet Resources:
April 14--Discussion on Half Slave and Half Free, pp. ix-xii, 1-120
April 16--Discussion on Half Slave and Half Free, pp. 121-255<
April 18--Origins of the Republican Party
Assignment: Text, pp. 568-654 and Hartshorne, pp. 297-339
Internet Resources:
- Selected Civil War Photographs
(American Memory, Library of Congress)
- Civil War Resources on the Internet: Abolitionism to Reconstruction (Rutgers University)
- The Crisis of the Union: An Electronic Archive of Documents About the Causes, Conduct, and Consequences of the US Civil War
(University of Pennsylvania)
- Crisis at Fort Sumter (R. Latner, Tulane University)
- Charleston Multimedia Project (Charleston County Library)
- Civil War Resources on the Internet: Abolitionism to Reconstruction (Rutgers University)
- James McPherson, "For a Vast Future Also: Lincoln and the Millenium," Jefferson Lecture, March 27, 2000
- U.S. Civil War Center (Louisiana State U.)
- The American Civil War Homepage (Sunsite at
University of Tennessee)
- Civil War @Smithsonian: Collecting, Preserving, Remembering the National Experience
(National Portrait Gallery)
- Gardner's Sketch Book of the [Civil] War (Cornell University Library)
- American Civil War Institute (Campbellsville University)
- Poetry and Music of the War Between the States (K. Fraser)
- The Valley of the Shadow: Living the Civil War in Virginia and Pennsylvania
(University of Virginia)
- National Heritage Area on the Civil War in Tennessee
(Center for Historic Preservation, Middle Tennessee State University)
- Save the Franklin Battlefield, Inc.
- Battle of Nashville Preservation Society, Inc.
- Military Service Records: A Select Catalog of NARA Microfilm Publications
(National Archives and Records Administration)
- Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (National Park Service)
- In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience
(Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library)
- United States Colored Troops (Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System, National Park Service)
- United States Colored Troops in the Civil War (B.J. McRae, Jr.)
- DoD Celebrates African American History Month (U.S. Department of Defense)
- History of Black Military Service
(Dr. K. Hughes, U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command)
- 50th Anniversary of the Integration of the Armed Forces
(Dr. K. Hughes, U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command)
- The Civil War Preservation Trust
- Friends of the [C.S.S.] Hunley
- Reenactor.net
- Living History Association
- National Civil War Association
- The Civil War as Photographed by Mathew Brady (Library of Congress)
- American Civil War Institute (Campbellsville University)
- Reconstruction: The Second Civil War (American Experience,
PBS)
- Rebels with a Cause (Southern Poverty Law Center)
- In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience
(Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library)
- Reconstruction: The Second Civil War (American Experience,
PBS)
- Freedmen and Southern Society Project
(University of Maryland, College Park)
April 21--The Americans Civil War, 1861-1865
April 23--Reconstruction: From Slavery to Freedom
April 25--Summary Lecture
Assignment: Study for Final Essay Examination
Internet Resources:
April 30--Wednesday, Final Examination, 3:30-5:30 p.m.
Department of History
Tennessee Technological University
Box 5064
Cookeville, TN 38505
(931) 372-3332
For comments or suggestions, contact
preagan@tntech.edu
Go to TTU History Home Page