PURPOSE

This course covers North American/US History, primarily from an Atlantic perspective, from the 16^th to the 18^th century. The course is designed to prepare students for research and teaching in early American History as well as for the qualifying exams in this field. We will discuss major historiographical debates around key issues, such as cultural contact/conflict in early North America; racial and national diversity; bound labor and slavery; labor, race and gender relations; transformations of the environment, geography, political structures, kinship, and community; and the causes and consequences of the American Revolution.

ASSIGNMENTS

The readings for this course are generally taken from the PDR 1 bibliography available on line http://history.rutgers.edu/graduate/readlistpdr1.htm This list was last updated in 2003; a few books assigned here have been published more recently. The books and articles assigned for the course offer entrée into larger debates and should be used in conjunction with the larger reading list to prepare for qualifying exams. To give you some sense of these larger debates, students will take turns preparing one-page synopses of supplemental readings each week.

A LIST OF REQUIRED BOOKS IS APPENDED TO THE SYLLABUS.

The class will be divided into 3 groups, A, B & C. From Week 2 through Week 14, all groups read the main book and article(s) for the week. In addition, each week, members of one group write a 2-page critique of the main book and raise critical questions for class discussion; members of another group each write a 2-page summary of one of the supplemental books to be circulated to the class as a whole; and members of the third group have no writing for the week. The critiques and discussion questions must be circulated to the class as a whole via email by 5:00 PM Tuesday. The summaries will be circulated in class each Wednesday.

Following the critiques, questions, summaries, and weekly discussion, the final assignment for this course will be a mock qualifying exam in Early American History. The exam is scheduled for Wed., Dec. 14, which falls during reading days so no other classes will be meeting.

GRADING

Grades for the course will be based 50% on class discussion; 25% on weekly critiques, summaries, and questions; and 25% on the mock qualifying exam.

WEEKLY TOPICS & ASSIGNMENTS

Wed. Sept. 7 Issues and Debates in Early American History

Introductions and Assignments

Wed Sept.14 Colonial Encounters

[A] Alfred Crosby, Ecological Imperialism

Kupperman: Nicholas Canny(11) and Colin Calloway(17) articles

[B] Supplemental Readings: Inga Clendinnen, Ambivalent Conquests OR Steven Greenblatt, Marvelous Possessions

Wed Sept 21 Early Settlements in North America

[B] Russell Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World (Dutch)

Kupperman: A.G. Roeber(203), Gutierrez(165) and Weber(172) articles

[C] Supplemental Readings: James Brooks, Captives & Cousins (Spanish) OR Alan Taylor, American Colonies (Comparative)

Wed Sept 28 Early Modern England

[C] Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down

On reserve: David Underdown, “The Taming of the Scold: The Enforcement of Patriarchal Authority in Early Modern England”

[A] Supplemental Readings: Kim Hall, Things of Darkness OR Susan Amussen, An Ordered Society

Wed. Oct. 5 Early British America: Chesapeake, Carolinas and the Caribbean

[A] Camilla Townsend, Pocohantas and the Powhattan Dilemma

Kupperman: Paul Robinson(49), Carr and Walsh(72), and James Horn(79) articles

[B] Supplemental Readings: Kathleen Brown, Good Wives, Nasty Wenches OR Lois G. Carr, Lorena Walsh and Russell R. Menard, Robert Cole’s World

Wed. Oct 12 Africa and the African Slave Trade

[B] John Thorton, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlanta World

On reserve: Emily Bartels, “Imperialist Beginnings: Richard Hakluyt and the Construction of Africa”

[C] Supplemental Readings: Michael Gomez, Exchanging Our Country Marks OR David Eltis, The Europeans and the Rise of African Slavery in the Americas

Wed. Oct 19 Slavery and Race in the New World

[C] Edmund Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom

Kupperman: Kupperman(235), Ira Berlin(302), and Morgan(315)

[A] Supplemental Readings: Richard Dunn, Sugar and Slaves OR

Jennifer Morgan, Laboring Women

Wed. Nov. 2 Early British America: New England

[B] Jill Lepore, In the Name of War

Kupperman: Peterson(109) and Kamensky(145) articles

[C] Supplemental Readings: William Cronin, Changes in the Land OR Phyllis Hunter, Purchasing Identity in the New World

Wed. Nov. 9 Religion and Culture

[C] Jon Butler, Awash in a Sea of Faith

Kupperman: Hall(346) and Lambert(353)

[A] Supplemental Readings: Sylvia Frey and Betty Wood, Come Shouting to Zion: African American Protestantism in the American South and the British Caribbean OR

David Hall, Worlds of Wonder

Wed. Nov 16 Early British America: the Middle Colonies & Native American Life

[A] Jane T. Merritt, At the Crossroads

Kupperman: Merrell(419), Dowd(427) and Murrin(460)

[B] Supplemental Readings: Richard White, The Middle Ground OR Daniel K. Richter, Facing East from Indian Company

TUE NOV 22 The Coming of the American Revolution

[B] Gary B. Nash, Urban Crucible

Kupperman: Olson(379) and Hofstra(389)

On Reserve: Christopher Brown, “Empire Without Slaves: British Concepts of Emancipation in the Age of the American Revolution”

[C] Supplemental Readings: Bernard Bailyn, The Origins of the American Revolution OR Edmund Morgan, The Stamp Act Crisis

Wed. Nov 30 Anglo-American Society in the Eighteenth Century

[C] Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwife’s Tale

On reserve: Paul Clemens and Lucy Simler, “Rural Labor and the Farm Household in Chester County, Pennsylvania, 1750-1820”

[A] Supplemental Readings: Rhys Issac, The Transformation of Virginia OR Kirsten Fischer, Suspect Relations: Sex, Race and Resistance in Colonial North Carolina

Wed. Dec. 7 Creation of the American Republic

John Mack Faragher, Daniel Boone

On reserve: Jan Lewis, “’The Blessings of Domestic Society’: Thomas Jefferson’s Family and the Transformation of American Politics”

Gordon Wood, “Rhetoric and Reality in the American Revolution”

Wed. Dec 14 MOCK EXAM: EARLY AMERICAN HISTORY

PDR 1 Book list (Fall 2005)

Dr. Nancy A. Hewitt

BOOKS AVAILABLE AT RUTGERS U BOOKSTORE: (in order of assignment)

Karen O. Kupperman, Major Problems in American Colonial History: Documents and Essays (D.C. Heath, 2000) ISBN 0669199222

Alfred Crosby, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900 (Cambridge U Press, 1986) ISBN 0-521-54618-4

Russell Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan (2004; Vintage Paperback, 2005) ISBN 1-4000-7867-9

Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas during the English Revolution (Penguin Books, 1972) ISBN 0-14-013732-7

Camilla Townsend, Pocohantas and the Powhattan Dilemma (Hill and Wang, 2004; Paperback, 2005) ISBN 0809077388

John Thorton, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800 (1992; Cambridge University Press, 2^nd ed, 1998) ISBN 0521627249

Edmund Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia (W. W. Norton, 1975; Rpt 2003) ISBN 039332494X

Jill Lepore, The Name of War: King Philip’s War and the Origins of American Identity (Vintage Books, 1999) ISBN 0375702628

Jon Butler, Awash in a Sea of Faith; Christianizing the American People (Harvard University Press, 1990) ISBN 0674056019

Jane T. Merritt, At the Crossroads: Indians & Empires on a Mid-Atlantic Frontier, 1700-1763 (UNC Press, 2003)

Gary B. Nash, Urban Crucible: Northern Seaports and the Origins of the American Revolution (Harvard University Press, Abridged Ed, 2005) ISBN 067493059-2

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 (1990; Vintage 1991) ISBN 0679733760

John Mack Faragher, Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer (Owl Books, 1992) ISBN 0-8050-3007-7