Document Type

Syllabus

Publication Date

Spring 2024

Course Description

This course charts the profound transformation of the United States from the Louisiana Purchase to the late-nineteenth century era of mass immigration and industrialization. We will examine how formal spheres of political power intersected with every-day life, paying particular attention to contested racial and sexual definitions of sovereignty, liberty, and citizenship. We also will investigate how U.S. territorial expansion, the burgeoning market economy and, later, industrial capitalism reshaped the nation. The Civil War that resulted from unresolved conflicts over slavery, territorial expansion, and sectional power provides a dramatic centerpiece for the course. The consequences of that war, as we shall see, echoed throughout the remainder of the century and beyond.

Student Outcomes

Students will learn to integrate four major themes—citizenship, territorial expansion, race, and capitalism—through their encounters with a myriad of famous and not-so-famous historical actors. Students also will learn to draw meaningful comparison between the pre- and post-Civil War U.S. A W course, we will cultivate the essay format as a means of knowing and communicating.

As a result of this course, students will be able to:

  • Think critically about a variety of texts and how historians construct narratives.
  • Discuss and write about complicated and controversial material with seriousness and respect.
  • Develop empathy across time, space, and cultures.
  • Write clear, concise evidence-based historical essays that make persuasive arguments.
  • Write with increased grace, concision, accuracy, and proper citations.

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