32409

SoSe 15: U.S. History, 1776-1900

Jessica Gienow-Hecht

Comments

This course (Grundlagenveranstaltung) seeks to fulfill two premises. First, it will introduce graduate students to some of the most central events in U.S. American history since the late eighteenth century, ranging from the Revolutionary Era to the Age of Imperialism. Second, students will be familiarized with a variety of historiographical debates and methodological takes surrounding individual topics in modern U.S. history. Readings range from competing visions of national development, religious movements and violence in the nineteenth century to diplomacy, women’s perspectives, and the clash of immigration and industrialization during the “Gilded Age”; at the same time, we shall be looking at specific movements and phenomena in modern U.S. American history, including mass culture, student activism, race, and women. Central questions include: How did the legacy of colonial and revolutionary society with all its implications for women and minorities influence nineteenth-century history and the emergence of the United States as an international power? Can we discern specific paradigms characterizing socio-political nineteenth-century history? How did the United States develop from an agrarian, arguably isolationist to an industrial, imperial nation? In the course of the seminar, students will look at both primary and secondary sources and deepen their understanding of how to engage critically with both to produce a scholarly essay. Course requirements include a comment on a presentation, a response paper, as well as the development of a individual syllabus; active class participation, preparation of 40 pp. reading & 1 question (in writing) p. week. No more than two no-shows are acceptable. Participants should purchase the following volume and pay attention to the correct edition (3rd. ed.) and publishing year (2011): Major Problems in American History, vol 1, To 1877, 3rd ed., by Elizabeth Cobbs-Hoffman, Edward Blum, and Jon Gjerde. Additional chapters will be drawn from vol. 2 of the same series as well as other publications. One copy will be available in the library. To obtain a Leistungsschein, you are strongly encouraged to do so in the second part of this module (Modul B Hauptseminar), as the present course is a survey course (Grundlagenveranstaltung) rather than a seminar providing in-depth examination. close