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Academic Year 2003/2004
Early America: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
HIST 237 SP
This course surveys North American history from the founding of Jamestown in 1607 through the American Revolution of 1775-1783, with particular attention given to the struggle of European colonizers for control of the
continent
and its indigenous population, Puritanism and witchcraft, the Atlantic slave trade, material culture, gendered relations, and the origins of American political and cultural institutions. In addition to training students
in the use of primary sources-objects, images, contemporary written documents-the course models a cultural approach to the study of colonization and everyday life in early America. Such an approach necessarily combines
aspects
of social, political, intellectual, and economic history to provide the fullest picture possible of America's growth during two of its most violent and discordant centuries.
MAJOR READINGS
Tentative List of Readings
Joy Day Buel and Richard Buel Jr., THE WAY OF DUTY: A WOMAN AND HER FAMILY IN REVOLUTIONARY AMERICA
Richard L. Bushman, THE REFINEMENT OF AMERICA: PERSONS, CITIES, HOUSES
Alfred W.
Crosby, THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE:
BIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL CONSEQUENCES OF 1492
John Demos, A LITTLE COMMONWEALTH: FAMILY LIFE IN PLYMOUTH COLONY
_____, REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES: READINGS ON EARLY AMERICAN HISTORY
_____, THE UNREDEEMED CAPTIVE: A
FAMILY STORY FROM EARLY
AMERICA
David Hackett Fischer, PAUL REVERE'S RIDE
Benjamin Franklin, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Thomas Hariot, A BRIEF AND TRUE REPORT OF THE NEW FOUND LAND OF VIRGINIA
Carol F. Karlsen, THE DEVIL IN THE SHAPE OF A
WOMAN: WITCHCRAFT IN COLONIAL NEW
ENGLAND
Susan E. Klepp and Billy G. Smith, eds., THE INFORTUNATE: THE VOYAGE AND ADVENTURES OF WILLIAM MORALEY, AN INDENTURED SERVANT
Edmund S. Morgan, THE PURITAN DILEMMA: THE STORY OF JOHN WINTHROP
Barry
Unsworth, SACRED HUNGER
EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Active participation, attendance; mid-term and final exams, plus a research paper of eight to ten pages.
COURSE FORMAT:
Lecture/Discussion
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level:
UGRD
Credit:
1
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS HIST
Grading Mode:
Graded
Prerequisites:
NONE
Links to Web Resources For This Course.
Last Updated on MAR-19-2004
Contact
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Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459
