Week of:

September 5

B

Nuts and Bolts and getting to know you.

Reading Due:

Course Description, Course Expectations, Unit I Syllabus, Plagiarism Document and Discussion Guidelines

More introduction and we will begin a discussion of the first question that historians ask themselves: “what happened?”  This will be a data-heavy discussion as we try to sort out the facts surrounding Hurricane Katrina.

Some key questions to consider: what inferences can you make about the data you have drawn together?  What assumptions are coming into play as you make these inferences?  What data would you have needed to make better inferences?  Can we draw any conclusions here?

Reading Due: you have been assigned a set of data to investigate and bring back to the class.  Please do so as thoroughly as you are able to.

September 12

Short    

Today we will recall the data mining we did last class (and finish that if we need to) and move to the second question that historians ask, “So what?”  You have gathered and discussed a large quantity of data about the hurricane, now we need to try to make sense of it. 

Some key questions to consider: Which data is most pertinent and why?  What conclusions should we begin to draw as we bring different pieces of data together?  What themes seem to continue to arise?  What of significance should we as historians be paying attention to?

Reading due: there will be a set of articles given to you by me that are essentially other people’s answers to the question of “So What?” Let me underscore that these are not the only answers to this question, nor are they necessarily good answers, but they are models that we might use for our own analysis of the situation.

Long    

Now that you have had a couple of classes to practice your analysis, it is time to act on that analysis.  Today we answer the third (and least often answered) question for historians, “Now what?”  This is the day where you will put your understanding of the people and events involved in Hurricane Katrina to work as if you were a policy maker trying to do well for your constituents.

Some key questions to consider: Which of the issues raised do you address first?  Which are appropriate to city government, which to state government and which to the federal government?  Which issues require short-term solutions and which ones require fixes that take longer to accomplish? 

Reading due: You will assume three roles for this day: the mayor of New Orleans, the governor of Louisiana and the President of the United States.  What should each policy maker do now?  Why?  Please feel free to investigate the steps that each have taken if you wish (though do not feel that you are required to follow in their footsteps if you disagree with the ones that they have taken). 

Short    

We will begin with a traditional start to the study of United States history with a discussion of Puritanism and its impact on European settlements in North America with a particular focus on John Winthrop and the concept of the “City on a Hill.”

Some key questions to consider: 

What virtues does Winthrop espouse in his “A Model of Christian Charity” sermon?  In your view, is Winthrop puritanical?

Reading Due:

Nation of Nations pages 21-25 (The Reformation) and 66-69 (The Founding of New England); Handout (online) Winthrop’s A Model of Christian Charity.

September 19

Short  

A look at both European settlements in New England and Native American culture that had existed there for hundreds of years.

Some key questions to consider:

What are the differences and similarities in the “logic” or thinking of Native Americans and New England settlers?  Consider aspects of thinking such as their purpose, their central assumptions and the data they were drawing from. 

Reading Due:

Nation of Nations pages 69-79; Handout (online) Nash’s Precontact Population

A comparison of European settlements in the “Middle” colonies with those established in the region surrounding the Chesapeake Bay. 

Some key questions to consider:

What characteristics (religious, political, economic, etc.) distinguish these colonies from each other and from the colonies we have looked at in New England?

Reading Due:

Nation of Nations, pp. 78-84 (Middle Colonies): pp. 35-43 (Chesapeake Colonies)

Continuing down the Eastern Seaboard, we’ll focus today on the Southern Colonies, the Carolinas and Georgia in particular.

Some key questions to consider:

How was the “search for order” in the southern colonies different from the same process in the other colonies we have examined?  What long-term effect did this process have on the social structure of the southern colonies?

Reading Due:

Nation of Nations, pp. 50-61

September 26

An introduction to the issue of British royal authority over the Colonies as a whole.

Some key questions to consider:

What was the significance of Bacon’s Rebellion, both in terms of the development of slavery and in terms of emerging class tensions in the Chesapeake region?  What manifestations of tension between England and the Colonies began to surface towards the end of the 17th century?

Reading Due:

A first glance at the “Middle Passage,” commonly referred to as the trans-Atlantic slave trade.  Back to more primary documents on your reading for today, and your first video/film experience of the year as well.

Some key questions to consider:

How does Olaudah Equiano’s account of his journey from Africa to America compare to the account presented in Roots? How does John Barbot’s account of the slave trade differ from Equiano’s?  What are the strengths/weaknesses of both sources?  How does the vision presented in Amistad compare to the other sources?

Reading Due:

An examination of the day-to-day lives of slaves on Southern plantations.

Some key questions to consider:

What common features of slave life can you identify in the various narrative excerpts you have read?  How did colonial slave owners justify the institution of slavery in an era that emphasized enlightened thought and action?  In your mind, what are the likely response to this daily life on the part of the slaves themselves?

Reading Due:

First Fact Sheet Quiz (happy, happy, joy, joy) and the assignment of the first major paper (yeehaw)

Some key questions to consider:

Reading Due:

None: study for the quiz