| Gary Kornblith | History
263 |
| Mudd 306; x58526 | Fall
2008 |
| gary.kornblith@oberlin.edu | Office
hours: Wed., 3:30-5:00 p.m. |
The
American Civil War and Reconstruction
|
The
American Civil War and Reconstruction |
For the official, up-to-date version of this syllabus, go to http://www.oberlin.edu/history/GJK/H263F08/.
Less than a century after fighting for independence from Great Britain and establishing a federal republic, Americans turned their firearms on each other in the bloodiest war in the nation's history. At the end of hostilities, over six hundred thousand soldiers lay dead while approximately four million former slaves enjoyed legal freedom for the first time. Thereafter Americans struggled to reorganize their society and redefine their polity in response to the changes wrought by the Civil War's violence and to the conflicts that endured in peace.
This course focuses on three interrelated subjects: the causes of the Civil War; the dynamics of the war and emancipation; and the outcomes of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Beyond coverage of this subject matter, the course is designed to promote three major "student learning objectives":
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A grasp of important issues, trends, and controversies in recent scholarship on the Civil War and Reconstruction.
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An understanding of how historians develop interpretations based on research in primary sources and the application of analytic models.
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A capacity to make independent judgments after careful consideration of available evidence, alternative scholarly interpretations, and an honest reexamination of one's preconceptions and biases.
Throughout the
semester, students are expected to draw their own conclusions about the
meaning and significance of events that continue to provoke popular passions
and intellectual argument more than a century after they occurred.
Evaluation: Students will be graded on the basis of one position paper (5-7 pp.), a research project prospectus (1-2 pp.), a research project progress report (1-2 pp.), an oral presentation of research findings (10-12 minutes), a polished research paper (12-15 pp.), and class participation, including Blackboard postings. The standard formula for determining final grades will be 20% for the position paper, 5% for the prospectus, 5% for the progress report, 5% for the oral presentation, 40% for the research paper, and 25% for class participation. The instructor reserves the right to exercise some discretion in assigning final grades.
Honor Code: All course work is governed by Oberlin's Honor Code. If you have a question about how the Honor Code applies to a particular assignment, you should ask the professor in advance of the due date.
Purchases: The following books are available for purchase at the Oberlin Bookstore.
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Eugene D. Genovese, The Political Economy of Slavery: Studies in the Economy and Society of the Slave South, 2nd ed. (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1988)
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Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995)
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Don E. Fehrenbacher, ed., Abraham Lincoln: A Documentary Portrait Through His Speeches and Writings (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1964)
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William A. Link, Roots of Secession: Slavery and Politics in Antebellum Virginia (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007)
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Chandra Manning, What This Cruel War Was Over (New York: Vintage, 2007)
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Steven Hahn, A Nation under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration (Cambridge: Belknap Press, Harvard University Press, 2003)
