History 397 Syllabus Fall 2010

OBERLIN COLLEGE
Department of History

Gary J. Kornblith
Rice 18
x58526
gary.kornblith@oberlin.edu

History 397

Fall 2010

Office hours: Tue., 4:30 pm - 6 pm,
and by appointment

Revolutionary America and the Early Republic

The official, up-to-date version of this syllabus is maintained online at www.oberlin.edu/faculty/gkornbl/H397F10/.

This course explores the creation of the United States and the complex dynamics that shaped American society and culture in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. We will begin by examining the British colonies in mainland North America at approximately 1750, and we will proceed to explore in depth the causes and consequences of the American Revolution, including the implications for Native Americans and African Americans as well as for Euro-Americans. Historians have long debated the Revolution's purpose and significance, and we will look at different sides of this enduring controversy. We will analyze the patriots' post-colonial efforts to establish a nation-state with a republican and federal form of government. In particular, we will weigh the question of whether the ratification of the U.S.Constitution represented the fulfillment, repudiation, or modification of the original Spirit of '76. We will also consider whether the new political system worked the way its framers intended, paying special attention to why partisan controversies in the early Republic proved so vicious. Beyond the realm of politics, we will explore the ways in which the Revolution influenced the day-to-day behavior of Americans, including relations between men of different classes and intimate relations between men and women. Toward the end of the semester we will focus on the issues of national and sectional identity as they moved to center stage during the War of 1812 and subsequent Missouri Crisis.

Over the course of the semester, students will undertake individual projects involving intensive research in primary source materials. Students will make oral presentations of their findings to the class. Research papers will serve as "final projects" due during exam period. The goal of these projects is to empower students to do history, not just to read it.

Format: The class will meet on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. The core of each session will be student discussion supplemented by commentary by the instructor. The discussions will focus on the reading assignments, and students will be expected to post questions for group consideration on Blackboard (a.k.a. Academic Hub) at least three hours in advance of class meetings.

Requirements: In addition to doing the assigned reading and regularly posting questions on Blackboard, students will write a position paper (4-5 pages); a prospectus for the research project (2-3 pages); a progress report on their research (2-3 pages); and a research paper (18-22 pages). Students will also make oral presentations of their research findings. The due dates are given in the schedule of assignments below. Participation in class discussions is expected, and students should notify the instructor of the reasons for absences from discussion sessions.

Grades: Final grades will be based on the following formula: position paper, 15%; research prospectus, 5%; research progress report, 5%; oral presentation of research findings, 10%; research paper (final project), 40%; class participation (including Blackboard postings and in-class discussions), 25%. The professor reserves the right to exercise some discretion in determining final grades.

Honor Code: All course work is governed by the Oberlin College 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.

Accommodation for Disabilities: With the assistance of the Office of Disability Services, the instructor will provide appropriate accommodation for students with disabilities and special needs. Students should notify the instructor at the start of the semester if they desire such accommodation.

Writing Certification: Students who wish to be considered for certification of writing proficiency should notify the instructor at the beginning of the semester.

Purchases: The following books should be purchased. They are available at the Oberlin Bookstore and elsewhere.

Colin G. Calloway, The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006)

Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, Enlarged ed. (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1992)

Benjamin L. Carp, Rebels Rising: Cities and the American Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007)

James Kirby Martin and Mark Edward Lender, A Respectable Army: The Military Origins of the Republic, 1763-1789, 2nd ed. (Wheeling, IL: Harlan Davidson, 2006)

Gary J. Kornblith, Slavery and Sectional Strife in the Early American Republic, 1776-1821 (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010)

Susan E. Klepp. Revolutionary Conceptions: Women, Fertility, and Family Limitation in America, 1760-1820 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009)

Schedule of Classes and Assignments:

Tue., Sept. 7	Introduction
Thur., Sept. 9 Mitchell Map of North America, 1755	American Society and Culture, ca. 1750 Richard Hofstadter, America at 1750: A Social Portrait (New York: Vintage, 1973), 131-179 [under "Course Documents" in Blackboard] Gordon S. Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992), 11-92 [under "Course Documents" in Blackboard] Alan Taylor, American Colonies (New York: Viking, 2001), 301-337 [under "Course Documents" in Blackboard]

Tue., Sept. 14 Death of Gen. James Wolfe by Benjamin West (1769)	Origins of the Imperial Crisis Calloway, The Scratch of a Pen, 3-111, 150-164 [purchase]
Thur., Sept. 16	Debate over the Stamp Act Daniel Dulaney, Considerations on the Propriety of Imposing Taxes in the British Colonies for the Purpose of Raising Revenue by Act of Parliament (1765), excerpts Soame Jenyns, Objections to the Taxation of Our American Colonies by the Legislature of Great Britain Briefly Considered (1765) [in Google Books] "Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress" (1765) The Examination of Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1766) [in Early American Imprints, accessible from campus computers]

Tue., Sept. 21 John Dickson, 1768 engraving	The Escalating Alarm of Colonial Elites Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, ix-xvi, 1-159 [purchase] Woody Holton, "The Ohio Indians and the Coming of the American Revolution in Virginia," Journal of Southern History 60 (Aug. 1994): 453-478 [in JSTOR, accessible from campus computers]
Thur., Sept. 23	Introduction to Research Project (Special location: Electronic Classroom on the main floor of Mudd.)

Tue., Sept. 28	Popular Mobilization in the Cities Carp, Rebels Rising, 1-98, 143-212 [purchase]
Thur., Sept. 30	Popular Mobilization in the Countryside T.H. Breen, American Insurgents, American Patriots: The Revolution of the People (New York: Hill and Wang, 2010), 76-98 [under "Course Documents" in Blackboard] Rhys Isaac, “Dramatizing the Ideology of Revolution: Popular Mobilization in Virginia, 1774 to 1776,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 33 (July 1976): 357-385 [in JSTOR, accessible from campus computers] Recommended: Michael A. McDonnell, “Popular Mobilization and the Political Culture in Revolutionary Virginia: The Failure of the Minutemen and the Revolution from Below,” Journal of American History 85 (Dec. 1998): 946-981 [in JSTOR, accessible from campus computers] Note: Ashli White, author of Encountering Revolution: Haiti and the Making of the Early Republic (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010) will join us for the first part of class to discuss the research process. Prof. White teaches at the University of Miami and will present a talk titled "Waxing Republican: The Migration of Revolutionary Figures in the Atlantic World" at Hallock Auditorium (A. J. Lewis Center) at 4:30 pm.

Tue., Oct. 5 Source: National Archives	The Decision for Independence Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776), excerpts Pauline Maier, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), 47-96 [under "Course Documents" in Blackboard] Declaration of Independence (1776) David Armitage, "The Declaration of Independence and International Law," William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 59 (Jan. 2002): 39-64 [in JSTOR, accessible from campus computers]
Wed., Oct. 6	Prospectus due by 11 pm
Thur., Oct. 7	Discussion of Prospectuses

Tue., Oct. 12 Source: Valley Forge Historical Society	The War for Independence: The Military Struggle Martin and Lender, A Respectable Army, 29-195 [purchase]
Thur., Oct. 14 Abigail Adams	The War for Independence: The Home Front John K. Alexander, “The Fort Wilson Incident of 1779: A Case Study of the Revolutionary Crowd,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 31 (Oct. 1974): 589-612 [in JSTOR, accessible from campus computers] Barbara Clark Smith, "Food Rioters and the American Revolution," William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 51 (Jan. 1994): 3-38 [in JSTOR, accessible from campus computers] David Waldstreicher, “Rites of Rebellion, Rites of Assent: Celebrations, Print Culture, and the Origins of American Nationalism, “ Journal of American History 82 (June 1995): 37-61 [in JSTOR, accessible from campus computers]

Tue., Oct. 19	The American Revolution and Slavery Kornblith, Slavery and Sectional Strife, 1-31, 75-104 [purchase] Douglas R. Egerton, Death or Liberty: African Americans and Revolutionary America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 3-14, [under "Course Documents" in Blackboard]
Thur., Oct. 21	No Class
Sat., Oct. 23	Position paper due by noon
Fall Break
Tue., Nov. 2	Framing the Federal Constitution Alfred F. Young, “Conservatives, the Constitution, and the ‘Genius of the People,'” in Robert A Goldwin and William A. Schambra, eds., How Democratic is the Constitution? (Washington, D.C. : American Enterprise Institute, 1980), 117-147 [under "Course Documents" in Blackboard] Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, “Dis-Covering the Subject of the ‘Great Constitutional Discussion,' 1786-1789,” Journal of American History 79 (Dec. 1992): 841-873 [in JSTOR, accessible from campus computers] Kornblith, Slavery and Sectional Strife, 31-37, 104-112 [purchase]
Thur., Nov .4 James Madison and Alexander Hamilton	The Struggle over Ratification of the Federal Constitution Federal Constitution as presented for ratification (Sept. 17, 1787) Letters from the Federal Farmer No. 1 (Oct. 8, 1787) No. 2 (Oct. 9, 1787) No. 3 (Oct. 10, 1787) The Federalist Papers No. 6 (Nov. 14, 1787) No. 10 (Nov. 22, 1787) No. 39 (Jan. 16, 1788) No. 51 (Feb. 6, 1788) No. 78 (May 28, 1788) Patrick Henry, "Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention," June 5, 1788

Tue., Nov. 9	The Federalist Establishment and Its Enemies Lance Banning, “Republican Ideology and the Triumph of the Constitution, 1789 to 1793,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser, 31 (Apr. 1974): 168-188 [in JSTOR, accessible from campus computers] Drew R. McCoy, The Elusive Republic: Political Economy in Jeffersonian America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980), 136-165 [under "Course Documents" in Blackboard] Joanne B. Freeman, “Slander, Poison, Whispers, and Fame: Jefferson's ‘Anas’ and Political Gossip in the Early Republic,” Journal of the Early Republic 15 (Spring 1995): 25-57 [in JSTOR, accessible from campus computers]
Thur., Nov. 11	The American Revolution as a Sexual Revolution Clare Lyons, Sex among the Rabble: An Intimate History of Gender & Power in the Age of Revolution, Philadelphia, 1730-1830 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006), 183-236 [under "Course Documents" in Blackboard] Klepp, Revolutionary Conceptions, 1-55 [purchase]

Tue., Nov. 16 "The Artist and His Family" by James Peale (1795)	The American Revolution as a Sexual Revolution (continued) Klepp, Revolutionary Conceptions, 88-214, 272-286 [purchase]
Wed., Nov. 17	Progress report due by 11 pm
Thur., Nov. 18	Discussion of Progress Reports

Tue., Nov. 23	Thomas Jefferson’s Empire for Liberty Thomas Jefferson, "First Inaugural Address," (1801) Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 315-356 [under "Course Documents" in Blackboard] Anthony F.C. Wallace, Jefferson and the Indians: The Tragic Fate of the First Americans (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1999), 206-240, 276-317 [under "Course Documents" in Blackboard]
Thur., Nov. 25	No Class

Tue., Nov. 30	The War of 1812 and American Identity Sean Wilentz, The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln (New York: W.W. Norton, 2005), 141-178 [under "Course Documents" in Blackboard] Paul A. Gilje, "'Free Trade and Sailors' Rights': The Rhetoric of the War of 1812," Journal of the Early Republic 30 (Spring 2010): 1-23 [in OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center, accessible from campus computers] Alan Taylor, "The Late Loyalists: Northern Reflections of the Early American Republic ," Journal of the Early Republic 27 (Spring 2007): 1-34 [in OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center, accessible from campus computers]
Thur., Dec. 2	The Missouri Crisis Kornblith, Slavery and Sectional Strife, 37-61, 134-155 Richard H. Brown, "The Missouri Crisis, Slavery, and the Politics of Jacksonianism," South Atlantic Quarterly 65 (Winter 1966): 55-72 [under "Course Documents" in Blackboard]

Tue., Dec. 7	Oral Presentations of Research Projects Karin, Jesse, Amanda, Philip, Shane
Thur., Dec. 9	Oral Presentations of Research Projects Eamon, John, Ben, Allison, Cristina, Tywanna

Tue., Dec. 14	Oral Presentations of Research Projects Justin, Aliza, Jen, Corinne, Ryan

Tue., Dec. 21	Research paper due by 9 pm