American Society

Course Requirements:
All students are required to attend lectures and take part in discussions. Exams will require students to synthesize lecture materials as well as readings. Students must also read and assimilate required readings, and be prepared to discuss readings on the schedule given below. Students will submit all assignments on time; late papers will not be accepted without prior arrangement with the professor. Further, no student with more than four unexcused absences will receive a passing grade for the course.

A Note About Academic Integrity: Integrity is fundamental to the academic enterprise. It is violated by acts such as borrowing or purchasing term papers, essays, reports, and other written assignments; using concealed notes or crib sheets during examinations; copying others' work and submitting it as one's own; and misappropriating the knowledge of others. The sources from which one derives one's ideas, statements, terms, and data must be fully and specifically acknowledged in the appropriate form; failure to do so, intentionally or unintentionally, constitutes plagiarism. Violations of academic integrity may result in failure in the course and in disciplinary actions with penalties such as suspension or dismissal from the College.

Contacting the Professor: My office is in 2N 203, and my office phone is 718-982-2869; I have office hours Mondays and Wednesdays from 1:15 to 3:15 and by appointment. You may also reach me via email at lavender@postbox.csi.cuny.edu. Finally, materials for the course, such as handouts, will usually be stored electronically for your reference at the course website, at http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/sls230.html

Assignments:
First Midterm Exam (Wednesday, March 1): 20% of Final Course Grade
Second Midterm Exam (Wednesday, April 5): 20% of Final Course Grade
Third Midterm/Final Exam (Wednesday, May 31): 20% of Final Course Grade
Teaching Project (Monday, April 17): 20% of Final Course Grade
Participation (attendance, quiz grades, discussion contribution): 20% of Final Course Grade

Required Texts:
The Declaration of Independence
The Constitution of the United States
"A Strange New World: The Europeans' First Encounters with the American Indians"
James Merrell, "The Indians' New World: The Catawba Experience"
Edmund S. Morgan, "Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox"
Joseph J. Ellis, "The Enduring Influence of the Declaration: The Declaration as Mythology and History"
Gordon Wood, "Revolution"
The Liberty Rhetoric Website
Peter Parley, The Tales of Peter Parley About America (selections)
Sojourner Truth, ed. Olive Gilbert, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth*
Gutman, Worker Time, Industrial Time, selections
Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn*
Frederick Jackson Turner, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" (1893)
Stephen Crane, "The Open Boat" and Other Stories*
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby*
Lise Yasui. A Family Gathering (film)

*Starred items will be available for purchase at the New York Book Exchange on Victory Boulevard

There are additional optional materials for this course on the WWW at http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/sls230.html

Course Schedule:

Week One: Introduction
	Monday, January 31	Introduction to the Course
	Wednesday, February 2	What is "American"?
	Readings: The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States

Week Two: American Origins
	Monday, February 7	Competing Empires
	Wednesday, February 9	An "Indian" History of Conquest
	Readings: "A Strange New World"; Merrell, "The Indians' New World"; Parley, selections

Week Three: Slavery and the Origins of American Culture
	Monday, February 14	Freedom and Slavery
	Wednesday, February 16	Slaves and Citizens
	Readings: Morgan, "Slavery and Freedom"; The Narrative of Sojourner Truth

Week Four: The Revolution and the Origins of American Citizenship
	Monday, February 21	CSI Closed--No Classes
	Wednesday, February 23	Discuss The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States
	Readings: Ellis, "The Enduring Influence of the Declaration"; Gordon Wood, "Revolution"

Week Five: FIRST EXAM
	Monday, February 28	Review for First Exam
	Wednesday, March 1	First Exam
	Readings: Review for Exam

Week Six: Becoming a Nation
	Monday, March 6	Revolutionary Rhetoric and The Constitution
	Wednesday, March 8	Revolutionary Rhetoric and Real Life
	Readings: The Liberty Rhetoric Website; Peter Parley, selections; The Narrative of Sojourner Truth

Week Seven: Industrial America
	Monday, March 13	The Workaday Workday
	Wednesday, March 15	Industrial Time
	Readings: Gutman, Worker Time, Industrial Time, selections; Twain, Huckleberry Finn

Week Eight: Making a Nation
	Monday, March 20	Antebellum America
	Wednesday, March 22	The Civil War and the American Nation
	Readings: Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Week Nine: Hucksters and Tricksters
	Monday, March 27	Reconstruction and the Emergence of Gilded Age America
	Wednesday, March 29	Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
	Readings: Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Week Ten: SECOND EXAM
	Monday, April 3	Review for Second Exam
	Wednesday, April 5	Second Exam
	Readings: Review for Exam

Week Eleven: Looking Inward
	Monday, April 10	The Regional Expansion of the United States
	Wednesday, April 12	Discuss Turner, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History"
	Readings: Turner, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History"

Week Twelve: Looking Outward
	Monday, April 17	The Internationalization of the United States; Teaching Project Due
	Wednesday, April 19	Spring Break, April 19-28
	Readings: Crane, "The Open Boat" and Other Stories

Week Thirteen: The Open Boat and the Immigrant City
	Monday, May 1	Discuss "The Open Boat" from Crane, "The Open Boat" and Other Stories
	Wednesday, May 3	Discuss "Maggie" from Crane, "The Open Boat" and Other Stories
	Readings: Crane, "The Open Boat" and Other Stories

Week Fourteen: American Individualism in the Corporate Age
	Monday, May 8	American Advertising
	Wednesday, May 10	Discuss Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
	Readings: Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Week Fifteen: The American Citizen in the World
	Monday, May 15	View and Discuss Yasui, A Family Gathering
	Wednesday, May 17	Summing Up; Review for Third Exam
	Readings: Review for Third Exam

Finals Week: Final Exam (Third Midterm/Final)
	Wednesday, May 31	Third Midterm/Final

Teaching Project:
While some of you do not plan to embark on a career in education, nonetheless, thinking about ways to teach something applies in any profession; supervisors, lawyers, police officers, and truck drivers all need to be able to get their points across and to help other people to remember the lessons they wish to share. Physicist and teacher Richard P. Feynman has said that if you cannot explain your idea to an intelligent freshman, then you don't really understand it yourself; an even better test might be to explain your idea to an intelligent twelve-year-old. The "teaching project" is designed to encourage you to explain your idea to this precise audience.
Your assignment will be to identify what you think to be the most significant lesson about American society, and to devise a plan of attack which will implant that lesson into a young brain. What would you ask the subject to read, research, or do in order for that lesson to be indelibly etched in his or her consciousness? Document the lesson, the method of implantation, and the desired outcomes for mastery of the lesson. How would you be able to tell whether the student had learned the lesson, and how would you make the student apply the lesson in real life?
Please demonstrate to me in a brief essay (5-7 pages) your mastery of the following skills: 1) assessing American society; 2) expressing that assessment in written form; 3) thinking imaginatively and practically about ways to illustrate that assessment; 4) devising a plan of action for evaluating your own success in demonstrating your point.

Last updated: Monday 31 January 2000.