Honors American Studies reading list, 2012-2013
1st Quarter
Week 1 (8/29-8/31): Columbus poems, “Rip Van Winkle” by Irving
Week 2 (9/4-9/7): George Washington texts, “Young Goodman Brown” by Hawthorne, Moby Dick by
Melville
Week 3 (9/10-9/14): Puritanism and Romanticism; Moby Dick
Week 4 (9/17-9/21): Moby Dick
Week 5 (9/24-9/28): Moby Dick
Week 6 (10/1-10/5): Moby Dick
Week 7 (10/8-10/12): Fireside poets (Whittier, Bryant, Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes)
Week 8 (10/15-10/19): Transcendentalism: “Battle of the Ants” and “Why I Went into the Woods” by
Thoreau; “Rhodora” by Emerson; “Self Reliance” by Emerson
Week 9 (10/22-10/26): “Self Reliance”; “A White Heron” by Jewett; Dickinson, Whitman poems
2nd Quarter
Week 1 (10/29-11/2): Realism, Apologists, and Satire: Timrod, Twain, Foster
Week 2 (11/5-11/9): Huck Finn, “The War Prayer”
Week 3 (11/13-11/16): Huck Finn and “The United States of Lyncherdom”
Week 4 (11/19-11/21): Huck Finn, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July” by Douglass
Week 5 (11/26-11/30): Huck Finn, Born to Trouble, poems from Black Voices
Week 6 (12/3-12/7): Blues music, Autobiography by Douglass
Week 7 (12/10-12/14): Regionalism—Hudson River & Rocky Mountain Schools; Bret Harte stories
Week 8 (12/17-12/20): Regionalism—Native Americans and American expansion
Week 9 (1/2-1/4): Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Alexie
Week 10 (1/7-1/11): Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven; treaties
Week 11 (1/14-1/15): Review for FINALS
Finals (1/16-1/18): Presentations
Honors American Studies reading list, 2012-2013
3rd Quarter
Week 1(1/22-1/25): Immigration, Industrialization, Urbanization: Ashcan School, immigration poems,
selected chapters from The Jungle by Sinclair
Week 2 (1/28-2/1): The Jungle, “A Deal in Wheat,” contemporary essay
Week 3 (2/4-2/8): Modernism; Harlem Renaissance (more selections from Black Voices, jazz music,
“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Perkins Gilman, “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” by Porter
Week 4 (2/11-2/15): Modern art, The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald, “Auto Wreck” by Shapiro
Week 5 (2/25-3/1): Gatsby
Week 6 (3/4-3/8): Gatsby
Week 7 (3/12-3/15): Social Realism and American Folk; Native Son by Wright, “How Bigger was Born”
Week 8 (3/18-3/22): Native Son
Week 9 (3/25-3/29): Native Son
4th Quarter
Week 1 (4/8-4/12): Native Son
Week 2 (4/15-4/19: Re-return to Normalcy: 1950s, “The Swimmer” and “Enormous Radio” by
Cheever, “The Organization Man” by White, “American Gothic,” rock ‘n roll music
Week 3 (4/22-4/26): Protest and Upheaval: poems about the Vietnam War, first hand essays, Letters
Home
Week 4 (4/29-5/3): The Things They Carried by O’Brien
Week 5 (5/6-5/10): The Things They Carried
Week 6 (5/13-5/17): The Things They Carried
Week 7 (5/20-5/23): College admission-type essays
Week 8 (5/28-5/31): Late 20th Century America: assorted poems, short stories, and essays; hip hop
music
Week 9 (6/3-6/7): Review for FINALS
 Sr FINALS 6/3-6/5
Finals (6/10-6/12): Presentations