HIST 50b
American Transformations:
Perspectives on United
States History,
Origins to the Present
Brandeis University
Summer 2015
Mon., Tues. & Thu. 1:30pm – 3:50pm
Instructor: Winston Bowman, J.D., Ph.D.
Office Hours (OS 119): T, 10:30am-12pm and by appointment
Email: wbowman@brandeis.edu
Course Description:
This course reimagines what has traditionally been known as
"the American History survey"—a two-semester
introduction to American history from early conquest to
2014. The classic university American History survey and
Advanced Placement U.S. History courses in many
American high schools have often had a great deal of
overlap in material and approach. By contrast, this course offers a one-semester overview of
American history from its origins to the present but from a more unorthodox angle. We start with
the premise that American History itself is a construct of modern empire. When History as
professional scholarship rose as a discipline in the late nineteenth century, ninety-five percent of its
practitioners were located in America and Europe. Nevertheless, we study it. Only by investigating
the roots of power and resistance can we understand the forces that deeply influence our world as
we live it today. To avoid grappling substantively with American history is to shrink from the most
pressing and intractable questions of democracy and imperialism, equality and order, cultural
comity and conflict.
This course beckons to multiple cross-sections of the student body. It speaks to students trained
abroad who seek to learn major foundational points of American history. It speaks to students who
consider themselves well-versed in American history who want to do something a little different,
who want to probe deeper into accepted narratives usually strung together by the political events
that made headlines. This course beckons to students who envision a critical engagement with
America's past as formative in the course of their life's work. In a global 21st century, an American
history course is not a relic of parochial thinking, but a hard-nosed inquiry into what it means to
interrogate claims of American exceptionalism in our current context where transnationalism is all
the rage, borders are contested and crossed, but the sovereign nation-state remains as the accepted
way of demarking community and order within our world systems.
This course will tell you stories. Then we will interpret them. America explained. America
questioned. In that order. We are studying a land mass in the northern part of the western
hemisphere of the globe. We are studying the people who envisioned this space as a palette for
ideas in various ways over time. This course seeks to create a common vocabulary of American
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history across different cultural backgrounds and perspectives and to collectively subject America's
past to a new level of critical scrutiny. This course is one approach to offering what every good
global citizen should know about the American past.
American Transformations seeks to understand change in American history. Why did this colony of
the British Empire gain its independence in 1776 when so many others failed? How did involuntary
servitude move from a class- to a race-based system? Why, even after widespread immigration, did
the concept of race continue to evolve on the terms of a black-white binary? American
Transformations traces revolutions and evolutions on the North American continent. The course
progresses roughly chronologically—as our basic method still resides in examining change over
time—but also thematically, taking up major topics each week. We begin not with the birth of a
nation, but with possible starting points for the idea of nation and conjectures into what could go
into a national narrative.
Aims of this course:
There is no shortage of information on America and its history. This course aims to provide a guide
through the noise. It brings to the fore the work of professional scholars whose methods and
research have been peer-reviewed and have made a substantial impact on scholarly understandings.
These scholarly understandings are not always the same as public historical understandings. The
goal here is for students to differentiate between the construction of an argument based on historical
evidence, on the one hand, and the practice of ad hominem polemics, on the other, and to be able to
engage and execute the former. The challenge of historical interpretation and the balance of
empirical and imaginative methods will be a centerpiece of this course, and ultimately every student
will have to defend not only her argument but her method for arriving there. Students will know the
difference between a primary and secondary source and will be able to track down a footnote. They
will not only gain new information but will also learn how to detect from where different writers'
information comes. The assignments are designed to hone skills in reading, writing, and oral
presentation. Students will develop and become self-aware of the tools they use in managing and
assessing historical data. Students will gain knowledge of the American past and the telling of the
American past over time. This will compel students to grapple with how historians think and
require them to understand the value of thinking historically. If history is what the present chooses
to remember about the past, the objective of a student in this course is to question why we
remember what we do and how we do.
Organization of course:
Tuesdays will consist of a lecture from the professor and an introduction to sources and tools of
historical study. Thursdays will consist of student presentations, group discussion, and
collaborative historical lab work.

Readings: Our main reading will come from:
Eric Foner's Give Me Liberty!: An American History, Brief Third Edition
(NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012) ISBN-13:9780393935516
*This book is on reserve at the library and is available at the Brandeis bookstore. Note that the Brief Fourth Edition just
came out but not in time for incorporation into this course. The professor will be referencing page numbers that match
the Brief Third Edition.
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Grading Policy:
1.
Informed Participation:
20%.
Many of our class sessions will be based primarily on discussions of the readings assigned
for each meeting. If you do not attend this class prepared to contribute to these discussions,
the class (and your grade) will suffer.
2.
Papers:
40% total.
You will write two short papers on assigned topics that call on you to argue an historical
position based on your interpretation of the class readings. Each paper will count for 20% of
your total grade.
3.
Midterm Exam:
20%.
The in-class midterm will feature a combination of short answer and essay questions. It will
cover all course material up to that point in the term.
4.
Final Exam:
20%.
The in-class final exam will feature a combination of short answer and essay questions. It
will cover all course material covered during the entire term
Other Policies:
1.
Academic Honesty:
You are expected to be familiar with, and to follow, the University’s policies on academic
integrity. Please consult Brandeis University’s Rights and Responsibilities handbook for all
policies and procedures. All policies related to academic integrity apply to in-class and take
home projects, assignments, exams, and quizzes. Students may only collaborate on
assignments with permission from the instructor. Allegations of alleged academic dishonesty
will be forwarded to the Director of Academic Integrity. Sanctions for academic dishonesty
can include failing grades and/or suspension from the university.
2.
Accommodations:
If you have a documented learning disorder or other disability that may require special
accommodations, please see me as soon as practicable to make appropriate arrangements.
3.
Laptops:
For most of human history, everything went fairly well. Then IBM released the first laptop
and humanity pretty much went to hell in a hand-basket. Laptops are noisy, irritating,
distracting, heavy, ugly things. As a result, I discourage their use in this class. If, however,
you feel a compelling need to bring noise, irritation, distraction, weight, and ugliness into
this class, I feel powerless to stop you.
4.
Phones:
Endeavor to turn your mobile phones and pagers off before class. Text messaging during
class is unforgivably rude. Do not do it.
5.
Attendance:
As noted above, attendance will count toward your participation grade for this class.
Dispensations for excused absences will be made on the basis of a verified medical
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condition or family or personal emergency only.
6.
Late Papers:
Turn your papers and other assignments in on time. Any late assignments will be graded
down one half-grade for each day between the due date and the time you hand in the paper.
7.
Email:
I frequently communicate with the class and individual students via email. Students should
check their email regularly and respond to any queries promptly.
Course Syllabus_Bowman – HIST 50b
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SCHEDULE
M Jun 1
INTRODUCTION: RETHINKING AMERICAN HISTORY
Reading:
None
T Jun 2
OLD WORLD, NEW WORLD
Readings:
Foner, Chap. 1
Pekka Hamalainen, The Comanche Empire (selection)
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of
Nationalism (selection).
Th. Jun 4
THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN CULTURE(S)
Reading:
Foner, Chap. 4
M Jun 8
REVOLUTION AND REPUBLIC
Readings:
Gordon Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution (selection)
Barbara Clark Smith, “The Adequate Revolution”
T Jun 9
A KIND OF DEMOCRACY
Readings:
Foner, Chaps. 9 & 10
Nathan Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity (selection)
DUE:
PAPER 1
Th. Jun 11
SLAVERY AND REBELLION
Readings:
Foner, Chap. 11 & 14
M Jun 15
MIDTERM EXAM
T Jun 16
RECONSTRUCTION AND “REDEMPTION”
Readings:
Foner, Chap. 15 & Chap. 17 (pgs. 516-526 only)
Th. Jun 18
OF COMFORT AND ANXIETY: THE GILDED AGE AND PROGRESSIVE ERA
Reading:
Foner, Chap. 18
T.J. Jackson Lears, Rebirth of a Nation (selection)
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M Jun 22
“THE GREAT WAR” AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION
Reading:
Foner, Chap. 19&20
T Jun 23
THE NEW DEAL AND “THE GOOD WAR”
Readings:
Foner, Chap. 21&22
Th. Jun 25
“THE AMERICAN DREAM” AT HOME AND ABROAD
Readings:
Chap. 23&24
DUE:
PAPER 2
M Jun 29
MODERN LIBERAL, NEW CONSERVATIVES
Readings:
Young Conservatives Organize, The Sharon Statement
Students for a Democratic Society, The Port Huron Statement
T Jun 30
HISTORISIZING MODERN AMERICA
Readings:
None.
Th. Jul 2
FINAL EXAM (1pm-4pm).
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