1
The Social Studies Curriculum: U.S. History
E23.2047.001 – 718 Silver
Professor Joan Malczewski
7th Floor Pless Hall
212-998-9017
jm186@nyu.edu
Office Hours: Monday 4:00 – 5:00, and by appointment
Course objectives:
This course introduces major models of teaching U.S. history based on the national standards for
U.S. history. Major periods of U.S. history from Native American civilizations to contemporary
culture are studied. Emphasis is on major writers of American history and the application of this
scholarship in classroom teaching. The important interpretations of significant topics such as
constitutionalism, the frontier, the Civil War and Reconstruction, Progressivism, and the New
Deal are analyzed for their relevance to teaching social studies.
The first steps in preparing to teach U.S. history involve developing an understanding of the
nature of history as a critical discipline, clarifying your own philosophy of history and your goals
as well as society’s in teaching history to the next generation. It is essential that you devote time
and energy to learning and/or reviewing U.S. history so that you understand its central themes,
figures, events and controversies and are in a position to bring that history to life in the
classroom. Students will be expected to use a variety of sources to analyze the American past,
develop an understanding about areas where historians disagree, and use that information to
develop essential questions to guide the teaching of each topic.
This course does not attempt to cover all events and trends that occurred in American history.
Instead it isolates a particular set of topics and explores these in depth, using a variety of
methodological approaches and seeking to understand the different ways historians have
interpreted the events surrounding these occurrences.
COURSE MATERIALS
Required reading for this course consists of a set of texts as noted below, and articles that are
available on Blackboard.
The Way We Lived: Essays and Documents in American Social History, 1492 – 1877, ed.
Frederick M. Binder and David M. Reimers, (Houghton Mifflin, Boston: 2004)
Arthur Miller – The Crucible (Penguin, New York: 1995)
Teaching U.S. History: Dialogues among Social Studies Teachers and Historians, ed. Diana
Turk, Rachel Mattson, Terrie Epstein, Robert Cohen (Routledge, New York: 2010)
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
1. Weekly Assignments Related to Readings: Students will be required to prepare a set of
possible “essential questions” for the topic being discussed each week and come to class
prepared to discuss each topic.
6/28/2016
2
2. Midterm Project – Due in class on October 12: Students will be required to develop a
primary source activity on a topic of choice. The activity should include a narrative that
provides essential information about context and historiography. The narrative should
reference secondary sources that are essential to developing an understanding of the
topic, and sufficient historical context to convey an understanding of the relevant
historiographical issues. (8 – 10 pages)
3. Final Project – Due Monday, December 13: There will be a final paper that focuses on a
particular topic chosen by each student. The paper should include 1) a narrative that
discusses the topic in detail, focusing on context and historiography; 2) a set of essential
questions for teaching the topic; (3) a collection of materials useful for studying and
teaching the topic, including primary sources and maps; (4) important secondary sources.
4. Class Participation: Students are expected to attend class each week and read the
materials that have been assigned for that week. Any student who will miss a class or be
late for class should notify me by e-mail in advance. In marginal cases, class attendance
and participation will affect your final grade.
GRADING
Weekly questions and class participation: 25%
Midterm Project: 35%
Final Project: 40%
COURSE SCHEDULE
1. September 7: Introduction
2. September 14: Presenting and Debating American History
 The Landscape of History, John Lewis Gaddis (Oxford: 2002), Chapters 1 – “The
Landscape of History,” chapter 3 – Structure and Process” and chapter 8 – “Seeing
Like a Historian” **
 Gerald Grob and George Athan Billias: Interpretations of American History: Patterns
and Perspectives, Introduction **
 “Essential Questions: Doorways to Understanding,” in Understanding by Design, 2nd
Edition, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe (Upper Saddle River, 2006).**
3. September 21: Settling the New World



“The First Americans,” and “Conflicting Cultural Values in Early America” –
Chapters 1 and 2 in The Way We Lived
Settlements to Society, 1607 – 1763: A Documentary History of Colonial America, ed.
Jack P. Greene, (New York, 1975), Chapters 13, 14, 33 **
Interpretations of American History: Patterns and Perspectives, Volume I through
Reconstruction, Ed. Grancis G. Couvares, Martha Saxton, Gerald N. Grob, George
6/28/2016
3
Athan Billias, Seventh Edition (New York: 2000)“American Indians: Resistance or
Accommodation?” (Chapter 3) **
4. September 28: Creating a Republic





Robert Cohen, “Was the Constitution Pro-Slavery? The Changing View of Frederick
Douglass,” in Social Education, Arlington: Sep 2008, 72 5, p. 246.**
James Oakes, “Frederick Douglass Changed My Mind about the Constitution,” in Social
Education, Arlington: Sep 2008, 72 5, p. 268. **
Vanessa Rodriguez, “Frederick Douglass, the Constitution, and Slavery: A Classroom
Debate,: Middle Level Learning 33, pp. M2-M13, September, 2008. **
Gordon Wood on the American Constitution, in Interpretations of American History:
Patterns and Perspectives, Volume I through Reconstruction, Ed. Grancis G. Couvares,
Martha Saxton, Gerald N. Grob, George Athan Billias, Seventh Edition (New York:
2000)“ **
John Howe on the American Constitution, in Interpretations of American History:
Patterns and Perspectives, Volume I through Reconstruction, Ed. Grancis G. Couvares,
Martha Saxton, Gerald N. Grob, George Athan Billias, Seventh Edition (New York:
2000)“ **
5. October 5: Democracy in the Age of Jackson
 “The Cherokee Removal: An American Tragedy,” and “Moving West” Chapter 9 and 10
in The Way We Lived
6. October 12: The Slave Community
 “The Enslavement of Africans in Britain’s American Colonies: Chapter 4 in The Way We
Lived
 “Plantation Society in the Antebellum South,” Chapter 14 in The Way We Lived
 “Slavery,” in Teaching U.S. History: Dialogues among Social Studies Teachers and
Historians, ed. Diana Turk, Rachel Mattson, Terrie Epstein, Robert Cohen (Routledge,
New York: 2010)
7. October 19: Reconstruction and the Politics of the South
 “Reconstruction: Change or Stasis” in Interpretations of American History, Patterns and
Perspectives: Volume 1, Francis Couvares, Martha Saxton, Gerald Grob, and George
Billias, eds. **
 Stammp, Kenneth. “The Tragic Legend of Reconstruction” in The Era of
Reconstruction **
 Film and Historical Interpretation – Ken Burns’s The Civil War and Robert B. Toplin,
Ken Burns’s the Civil War: Historians Respond **
 “The Soldier’s Civil War,” and Reconstruction: Triumph and Tragedies,” Chapters 15
and 16 in The Way We Lived
6/28/2016
4
8. October 26: American Power and “The Quest for Empire”
 “U.S. Imperialism,” in Teaching U.S. History: Dialogues among Social Studies Teachers
and Historians, ed. Diana Turk, Rachel Mattson, Terrie Epstein, Robert Cohen
(Routledge, New York: 2010)
 Rob Kroes, “American Empire and Cultural Imperialism: A View from the Receiving
End” in Rethinking American History in a Global Age, ed. Thomas Bender **
 Walter L. Williams, "United States Indian Policy and the Debate over Philippine
Annexation: Implications for the Origins of American Imperialism," The Journal of
American History, Vol. 66, No. 4 (March 1980), pp. 810-831 **
 Walter LeFeber, “Liberty and Power: U.S. Diplomatic History” in The New American
History, ed. Thomas Bender **
9. November 2: The Gilded Age in Industrial America: the Many Facets of Progressivism
 McCormick, Richard. “Public Life in Industrial America,” in The New American
History, ed. Thomas Bender **
 Andrew Carnegie, “The Gospel of Wealth” and “A Workingman’s Prayer for the
Masses.” **
 Hofstadter, Richard. “Theodore Roosevelt: The Conservative as Progressive.” **
 Gutman, Herbert. “Work, Culture, and Society in Industrializing America,” in Work,
Culture and Society in Industrial America **
 “The Age of Reform,” Chapter 13 in The Way We Lived
10. November 9: Immigration and Urban Life
 Riis, Jacob, How the Other Half Lives **
 “Immigration,” in Teaching U.S. History: Dialogues among Social Studies Teachers and
Historians, ed. Diana Turk, Rachel Mattson, Terrie Epstein, Robert Cohen (Routledge,
New York: 2010)
11. November 16: The Great Depression and the New Deal
 “The New Deal,” in Teaching U.S. History: Dialogues among Social Studies Teachers
and Historians, ed. Diana Turk, Rachel Mattson, Terrie Epstein, Robert Cohen
(Routledge, New York: 2010)
12. November 23: The Cold War, HUAC and Joseph McCarthy
 Arthur Miller, “The Crucible”
 Arthur Miller, Selections from Timebends. **
13. November 30: The Decade of the 60’s
 The Civil Rights Movement, in Teaching U.S. History: Dialogues among Social Studies
Teachers and Historians, ed. Diana Turk, Rachel Mattson, Terrie Epstein, Robert Cohen
(Routledge, New York: 2010)
 Weisbrot, Robert. Freedom Bound: A History of America’s Civil Rights Movement,
chapters 1, 2, and 4. **
 Young, Marilyn. The Vietnam Wars: 1945 – 1990. Chapters 1, 2, 9, 10, 12 and
Epilogue**
6/28/2016
5

“Isn’t History Always a Mystery?” in Teaching U.S. History as Mystery, David Gerwin
and Jack Zevin, (Portsmouth, 2003) **
14. December 7: America in the 1980’s
 Chafe, William, “America Since 1945” in The New American History **
 Gerald Grob and George Athan Billias, “The 1980’s: American Watershed?” in
Interpretations of American History, volume II. **
 Robert D. Schulzinger. “The Foreign Policy of Nostalgia,” in American Diplomacy in the
20th Century, 2nd Ed. **
6/28/2016