History 8700
Studies in Early American History:
Imperial Borderlands and Native Homelands
Fall 2015
Vanderbilt University
Wednesday 3:10-6:00
Buttrick Hall 316
Daniel H. Usner
Benson 222
daniel.h.usner@vanderbilt.edu
322-5949 (office)
The purpose of this course is to explore colonial American history from places and spaces
deep within the continent of North America. With attention focused on initiatives and
responses of indigenous nations during their early interactions with multiple European
empires, the question of how American Indians defined and delineated their homelands
will be central. Migrations and exchanges that occurred across the borderlands between
colonial and native societies will also be closely examined.
Books have been selected to include a wide range of periods, regions, topics, and
methods, but in one semester we cannot possibly cover all subjects and approaches
currently being pursued in the field. Our weekly discussions will focus on the substance
of each book, its historiographical and methodological significance, and the author’s
particular argument.
To help facilitate discussions, each member of the class will prepare a short critical
review (2-3 pages) of two or three weekly assignments. The student responsible for the
review should e-mail a copy of the report to all class members by the Tuesday afternoon
prior to our Wednesday class.
The final written assignment for this course will be an essay (20-25 pages) due on
Wednesday, December 16. This essay should either produce original research on a
selected topic in imperial borderlands and indigenous homelands or explore the
historiography around a problem covered in the course syllabus. Additional reading for
the latter choice may include other recent monographs, journal literature, and older
works.
Aug. 26
Introduction
Sept. 2
Juliana Barr and Edward Countryman, eds. Contested Spaces of Early
America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014)
2
Sept. 9
Robbie Ethridge, From Chicaza to Chickasaw: The European Invasion
and the Transformation of the Mississippian World, 1540-1715 (Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010
Sept. 16
Michael Witgen, An Infinity of Nations: How the Native New World
Shaped Early North America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press, 2011)
Sept. 23
Jon Parmenter, The Edge of the Woods: Iroquoia, 1534-1701 (East
Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2010)
Sept. 30
Kathleen DuVal, The Native Ground: Indians and Colonists in the Heart
of the Continent (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006)
Oct. 7
Stephen Warren, The Worlds the Shawnees Made: Migration and Violence
in Early America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014)
Oct. 21
Elizabeth A. Fenn, Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the
Mandan People (New York: Hill and Wang, 2014)
Oct. 28
Pekka Hämäläinen, The Comanche Empire (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 2008)
Nov. 11
Jay Gitlin, The Bourgeois Frontier: French Towns, French Traders and
American Expansion (New Have: Yale University Press, 2010)
Nov. 18
Ned Blackhawk, Violence over the Land: Indians and Empires in the
Early American West (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006)
Dec. 2
Brian DeLay, War of a Thousand Deserts: Indian Raids and the U.S.Mexican War (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008)
Dec. 9
Enrique R. Lamadrid, Hermanitos Comanchitos: Indo-Hispano Rituals of
Captivity and Redemption (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico
Press, 2003)