History 571 - Early America
Instructor: Birte Pfleger
Office: KHC 4033
Office hours: T, TH 10-11AM; 2-3 PM
Phone: (323) 343-2044
History Department: (323) 343-2020
http://www.calstatela.edu/academic/history/course.htm
E-mail: bpflege@calstatela.edu
Web address: http://www.calstatela.edu./faculty/bpflege/
In this graduate seminar we will read and discuss selected books in Early American history to
consider different approaches to studying colonial history. It is essential that you come to class
prepared to discuss the assigned readings. Taking notes (5-7 pages) while you are reading each
book is essential for writing book reviews, for preparing for class discussions as well as in preparing
for your comprehensive exams.
Your Grade
Discussion leadership (1)
Review of Reviews (1)
Participation
Book Reviews (5)
20%
10%
20%
50%
Each student will have the opportunity to lead class discussions on assigned readings at least once
during the quarter (depending on enrollment). Your job for the day will be to introduce the readings
to us and to lead the group through the important issues of the readings. Think of this as a team
teaching exercise. You should begin with a brief introduction to the author/s (find out what else
he/she has written, where the author teaches etc. The Internet is a great place to search for that
information). After that you will launch the group into a discussion of the issues: what does the
author argue? What evidence does the author use? How does she/he make the argument? Do you
see problems with the book? How does the book relate to other readings or discussions? What
questions are not addressed? Visual aids are always useful for this assignment, either in the form of
a one-page outline, a list of questions, pictures or overhead transparencies. Each discussion leader is
required to submit discussion questions to me via email at least 48 hours before our class meeting.
Each student will also compile a review of reviews at least once during the quarter. You will need
to find as many published scholarly reviews of the assigned book as possible (between 5-10) and
present to the class an informed overview of how the scholarly community has received a particular
work. You should provide everyone with a 1-page handout that includes a bibliography of the
reviews you consulted and briefly highlights reviewers’ responses. Most reviews will be full of
praise – don’t go to great lengths summarizing those. Instead concentrate on WHY the reviewers
liked the book and look for aspects reviewers’ found lacking.
You need to write reviews on FIVE of the assigned books. Your book review must be 2 pages (I
will stop reading at the bottom of page 2), double-spaced, 12-point Times font with one-inch
margins. Your introductory paragraph must begin with the author’s thesis and your own thesis
statement on how this book fits into the larger historiography. (Please leave out first-person
references such as “ think”, “I believe” etc.) If you consulted scholarly reviews of the book, you
MUST cite and include copies of the reviews with your own paper.
Schedule
September 21: Introductions; expectations; what do we know about Early American history?
September 28: Daniel Richter, Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of
Early America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001)
October 5: Nancy Shoemaker, A Strange Likeness; Becoming Red and White in EighteenthCentury North America (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
October 12: Jack Greene, Pursuits of Happiness; The Social Development of Early
Modern British Colonies and the Formation of American Culture (Chapel Hill: The
University of North Carolina Press, 1988)
October 19: Kirsten Fischer, Suspect Relations (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002)
October 26: David D. Hall, Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment: Popular Religious
Belief I Early New England (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990)
November 2: Jon Sensbach, A Separate Canaan; The Making of an Afro-Moravian World
in North Carolina, 1763-1840 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press,
1998)
November 9: Sharon Block, Rape & Sexual Power in Early America (Chapel Hill: The University
of North Carolina Press, 2006)
November 16: Edmund S. Morgan, The Genuine Article; A Historian Looks at Early America (New
York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2004), parts I and II.
November 30: Edmund S. Morgan, The Genuine Article; A Historian Looks at Early America (New
York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2004), parts III and IV.
December 7: Mock exam
You will each write at least three questions pertaining to larger issues in Early American
history that you feel you are able to discuss and answer as a result of the readings in this
course. You must provide (email is best) these questions to the instructor by November 25.
We will spend the second half of the evening discussing the questions and strategies to
answer them effectively.