Department of History
New York University
Fall, 2010
Historical Studies: Theories and Practices
Workshop: America in the Age of the Civil War, 1815-1913: Economy, Slavery,
Culture, and Ideas.
Each student is expected to read all assigned material and be prepared to have intelligent
discussion of the material. Every week students must prepare 1 discussion question based
on the material. In addition students must write 4 longer responses (2-3 pages). They may
choose which weeks to write these responses. In addition there will be a longer 6 page
paper due towards the middle of the course. A final paper will also be assigned in which
students must make an argument of their own, using both secondary and primary sources.
Books required for the Workshop Portion:
Bruce Levine: Half Slave, Half Free: The Roots of the Civil War (Revised Edition,
2005)
Ellen Dubois: Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent
Women’s Movement in America: 1848-1869
Charles Dew, Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the
Causes of the Civil War (2001)
David Montgomery: Citizen Worker: The Experience of Workers in the United
States with Democracy and the Free Market during the Nineteenth Century
Week 1. Introduction to the Section. Why does the Civil War Matter?
1. Washington Post, October 20th, 2010: “Virginia 4th-grade textbook criticized
over claims on black Confederate soldiers.”
2. Open Letter to Barack Obama: “Dear President Obama: Please Don't Honor
the Arlington Confederate Monument” by Edward Sebesta and James Loewen
at http://hnn.us/articles/85884.html
3. Washington Post, April, 7, 2010, “McDonnell's Confederate History Month
proclamation irks civil rights leaders”
Week 2. Working with Primary Sources: Slavery and Industrialization
1. Selections from Martha Hodes: Sea Captain’s Wife Ch. 1
2. Primary Documents: David Walker’s Appeal (1829); Nat Turner’s Confession
(1831); Selections from Frederick Douglass’ Autobiography
Week 3: Arguments and Interpretation: Slavery in the Old South
1. Selections from Eugene Genovese: Roll, Jordan, Roll
2. Walter Johnson: Re-reading Roll, Jordan, Roll. http://www.commonplace.org/vol-01/no-04/reviews/johnson.shtml
3. Bruce Levine: Half Slave, Half Free, Ch.1
Week 4: A Historical Debate: Wage Labor vs. Slave Labor?
1. Bruce Levine: Half Slave, Half Free: Ch. 2-3
2. Primary Documents: Orestes Brownson: The Labouring Classes; Abraham
Lincoln: Address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society; James
Henry Hammond: The Mudsill Speech
Week 5: The Politics of Slavery
1. Ellen Dubois: Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent
Women’s Movement in America: 1848-1869 Ch. 1
2. Bruce Levine, Ch. 6-7
3. Primary Document: Henry David Thoreau- Slavery in Massachusetts
Week 6: Secession: What Caused the Civil War?
1. James M. McPherson, "What Caused the Civil War?," North and South, IV
(Nov. 2000)
2. Selection from John Ashworth: Slavery, Capitalism, and Politics in the
Antebellum Republic
3. Charles Dew, Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and
the Causes of the Civil War (2001), 4-50, 74-81; 83-103
Six Page paper due: Discuss the major differences in the Southern and Northern
societies in the years before the Civil War. What do you think were the most
relevant to the coming of the Civil War? Why? Draw on both
Week 7 (Mid-terms)
1. Visit the New York Historical Society
Week 8: Spring Break
Week 9: The War from the Bottom Up
1. Selections from: James McPherson: For Cause and Comrade
2. Primary Document: Selections from Charlotte Forten’s Journal, pp. 337- 449
3. Ambrose Bierce: “What I Saw at Shiloh”
Week 10: Emancipation and Black Soldiers
1. Primary Document: Abraham Lincoln: The Emancipation Proclamation
2. Primary Document: Selections from Thomas Wentworth Higginson: Army
Life in a Black Regiment pp. 1-76; 243-267
Week 11: Reconstruction: a Revolution?
1. Selections from Eric Foner: Reconstruction pp.1-119
2. Ellen Dubois: Ch. 3
Week 12: The War and Women
1. Ellen Dubois: Ch. 2-6
2. Primary Document: The Diary of Alice Williamson
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/williamson/
Week 13: An Industrial North
1. David Montgomery: Citizen Worker: The Experience of Workers in the United
States with Democracy and the Free Market during the Nineteenth Century
Week 14: The End of Reconstruction and Jim Crow
1. Leon Litwack: Hellhounds
2. Eric Foner: 564-601
Week 15: The Memory of the Civil War
1. Selections from James Loewen: Lies Across America
2. Selections from David Blight: Race and Reunion
Final Paper due: This 10 page paper should discuss a particular theme or historical
discussion of your choosing. I expect you to make an original argument, drawing on
evidence from both the secondary material that we read and the primary sources that we
have read in class. I also expect you to find and use another 3 primary sources, that I did
not assign you, which are relevant to your topic.