HIST 101D and AMST 101D, United States History to 1865
*No recording of lectures or laptops will be permitted in class.*
Ben Jordan
Seitz House 6, extension 5642, Email: jordanb@kenyon.edu
Office hours: Monday 2:15-4:00, Wednesday 8:45-11:30, Thursday 8:45-9:45
Class description: As the title and preface of our core textbook suggests, this class will emphasize the
tensions between Liberty, Equality, and Power in the formation and development of the American
nation-state to 1865. Students will be challenged to think about how one American’s liberty has
sometimes come at the expense of the rights of others. We will examine the role of power in politics,
the workforce, families, and broader culture. The class will analyze events and trends central to
America’s history, including the conquest of native peoples, the diversification of colonial economic and
social systems, slavery and servitude, the American Revolution and resulting federal republic, market
capitalism, urbanization, westward expansion, egalitarian and religious movements, and the Civil War.
Class goals: The broader goals of this class parallel the stated mission of Kenyon College: “to be able
to speak and write clearly so as to advance thoughts and arguments cogently; to be able to discriminate
between the essential and the trivial; to arrive at well-informed value judgments; to be able to work
independently and with others; to be able to comprehend our culture as well as other cultures.” This
class aims to help students develop these essential academic and life skills via practicing the Historian’s
Craft. Students will be encouraged to see the writing of history as an ongoing process and argument
instead of a fixed, factual narrative. Students will build beginning proficiencies in analyzing primary
sources, formulating arguments, evaluating historical interpretations, recognizing multiple perspectives,
and oral and written expression. Students will simultaneously develop understanding of important
themes, ideas, and events in American history through the Civil War.
Class methods: This class uses a variety of methods to engage students in the joys of history and the
Historian’s Craft. I believe that students learn well from each other and that I learn as much from
students as they learn from me. In addition to traditional lecture, we will spend a significant portion of
class time in discussion and group activities. We will practice analyzing primary sources such as images,
written documents, films, songs, and material culture in light of historical concepts from lecture and
readings. Students will be expected to participate in class activities such as historical debates, roleplaying, and peer evaluation of written and oral work. Practicing history can touch on many sensitive
issues, so students are asked to be considerate of peers’ perspectives and cultures during class activities.
Original research paper: Readings and class exercises will build toward the key component of this
course - the archival work and writing of an original research paper using local history sources such as
the Kenyon College archive, the Rural Life Center, and the Knox County Historical Society. In other
words, you will get the opportunity to put into practice the lessons of the Historian’s Craft to do your
own original historical research project within the parameters to be described in class.
Disability guidelines: If you have a disability for which you might need accommodation in order to
participate fully in the course, please contact Erin Salva (Coordinator of Disability Services, office in
Old Bank Building, x5453, email salvae@kenyon.edu) and also see me.
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Expectations and grading: Attendance, preparation, and participation in class are essential and count
10% of the semester grade. A short home essay will count 10%, a research project 40% (broken down
into 5% proposal, 10% outline, and 25% final draft), the midterm exam 15%, and the final exam 25% of
your semester grade. My exams and grading stress effective essay writing and historical argumentation.
*The instructor reserves the right to institute in-class quizzes should he deem it necessary.*
*Any assignment turned in late will result in the loss of a full letter grade on it for each day it is late.*
*Each unexcused absence beyond the third will result in the loss of a full semester letter grade.*
*Please read Student Handbook guidelines on plagiarism and cheating. They will be enforced.*
Grading scale: 97-100% A+, 93-96 A, 90-92 A-, 87-89 B+, 83-86 B, 80-82 B-,
77-79 C+, 73-76 C, 70-72 C-, 67-69 D+, 63-66 D, 60-62 D-, 59 and below F
Readings: The following 6 required texts can be found at the bookstore.
*You will also be responsible for the articles assigned through Kenyon Library’s Reserve system.*
Murrin, et al, Liberty, Equality, Power: A History of the American People
Davidson and Lytle, After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection
Mary Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God
Carolyn Merchant, Ecological Revolutions: Nature, Gender, and Science in New England
Paul Johnson, A Shopkeeper’s Millennium: Society and Revivals in Rochester, New York, 1815-1837
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave
*Readings are due the week in which they are listed.*
August 27-31 What is America? The First Americans. Why not China?
Historian’s Craft: What is history? Selecting evidence, distinguishing trivial from significant.
After the Fact Preface through Prologue, “The Strange Death of Silas Deane”
Liberty, Equality, Power xx-xxiv and Ch. 1, “When Old Worlds Collide”
September 3-7 Patterns of European settlements in the Americas.
Historian’s Craft: Primary source types and biases, investigating inconsistency.
After the Fact Ch. 1, “Serving Time in Virginia”
Liberty, Equality, Power Ch. 2, “The Challenge to Spain and the Settlement of North America”
Liberty, Equality, Power Ch. 3, “England Discovers Its Colonies: Empire, Liberty, & Expansion”
September 10-14 The Middle Ground: European interactions with native cultures.
Historian’s Craft: Evaluating secondary works.
Mary Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God
E-RESERVES James Axtell, “The White Indians of Colonial America,” William and Mary
Quarterly 32, no. 1 (January 1975): 55-88.
E-RESERVES Jill Lepore, “Dead Men Tell No Tales: John Sassamon and the Fatal
Consequences of Literacy,” American Quarterly 46, no. 4 (December 1994): 479-512.
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September 17-21 Expansion, imperial conflicts, and social turmoil. 1650-1750
Historian’s Craft: The case study - scope, context, significance, and historiography.
E-RESERVES Edmund S. Morgan, “Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox,”
Journal of American History 59, no. 1 (June 1972): 5-29.
Liberty, Equality, Power Ch. 4, “Provincial America and the Struggle for a Continent”
After the Fact Ch. 2, “The Visible and Invisible Worlds of Salem,”
SHORT PAPER DUE ON ROWLANDSON, AXTELL, AND LEPORE
September 24-28 Colonial households: competency, servitude, and slavery.
Historian’s Craft: Social history – examining dimensions of power in gender, race, class, and age.
Carolyn Merchant, Ecological Revolutions Part I (Preface-145) for next week.
October 1-5 Changing Native American and colonial environmental worldviews and practices.
Historian’s Craft: Taming the monograph. The natures of human history.
After the Fact Ch. 6, “The Invisible Pioneers”
Carolyn Merchant, Ecological Revolutions Part II (p. 147-270)
READING DAYS (October 8-9)
October 10-12 American Revolutions: mercantilism, nationalism, & international relations. 1760-1783
Historian’s Craft: Strategies for analyzing primary source documents.
Liberty, Equality, Power Ch. 5, “Reform, Resistance, Revolution”
After the Fact Ch. 3, “Declaring Independence”
Liberty, Equality, Power Ch. 6, “The Revolutionary Republic”
E-RESERVES Toby Ditz, "Shipwrecked, or Masculinity Imperiled: Mercantile Representations
of Failure and the Gendered Self in 18th Century Philadelphia," Journal of American
History 81, no. 1 (June 1994): 51-80.
October 15-19 “The Early Republic”: whose Bill of Rights? 1781-1815
*MIDTERM MONDAY OCT. 15*
Historian’s Craft: Historical periodization. Archival resources for historical research.
Liberty, Equality, Power Ch. 7, “Completing the Revolution, 1789-1815”
Liberty, Equality, Power Ch. 8, “Northern Transformations, 1800-1830”
Liberty, Equality, Power Ch. 9, “The Old South, 1790-1850”
October 22-26 The Old South: King Cotton, slave life/resistance, and Southern Yeomanry. 1790-1850s
Historian’s Craft: Articulating historical questions and research plans.
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave (p. 3-163)
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October 29 – November 2 Mass culture, refinement, and gender spheres. 1815-1850s
Historian’s Craft: Using material culture as historical evidence – working from the evidence out.
Liberty, Equality, Power Ch. 10, “Toward an American Culture”
After the Fact Ch. 4, “Material Witness”
E-RESERVES Nancy F. Cott, “Young Women in the Second Great Awakening in New
England,” Feminist Studies 3, no. 1-2 (Autumn 1975): 15-29.
RESEARCH PROPOSALS DUE
November 5-9 Industrialization, urbanization, class, and the Second Great Awakening. 1800-1840
Historian’s Craft: Historical argumentation.
Paul Johnson, A Shopkeeper’s Millennium
November 12-16 Jacksonian Democracy and social reformers. 1820-1850s
Historian’s Craft: Organizing original research papers.
Liberty, Equality, Power Ch. 11, “Democrats and Whigs”
Liberty, Equality, Power Ch. 12, “Whigs, Democrats, and the Shaping of Society”
OUTLINE OF RESEARCH PAPER DUE
FALL BREAK (November 17-25)
November 26-30 Manifest Destiny: frontiers versus borderlands. 1780-1860
Historian’s Craft: History’s grand theory.
Liberty, Equality, Power Ch. 13, “Manifest Destiny: An Empire for Liberty – Or Slavery?”
After the Fact Ch. 5, “Jackson’s Frontier – and Turner’s”
Liberty, Equality, Power Ch. 14, “The Gathering Tempest, 1853-1860”
E-RESERVES Jeremy Adelman and Stephen Aron, “From Borderlands to Borders: Empires,
Nation-States, and the Peoples in between in North American History,” American
Historical Review 104, no. 3 (June 1999): 814-841.
December 3-7 Sectional conflict, free labor ideology, and the Civil War. 1850-1865
Historian’s Craft: Finding the voice of the lower classes. Oral history.
Liberty, Equality, Power Ch. 15, “Secession and Civil War, 1860-1862”
After the Fact Ch. 8, “The View from the Bottom Rail”
Liberty, Equality, Power Ch. 16, “A New Birth of Freedom, 1862-1865”
December 10 The Civil War and its long-term influences.
FINAL RESEARCH PAPERS DUE AT START OF TODAY’S CLASS
December 18, 6:30pm-8:30pm FINAL EXAM
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