History 603-001, History Colloquium I: Nineteenth-Century U. S. Social History—Fall 2014
Dr. Andy Doyle
Class times: MW 6:30-7:45, Bancroft 371
CRN: 12241; three semester hours
Office: 376 Bancroft; phone: 323-4689; doylea@winthrop.edu
Office Hours: MW 4:00-5:00; TR 2:30-4:30, or by appointment
Please feel free to call, email, make an appointment, or simply drop by my office.
Course description and objectives : The social and cultural history of the nineteenth-century U. S. might be regarded as an impossibly broad topic for a single seminar—historians spend entire careers gaining expertise in single subfields. However, this course will combine a broad overview of many of the topics that comprise the field while still offering opportunities for in-depth analysis. Several themes will recur throughout the semester: the radical alteration in the class structure that accompanied the transformation of the U. S. from an agrarian society with a small commercial base to an emerging industrial nation and the concomitant emergence of capitalism; the conflict between the values of the rising bourgeoisie and the emergent working class; the slave society of the antebellum South and how the value systems of the planter elite and the slaves differed from one another as well as from the soonto-be-dominant bourgeoisie of the North, and many others. The readings allow us to take an in-depth view of a wide variety of topics, and they will also provide many opportunities to examine related topics as we go. By the end of the course, I believe that everyone will have a much more complete understanding of the dramatic social and cultural transformation that America underwent on its path to modernity.
Goals of the course : The goals of this course focus on expanding a student’s ability to think both critically and historically. All students in the History M. A. program are expected to: 1) communicate effectively core themes, ideas, and subject matter, in both written and oral form; 2) demonstrate an advanced ability to comprehend and explain major issues in historiography; 3) demonstrate an advanced ability to conduct independent research, applying basic research methods in history such as using search tools, finding primary and secondary sources, and assessing critically those sources; 4) be able to identify and master the historical literature of a specified field.
Student outcomes: Students will synthesize information from the assigned texts and verbally communicate a critical assessment of them at each class session, thus satisfying outcome one. They will synthesize information from the assigned texts and place them in a larger historiographical context on a written final exam, thus satisfying outcomes one and two. Three brief papers based on a critical assessment of primary sources will aid in achieving a variety of learning outcomes. Students will critically assess texts in Godey’s Ladies Book and Lydia Sigourney’s Letters to Young Ladies and come to conclusions regarding the social role of women in the emerging middle class; they will critically assess visual images by American fine and popular artists and come to conclusions regarding the portrayal of westward expansion, industrial expansion, family and gender norms, and other issues; and they will critically assess the advertisements in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in both 1843 and 1900 and come to conclusions regarding the growth of consumer capitalism and changes in the urban class structure. These papers will each satisfy outcomes one and three. A fourth paper on the historiography of the field of their research paper topic and an accompanying annotated bibliography will satisfy outcomes one, two, and four. Finally, they will write a major research paper that integrates original research into the historiography of a particular topic, thus satisfying outcomes one, two, three, and four.

Evaluation:
Classroom participation, including Blackboard
Average score of three brief essays
Historiography essay and annotated bibliography
Final research paper and oral presentation
Final Exam
30%
20%
10%
28%
12%
Classroom participation: Classroom discussion is a critical aspect of this course. Formulating and expressing your ideas verbally provides you an excellent opportunity for active learning, and equally importantly, it allows you to share your perspectives with your classmates. Our full understanding of the texts and the broader themes that they explore depends on active participation by every member of the class. For those reasons, classroom participation will be a key component of the final grade.
Please complete the reading assignments prior to class. This class belongs to you, so I trust that you will do the readings and actively contribute to it.
Blackboard discussion : The Blackboard discussion forum provides an opportunity to extend the discussion of the texts beyond the classroom. I’ll set up a new discussion thread six to eight times over the course of the semester and pose a question or theme drawn from the readings. I’ll notify everyone of this in class and via the listserv. Everyone must make at least one contribution to each new discussion thread, and you’re welcome to make more than that. The quality of your postings matters far more than merely tossing out a few ill-considered words every week; please make contributions that are worth the time of those who read and respond to them.
Women’s history essay : You must write a four-page (1200-1500-word) essay on the development of the domestic sphere and the social role of middle-class women during the antebellum era based on your analysis of Godey’s Ladies Book and Lydia Sigourney’s Letters to Young Ladies . Complete guidelines will be distributed separately.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle essay: You must write a four-page (1200-1500-word) essay on the changing norms of material culture based on your analysis of advertisements in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in
1842 and 1899. Complete guidelines will be distributed separately.
Images essay: You must write a four-page (1200-1500-word) on at least five paintings, lithographs, cartoons, or any form of fine or popular art that was produced or popularized in nineteenth-century
America. You must also make a brief presentation to the class in which you analyze one or two of the images that you discuss in your paper. Full guidelines will be distributed separately.
Historiographical essay and annotated bibliography: You must compile an annotated bibliography of at least fifteen sources comprising the major secondary works that are most relevant to your paper topic. Each bibliographic entry should have an entry of at least 100 words describing the gist of the particular source. In addition, you should write a five-page (1500-1800-word) historiographical essay discussing how these sources fit into the larger historiographical trends regarding your subject. Full guidelines will be distributed separately.
Research paper: You must write a twenty-page (6000-6500) word research paper, which must be based to a substantial extent on primary sources. The range of topics open to you is virtually limitless, but I must approve the topic. A rough draft of at least ten pages (3000 words) and an outline of the remainder is due to me on November 15. Complete guidelines will be distributed separately.

Late papers : All late papers will be penalized as per the guidelines for each.
Turnitin.com: You must submit each of your out-of-class papers to Turnitin.com by midnight on the date on which the paper is due, or I will deduct five points from the grade of your paper. If you fail to submit an assignment to Turnitin by the time I calculate final grades for your class, you will receive a zero for that assignment. Instructions for this will be distributed separately.
Class listserv : You are responsible for any information distributed via the email istserv. If you have an active winthrop.edu email account, you should be automatically included in the listserv. If you registered late or for any other reason are not included on the listserv, you must self-subscribe at http://www.winthrop.edu/technology/default.aspx?id=7081 . I can neither add nor remove a name from the listserv; you must do this yourself.
Students with Disabilities: Winthrop is dedicated to providing access to education. If you have a disability and need classroom accommodations, please contact the Office of Disability Services for
Students with Disabilities at 323-3290. Once you receive your notice of accommodations, please contact me as soon as possible.
Academic Misconduct: While I doubt very seriously that this issue will arise in a graduate course, I have to state my policy: any student caught cheating, including plagiarism on paper assignments, will receive a zero for that assignment and a deduction of five points from the final average for the course.
Syllabus change policy: I will do my best to adhere closely to the syllabus, but circumstances may require a deviation from the schedule outlined therein. I will inform students in class and/or via email regarding any changes. The syllabus posted on the History Department website will always take primacy over any past versions. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Required books, available for purchase at the Bookworm:
Larkin, Jack. The Reshaping of Everyday Life, 1790-1840 .
Paul Johnson. Sam Patch, The Famous Jumper .
Required readings, available online or at the course reserves link on the Dacus Library website: th
Anbinder, Tyler. “The Making of Five Points,” and “How They Worked.” In Five Points: The 19 -
Century New York Neighborhood that Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections, and Became the
World’s Most Notorious Slum .
Beckert, Sven. “Introduction” and “Accumulating Capital.” In The Monied Metropolis: New York City and the Consolidation of the American Bourgeoisie.
Carnes, Mark C. “The Rise and Consolidation of Bourgeois Culture.” In The Encyclopedia of
American Social History.
Cashin, Joan E. “The Structure of Antebellum Planter Families: The Ties that Bound Us Sho’ Was
Strong.” Journal of Southern History 56 (February 1990), 55-70.
Clark, Christopher. “The Agrarian Context of American Capitalist Development.” In Michael Zakim and Gary Kornblith, eds., Capitalism Takes Command: The Social Transformation of
Nineteenth-Century America . Available as an eBook on the Dacus website
-----. “The Civil War: Two Kinds of Revolution.” In Social Change in America: From the Revolution
Through the Civil War .
Cliff, Nigel. “A Night at the Opera and Another in Hell.” In The Shakespeare Riots .
Cook, James W. “Dancing Across the Color Line.” Common-Place 4 (October 2003). http://www.common-place.org/vol-04/no-01/cook/index.shtml

Dickens, Charles. “New York.” In American Notes.
Douglas, Ann. “Introduction” and “Feminine Disestablishment.” In The Feminization of American
Culture
Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth. “Southern Women, Southern Households.” In Within the Plantation
Household: Black and White Women of the Old South.
Gorn, Elliott J. “Good-Bye Boys, I Die a True American: Homicide, Nativism, and Working-Class
Culture in Antebellum New York City.” Journal of American History 74 (September 1987):
388-410.
Hills, Patricia. “Picturing Progress in the Era of Westward Expansion.” In William H. Truettner, ed.,
The West as America: Reinterpreting Images of the Frontier, 1820-1920 .
Kolchin, Peter. “Antebellum Slavery: Organization, Control, Paternalism.” In American Slavery; 1619-
1877 .
Lamoreaux, Naomi. “Rethinking the Transition to Capitalism in the American Northeast.” Journal of
American History 90 (September 2003), 437-61.
Leach, William. “The Land of Desire and the Culture of Consumer Capitalism” and “The Dawn of a
Commercial Empire.” In Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American
Culture .
Levine, Lawrence W. “William Shakespeare and the American People: A Study in Cultural
Transformation.” American Historical Review 89 (February 1984): 34-66.
Morris, Christopher. “The Articulation of Two Worlds: The Master-Slave Relationship Reconsidered.”
Journal of American History 85 (December 1998) 982-1007.
Rockman, Seth. “A Job for a Working Man.” In Scraping By: Wage Labor, Slavery, and Survival in
Early Baltimore .
Schmidt, Leigh Eric. “Christianity in the Marketplace: Christmas and the Consumer Culture.” http://www.crosscurrents.org/schmidt.htm
Zakim, Michael and Gary Kornblith. “Introduction.” Capitalism Takes Command: The Social
Transformation of Nineteenth-Century America . Available as an eBook on the Dacus website
Course Schedule
Aug 25: Course Introduction
Aug 27: The Transition to Capitalism
Zakim and Kornblith, “Introduction”; Clark, “The Agrarian Context of American Capitalist
Development”; Lamoreaux, “Rethinking the Transition to Capitalism in the American
Northeast.”
Sep 1: Labor Day Holiday
Sep 3: Bourgeois Development
Carnes, “The Rise and Consolidation of Bourgeois Culture”; Beckert, “Introduction” and
“Accumulating Capital”; Douglas, “Introduction” and “Feminine Disestablishment”;
Sep 8: Discussion of women’s history paper
Sep 10: The Rhythms of Life and Labor in Antebellum America

Larkin, Chapters 1-2
Sep 15: The Social and Cultural Grounding of Antebellum America
Larkin, Chapters 3-4
Sept 17: The West in Images
Hills, “Picturing Progress in the Era of Westward Expansion”
Sep 22: Images paper and presentations
Sep 24: The Formation of the Urban Working Class
Rockman, “A Job for a Working Man”; Gorn, “Good-bye Boys, I Die a True American.”
Thursday, Sept 25: Hard copy of paper topic due to me or the department office by 5:00 pm
Sept 29: Working–Class Culture in New York City
Anbinder, “The Making of Five Points,” and “How They Worked”; Cook, . “Dancing Across the Color Line”; Dickens, “New York.”
Oct 1: The Contested Terrain of Antebellum Theater
Levine, “William Shakespeare and the American People”; Nigel Cliff, The Shakespeare Riots
Oct 6: The Rise and Hegemony(?) of Consumer Culture
Leach, “Introduction” and “The Land of Desire and the Culture of Consumer Capitalism”;
Schmidt, “Christianity in the Marketplace: Christmas and the Consumer Culture.”
Oct 8: Discussion of Brooklyn Eagle essay
Oct 13: Society, Culture and Celebrity in Industrial America
Sam Patch, Chapters 1-2
Oct 15: Society, Culture and Celebrity II
Sam Patch, Chapters 3-5
Oct 20: Fall Break
Oct 22: No class
Hard copy of historiography essay and annotated bibliography due to me or the department office by 5:00 pm
Oct 27: The World Cotton Made
Morris, “The Articulation of Two Worlds: The Master-Slave Relationship Reconsidered”;
Kolchin, “Antebellum Slavery”;
Oct 29: Plantation Mistresses and the Planter Family
Cashin, “The Structure of Antebellum Planter Families”; Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth. “Southern
Women, Southern Households.”
Nov 3: No class

Nov 5: No class; rough draft of research paper due to me or to department office
Nov 10: No class; individual meetings with instructor
Nov 12: No class; individual meetings with instructor
Nov 17: The Civil War as Social Transformation
Clark, “Two Kinds of Revolution”
Nov 19: No class
Nov 24: All research papers due to Turnitin and to Blackboard
(Thanksgiving Break, Nov 26-30)
Dec 1: Paper presentations
Dec 3: Paper presentations
Dec 8: Paper presentations
Final exam: 6:30 pm, Monday, December 15