Course
Description:
This is a course about history, mythology, and the ways in which various groups
have made sense of their lives in the natural environment of the West. Close attention will be paid to American Indians
and their conflicts with European colonizers, the “discovery” and exploration
of the West, and the struggles between the different racial, ethnic, and religious
groups who have occupied the West over time. Students will approach the West through diaries,
documentaries, and other personal accounts. Each individual will pursue his/her own path of historical inquiry,
learning more about how to evaluate information, reconcile divergent understandings
of the past, and how to present these paths of historical inquiry to a critical
audience.
A300 is centered around a set of individual and group projects designed to
increase your enjoyment of the class and to improve your understanding of
the American West. Students will not have to guess the correct answer from
a set of essay questions on an exam. Rather, you will all work on two major
projects over the spring term. The
project-oriented nature of the class means that the majority of the work–and
the final grade–will be determined by these individual and group projects.
Finally, these projects and your overall progress will be monitored
by a group of expert observers. Accordingly, this class is designed to maximize
collaboration between students and instructors.
Texts:
| Richard
White, |
“It’s
Your Misfortune and None of My Own”: A History of the American West. |
| Albert
Hurtado, |
Intimate
Frontiers: Sex, Gender, and Culture in Old California (Histories of the
American Frontier) |
| Lillian
Schlisse |
Women’s
Diaries of the Westward Journey |
| ***A Course Reader will also
be available for purchase. These
documents and articles will also be available on reserve at the Main Library. |
Grades:
Each
student will compose two individual papers that will ultimately merge into
two larger group paper assignments. The
first paper, due February 2, is worth 15% of your course grade.
Students will then work as a team, creating a group project, due February
16, worth 7%.
The second, larger individual paper is due March 22,
and is worth 30%. Students will then create a group paper due on April 10,
worth 15%. For a detailed description
of the paper assignments, please refer to the course web page and the paper
handout (provided in 2nd week of class).
There will be only one exam–the final exam–which is
worth 20% of the course grade. Students will also be asked to write two peer reviews
of the first group projects, each worth 2%.
Three quizzes (each worth 3%) will also be given on the assigned readings.
Students will also have the opportunity to gain extra
credit points ( for working with Professor Sasha Barab and his graduate assistants,
Steve Schatz, Mike Barnett, who will be observing the course throughout the
semester.
Grade Distribution
| Assignment |
Percentage |
| Small Paper |
|
| |
Individual paper: |
15% |
| |
Group paper: |
7% |
| |
Peer reviews |
4% (2% each) |
| Large Paper |
|
| |
Individual paper: |
30% |
| |
Group paper: |
15% |
| Final Exam |
20% |
| Quizzes |
9% (3%) Each |
| Extra Credit |
5% |
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Schedule
of Class Meetings:
|
Class Dates
|
Readings and Assignments
|
| PART
I : The West as a Process |
|
| Week
1:
Defining the West |
Frederick Jackson Turner,
“The Significance of the Frontier in American History”; Patricia Nelson
Limerick, “Turnerians All: The Dream of a Helpful History in an Intelligible
World” |
| |
Jan. 10: Introduction to A300 |
|
| |
Jan. 12: Is the West a Place or a Process? |
|
| Week
2: The
Frontiers of the Middle West |
Andrew Cayton, “The World
of George Rogers Clark, 1778-1787"; John Mack Faragher, “‘More Motley
than Mackinaw’: From Ethnic Mixing to Ethnic Cleansing on the Frontier
of the Lower Missouri, 1783-1833" |
| |
Jan. 17: Classes do not meet |
|
| |
Jan.19: The Old Northwest |
 Last day for students
to select their individual project |
| PART
II : The West as a Process |
|
| Week
3:
Indigenous Land Use in the West |
“Dan Flores, “Bison Ecology
and Bison Diplomacy” The Southern Plains, 1800-1850"; White, 5-26. |
| |
Jan. 24: The Horse and Indian Expansion on the Plains |
Students are required
to meet with either the instructor or Fred Witzig, at office hours to
discuss group projects on Jan 24 through the 27th. |
| |
Jan. 26: American Indians of California and the Northwest
Coast |
|
| Week
4:
The Spanish Borderlands |
David Weber, “The Spanish
Legacy and the Historical Imagination”; White, pp. 5-26; Hurtado, xxi-xxix,
1-19. |
| |
Jan. 31: Pueblo-Spanish Interaction in New Mexico |
|
| |
Feb. 2: The Franciscan Missions of Californi |
Individual papers due in class. |
| Week
5:
National Initiatives and the Clash of Empires |
White, 61-84, 120-54; "Thomas
Jefferson’s Instructions to Meriwether Lewis" |
| |
Feb. 7: Groups meet in class |
Groups Meet in Class |
| |
Feb. 9: American Explorers in the West |
|
| Week
6:
Manifest Destiny and the Mexican American War |
Hurtado, 21-44; Slatta, “Cowboys,
Gauchos, and Llaneros” |
| |
Feb. 14: Competing Strategies for Developing and Retaining
the West |
|
| |
Feb. 16: Commerce and Culture along the Santa Fe Trail |
Group projects due in class |
| Week
7:
Going West: Mormons, Indians, and Everyday Women and Men on the Move |
Selections from Lillian Schlissel, Women’s Diaries
of the Westward Journey; White 181 211 & 298 327;
Walt Whitman, “Pioneers! O Pioneers!”; Thomas Hart Benton, “Speech before
the United States Senate,” 1846 |
| |
Feb. 21: From Vaqueros to Cowboys |
|
| |
Feb. 23: Indians, Mormons, and the West as Escape
from Religious/Racial Persecution |
Final day to select
paper topic for second major paper: Feb 25th. |
| Week
8:
The Civil War and the Capitalist Transition |
Hurtado, 45-114 (remainder optional); James Marshall, “The California
Gold Discovery, 1848"; Letter from Jas. B. Abbott to Col. H. B. Branch
from The National Archives |
| |
Feb. 28: The Exodusters |
|
| |
March 1: The Early Mining Frontier |
|
| Week
11:
Railroads, Labor, and Expanding Markets: |
White 212 269, 270 297 |
| |
March 20: Conflicts
with the Apache and Navajo in the Southeast |
|
| |
March 22: Railroad Magnates and the Expansion of the
Federal Government |
March 22: Individual papers due in class |
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|
Week
12: More
Perspectives on Race in the West
|
White, 353-387; “The Populist Platform, 1892"
|
| |
March 27: Chinese Laborers in the West |
Individual papers due in class |
| |
March 29: Groups meet in class |
|
|
Week
13:
The Radical West
|
|
| |
April 3: Sodbusters on the Great American Desert |
|
| |
April 5: Prairie Populism |
|
|
Week
14:
The Birth of the Conservation Movement
|
John Muir, “The Wild Parks and Forest Reservations of the West”
|
| |
April 10: Land Use and the Beginning of a Western Environmental
Ethic |
Group projects due in class |
| |
April 12: Reactions to Industrialization and Urbanization |
|
|
Week
15: Class
Presentations
|
|
| |
April 17: Class
Presentations
|
Class Presentations |
| |
April 19: Class
Presentations |
Class Presentations |
|
Week
16:
Class Presentations
|
|
| |
April 24:
Class Presentations
|
Class Presentations |
| |
April 26: Class
Presentations |
Class Presentations |
|
FINAL
EXAM: Monday,
May 1, @ 2:45 p.m.
|
|
