History 583: US Political & Intellectual History, 1760-1820

U.S. Political and Intellectual History, 1760-1820

History 583

Syllabus and Survival Guide

Fall 2006

Thursday 7:00 pm – 9:50 pm, Sierra Hall 268

Instructor

Dr. Thomas W. Devine

Phone: (818) 677-3550 Email: tom.devine@csun.edu

Office Hours: Sierra Tower 624, Monday 6:00-7:00 and by appointment gladly given.

Reading

The following books – listed in the order in which we will read them – are available at the Matador Bookstore. All other readings will be provided in class. To subvert the system and to save yourself some money, you should consider buying used copies of the books. You are likely to find used or discounted copies at significantly lower prices at the following websites:

http://www.bookfinder.com/; http://www.half.com/; http://www.amazon.com/.

• Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, 2^nd edition, (Harvard, 1992)

• Gordon Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution (Vintage, 1991)

• James Kirby Martin and Mark Edward Lender, A Respectable Army: The Military Origins of the Republic, 1763-1789, 2^nd edition, (Harlan Davidson, 2006)

• T. H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence (Oxford, 2004)

• Carol Berkin, Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America’s Independence (Vintage, 2005)

• Forrest McDonald, Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Intellectual Origins of the Constitution (Kansas, 1985)

• Saul Cornell, The Other Founders: Anti-Federalism & the Dissenting Tradition in America, 1788-1828 (North Carolina, 1999)

• Paul Finkelman, Slavery and the Founders: Race and Liberty in the Age of Jefferson, 2^nd edition, (M.E. Sharpe, 2001)

• Joseph Ellis, Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation (Vintage, 2000)

• Drew McCoy, The Elusive Republic: Political Economy in Jeffersonian America (North Carolina, 1980)

• John Lamberton Harper, American Machiavelli: Alexander Hamilton and the Origins of U.S. Foreign Policy (Cambridge, 2005)

• James Roger Sharp, American Politics in the Early Republic: The New Nation in Crisis (Yale, 1993)

• Richard Buel, Jr., America on the Brink: How the Political Struggle Over the War of 1812 Almost Destroyed the Young Republic (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2005)

• John Patrick Diggins, The Lost Soul of American Politics: Virtue, Self-Interest and the Foundations of Liberalism (Chicago, 1993)

Spirit of the Course

This colloquium will explore the creation of the United States and the complex dynamics that shaped American society and culture in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. We will begin by examining political and intellectual trends in the British North American colonies from approximately 1760, and then proceed to investigate in some detail the causes and consequences of the American Revolution. Historians have long debated the Revolution’s purpose and significance, and we will look at different sides of this enduring controversy. In particular, we will weigh the question of whether the ratification of the federal Constitution represented the fulfillment, repudiation, or modification of the original “Spirit of ‘76.” We will also evaluate the patriots’ efforts to establish a properly “virtuous” republican form of political economy and take into account how republican ideals and economic realities shaped the new nation’s foreign policy. Finally, we will consider whether the federal system worked the way its framers intended, paying special attention to why political controversies in the early Republic proved so contentious. We will conclude with an analysis of how much the American political order and American cultural norms had changed between 1760 and 1820 and evaluate the legacies of the Revolution and the Revolutionary generation.

You will notice that the readings throughout the course come from various ideological, methodological, and political perspectives. I encourage you to be critical of both the readings and what I say in class when you find the arguments expressed to be unpersuasive. (More often that not, what I’m saying is meant to provoke a critical rejoinder and I will eagerly defend the most outrageous positions just for the joy of playing devil’s advocate.) You will also have the opportunity to follow the historiography that has developed around the topics we will explore. Though the emphasis of the course will not be on historiographical issues, I will introduce and we will all discuss scholarly controversies where appropriate. To brush up on the “major debates” of the period, I suggest perusing Alan Ray Gibson, Interpreting the Founding: Guide to the Enduring Debates over the Origins and Foundations of the American Republic (Kansas, 2006), a thorough and accessible summary the scholarly literature.

Grading

Class Participation --40%

Critique --10%

Semester Project --30%

(draft due Dec 3^rd; final due Dec 17^th)

Final Essay (due Dec 22^nd) --20%

Explanation of Requirements

Completing the Reading

There’s no getting around it – this class requires a lot of reading. But, as a Masters level seminar, it is supposed to. To succeed in this course, you will need to complete the reading, but you will also need to have given it some thought. Read with a pencil in hand – take notes in the margins. Record terms that are unfamiliar to you or that you don’t understand, points that you find interesting or surprising, arguments with which you strongly agree or disagree, methods of research or analysis that seem especially creative or insightful (or misguided and silly), or ideas that connect to things we’ve talked about in previous classes. Also, read smart – don’t read every single word of the first 4 chapters and nothing thereafter because you ran out of time. If you catch the argument the author is making, don’t sweat all the details or supporting examples – skim over them and get on to the next major point. Also, topic sentences are your friends – they express the major idea of the paragraph, so if nothing else, read the topic sentences. It is more important to have gotten the gist of an entire book than to master every aspect of the first one-third of it.

Participation in Discussion

This is a seminar-style course in which active participation in the weekly discussions is crucial to the class’s success. Our meetings will be conversations – free, open, and informal exchanges of ideas based on the assigned readings – and I expect everyone to take part. I will do my best to insure each student has ample opportunity to contribute, but, ultimately, it will be up to you to make certain that you remain an active participant rather than a passive observer.

Leading Discussion

One person will be responsible for leading the discussion each week. That person will compose a list of 8 questions that address the major themes and issues raised in the reading. Each discussion leader should meet with me briefly to go over his or her questions. (This exchange can also be done via email.) Optimally, the discussion leader will have finished writing the questions at least 24 hours before the seminar so I can distribute them to everyone via email attachment. Your leading of discussion will not receive a grade per se, but will be taken into account in the calculation of your participation grade.

Précis

One person will be responsible for producing a single-spaced 2-page précis of the readings for each week. This assignment is meant to be a summary rather than a review, though, if you just can’t resist, you may give an overall evaluation of the book in the final paragraph. The person who writes the précis will provide each member of the seminar with a copy at the beginning of class and email an e-copy to me as an attachment. This assignment, too, will not receive a grade per se, though in calculating your participation grade, I will take into account the quality of and amount of effort you appear to have put in to your précis. If you send me a copy of your précis ahead of time, I will be glad to look it over and give it a final edit (not for content, but to correct typos and grammar-os) before it is handed out in class.

Oral Presentation/Written Critique

One person will be responsible for producing a critique of the assigned reading each week. This may be handled in one of three ways:

1) a historiographical review that explains where the assigned book fits within the existing secondary literature (you might summarize the book’s critical reception among reviewers and counter pose the reading against a book or article that takes a contrary point of view).

2) a brief essay that focuses on a particular theme or argument in the week’s reading that you found especially interesting and wanted to explore further in other sources.

3) a report grounded in primary sources in which you examine such sources to see if they lead you to the same kinds of interpretations that the author offers.

I can provide you with both primary source suggestions and historiographical background, so don’t hesitate to ask. At some point during class, usually right after the break, you will have the floor to present your findings and field questions from the class. Please do not extend your presentation beyond 15 minutes.

The written critique should be four double spaced-pages and will be due a week from the date of your presentation. Your grade will be based on the written product and the quality of your oral presentation. The quality of an oral presentation is judged both on the substance of your presentation and how organized and prepared you are in your delivery.

Semester Project

Select a topic from the period covered in the course that you find to be of interest and do some outside reading on it. Your choice of focus need not be directly related to the material covered in the course. Indeed, this is your opportunity to investigate a subject area that the course may neglect. I recommend drawing on a variety of books and articles. The more sources you incorporate, the more thorough your essay will be. (There are no hard and fast rules regarding the number of sources, but anything under five will likely produce a rather thin piece of historical analysis.) After your reading has made you an “expert” on the topic, summarize your findings and offer your own insights in a double-spaced 12 page essay. So as to prevent you from putting this assignment off until the last moment (and confronting the dreaded “incomplete”), we will approach this in a three step process. At week five, I will ask for a tentative bibliography with brief annotations. Any time before December 3^rd, you can submit a completed draft to me and one other person in the seminar and we will provide feedback. The draft is optional, though if you do not submit a draft, the maximum grade you can receive on the assignment is A-. The final version will be due on Sunday, December 17^th.

Final Essay

In a double-spaced 10 page essay due at the end of the semester, you will answer a question that will be directly related to the major themes of the course. In responding, you will draw only from material in the assigned reading; no outside reading or research will be necessary. This essay will be due on December 22^nd.

Bringing Food

On one occasion during the semester, each person will bring a snack for the entire class to enjoy at the break. Optimally, your culinary contribution will be related in some way to that week’s discussion topic. Creativity and originality are always appreciated.

Surviving History 583…

Attendance

Since class meets only once a week, it is important, and it is expected, that you will be at every session. Inevitably, an occasion may arise when you are unable to attend. Out of fairness to your classmates who do attend every week, however, each absence past the first two will adversely affect your final grade. Also, given the heavy weight placed on in-class discussion, any absence is likely to detract from your participation grade. To make up for a missed class, you may turn in a 2-page, single-spaced précis summarizing the reading for the class you missed.

Problems

I appreciate that most CSUN graduate students are stretching themselves quite thin, often working full time while taking classes at night. If you are feeling overwhelmed, find yourself falling behind, or are having any problems outside of class that are adversely affecting your performance in class, be sure to let me know. Do not wait until the end of the semester when it will be too late. I am more than willing to work with you to insure you “survive,” but I need to know you are having difficulties. You will find that as long as you keep me up to speed, I will be very sympathetic.

Discussion Topics and Assignments

Schedule

Sept. 7 Power, Corruption, and Liberty: The Opposition Tradition

Reading:

Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

Sept. 14 What sort of Radicalism? – The American Revolution as a New Departure in Politics

Reading:

Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution

PRECIS

Edmund Morgan’s review

Sept. 21 What sort of Men? – Patriots, Republicans, Soldiers

Reading: