Monday

August 29

Introduction, Housekeeping, & Blogging

Wednesday

August 31

Lecture: TypePad Orientation

Reading: Syllabus & Website

Friday

September 2

BLOG URL DUE

Lecture: Evidence: Text

Monday

September 5

NO CLASS (Labor Day)

Wednesday

September 7

Discussion: “Native American Creation Stories”

Reading: Nation of Nations, Chaps. 1–4; Reader, “Leonard Crow Dog, Remaking the World…,” “Origins of Ottawa Society,”“The Indians of New Netherlands…”

Friday

September 9

Group Meetings

INDIVIDUAL TYPEPAD POST #1: “Creation Stories”

(due Wednesday, 9/14)

How did Native American creation stories change between 1650 and 1910 and how would you account for those changes? Historians are interested in the presence or absence of change over time—how things change or remain the same between one point in time and another point in time or during a period of time. The key is the variable for historians is time. With this definition of history in mind, read the three creation stories and in a three paragraphs discuss how the three stories change over time and what would account for the changes in the indigenous people’s versions of creation.

Monday

September 12

Lecture: “Evidence: Images”

Reading: Nation of Nations, Chaps. 5–7

Tuesday

September 13

LAST DAY TO ADD CLASSES

Wednesday

September 14

Discussion: “Visual Evidence”

Reading: Scholars in Action: Cartoons

Reader, “Society of Patriotic Ladies”

Reader, “The Boston Massacre”

Friday

September 16

Group Meetings

GROUP TYPEPAD POST #2: “Society of Patriotic Women”

(due Wednesday, 9/21)

How did the British view the Patriots’ activism in the period leading up to the Revolutionary War? Carefully examine the cartoon, “Society of Patriotic Women, Edenton, North Carolina.” Use the questions accompanying the online materials as well as your notes from the lecture to help develop your thesis and organize your evidence.

Monday

September 19

Lecture: “What Happened to Paul Revere”

Reading: Nation of Nations, Chaps. 8–9

Wednesday

September 21

Lecture: “The Election of 1800”

Friday

September 23

No Group Meetings

COMMENT TYPEPAD POST #3

(due Wednesday, 9/28)

Select three entries from three different class participants in your assigned response group and comment on their entries. The comments should be about a paragraph in length and may address any aspect of the post, but you should offer at least one positive remark and at least three suggestions for improvement. Once you’ve made your comments, write a line or two in your own post with links to your comments. The links should appear in the following form: Mary Smith, Individual Post #1; Group #1, Group Post #2; John Jones, Individual Post #2. 

Monday

September 26

Lecture: “Jacksonian America”

Reading: Nation of Nations, Chap. 10–12, Reader, “George Catlin’s Indians”

Wednesday

September 28

Lecture: “The Benevolent Empire”

Friday

September 30

Group Meetings

LAST DAY TO DROP CLASSES

INDIVIDUAL TYPEPAD POST #4: “George Catlin’s Indians”

(due Wednesday, 10/5)

Using Pigeon’s Egg Head as an example, what is Catlin’s view of Native Americans and their culture? Historians are interested in the “historical context,” the time, events, culture, society in which events took place or in which people lived and how the historical context may have (or not) influences historical events and actors. Catlin painted his works between in the decades between 1830 and 1850, a time of transformation for the nation’s indigenous people. What was the historical context for Catlin’s paintings?

Monday

October 3

Lecture: “Evidence: Maps”

Reading: Nation of Nations, Chaps. 13–14

Wednesday

October 5

Discussion: Hygeia

Reading: Making Sense of Maps, Hygeia, SimUtopia

Friday

October 7

Group Meetings

GROUP TYPEPAD POST #5: SimUtopia

(due Wednesday, 10/12)

How do the spatial arrangements of your Utopia reflect reflect the ideologies of the early nineteenth century? What were your reasons for arranging your community as you did? Before you begin, make sure you have considered the following possibilities. Will your utopia be: A religious community, where all share the same beliefs? What will those beliefs be? A socialist community, with all property owned in common and all work shared equally? A combination of both? Will it be purely a commercial enterprise, designed to make money? Or a non profit experiment? Or an experiment in radical equality? Your community must be able to support itself—will it be agricultural, industrial, or a mix of both? Will it be closed to the rest of the world or open? Will it be rural in character, or urban? Will there be slavery? Remember, your community must address the concerns of the day—about the excesses of industrialization, about immorality in commercial life, about the changing relations of men and women, about the potential or danger of democratic politics. To design your own utopian community, go online to SimUtopia. Drag the icons at the top of the next page into the “map” space. When you are finished, take a screenshot of your image and include it in a photo album in your blog. On a Wintel machine, press the PRINT SCREEN or PRNT SCN key. On a Macintosh, press COMMAND + SHIFT + 3. You may have to reduce the size and dimensions of your image with an image editing program.

Monday

October 10

Tuesday

October 11

Lecture: “A Nation With a Short History”

Reading: Nation of Nations, Chaps. 15

Wednesday

October 12

Lecture: “Mexican War & California”

Friday

October 14

No Group Meetings

COMMENT TYPEPAD POST #6

(due Wednesday, 10/19)

Select three entries from three different class participants in your assigned response group and comment on their entries. The comments should be about a paragraph in length and may address any aspect of the post, but you should offer at least one positive remark and at least three suggestions for improvement. Once you’ve made your comments, write a line or two in your own post with links to your comments. The links should appear in the following form: Mary Smith, Individual Post #1; Group #1, Group Post #2; John Jones, Individual Post #2.

Monday

October 17

Lecture: “Up at the Big House, Down in the Quarters”

Reading: Nation of Nations, Chaps. 16–17; Reader, “Wounded Escaping…,” ”Sharpshooter’s Last Sleep,” “Home of the Rebel Sharpshooter”

Wednesday

October 19

Discussion: “Photo Essay”

Reading: Photo Essay Guidelines

Friday

October 21

Group Meetings

INDIVIDUAL TYPEPAD POST #7: “Civil War Photo Essay”

(due Wednesday, 10/26)

How do the images reflect a particular Civil War theme? Select 6–8 images around a particular theme from American Memory at the Library of Congress or other archive and download them. Once you have your images in hand, create a photo album and arrange the images to illustrate your theme. Choose a design that includes an introduction and a cover picture. Write an introduction for your album and captions for your images. The captions, although they can be short, should indicate how the image illustrates your theme and call attention to pertinent details

Monday

October 24

Lecture: “The Intimate Life

Reading: Nation of Nations, Chaps. 18–20; Reader, “State v. Rehberg”

Wednesday

October 26

Discussion: “State v. Rehberg”

Friday

October 28

Group Meetings

INDIVIDUAL TYPEPAD POST #7: “Civil War Photo Essay” (REVISION)

(due Friday, 11/7)

How do the images reflect a particular Civil War theme? Select 6–8 images around a particular theme from American Memory at the Library of Congress or other archive and download them. Once you have your images in hand, create a photo album and arrange the images to illustrate your theme. Choose a design that includes an introduction and a cover picture. Write an introduction for your album and captions for your images. The captions, although they can be short, should indicate how the image illustrates your theme and call attention to pertinent details

Monday

October 31

Lecture: “Populism”

Reading: Nation of Nations, Chaps. 21–23 

Wednesday

November 2

Lecture: “Progressivism”

Friday

November 4

No Group Meetings

GROUP TYPEPAD POST #8: “We, the Jury”

(due Friday, 11/11)

Was Edward Rehberg guilty of murder? Based on the evidence available in State v. Rehberg, imagine that you are a jury member in the twentieth century listening to the evidence. In your groups (you actually constitute a petite jury), decide on your verdict. What is the evidence for your decision? What verdict do you believe the nineteenth-century jury reached? What is the evidence for your decision?

Monday

November 7

Lecture: “Happy Days Are Here Again”

Reading: Nation of Nations, Chap. 25, 27–28; Reader, “Father Knows Best”

Wednesday

November 9

Lecture: “Cold War Nation”

Friday

November 11

No Group Meetings

COMMENT TYPEPAD POST #9

(due Wednesday, 11/16)

Select three entries from three different class participants in your assigned response group and comment on their entries. The comments should be about a paragraph in length and may address any aspect of the post, but you should offer at least one positive remark and at least three suggestions for improvement. Once you’ve made your comments, write a line or two in your own post with links to your comments. The links should appear in the following form: Mary Smith, Individual Post #1; Group #1, Group Post #2; John Jones, Individual Post #2.

Monday

November 14

Lecture: “Evidence: Sound”

Reading: Nation of Nations, Chaps. 29–30

Wednesday

November 16

Discussion: “Mini-Research Project”

Friday

November 18

Group Meetings

INDIVIDUAL TYPEPAD POST #10: “1950s Photo Essay”

(due Wednesday, 11/30)

List of Topics

How do the images reflect a particular theme or trope in the 1950s? Select 6–8 images around a particular theme from American Memory at the Library of Congress or any other public domain collection and download them. Once you have your images in hand, create a TypePad photo album and arrange the images to illustrate your theme. Choose a design that includes an introduction and a cover picture. Write an introduction that includes a thesis for your album and captions for your images that illustrate that thesis. The captions, although they can be short, should indicate how the image illustrates your theme and calls attention to pertinent details.

Monday

November 21

Lecture: Evidence: Moving Images”

Reading: Making Sense of Films; Telling Stories on Film

Wednesday

November 23

NO CLASS (Thanksgiving)

Friday

November 25

NO CLASS (Thanksgiving)

Monday

November 28

Lecture: “Greed is Good: The 1980s”

Reading: Nation of Nations, Chap. 31

Wednesday

November 30

Discussion: “How to Read a Movie”

Friday

December 2

Group Meetings (Time Shift)

GROUP TYPEPAD POST #11: “Top Ten in the 1970s”

(due Wednesday, 12/7)

Compare the top ten movies in 1970 with the “Top Ten Songs” from 1970? How would you categorize them by genre or type? Are there any differences between the themes evident in the songs and themes in films from 1970? How would you account for those differences? You will need to use search engines on the Internet or the library to develop your list of top ten movies that were the most popular by some measure—box office receipts, highest gross, and so forth. Beware of using someone’s personal list. Lists will vary, so you should provide the source for your list and rationale for your choice.

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Monday

December 5

Lecture: “Getting to 9/11”

Reading: Nation of Nations, Chaps. 32–33; September 11 Digital Archive: Don Mercy

Wednesday

December 7

Discussion: “Memory as History”

Friday

December 9

SELF-EVALUATION DUE

INDIVIDUAL TYPEPAD POST #12: Telling Your Story

(due Wednesday, 12/14)

Where were you when the planes hit the Twin Towers? What did you do? What did you think both before and after. Each generation has its historical moments, a time when we have a clear picture of the events. For one generation, it is the answer to the question: “Where were you when Kennedy was shot?” For another, it is: “Where were you when Challenger blew up?” For still another generation, it is 9/11. For this assignment, go to the September 11 Digital Archive and read a few of the entries to get a sense of how people remember the events and their reactions. One of most interesting is Don Mercy’s, a former GMU student and Fedex driver.