Instructor Information
Professor: Steven Ruggles
Office: 652 Social Sciences
Office Phone: 624-4081
Office Hours: TBA
E-mail: ruggles@hist.umn.edu
Discussion Sections
Section Locations and Times
Teaching Assistants
Class Web Student Profiles
and Online Discussions
Course Overview
This course covers American History from the first contact between
Europeans and Native Americans to the end of Reconstruction in 1878. Topics
include Indian conquest, the American Revolution, the industrial revolution,
slavery, women's suffrage, the Civil War, and Victorian sexuality. Students
will use original historical sources and artifacts as well as conventional
readings. There will be three illustrated lectures and two small discussion
sections weekly.
Required Readings
Gary B. Nash et al., The
American People Volume One, (Fourth Edition, 1998)
William Cronon, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists and the Ecology
of New England (1983)
William Bruce Wheeler and Susan D. Becker, Discovering the American
Past: A Look at the Evidence (1998)
Harriet Jacobs, Incidents
in the Life of a Slave Girl. (1987) [1861]
Frederick Douglass, Narrative
of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1995)
All books should be available in the West
Bank Bookstore and the Student Book Store on the East
bank. In addition to the books, we will assign a number of primary
documents, most of which will be on the world wide web.
Grading Criteria
Class time: 50% lecture, 50% discussion
Work load: 80 pages of reading per week,
10-15 pages of writing per quarter, 2 exams, 3 papers
Exam Format: short answer, identification
-
10% mid-quarter exam(s)
-
10% final exam
-
50% written reports/papers
-
30% class participation
Important Dates
Sep 27 |
ASSIGNMENT 1 |
Oct 13 |
ASSIGNMENT 2 |
Oct 27 |
MIDTERM EXAM |
Nov 24 |
ASSIGNMENT 3-DRAFT VERSION |
Dec 15 |
ASSIGNMENT 3-FINAL VERSION |
Dec 21 |
FINAL EXAM |
|