History 590

The Graduate School of the College of Charleston
History 590, Dr. Stuart Knee
Office: Maybank 311 (3-5938)

SYLLABUS: History 590: Jefferson/Jackson America

Description: A detailed study of the relationship of politics to society in the first half of the 19^th century, together with an analysis of the causes of the Civil War. The Course will emphasize the origins of American political parties, the War of 1812, nationalism, sectionalism, AThe Era of the Common Man,@ reform movements, Transcendentalism, Manifest Destiny, slavery and the politics of secession.

Objectives: The purpose of this course is to introduce students to some fundamental texts and ideas in 19^th century American history and, by discussion, research and writing, come to terms with AThe Young Republic@ and its historic meaning.

Course Requirements:

A. Attendance: Regular class attendance is required. After two (2) absences, you will receive a warning from me that your absences are Aexcessive@; after the third unexcused absence, the student will take the matter under advisement with the program directors.

B. Tests: A mid-term and a final

C. Research Paper: Topic and focus to be decided within a month. There are three general choices as to type:

1. A critical study of a major historian. This calls for a brief biographical sketch of the historian, placing him/her in the context of relevant historical writing, an extended analysis of a group of his/her works or a single well-known work with emphasis on the dominating ideas and theories which shape and inform his/her writing and a discussion of the historian=s influence and contribution to scholarship. Generally speaking, this sort of essay would demand that you consult the works of other historians in the field, read book reviews and some works in intellectual history in order to find and place your subject and, perhaps, show a transition in his/her point of view during the course of a career. Some historians you might consider are Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Lee Benson, Kenneth Stampp, David Donald,Edward Pessen, Merrill Peterson, Fawn Brodie, John William Ward, Henry Adams, Alice Felt Tyler, Margaret Coit, Drew McCoy, Claude G. Bowers, Eugene Genovese (not RJR), Robert V. Remini (not JE), Roy Nichols, John Blassingame,Winthrop Jordan, Henry Steele Commager, Lance Banning, Jack Rakove, Stanley Elkins, Barbara Rush Welter, Richard Wade, Bernard DeVoto, David Brion Davis, Gerda Lerner, Adrienne Koch, Robert Rutland, Nobel E. Cunningham, Bradford Perkins, Ralph Ketcham and Lawrence Levine.

2. A primary resource paper based upon manuscript/archival holdings at the Robert Scott Small Library, The Avery Research Center, The Citadel or any other major repository in Charleston. For a listing of holdings in RSSL, which include family and plantation records, cultural reminiscenses, College of Charleston history and miscellany, see me or better yet, the rare books and manuscripts librarian. For a summary of holdings, see the South Carolina Historical Magazine, vol. 81 (April 1980), 131-153. For the Avery Research Center, 125 Bull Street, see the Director, Dr. Marvin Dulany. Note: If I can, I=m scheduling an RSSL library tour for the first or second week of classes.

3. An historiographical study of a particular event or figure in history. This involves the question of how historians approach and interpret a personality, event or historical problem.

Examples:

a. The War of 1812--Did we jump or were we pushed?

b. Thomas Jefferson--Unsuccessful president or national monument, or both?

c. James Madison: Vision or drift?

d. Slavery: Moral transgression, business enterprise or Christianizing social system?

e. Jacksonian Democracy: A new kind of freedom or an old kind of greed?

f. Manifest Destiny and American mission in the Mexican War.

g. James K. Polk--The most successful President in U.S. history?

h. Abolitionists--Utopians or pragmatists?

i. The American Loner--individuality vs. Conformity on the American frontier

j. The American Indian--the noble savage or the dispossessed

k. 19^th Century Women (North, South and/or West)--Victorians or rebels?

The point is you take an incident, period, figure or even a document (e.g. The Constitution) and do a thorough study of how historians vary in their interpretations of its significance. But I stress--this is not in any case to be merely a survey of what historians have said about a particular problem--and it is definitely not to read like an annotated bibliography. The student must trace trends and directions of scholarship on the subject; he/she should relate these trends to the period in which the history was written; he/she should deal with background and climates of opinion in an effort to judge to what degree historians represent their times. Some scholarship to consult is:

1. Gene M. Gressley, The Turner Theses--A Problem in Historiography, AAgricultural History, 32 (October 1958), 227-249.

2. John Higham, AThe Historian as Moral Critic,@ American Historical Review, LXVII (April 1962), 609-625.

3. Stanley Elkins, Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life, chapter 1.

4. Charles G. Sellers, Jr., AAndrew Jackson vs. The Historians,@ Mississippi Valley Historical Review, XLIV (March 1958), 615-634.

5. Perez Zagorin, ATheories of Revolution in Contemporary Historiography,@ Political Science Quarterly, LXXXVIII (March 1973), 23-52.

6. Robert A. Skotheim, American Intellectual History and Historians. Princeton, 1966.

Papers are due (date) and are to be typewritten, between 15-20 pages. The paper counts 1/3 of your grade.

Required Texts:

1. Marshall Smelser, The Democratic Republic 1801-1815.

2. George Dangerfield, The Awakening of American Nationalism 1815-1828.

3. Sean Wilentz, Chants Democratic: New York City and the Rise of the Working

Class 1788-1850.

4. Theda Perdue & Michael D. Green, eds., The Cherokee Removal

5. Robert V. Remini, The Jacksonian Era.

6. Ronald Walters, American Reformers 1815-1860.

7. Eugene D. Genovese, Roll, Jordan Roll: The World the Slaves Made.

8. Herman Melville, Moby Dick, or The Whale.