HIST 111 H01 25747

HistoryCiv, Humanities, GHS

A general survey of the United States from the era of discovery to 1865, emphasizing major political, economic, social, and intellectual developments.  CL: 2020.

Notes:

*History 111 is the introductory survey of the history of the United States to the Civil War. We begin with the Renaissance, West Africa, and pre-Columbian America since all played their part in making us who we are. After all, the purpose of history is to know ourselves. The fun of history is in the doing, not the passively listening, or even textbook reading although you will do some of that. While there will be some lecturing, I am now tired of my own voice. Rather, I see myself as a facilitator and as a resource guide, supplementing the text with art, music, primary source materials, graphs and charts--the stuff that makes the bare facts meaningful and human. Every other class, once a week, will be built around the assigned readings or project. Since people learn by doing there will be lots of doing in the form of shorter and longer papers, a midterm essay and a final essay. There will be something due almost every week which sounds tough but my experience is that once students find the rhythm of the class the papers become interesting and challening rather than onerous.