HONORS
Instructor:
Mr. Joe Eaton
St.
Gregory’s University
MWF
11:00 AM
ADMIN317
wjeaton@sgc.edu
http://intranet.sgc.edu/People/Faculty/wjeaton/
Phone:
878-5183
Office: 313
Administration Building
Office hours: Monday
12:45-3:30, Wednesday 12-1, Thursday 10:45-12 (unless faculty meeting), and by
appointment. My teaching schedule
is listed on my office door. You
may also meet me before or after class.
Please feel free to call or send an email if none of these times is good
for you.
An office conference
with me will be required around mid-term.
More details will be announced.
Course description: Students
examine the ideas, social, and political events that created the New
Republic. Major components include
the exploration of the “New World,” Native Americans, colonial society, the
Revolutionary War and Constitution, westward expansion, slavery, the Alamo,
Mexican War, gold and silver discoveries, the development of the political
parties, and the Civil War.
Please, no food or
drink in the classroom.
H2O allowed.
Late assignments will
be penalized.
Make-Up Examinations:
Make-up examinations are both burdensome on me and unfair to the remainder of
the class, and for both reasons are not readily given. Exceptions for good cause are allowed,
but you should be prepared to provide written verification of any incident
preventing you from not taking an exam on the designated day. Make-up exams tend to be more difficult
because the person has had an opportunity to study longer than his or her
classmates.
Attendance: Attendance
is mandatory. Repeated
unexcused absences will result in the loss of course points and may result in
expulsion from the course. I
reserve the right to send an absence warning after a third unexcused absence and
drop a student from the class for any absences after that.
_____________________________________________________________________
Required Books (all
available in bookstore). Failure to
procure required books will result in loss of class participation points. Continued failure to procure required
books may result in expulsion from class.
Crčvecoeur, J. Hector St. John de, Letters
from an American Farmer, Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1997. ISBN 0-19-283898-9
Franklin, Benjamin,
Autobiography & Other Writings, New York: Bantam, 1992. ISBN 0-
553-21075-0
Oates, Stephen B,
Portrait of America, Volume One: To 1877, Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
1999.
ISBN
0-395-90077-8
Tocqueville, Alexis
de, Democracy in America, New York: Bantam, 2000. ISBN
0-553-
21464-0
Movies:
“Amistad” (1997,
Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins)
“Last of the Mohicans”
(1992, Daniel Day-Lewis)
There will also be
occasional handouts given in class.
________________________________________________________________________
Course Outline: Subject to Change
Reading must be completed by date indicated.
POA =
Portrait of America
Semester Week #:
1 – introduction & Pre-Columbian America: reading, Friday, August 24, POA, “Myths that Hide the American Indian,” 2
2 – Early Colonies: reading, Wednesday, August 29, POA, “From these Beginnings,” 18
3 – [Monday, Labor Day] Slavery and the South: reading, Wednesday, September 5, POA, “Black People in a White People’s Country,” 32
4 – Eighteenth Century Colonial Society: reading, Wednesday, September 12, POA, “The Transformation of European Society,” 56; reading, Friday, September 14, Letters from an American Farmer, 11-82 (“Letter Three” is most important)
Reflective paper due: Friday, September 14 in class, late papers penalized one letter grade
Paper topic: “What is
an American? How does Crčvecoeur explain American identity to be different? Are Crčvecoeur’s Letters useful for
understanding the character of Americans today?”
Please type and
double-space your essay. Your essay
should be approximately three pages in length. Please do not use outside sources. This is not a research
paper.
5 – Revolution: reading, Wednesday, September 19, POA, “Sam Adams, Firebrand of the Revolution,” 90
6 – Revolution continued: reading, Wednesday, September 26, POA, “Thomas Jefferson and the Meanings of Liberty,” 101
7 – Revolution continued: reading, Wednesday, October 3, Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography & Other Writings, 3-157
Reflective paper: Wednesday, October 3 in
class, late papers penalized one letter
grade
Paper Topic: “What is your evaluation of Franklin, the quintessential American?”
Please type and double-space your essay. Your essay should be approximately three pages in length. Please do not use outside sources. This is not a research paper.
8 – Federalists and anti-Federalists: reading, Wednesday, October 10, POA, “Sunrise at Philadelphia,” 116
9 – Washington and the Presidency: reading, Wednesday, October 17, POA, “George Washington and the Use of Power,” 131, [Friday, Fall Break]
10 – Nineteenth century social and cultural history: reading, Wednesday, October 24, POA, “The Personal Side of a Developing People,” 144
11 – Question of Slavery: reading, Wednesday, October 31, POA, “The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion,” 200 & “William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolitionist Crusade,” 217
12 – Age of Progress, Industrialization: reading, Wednesday, November 7, POA, “The Lords and the Mill Girls,” 266
13 – Age of Progress, Transportation: reading, Wednesday, November 14, POA, “Hell in Harness”: The Iron Horse and the Go-Ahead Age,” 279
14 – Slavery and the Territories: reading, Monday, November 19, POA, “Why the War Came: The Sectional Struggle Over Slaver in the Territories,” 344 [Wednesday, Friday, Thanksgiving break]
15 – Lincoln and the War: reading, Wednesday, November 28, POA, “Lincoln’s Journey to Emancipation,” 359
16 – Civil War: reading, Wednesday, December 5, “Hayfoot, Strawfoot! The Civil War Soldier Marched to His Own Individual Cadence,” 391
Final Exam: Date and time to be announced.
There will be two required movies during the semester. One may view the movie during a viewing time arranged by the instructor or chose to rent and view the movies before class discussion.
The reading assignment and dates for Tocqueville’s Democracy in America will be announced later in the semester.
The research project will deal with a topic that you have chosen but which I have approved. The project itself will likely be a research paper, content-based website, or lengthy annotated bibliography and will be due December 3.
I will ask each of you to do a very modest amount of research
dealing with one or two of the readings during the semester. This research can likely be accomplished
using Internet sources.
________________________________________________________________________
Method of
Evaluation:
Points:
Reflective
paper – October 3
100
Exam – September 28
100
Exam –
November 2
100
Final
100
Research
project – December 3
100
Attendance,
class participation
50
& occasional pop
quiz
Grading Scale
90-100% A, 80-89% B, 70-79% C, 60-69% D, 59% and below F