This is the first of three Foundation courses in American Studies (including AMER2050 and AMER3050). It focuses on the historical period beginning with Columbus's voyage and concluding with the Civil War. Our goal will be to develop a definition and understanding of American Culture by reading, viewing and discussing documents and images that are central to the theory and reality of the United States as a nation. Texts will include political and legal documents, novels, poems, an autobiography, a slave narrative, speeches, visual art and contemporary films. We will consider the ways in which the story of the United States has changed over time as we look for consistent ideas in what it means to be American. We will identify the authors' various claims of American distinctiveness and evaluate these claims in relation to the legacies of slavery and Manifest Destiny in an international context. As we study the past, we will see how important it is to understanding the present and enrich our skills of interpreting contemporary literature, film and current political events. The course will also introduce theories of nationalism and print culture that students will find extremely useful in other courses and in interpreting the world today.

• Thomas Harriot, A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia (1590), Dover
  [ISBN-10: 0486210928; ISBN-13: 978-0486210926]         [REQUIRED]
  
  
• William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation (written beginning in 1630) McGraw-Hill Humanities
  [ISBN-10: 0075542811; ISBN-13: 978-0075542810]
  
  
• American Captivity Narratives, Edited by Gordon M. Sayre, Houghton Mifflin
  [ISBN-10: 0395980739; ISBN-13: 978-0395980736]         [REQUIRED]
  
  
• Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer (1782), Penguin edition
  [ISBN-10: 0140390065; ISBN-13: 978-0140390063]
  
  
• John Locke, Second Treatise on Government (1690), Simon and Schuster Publishing, Peardon as editor
  [ISBN-10: 0023933003; ISBN-13: 978-0023933004]         [REQUIRED]
  
  
• Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography (1792 translated from the French, 1818 first English edition), Penguin classics edition
  [ISBN-10: 0142437603; ISBN-13: 978-0142437605]        [REQUIRED]
  
  
• Hannah W. Foster,The Coquette (1797), Oxford Univ. Press
  [ISBN-10: 0195042395; ISBN-13: 978-0195042399 ]          [REQUIRED]
  
  
• Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories (1819) Penguin
  [ISBN-10: 014043769X; ISBN-13: 978-0140437690]
  
  
• Ralph Waldo Emerson, Selected Essays, Penguin Classics
  [ISBN-10: 014243762X; ISBN-13: 978-0142437629]
  
  
• Frederick Douglass, Narrative of a Life of an American Slave (1845), Penguin edition
  ISBN-10: 014039012X; ISBN-13: 978-0140390124]          [REQUIRED]
  
  
• Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slavegirl (1861), Harvard University Press
  ISBN-10: 0674002717; ISBN-13: 978-0674002715]        [REQUIRED]
  
  
• Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1855-92), edited by Francis Murphy, Penguin Classics
  [ISBN-10: 0140424512; ISBN-13: 978-0140424515]
  
  

COURSE ASSESSMENT and REQUIRMENTS:

1. Attendance and participation in course sessions: Scheduled meeting times will consist of both lectures on and discussions of assigned reading. It is your responsibility to read the material before hand and be able to discuss this material during class. Un-excused absences and being late will affect adversely your final grade.
   
   
2. Posting to the Moodle Group discussion: Please notice that there is a Moodle Group for this course; you can access it by going to the HKU Portal and logging in. Click on the "My eLearning" tab and it will take you to a page with the link to: Moodle group for AMER1050_1A_2017.
   
   At points during the semester (approximately every other week), I will assign a short (approximately 300-500 words) response paper to a group of you. You will post your response on Moodle. Another group of you will then log on to Moodle and respond to a post. This will enable you to read and respond to other students' interpretations of the course materials.
   
   These postings will be part of your grade-- they are an excellent way of participating in the discussions (especially if something occurs to you outside of class, or you don't get a chance to say what you wanted during the course time).
   
   
3. Midterm and Final exam: These two cumulative exams will consist of short answer responses and a take-home essay.
   
   Note: When writing your short essays it is important for you to acknowledge through proper citation any secondary sources that you use. If you borrow someone else's words or ideas be sure to mention this in the body of the essay or in a footnote. Here is the University definition and policy on plagiarism. In regard to formats for proper academic citation (APA, Chicago, MLA), please consult: Purdue University OWL: Citation Chart

COURSE OBJECTIVES and LEARNING OUTCOMES:

• Students will be able to convey key concepts and philosophies behind the creation and development of the United States, theories of nationalism, and print culture. They will be able to trace in contemporary political events, the historical patterns of national constitution and development.
  
  
• The course will foster students' abilities to read closely a variety of media and genres (literature, legal documents, paintings, films) and to connect the form of literature to key cultural and theoretical themes.
  
  
• Demonstrate how consideration of a text's immediate and potential extended audiences are important factors in the interpretation of that text.
  
  
• Exercise skills of interpretation and communication that enable students to think critically, to evaluate arguments and to respond constructively in writing and in speech, and in both formal and informal environments.
  
  
• Establish an awareness of the international context to the foundation and development of American Culture thus enabling students to evaluate, with historical perspective, contemporary international collaborations and crises.
  
  
• Cultivate the enjoyment of intellectual experience in everyday life and continue to broaden students' visions of the dynamic relationship between literature, history, geography, science, and the arts.

• Map of North America | World Map | Spanish Flag


• Ernest Renan, "What is a Nation?" (1886)
  
  Please note: location of the first session is CPD 2.37
  
  

• Columbus's Journal, transcribed by Bartolome de Las Casas, translated into English by Cecil Jane
  
  On-line edition of the Journal (transcribed by Bartolome de Las Casas)
  (from the Early Americas Digital Archive, Univeristy of Maryland)
  
  
• After reading the Journal consider the letter by Christopher Columbus
  (hand-written at sea in February 1493, rewritten and sent to Spanish Court from Lisbon on 14 March 1493; reprinted in Barcelona; translated in Latin and printed in Rome, 1493; reprinted in Basel, 1493 and 1494)
  
  
• In 1846-47, John Vanderlyn painted Columbus's October 12 landing; the painting now hangs in the U.S. Capitol Building. (linked to the icon on the right)

Recommended Reading / Viewing:

What is wrong with this picture:? Mel-O-Toons: Christopher Columbus (New World Productions and United Artists, 1960)

Romanus Pontifex (1454)

excerpt from Bartolome de Las Casas, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies

Michel Montaigne's "Of Cannibals" (1588)

Moodle Group posting #1:          Moodle group for AMER1050_1A_2017

For those in Group A: Before Wednesday, September 6 at 12 am (midnight) please post a short response paper at our Moodle course site in which you choose and describe a picture that appears in Thomas Harriot's A Brief and True Report... Your posting should be somewhere in the range of 200-300 words. Remember that your analysis begins with your choice of an image-- why did you choose this particular one? Before we meet on Friday, try to read the postings of your fellow students and repond to one (agreeing, disagreeing, or extending what her or his posting says).

These images were based on eye witness watercolor paintings by John White; the engraver, Theodor DeBry, made some changes when he etched the plates. If you would like to compare the original to the engraving, you can see the originals at the Virtual Jamestown Project at the University of Virginia.

For those of you in Group B: sometime before Thursday, September 7 at midnight, please log in to Moodle and respond to a posting by your classmate. You are of course free to express agreement, disagreement, or to extend the idea of the posting to which you are responding.

(To access Moodle, login to the HKU Portal and click on the tab for "My eLearning". You will go to page with the option of logging into Moodle-- click on the link and you should be in Moodle and see our course.)

• Thomas Harriot, A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia (1588); |See Quote Pack on Harriot (unnumbered) |
  On-line version (without DeBry's engravings)
  
  
• First Charter of Virginia(1606)
  
  
• John Smith, The Generall History of Virginia (1624, pgs. 83-90 in Sayre)
  frontispiece | portrait of Smith
  
  
• From Joel Barlow, The Vision of Columbus (1787)
  
  
• Disney's, Pocahontas (1995) part 1; Part 2: First encounter | 4 mins
  
  
• Virtual Jamestown Project,
  collaborative effort of Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia, and the Virginia Center for Digital History at the University of Virginia.
  
  
• Apple logos       |       Queen Elizabeth I (Ditchley Portrait (1592), by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger
  
  

Moodle Group posting #2:          Moodle group for AMER1050_1A_2017

Group A: Before Wednesday (September 13) at 12 am (midnight) please post a short response paper at the Moodle group for AMER1050_1A_2017 in which you choose a letter from the The New England Primer and analyze it as a tool for teaching children how to read. What might you infer about the way Puritans viewed the world and their lives? Your posting should be somewhere in the range of 300-500 words. Remember that your analysis begins with your choice of an image-- why did you choose this particular one?

For those of you in Group B: please log in to Moodle and respond to a posting by your classmate (agreeing, disagreeing, or extending what her or his posting says).

• Learning to read like a Puritan: excerpts from The New England Primer
  
  
• William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation (written, 1620-1647; first published 1856),
  Chapters 1-5, 7, 9, 10-14, 28; |See pages 12-17 in Quote Pack 1|
  Here is an image of Bradford's manuscript; Online edition (from the Early Americas Digital Archive, Univeristy of Maryland)
  
  
• John Winthrop, "Model of Christian Charity" (1630, aboard the Arabella)
  
  
• Jonathan Edwards, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" (1741, delivered)
  Portrait of Edwards by Joseph Badger (1751); compare this to a portrait of King Charles II by John Michael Wright, 1660-65;
  another of Wright's Charles II portraits (Royal Collection)
  Embarkation of the Pilgrims by Robert Weir (painted 1843; placed 1843); U.S. Capitol Rotunda
  
  
• Anne Bradstreet poems (see icon to right...)

Recommended Reading: (only suggestions for your further consideration; but these may be used in the take-home portion of your exams)

Michael Wigglesworth, Day of Doom (1662; stanzas 144-152; 166-181-- pg. 62, 65); Here is an online version

Perry Miller, The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century (1954)

William Cronon, Changes in the Land : Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England(1983)

Daniel Ricther, Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America(2003)

Karen Ordahl Kupperman, Indians and English: Facing Off in Early America (2000)

James Axtell "White Indians of North America" The William and Mary Quarterly 32.1 (Jan. 1975)

James Axtell and William C. Sturtevant, "The Unkindest Cut: Or, Who Invented Scalping" The William and Mary Quarterly 37.3 (July 1980)

• Mary Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God (1682, pgs. 127-176 in Sayre); |See pages 24-29 in Quote Pack 1|
  
  Online edition, (from the Early Americas Digital Archive, Univeristy of Maryland)
  
  
• Note the two different (Boston and London) title pages (icon to the right...)
  
  
• John Locke's Second Treatise on Government, especially Chapter 5

Recommended Reading:

Cotton Mather, "A Narrative of Hannah Swarton" (1702, p. 186-194 in Sayre)

Sherman Alexie, "Captivity"

William Apess, "Eulogy on King Philip" (1836)

William Apess, "Indian's Looking-Glass for the White Man" (1836)

Susan Faludi, America's Guardian Myths, The New York Times(7 September 2007)

PART II: REVOLUTION AND NATIONAL EXCEPTIONALISM

• Declaration of Independence (1776); Jefferson's manuscript; with quotation marks; and, the John Dunlop broadside
  
  
• Articles of Confederation (1777-81) and The United States Constition (1789)
  
  
• "Federalist X, James Madison, from The Federalist Papers (1788)
  
  
• Excerpts from television mini-series John Adams (HBO,2008)

Moodle Group posting #5 :          Moodle group for AMER1050_1A_2017

Group A: Franklin's autobiography is full of "anecdotes" (short tales or stories) and observations. Before Wednesday (Oct. 4) at 12 midnight please post a short response paper at the Moodle group for AMER1050_1A_2017 in which you choose one from his autobiography. We will discuss your selection in class. Here are some questions for you to consider in your selection: How do the principles Puritan faith appear (or not appear) in Franklin's life story? How does Franklin use the telling of his life to represent the United States as a nation-- is Franklin presenting himself as a typical "American"?

For those of you in Group B: please respond to a posting by Group A.

• Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography; see pages 23-32 in Quote Pack 2| Web version
  (1791 in French; 1793, translated into English; 1818 English edition including parts 1-3; 1868 edition in English and including all four parts); Online version (from the Early Americas Digital Archive, Univeristy of Maryland)
  

Recommended Reading:

Benjamin Franklin, "Treaty of Carlisle, 1753"

Franklin's Rules for Making Oneself A Disagreeable Companion (1750)

Extent of US Wealth Inequality (Mashable)

Excerpt from Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904-05; English translation, 1930)

Hannah Foster, The Coquette: or, the History of Eliza Wharton (1797), by "A Lady of Massachusetts" (Hannah Foster); see pages 33-39 in Quote Pack 2|

Recommended Reading:



Cathy Davidson, Revolution and the Word: The Rise of the Novel in America (1986); Chapters 2, 4, 6

Definition of the term Romance


Midterm Exam

There are two parts to the Midterm. The first is a short answer test that takes place during class on October 27 (Friday).

The second part is a take-home exam question that will be due at the beginning of class on Tuesday, October 31.

Take-home part of the midterm

• J. Hector St. John de Crevècoeur, Letters from an American Farmer (1782, Letters 1-3, 9, 12); see pages 40-42 in Quote Pack 2|
  Online edition (from the Early Americas Digital Archive, Univeristy of Maryland)
  
  
• Federal Indian Law: Prucha, Part I: Indian Removal Act (1830) and The Marshall Trilogy (1823, 1831, 1832)
  
  
• Washington Irving, "Rip Van Winkle" (1819)
  Here are some clips of silent film versions from 1896-1902,
  staring Joseph Jefferson
• "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"          
  (and here is a PDF version)
  
  from The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (1819)

  Here are links to the Disney cartoon version of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" that was popular in the 1980s: Part I  |   Part II  |   Part III  |   Part IV

  
  
  
• Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Nature" (1836); see pages 45-47 in Quote Pack 2|
  
  

PART III: A HOUSE DIVIDED: