History 231: MoWe 10:00AM - 12:05PM
Section 2 CRN 80312
Office: Faculty Towers 201A
Instructor: Dr. Schmoll
Office Hours: M/W 7-7:30 and 12 to 1…OR MAKE AN APPOINTMENT!!!
Email: bschmoll@csub.edu
Office Phone: 654-6549
Instructor: Dr. Schmoll
Office Hours: M/W 7-7:30 and 12 to 1…OR MAKE AN APPOINTMENT!!!
Email: bschmoll@csub.edu
Office Phone: 654-6549
Course Description:
The colonial foundations; political, economic, social and cultural developments in the
emerging United States; the early agrarian republic; the Civil War.
Required Reading:
1. Paul Johnson, A History of the American People (come to class before buying this)
2. Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
3. Thomas Paine, “Common Sense”
4. Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
The colonial foundations; political, economic, social and cultural developments in the
emerging United States; the early agrarian republic; the Civil War.
Required Reading:
1. Paul Johnson, A History of the American People (come to class before buying this)
2. Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
3. Thomas Paine, “Common Sense”
4. Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
5. Weekly blog readings: Each week you will have both primary and secondary
sources to read on the blog.
These will be announced in class.
Grading Scale:
Participation: 10%
Indian Removal Debate: 10%
The Slavery Essay: 25%
Midterm Exam: 25%
Final Exam: 30%
The Blog: If you have questions or comments about this class, or if you want to see the
course readings or the syllabus online, just go to http://history231fall2012.blogspot.com/
You need to sign in to this blog this week.
You will also have short readings on the blog. I will announce these in class.
Attendance:
Just to be clear, to succeed on tests and papers you really should be in class.
That’s just common sense, right? To pass this class, you may not miss more than two
classes. If you miss that third class meeting, you are missing too much of the quarter. You cannot do that and pass.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES:
Educational theorists insist that the stating of goals and objectives before entering into
an instruction-rich environment is crucial. Hence, I am including here the goals and objectives
created by the History Department. If you’d like to read more about the way we learn history,
Sam Wineburg, at Stanford, has some wonderful theory on how we adopt historical learning
practices. (For example, look up the following articles, Wineburg, S. (1991). On the
reading of historical texts: Notes on the breach between school and academy. American
Educational Research Journal, 28(3), 495-519. Wineburg, S. & Schneider, J. (2009). Was
Bloom’s taxonomy pointed in the wrong direction? Phi Delta Kappan, 91 (4), 56-61.) None of
these ideas seem to have been incorporated in what is the official statement of the History
Department. Instead, the department seems to define “goals” and “objectives” as events rather
than skills. In this course, however, we will grapple with what it means to learn and with the
way that the brain engages in historical thinking at certain moments. Hence, this will not
only be a course about history, about a bunch of stuff that happened (which is what the goals
below seem to suggest), but will also be a course about memory, about the processing of
information, about writing effectively from various authorial positions, about why our brains
work the way they do and how constructing an historical argument can engage the brain, and
about thinking about history itself. We will get meta-cognitive! (and yes, we’ll define that
term in class) Obviously, we’ll cover the official goals that follow, and we will respect the
departmental guidelines, but we will sacrifice those goals in the interest of quality
instruction. For example, if we are having a brilliant discussion on Andrew Jackson, and we
begin cutting into the time that I had planned to spend on, let’s say, the Anti-Mason movement,
we will sacrifice the Anti-Masons in the interest of what I deem authentic learning. Quantity of
history is not, as opposed to what is printed below and written by people with a fact fetish,
the key to sound history learning!
History Department Course Goals and Objectives for History 231 U.S. History to 1865:
Goal 1:
Students will learn the chronology and topical organization of U.S. history from the origins of European colonization to the conclusion of the Civil War.
Objective #1:
Students will be able to identify the major chronological divisions of U.S. history and discuss in writing how and why scholars have divided the past into various periods.
Objective #2:
Students will be able to identify the major topical divisions of U.S. history and recognize on objective tests and discuss in writing the significance of such topics as epidemic disease in the founding period, the role of political ideology in the coming of the Revolution, the rise of slavery and abolitionism, the political consequences of westward expansion, and the origins of the Civil War.
Goal 2:
Student will learn about the origins of European colonization and the consequences of contact among the peoples of America, Europe, and Africa in the colonial period.
Objective #1:
Students will be able to explain the motivations behind European colonization of the New World, the origins of the transAtlantic slave trade, the rise of the plantation economies, and the roles of mercantilism and religious persecution in the founding of the American colonies.
Objective #2:
Students will be able to define and discuss such terms as Columbian Exchange, virgin-soil epidemics, and Eurocentrism.
Goal 3:
Students will acquire an understanding of the principal political documents of U.S. history, including but not limited to the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Constitution, Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers, and the Emancipation Proclamation.
Objective #1:
Students will be able to write about the core political ideology of the American Revolution as embodied in the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution.
Objective #2:
Students will be able to explain the historical context and significance of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Goal 4:
Students will acquire an appreciation and understanding of diversity through the study of the history of the contributions of ethnic and racial minorities and women.
Objective #1:
Students will be able to write about and discuss orally the contributions of African Americans to early American history in terms of labor, society and culture.
Objective #2:
Students will be able to write about and discuss orally the contributions of and the prescribed role of women in colonial America and how that role changed as a result of the American Revolution and the subsequent urbanization of the United States.
Goal 5:
Students will learn about the lives of significant individuals in American history.
Objective #1:
Students will be able to identify on objective tests and/or essays the significant individuals in the history of the United States from colonial times to 1865.
Objective #2:
Students will be able to write about the contributions of a number of important people in the history of the United States from colonial times to 1865.
Goal 6:
Students will learn about the importance of republican principles and civic education in the sustaining of the American political system.
Objective #1:
Students will be able to identify the core principles of republicanism and the role of an educated electorate through an examination of a number of historical crises in the era preceding 1865, e.g. the colonial debate over taxation and representation, the struggle for the ratification of the Constitution, the Missouri Compromise, the Mexican War, the Nullification Crisis, the Compromise of 1850, and the Secessionist Crisis.
Goal 7:
Students will learn the geographical setting for historical events and the role expansion played in American history.
Objective #1:
Students will be able to identify on maps and/or objective exams and essays the important geographic settings, locations, and context for historical events.
Being Prompt:
Get to class on time. Why does that matter? First, it sends the wrong message to your principal grader (that’s me). As much as we in the humanities would like you to believe that these courses are objective (at what time of day did the Battle of Yorktown begin?), that is not entirely the case. If you send your principal grader the message that you don’t mind missing the first few minutes and disturbing others in the class, don’t expect to be given the benefit of the doubt when the tests and papers roll around. Does that sound mean? It’s not meant to, but just remember, your actions send signals. Being late also means that someone who already has everything out and is ready and is involved in the discussion has to stop, move everything over, get out of the chair to let you by, pick up the pencil you drop, let you borrow paper, run to the bathroom because you spilled the coffee, and so on. It’s rude. There’s an old saying: better two hours early than two minutes late. Old sayings are good.
So, what are the consequences of persistent tardiness? What do you think they should be? Remember that 10% participation? You are eligible for that grade if you are on time. Get here on time. And no, I’m not the jackass who watches for you to be late that one time and stands at the door and points in your face. If you are late a few (that means three) times, you will lose the entire 10% participation grade. One time tardiness is not a problem precisely because it is not persistent.
The Unforgivable Curse:
Speaking of one time issues, there is something that is so severe, so awful, that if it happens one time, just one time, no warning, no “oh hey I noticed this and if you could stop it that’d be super,” you will automatically lose all 10 percent of the Participation grade. Any guesses? C’mon, you must have some idea. No, it’s not your telephone ringing. If that happens, it’ll just be slightly funny and we’ll move on. It’s a mistake and not intentional, and the increased heart rate and extra sweat on your brow from you diving headfirst into an overstuffed book bag to find a buried phone that is now playing that new Cristina Aguilera ringtone is punishment enough for you. So, what is it, this unforgivable crime? Texting. If you take out your phone one time to send or receive messages you will automatically lose 10% of your course grade. That means, if you receive a final grade of 85%, it will drop to 75%. If you receive a final grade of 75%, it will become a 65%. Why is that? The phone ringing is an accident. Texting is on purpose and is rude. It, in fact, is beyond rude. It wreaks of the worst of our current society. It bespeaks the absolutely vile desire we all have to never separate from our technological tether for even a moment. It sends your fellow classmates and your teacher the signal that you have better things to do. Checking your phone during class is like listening to a friend’s story and right in the middle turning away and talking to someone else. Oh, and guess what, this room is designed to give your teacher a perfect view of you with a phone beneath the table; is that text message really worth 10% of the quarter grade? Plus, the way our brains work, you need to fully immerse yourself, to tune your brain into an optimal, flowing machine (see Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s incredible book Flow) that can grasp and can let itself go. Students now tend to see school as a stopover on their way to a career. Brothers and sisters, that’s deadly! I wish that I could pay for you all to quit your jobs and just focus on the mind. I can’t yet do that, but if I could I would, because it’d be worth every penny. Devoting time to the mind and to thinking deeply about your world will change who you are and how you approach your future, your family, your job, and your everything. Is that overstated? I believe it to be true. So, until my stock choices really take off so that I can pay all of your bills, promise me one thing. When you are in class or preparing for class, you have to be fully here. Oh crap, now it’s going to sound like a hippy professor from the 1960s: “I mean, like, be here man, just be here.” Maybe the hippies were on to something. Devote yourself fully to your classes by unplugging from the outside world for awhile.
Participation: You do not need to be the person who speaks out the most, asks the most questions, or comes up with the most brilliant historical arguments to receive a good grade for participation. If you are in class and on time, discuss the issues that we raise, avoid the temptation to nod off, to leave early, or to text people during class (the three easiest ways to lose credit), and in general act like you care, then you will receive a good participation grade! Let me reiterate; if you fall asleep in class you will lose the full participation grade. I will gladly help you wityh this if you need me to throw ice cold water on you during class.
Academic Integrity
The principles of truth and integrity are recognized as fundamental to a community of teachers and scholars. The University expects that both faculty and students will honor these principles and in so doing will protect the integrity of all academic work and student grades. Students are expected to do all work assigned to them without unauthorized assistance and without giving unauthorized assistance. Faculty have the responsibility of exercising care in the planning and supervision of academic work so that honest effort will be encouraged and positively reinforced.
http://www.csub.edu/studentconduct/documents/academicintegrity.pdf
These will be announced in class.
Grading Scale:
Participation: 10%
Indian Removal Debate: 10%
The Slavery Essay: 25%
Midterm Exam: 25%
Final Exam: 30%
The Blog: If you have questions or comments about this class, or if you want to see the
course readings or the syllabus online, just go to http://history231fall2012.blogspot.com/
You need to sign in to this blog this week.
You will also have short readings on the blog. I will announce these in class.
Attendance:
Just to be clear, to succeed on tests and papers you really should be in class.
That’s just common sense, right? To pass this class, you may not miss more than two
classes. If you miss that third class meeting, you are missing too much of the quarter. You cannot do that and pass.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES:
Educational theorists insist that the stating of goals and objectives before entering into
an instruction-rich environment is crucial. Hence, I am including here the goals and objectives
created by the History Department. If you’d like to read more about the way we learn history,
Sam Wineburg, at Stanford, has some wonderful theory on how we adopt historical learning
practices. (For example, look up the following articles, Wineburg, S. (1991). On the
reading of historical texts: Notes on the breach between school and academy. American
Educational Research Journal, 28(3), 495-519. Wineburg, S. & Schneider, J. (2009). Was
Bloom’s taxonomy pointed in the wrong direction? Phi Delta Kappan, 91 (4), 56-61.) None of
these ideas seem to have been incorporated in what is the official statement of the History
Department. Instead, the department seems to define “goals” and “objectives” as events rather
than skills. In this course, however, we will grapple with what it means to learn and with the
way that the brain engages in historical thinking at certain moments. Hence, this will not
only be a course about history, about a bunch of stuff that happened (which is what the goals
below seem to suggest), but will also be a course about memory, about the processing of
information, about writing effectively from various authorial positions, about why our brains
work the way they do and how constructing an historical argument can engage the brain, and
about thinking about history itself. We will get meta-cognitive! (and yes, we’ll define that
term in class) Obviously, we’ll cover the official goals that follow, and we will respect the
departmental guidelines, but we will sacrifice those goals in the interest of quality
instruction. For example, if we are having a brilliant discussion on Andrew Jackson, and we
begin cutting into the time that I had planned to spend on, let’s say, the Anti-Mason movement,
we will sacrifice the Anti-Masons in the interest of what I deem authentic learning. Quantity of
history is not, as opposed to what is printed below and written by people with a fact fetish,
the key to sound history learning!
History Department Course Goals and Objectives for History 231 U.S. History to 1865:
Goal 1:
Students will learn the chronology and topical organization of U.S. history from the origins of European colonization to the conclusion of the Civil War.
Objective #1:
Students will be able to identify the major chronological divisions of U.S. history and discuss in writing how and why scholars have divided the past into various periods.
Objective #2:
Students will be able to identify the major topical divisions of U.S. history and recognize on objective tests and discuss in writing the significance of such topics as epidemic disease in the founding period, the role of political ideology in the coming of the Revolution, the rise of slavery and abolitionism, the political consequences of westward expansion, and the origins of the Civil War.
Goal 2:
Student will learn about the origins of European colonization and the consequences of contact among the peoples of America, Europe, and Africa in the colonial period.
Objective #1:
Students will be able to explain the motivations behind European colonization of the New World, the origins of the transAtlantic slave trade, the rise of the plantation economies, and the roles of mercantilism and religious persecution in the founding of the American colonies.
Objective #2:
Students will be able to define and discuss such terms as Columbian Exchange, virgin-soil epidemics, and Eurocentrism.
Goal 3:
Students will acquire an understanding of the principal political documents of U.S. history, including but not limited to the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Constitution, Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers, and the Emancipation Proclamation.
Objective #1:
Students will be able to write about the core political ideology of the American Revolution as embodied in the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution.
Objective #2:
Students will be able to explain the historical context and significance of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Goal 4:
Students will acquire an appreciation and understanding of diversity through the study of the history of the contributions of ethnic and racial minorities and women.
Objective #1:
Students will be able to write about and discuss orally the contributions of African Americans to early American history in terms of labor, society and culture.
Objective #2:
Students will be able to write about and discuss orally the contributions of and the prescribed role of women in colonial America and how that role changed as a result of the American Revolution and the subsequent urbanization of the United States.
Goal 5:
Students will learn about the lives of significant individuals in American history.
Objective #1:
Students will be able to identify on objective tests and/or essays the significant individuals in the history of the United States from colonial times to 1865.
Objective #2:
Students will be able to write about the contributions of a number of important people in the history of the United States from colonial times to 1865.
Goal 6:
Students will learn about the importance of republican principles and civic education in the sustaining of the American political system.
Objective #1:
Students will be able to identify the core principles of republicanism and the role of an educated electorate through an examination of a number of historical crises in the era preceding 1865, e.g. the colonial debate over taxation and representation, the struggle for the ratification of the Constitution, the Missouri Compromise, the Mexican War, the Nullification Crisis, the Compromise of 1850, and the Secessionist Crisis.
Goal 7:
Students will learn the geographical setting for historical events and the role expansion played in American history.
Objective #1:
Students will be able to identify on maps and/or objective exams and essays the important geographic settings, locations, and context for historical events.
Being Prompt:
Get to class on time. Why does that matter? First, it sends the wrong message to your principal grader (that’s me). As much as we in the humanities would like you to believe that these courses are objective (at what time of day did the Battle of Yorktown begin?), that is not entirely the case. If you send your principal grader the message that you don’t mind missing the first few minutes and disturbing others in the class, don’t expect to be given the benefit of the doubt when the tests and papers roll around. Does that sound mean? It’s not meant to, but just remember, your actions send signals. Being late also means that someone who already has everything out and is ready and is involved in the discussion has to stop, move everything over, get out of the chair to let you by, pick up the pencil you drop, let you borrow paper, run to the bathroom because you spilled the coffee, and so on. It’s rude. There’s an old saying: better two hours early than two minutes late. Old sayings are good.
So, what are the consequences of persistent tardiness? What do you think they should be? Remember that 10% participation? You are eligible for that grade if you are on time. Get here on time. And no, I’m not the jackass who watches for you to be late that one time and stands at the door and points in your face. If you are late a few (that means three) times, you will lose the entire 10% participation grade. One time tardiness is not a problem precisely because it is not persistent.
The Unforgivable Curse:
Speaking of one time issues, there is something that is so severe, so awful, that if it happens one time, just one time, no warning, no “oh hey I noticed this and if you could stop it that’d be super,” you will automatically lose all 10 percent of the Participation grade. Any guesses? C’mon, you must have some idea. No, it’s not your telephone ringing. If that happens, it’ll just be slightly funny and we’ll move on. It’s a mistake and not intentional, and the increased heart rate and extra sweat on your brow from you diving headfirst into an overstuffed book bag to find a buried phone that is now playing that new Cristina Aguilera ringtone is punishment enough for you. So, what is it, this unforgivable crime? Texting. If you take out your phone one time to send or receive messages you will automatically lose 10% of your course grade. That means, if you receive a final grade of 85%, it will drop to 75%. If you receive a final grade of 75%, it will become a 65%. Why is that? The phone ringing is an accident. Texting is on purpose and is rude. It, in fact, is beyond rude. It wreaks of the worst of our current society. It bespeaks the absolutely vile desire we all have to never separate from our technological tether for even a moment. It sends your fellow classmates and your teacher the signal that you have better things to do. Checking your phone during class is like listening to a friend’s story and right in the middle turning away and talking to someone else. Oh, and guess what, this room is designed to give your teacher a perfect view of you with a phone beneath the table; is that text message really worth 10% of the quarter grade? Plus, the way our brains work, you need to fully immerse yourself, to tune your brain into an optimal, flowing machine (see Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s incredible book Flow) that can grasp and can let itself go. Students now tend to see school as a stopover on their way to a career. Brothers and sisters, that’s deadly! I wish that I could pay for you all to quit your jobs and just focus on the mind. I can’t yet do that, but if I could I would, because it’d be worth every penny. Devoting time to the mind and to thinking deeply about your world will change who you are and how you approach your future, your family, your job, and your everything. Is that overstated? I believe it to be true. So, until my stock choices really take off so that I can pay all of your bills, promise me one thing. When you are in class or preparing for class, you have to be fully here. Oh crap, now it’s going to sound like a hippy professor from the 1960s: “I mean, like, be here man, just be here.” Maybe the hippies were on to something. Devote yourself fully to your classes by unplugging from the outside world for awhile.
Participation: You do not need to be the person who speaks out the most, asks the most questions, or comes up with the most brilliant historical arguments to receive a good grade for participation. If you are in class and on time, discuss the issues that we raise, avoid the temptation to nod off, to leave early, or to text people during class (the three easiest ways to lose credit), and in general act like you care, then you will receive a good participation grade! Let me reiterate; if you fall asleep in class you will lose the full participation grade. I will gladly help you wityh this if you need me to throw ice cold water on you during class.
Academic Integrity
The principles of truth and integrity are recognized as fundamental to a community of teachers and scholars. The University expects that both faculty and students will honor these principles and in so doing will protect the integrity of all academic work and student grades. Students are expected to do all work assigned to them without unauthorized assistance and without giving unauthorized assistance. Faculty have the responsibility of exercising care in the planning and supervision of academic work so that honest effort will be encouraged and positively reinforced.
http://www.csub.edu/studentconduct/documents/academicintegrity.pdf
Academic Honesty
You are responsible for knowing all college policies about academic honesty. Any student who plagiarizes any part of his or her papers may receive an “F” in the course and a letter to the Dean.
History
231 Schedule
9/10 Intro/Pre-Columbian Americas/“Discovery”
and Exploration/Focus on Magellan
Hand out Reading Guide to Franklin
Hand out Reading Guide to Franklin
9/12 Early Colony Interactions/Signed
Statement from Syllabus Due
9/17 Early Colony Interactions
9/19 Early Colony Interactions
9/24 Early Colony Interactions
9/26 Mid-Century Issues
10/1 Mid-Century Issues…Benjamin
Franklin must be read for class today.
10/3 Origins of Revolution/Midterm
Review
10/8 Origins of Revolution…Common
Sense must be read for class today
10/10 Midterm Examination
10/15 Making a New Nation/The U.S.
Constitution
10/17 Early National Period/Jefferson’s
America
10/22 The World of A. Jackson/Cherokee
Removal Debate Prep
10/24 Cherokee Removal Debate
10/29 “Cycles of Distrust”—Sectionalism
10/31 War with Mexico and other Western
Issues
11/5 Sectionalism/Slavery Paper Due
11/7 Sectionalism
11/12 HOLIDAY – Veterans Day Observed – Campus
Closed
11/14 Civil War
11/19 Civil War/Last Day of Class
REMEMBER, although this syllabus is the “law” of the class, I reserve the right to change it at any time to suit the particular needs of our class. If I must do so, it will always be in your best interest, and I’ll always advise you as soon as possible.
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