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Approved by Faculty Senate March 17, 2003 Department of History
A. Course Description
1.
Catalog
description A survey of the
significance of the Mississippi River in U.S. history. The course emphasizes the role of
the river in the native-American life and early European exploration of the mid-west, and
the efforts of European powers and the newly created U.S. to control the river. The course
also studies the role of the river in economic change, slavery, pre-Civil War immigration,
and federal policy. The course will also consider the western theater of the Civil War,
the post-war bridging of the river and industrial development along it, and its 20th-century
flooding, damning, and related controversies.
2.
Statement of
the major focus and objectives of the course. This course will focus on
the connections between the Mississippi River and overall U.S. historical development.
Consequently, students in the course will study both selected Mississippi-oriented
episodes such as Europeans’ 17th- and 18th-century explorations
of the upper Mississippi and contacts with native American groups, 19th-century
steam-boating, and 20th-century floods and related developments in U.S. history
that students would encounter in college-level survey courses such as History 150: US
History to 1865 and History 151: US History Since 1865. The course also
contributes to the Residential College cluster of courses focused on the Mississippi
River.
3.
Course
Outline of the Major Topics and Subtopics
I. Course
Introduction
A.
Description of
the Mississippi River system and Mississippi Valley
B. The Relationship Between Regional and
National History
C.
The Debate over
the Role of the Frontier in the Shaping of US Institutions
II. Natives and
Newcomers on the 17th and 18th-century Mississippi
A.
Dakota People
and the Upper Mississippi
B.
European
Exploration and European-Dakota Relations along the Upper Mississippi
C.
The Founding of
New Orleans and St. Louis
D.
Comparison of
Upper Mississippi experience with eastern experience.
III. Great Power
Politics on the Mississippi
A.
French, Spanish
and British Plans for the Mississippi
B.
The American
Revolution
C.
The Haitian
Revolution and the Louisiana Purchase
IV. Ante-Bellum
Development of the Mississippi
A.
River
Improvements and National Politics
B.
Steam-boating
and Federal Regulation
C.
River Towns and
Commerce
D.
The New
Orleans-Mississippi Immigration Route
E.
Slavery along
the Lower Mississippi River
F.
Mississippi
River States
G.
Mark
Twain’s Mississippi River
H.
Dred
Scott’s Mississippi River
I.
The Mississippi
in Ante-Bellum America
V. The
Civil War Along the Mississippi
A.
Abe
Lincoln’s Mississippi Journey
B.
Southern Dreams
and the Western Theater
C.
General
Grant’s Mississippi
D.
The Western
Theater the Outcome of the War
VI. Bridging the
19th-Century Mississippi
A.
The Rock Island
Bridge
B.
The Eads Bridge
C.
The Mississippi
River Commission (1879)
D.
Bridges,
Railroads and Urban Empires in Gilded Age America
VII. Progressive
Reform Along the Mississippi
A.
The Mississippi
Valley and 20th-Century U.S. Foreign Policy
B.
Progressive
Conservationists’ Critique of the Mississippi River Commission River Management
C.
Upper
Mississippi Reform
D.
Lower
Mississippi Reform
E.
The Mississippi
Valley and U.S. Overseas Expansion
VIII. The 1927 Flood
A.
The Limits of
Progressive and 1920s Voluntarism and Disaster Relief
B.
Lower
Mississippi Conditions, Louisiana Politics and the Coming of Huey Long
IX. A New Deal for the Mississippi A. Locks and Dams as Work
Relief and River Management B. Mississippi Delta
Cotton, Southern Labor and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration
X. The
Mississippi River and the Great Society
A.
Civil Rights on
the Lower Mississippi
B.
Levees
(including Winona’s) on the Upper Mississippi
XI. Contemporary
River Uses and Environmental Justice
A.
Water Quality
B.
Barge Traffic
and Lobbyists
C.
The Army Corps
of Engineers
D.
Environmentalists’
Visions
E.
The 1993 Flood
and its Winners and Losers 4. Basic Instructional
Plan The course will feature
some lectures, a significant amount of small group and class discussion, and student
reports based upon primary historical sources (newspapers and other periodicals as well as
government documents) available via the WSU library. 5. Course Requirements The course will require
each student to complete written midterm and final exams, a paper on an assigned topic,
and a group research project using the primary sources concerning the river that are
available at or via the WSU library. 6. Textbooks The course readings will
be selected from among the following: Douglas Brinkley and
Stephen Ambrose, The Mississippi and the Making of A Nation from the Louisiana Purchase
to the Today (2002) Clayton Anderson, Kinsmen
of Another Kind, Dakota-White Relations in the Upper Mississippi Valley, 1650-1862
(1984) Robert W. Jackson, Rails
Across the Mississippi, A History of the St. Louis Bridge (2001) Mark Twain, Life on
the Mississippi (1883) John M. Barry, Rising
Tide, The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America (1997) James Cobb, The Most
Southern Place on Earth, The Mississippi Delta and Roots of Southern Regional Identity
(1992) Eddy Harris, Mississippi
Solo (1988) Frederick Jackson Turner,
“The Significance of the Frontier in American History” (1893) John G. Burke,
“Bursting Boilers and Federal Power,” (1966) Frederick Jackson Turner,
“The Significance of the Frontier in American History” (1893) Excerpts from Howard
Miller, Alexander Yard, Kathy Corbett, Mary Seematter, St. Louis in American History
(1988-1991) John G. Burke,
“Bursting Boilers and Federal Power,” (1966) Pinchot, Gifford.
"Some Essential Principles of Water Conservation as Applied to Mississippi Flood
Control."(January 1928) Parker, Walter.
"Curbing the Mississippi."(May 1927) Robinson, Michael C.
"The Relationship Between the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental
Community, 1920-1969."(1989) Websites: http://www.mvd.usace.army.mil/main.php [US Army Corps of
Engineers, Mississippi Valley Division] http://www.fmr.org/ [Friends of the
Mississippi River] http://www.mrba.org/ [Mississippi River Basin
Alliance] 7. List of
References/Bibliography Ambrose, Stephen,
Brinkley, Douglas, and Abell, Samuel. The Mississippi and the Making of A Nation From
the Louisiana Purchase to Today. Washington, D.C.: The National Geographic Society,
2002. Banta, Martha, “The
Boys and the Bosses: Twain’s Double Take on Work, Play and the Democratic
Ideal,” American Literary History, 3 (1991), 487-520. Barry, John M. Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of
1927 and How it Changed America. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997. Billington, Ray Allen. Westward
Expansion: A History of the American Frontier. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co.,
1982. Burke, John G.
“Bursting Boilers and Federal Power,” Technology and Culture, 7 (1966),
1-23. Clay, Floyd M. A
Century on the Mississippi: A History of the Memphis District, U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, 1876-1981. Memphis, TN: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1986. Cobb, James C. The
Most Southern Place on Earth, The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Cowdrey, Albert E. This
Land, This South: an Environmental History. Lexington, KY: University Press of
Kentucky, 1983. Daniel, Pete. Deep'n
As It Come: The 1927 Mississippi River Flood. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977.
DeSantis, Vincent P.
"President Hayes' Southern Policy." Journal of Southern History 21
(November 1955): 476-491. Fries, Robert F.
“The Mississippi River Logging Company and the Struggle for the Free Navigation of
Logs, 1865-1900,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 35 (1948), 429-448. Harris, Eddy, Mississippi Solo. New York, NY: N. Lyons
Books, 1988. Hass, William H.
“The Mississippi River – Asset or Liability?” Economic Geography, 7 (1931),
252-262. Hill, Forest G. Roads,
Rails, & Waterways: The Army Engineers and Early Transportation. Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1957. Hunter, Louis C.
“The Invention of the Western Steamboat,” Journal of Economic History, 3
(1943), 201-220. Jackson, Robert W. Rails
Across the Mississippi, A History of the St. Louis Bridge. Urbana, IL: University of
Illinois Press, 2001. Lane, E.W. "History
of Flood Control on the Mississippi." Civil Engineering 4 (February 1934):
63-67. McBride, Mary G. and Ann
M. McLaurin. "The Origin of the Mississippi River Commission." Louisiana
History 36 (Fall 1995): 389-411. McDermott, John Francis. Before
Mark Twain, A Sampler of Old, Old Times on the Mississippi. Carbondale, IL.: Southern
Illinois University Press, 1968. Mahony, Timothy.
“Urban History in a Regional Context: River Towns on the Upper Mississippi,
1840-1860,” Journal of American History, 72 (1985), 318-339. Mahoney, Timothy. River
Towns in the Great West, The Structure of Provincial Urbanization in the American Midwest,
1820-1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Miller, Howard, Yard,
Alexander, Corbett, Katharine, See Matter, Mary. St. Louis in American Life. St.
Louis: Missouri Historical Society, 1988-. Morgan, Arthur E. Dams
and Other Disasters: A Century of the Army Corps of Engineers in Civil Works. Boston:
P. Sargent, 1971. Nettles, Curtis,
“The Mississippi Valley and the Constitution,” Mississippi Valley Historical
Review, 3 (1924), 332-357. Parker, Walter.
"Curbing the Mississippi." The Nation 124 (May 1927): 521-22. Pabis, George S.
"Delaying the Deluge: The Engineering Debate over Flood Control on the Lower
Mississippi River, 1846-1861." The Journal of Southern History 64, Number 4
(1998): 421-444. Pinchot, Gifford.
"Some Essential Principles of Water Conservation as Applied to Mississippi Flood
Control." The Annals 135 (January 1928): 57-59. Reuss, Martin.
"Andrew A. Humphreys and the Development of Hydraulic Engineering: Politics and
Technology in the Army Corps of Engineers, 1850-1950." Technology and Culture
26 (January 1985): 1-33. Reuss, Martin. "The
Army Corps of Engineers and Flood-Control Politics on the Lower Mississippi." Louisiana
History 23 (1982): 131-48. Robinson, Michael C. The
Mississippi River Commission: An American Epic. Vicksburg, MS: Mississippi River
Commission, 1989. Robinson, Michael C.
"The Relationship Between the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental
Community, 1920-1969." Environmental Review 13 (Spring 1989): 1-41. Saxon, Lyle. Father
Mississippi. New York: The Century Club, 1927. Scott, Quinta and Miller,
Howard. The Eads Bridge. Columbia, MO.: University of Missouri Press, 1979. Severin, Timothy, Explorers
of the Mississippi.1967 rpt. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota press, 2001. Shallat, Todd A. Structures
in the Stream: Water, Science, and the Rise of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1994 Twain, Mark. Life on
the Mississippi. New York: Bantam Books, 1981 (1883). Winston, James E.
“The Mississippi Whigs and the Tariff, 1834-1844,” Mississippi Valley
Historical Review, 22 (1936). 505-524.
B.
Rationale This course will
contribute the Residential College cluster focused on the Mississippi River. It is also a
significant addition to the History Department’s offerings, using the most prominent
feature of the region’s geography to engage students in the study of U.S. history. No other course will be
banked or dropped if this proposal wins approval.
C.
Notification This course will not
change the size of any program.
D. “G” Courses. The Department is not
proposing this course for graduate credit.
E. General Education The Department is
proposing the course for inclusion on the Universities Studies Program. The proposal is
attached.
Financial and Staffing Data Sheet For New Course Proposals PROPOSED COURSE: No.: 214 Title: The Mississippi River in U.S. History Credits: 3
PROPOSED AS: Required Course _________ Elective Course _____X____ Specify titles of programs in which the course will be
required/elective: History Major and Minor Social Science/History University Studies PLEASE PROVIDE A
NARRATIVE STATEMENT AND SPECIFIC DATA TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS.
1. Would this course be taught with
existing staff or with new/additional staff? This course would be
taught with existing staff. It would require no additional faculty.
2. How would this new course impact
on current course offerings (i.e. change the number of sections of current offerings,
dropping/banking of courses, etc.)? The department would
offer sections this course in place of sections of the U.S. history survey courses History
150 and 151. This would have minimal impact on students since the department plans to
accept History 214 as an alternative to either History 150 or History 151 (at the
student’s discretion) for History majors and minors and Social Science/History
majors. In addition, the department is proposing the course for the University Studies
Program (History 150 and History 151 currently carry University Studies credit); if
approved for it, the offering of this course would leave the department’s
contribution to the University Studies Program unchanged.
3. How would this new course impact
the department’s budget (e.g. equipment, supplies, instructional resources, etc.)? The course could have a
small impact on the department’s budget. Offering it may involve a slightly more
photocopying of assigned readings than the standard section of History 150 or 151, and the
department may need to purchase a video or two focused on Mississippi River history that
it might not otherwise purchase. On balance, however, the impact would be small. Signed:
__________________________ Department Chairperson
__________________________ College Dean University Studies Course
Approval Department or Program:
History Course Number: 214 Semester Hours: 3 Frequency of Offering: Annually Course Title: The Mississippi
River in U.S. History Catalog Description: A survey of the
significance of the Mississippi River in U.S. history. The course emphasizes the role of
the river in the native-American life and early European exploration of the mid-west, and
the efforts of European powers and the newly created U.S. to control the river. The course
also studies the role of the river in economic change, slavery, pre-Civil War immigration,
and federal policy. The course will also consider the western theater of the Civil War,
the post-war bridging of the river and industrial development along it, and its 20th-century
flooding, damning, and related controversies. This is an existing
course previously approved by A2C2: NO This is a new course
proposal: YES University Studies
Category: Arts and Sciences Core/
Humanities Department Contact
Person: Alex Yard ayard@winona.edu Rationale: The department strongly
believes that this course will play a significant role in Universities Studies
program by providing students with an appreciation for the historical context of human
experiences and cultures along the Mississippi River and an improved understanding of the
discipline of history. USP Humanities
Objective 1 The University studies
program requires that courses in the Humanities promote students' ability to identify and
understand specific elements and assumptions of a particular Humanities Discipline. History 214 both will
introduce students to significant bodies of information about the American past, a vital
element of the discipline, but will also encourage students to seek out connections
between local/regional events and national trends. Moreover, the course will introduce
students to historical explanations, the intellectual skills of historians, and the ways
in which historian conceive of and write about the past. In addition, the course will ask
students (as well as the instructor) to explore whether or not the Mississippi River
Valley is a sensible unit for understanding U.S. politics and cultures akin to the nation
state and regions of north and south. The courses introduce
students to the main lines of historical development along the river. The specific sets of
facts and subplots emphasized will differ from instructor to instructor and year to year,
but students will experience the same general chronology. The courses introduce
students to the principle elements of history as a discipline. Both aim at developing
students' abilities to identify and evaluate various kinds of evidence used by historians
to identify themes (as opposed to collections of facts) in historical literature, to
relate events in one region to those in others, and to write clearly. Both courses also
invite students to begin using historical evidence to construct explanations of the past
and discuss relationships among events. The courses do all of
this by means of lectures, readings of both primary documents and historical literature,
class discussions (both small-group and full-class discussions), tests, and writing
assignments. USP Humanities
Objective 2: Objective 2 asks courses
to promote students’ ability to understand how historical context, cultural values,
and gender influence perceptions and interpretations. History 214 addresses
this objective in two distinct ways. In part, the courses explore how people in the past
had differing perceptions and interpretations of the events of their times. In large part
these divergent perceptions and interpretations resulted from their differing historical
experiences, cultural values and genders. The course provide students with an abundance of
episodes that provided occasion for expression of divergent perceptions ranging from the
contrasting uses of the River by natives and European newcomers in the 17th and
18th centuries to the social structures of river towns, race relations in the
Delta, and divergent Army Corps and contemporary environmentalist views of proper uses of
the river. The courses also address
this issue by introducing students to the varying ways in which historians themselves
perceive and interpret the past, and it begins to explore the sources of these
differences. The courses attempt to
achieve this objective through lectures, reading assignments focused on both document
drawn from the times and historians' discussions of the past, small group and class
discussions, and writing assignments. USP Humanities
Objective 3: The University Studies
Program requires courses in the Humanities to promote students' ability to understand the
role of critical analysis (e.g. aesthetic, historical, literary, philosophical,
rhetorical) in interpreting and evaluating expressions of human experience. History 214 addresses
this objective by emphasizing the role of historical analysis in understanding past as
well as contemporary developments. The courses, in other words, direct students' attention
of the task of explaining, and not just remembering, past events, including ideas and
their expression in a wide range forms. The courses direct student attention to the
critical documents relate to river developments, for example, as well as those of a wide
range of Mississippi Valley peoples’ attempts to celebrate, criticize and/or make
sense of their societies. The courses, in other words, challenge students to understand
how events and ideas came to be as they were. The courses attempt to
achieve this objective through lectures, reading assignments focused on both document
drawn from the times and historians' discussions of the past, small group and class
discussions, and writing assignments. Representative Syllabus for History 214: The Mississippi River
in U.S. History Appended to University Studies
Proposal January, 2003 History 214: The Mississippi River
in U.S. History This course counts in the
Humanities Category of the University Studies program Fall, 2003
Prof. Yard MWF, 1-1:50
215 Minne Hall This course will
introduce students to the human history of the Mississippi River and its role in U.S.
history. The course will investigate historical episodes and trends in the history of the
Mississippi Valley and related them to national developments of the sort you would find a
textbook for a survey course in U.S. history. The course will also enhance your
understanding of the reading, thinking and writing skills used by historians. The course will emphasize
small group and class discussion as well as featuring lectures. Successful discussion
participation requires keeping up with the reading. As a further incentive to complete the
reading assignments, the course features quizzes on which you will be able to display your
grasp of the readings. Students will also
complete two written exams, a 5-10 page paper on an assigned topic, and a group research
project focused on testing a generalization about the Mississippi Valley or its
relationship to national developments. This last assignment will make use of the
historical sources and government documents held in the WSU library and will involve both
written papers and oral reports to the class. I will determine the
final grade according to the following formula: Quizzes: 20% Midterm Exam: 20% Final Exam: 20% Assigned Paper: 20% Research Project: 20% University Studies Note This course is included
in the Humanities category of the WSU University Studies program. Consequently it will
address the following three objectives required of all courses approved for this category:
A. To promote students’ ability to
identify and understand specific elements and assumptions of a particular Humanities
discipline. This course does this by
requiring you to study of the chronology of Mississippi Valley history. You will also
study works of historians of selected episodes of Mississippi Valley history and to relate
episodes in Mississippi Valley history to the larger developments in U.S. history.
Moreover, you will complete exams that require you to place information in historical
context, relating one body of information to others. In addition, you will complete a
paper in which you relate a particular episode to other themes, and you will complete a
research paper in which you test a historical generalization against primary sources you
locate. Finally, throughout the course, you will explore the extent to which the
Mississippi Valley is sensible unit of historical analysis, like north and south, just as
professional historians might do.
B. To promote students’
ability to understand how historical context, cultural values, and gender influence
perceptions and interpretations. The course will address
this by exploring why the historical actors we encounter acted as they did and the
assigned historians explained events as they did in the small group discussions. Of
particular relevance to this objective will be the discussions of the differing views of
slavery, Progressive Era conflicts between business interests and Teddy Roosevelt-type
conservationists, and the conflicting visions
of contemporary river use among between the Army Corps of Engineers, barge company
lobbyists like former congressman Tim Penny, and environmental organizations. You will
also address this objective as you prepare for the written exam and the assigned paper
that will require you place specific events in their historical context.
C. To promote students’ ability to
understand the role of critical analysis (e.g. aesthetic, historical, literary,
philosophical, rhetorical) in interpreting and evaluating expressions of human experience.
The course will address
this objective in the small group discussions of historical literature and in the group
research project. In the discussions, students will focus among other things on how
historians use sources and evidence to discuss the past. In the research project, you will
use sources and evidence to evaluate a historian’s generalization about the region or
the region’s relationship to national developments. Assigned Readings Books Douglas Brinkley and
Stephen Ambrose, The Mississippi and the Making of A Nation from the Louisiana Purchase
to the Today (2002) |