University Studies Course Approval

 Department or Program: History

Course Number: History 150: US History to 1865

Semester Hours: 3

Frequency of Offering: Every Semester

Course Title: U.S. History to 1865

Catalog Description:

A survey of United States history from prehistoric times to the American Civil War. Special emphasis will be placed
on political developments and public policy, the origins and consequences of both slavery and ethnic, cultural and
regional diversity and conflict. Also emphasized is the transformation of the social and economic systems. Grade only.

This is an existing course previously approved by A2C2:
YES

This is a new course proposal:
NO

University Studies Category:

Arts and Sciences Core/ Humanities

Department Contact Person:
Alex Yard
ayard@winona.edu

 Rationale:

The department strongly believes that this sequences of courses (History 150 and 151) will play a significant role in
Universities Studies program by providing students with an appreciation for the historical context of human experiences
and culture 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 150 and 151 both will introduce students to significant bodies of information about the American past, a vital element
of the discipline, but will also introduce students to historical explanations, the intellectual skills of historians, and the ways in
which historian conceive of and write about the past.

The courses introduce students to the main lines of historical development (including the development of American culture)
up to and from the American Civil War. 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, 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:

History 150-151 address 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. Both courses provide students with an abundance of
instances that provided occasion for expression of divergent perceptions ranging from the "discovery" of the Americas by
15th-century western Europeans and changes in 18th-century family structures to the conflict over the slavery and the varying
19th- and 20th-century responses to industrial change.

The courses also address this issue by introducing students to the varying ways in which historians themselves perceive and
interpret the past, and 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 150 and 151 address 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 of the American Revolution, for example, as well as those of the crusade against human slavery and other social and political reform movements, and wide range of Americans' attempts to celebrate, criticize and/or make sense of their society. 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 150: U.S. History to 1865
Appended to University Studies Proposal
November, 2000

History 150: U.S. History to l865

As a course in history, History 150 has two major objectives: to introduce students to the history of the United States
from its colonial beginnings through the Civil War and to make students even more effective-than they already are!-at
thinking, reading, writing, listening, and speaking in a critical/analytical/creative manner.

Regarding the first objective-to make students more knowledgeable about America's past-we will of necessity have to
limit ourselves to certain key topics, themes, issues, events, and problems simply because the historical material
available to us is so vast and thus impossible to address in the space of a semester. Students should consult the
outline (below) to get a quick sense of the topics, etc., that we will be addressing.

In pursuit of the second objective-honing students' thinking abilities-class time and course work will often encourage
students to approach the material in an engaged and reflective-rather than passive and desultory-manner.

The specific course requirements and expectations include the following:

1) class attendance and active participation in class discussion;

2) doing and turning in on time various quizzes (announced and unannounced) short papers,
        assignments, etc., that I will assign at my discretion;

3) TWO take-home essay exams, WHICH I STRONGLY URGE YOU TO DO WITH A PARTNER.

4) a primary research paper (during roughly the 2nd half of the semester) THAT YOU MUST DO IN A
       GROUP OF EITHER TWO OR THREE STUDENTS;

5) and, for freshman, a brief individual conference with me during the early weeks of the semester
      

Your grade for the course will be based as follows:

1) each of the take home essay exams will count 25% of the final grade, for a total of 50%;

2) 25 % for the research paper ; and,

3) 25% will be based on the combined total of the quizzes, short papers, miscellaneous assignments. As far as the quizzes, etc., go, aside from a bona fide, MAJOR LEAGUE reason (such as a major medical or family crisis) for missing quizzes or turning in short papers late, there will be NO opportunities to make-up quizzes or to turn in short papers late. On the other hand, each student will be allowed one missed quiz or one missed late short paper without getting a grade of E (failing) for that particular assignment. After you have used up your one missed quiz/late/not-turned-in-short paper , all future quizzes/short papers that you miss or try to turn in late will be given a failing grade. (If you never use up your one "miss," when figuring up your final grade, I will exclude your lowest quiz/short paper grade if this helps you.) Finally, if I assign optional short papers, and you do them, the grades you get on these optional papers will replace your lower grades on the quizzes/short papers (this assumes that you do considerably better on the optional papers than on those quizzes/short papers whose grades you would like to replace.).

4) For students on the border between, say, an A and B, I will make my final decision based on the extent and quality of the student's participation in class.

 

Five books are required for the course. They are:

James Henretta, et. al., America's History, THIRD EDITION, volume 1. [AH] NOTE: MAKE SURE
YOU HAVE VOLUME 1 OF THE THIRD EDITION

Gary W. Gallagher, ed., Two Witnesses at Gettysburg

Peter C. Hoffer, The Salem Witchcraft Trials: A Legal History

University Studies Program Note to Students

This course is included in the Humanities category of the University Studies Program. As such it address the following
objectives required of all courses in the humanities category:

     a.  To promote students’ ability to identify and understand specific elements and assumptions of a particular
          Humanities discipline;

2. To promote students’ ability to understand how historical context, cultural values, and gender influence
   perceptions and interpretations; and

      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 following course schedule uses the letters USOa (meaning University Studies Objective a), USOb (meaning
University Studies Objective b), and USOc (meaning University Studies Objective c), to indicate where the course
will address each of these University Studies objectives.

COURSE OUTLINE