Reaction Paper Assignments
Purpose: To help you become comfortable with in-class discussion.
Assignment: This assignment (one page, double-spaced) allows you to think critically about the material assigned on any given class day. You will not write a simple summary of the readings. Instead focus on thinking about the significance of the day’s readings and try to relate it to the material we have covered to date in class. Have some fun with this assignment--use it to formulate questions for class discussion or suggest alternative interpretations of the issues and event. How does the material assigned challenge or reinforce your understanding of the American Revolutionary Era? This is your opportunity to shape our discussions.
How Many?: You will write at least four reaction papers to the course readings which will be graded on a pass/fail basis. You must hand in your papers to the History office by 11:00 am on the day you signed up for class discussion. (They need to be handed in by that time so I can look at them before class meets.) Note that while you have to write four papers to meet this requirement, I will read additional papers and they will count toward participation.
This assignment is based upon one created by Professor Amy Richter of Clark University. See http://historymatters.gmu.edu/syllabi/Richter/richter.html for the original assignment.
Note: I reserve to adjust this syllabus as circumstances dictate throughout the semester.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Introduction of the course with a discussion of the material required and course expectations.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Readings: First, read the introductions to Liberty Tree, The Radicalism of the American Revolution, and The Unknown Revolution Then read the following: Allan Kulikoff, “The Progress of Inequality in Revolutionary Boston,” WMQ, 3rd ser., 28 (July 1971) 375-412; Billy G. Smith, “The Material Lives of Laboring Philadelphians, 1750 to 1800,” The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 38 (April 1981), 163-202.
Reading a Primary Source
Click here for a link on how to analyze a primary source. Take the time to read through this short, but very useful set tips on readings a primary source as they will help us understand and discuss the sources we read in class.
Monday, August 30
Readings: "From Slaves, Convicts, and Servants to Free Passengers: The Transformation of Immigration in the Era of the American Revolution", Aaron S. Fogleman, The Journal of American History, Vol. 85, No. 1. (Jun., 1998), pp. 43-76; “A Most Awkward, Ridiculous Appearance”: Benjamin Franklin Enters Philadelphia"; “We Unfortunate English People Suffer Here”: An English Servant Writes Home, by Elizabeth Sprigs; “Packed Densely, Like Herrings”: Gottlieb Mittelberger Warns His Countryman of the Perils of Emigration, 1750; “Work and labor in this new and wild land are very hard”: A German Migrant in Philadelphia, 1750 by Gottlieb Mittelberger; “A Person Like Me, Oppress’d By Dame Fortune, Need Not Care Where He Goes”: The “Infortunate” William Moraley Tries His Luck in America, 1729.
Wednesday, September 1
Class assignment: Click on this link for the Primary Source reading. Additionally you should read all of “Patriots, Loyalists, and Revolution in New York City,” (the Reacting to the Past booklet) including the primary material in the appendices.
Monday, September 6--Read the material at this link on Reacting to the Past
Labor Day, remember the laboring people of the United States. You should labor yourself by finishing the Reacting book so you are ready to go on Wednesday. In addition, you should read the following readings will help you tremendously in playing the game, so you should read them.
Readings:
On Deference: "George Robert Twelves Hewes (1742-1840): A Boston Shoemaker and the Memory of the American Revolution," Alfred F. Young, The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Ser., Vol. 38, No. 4. (Oct., 1981), pp. 561-623. Read pp. 561-564.
On Women: Alfred Young, Liberty Tree, Chapter 2, "Persons of Consequence": The Women of Boston and the Making of the American Revolution, 1765-1776.
Wednesday, September 8
Game set up--faction meetings, getting things set to go. Click Here To Go To Our Game Page
Monday, September 13
Game Day 1
Wednesday, September 15
Game Day 2
Monday, September 20
Game Day 3
Wednesday, September 22
Game Day 4
Monday, September 27
Game Day 5
Wednesday, September 29
Game Day 6--finish game and do game postmortem.
Monday, October 4
Readings: Wood, Radicalism, Section I. Monarchy (chs. 1-5)
Wednesday, October 6
Readings: Nash, Unknown American Revolution, chapters 1 & 2;
Primary Readings:
Benjamin Franklin, Testimony Against the Stamp Act (1766)
The Declaratory Act; March 18, 1766
James Otis, "Of the Natural Rights of Colonists,"
James Otis, "In Opposition to Writs of Assistance," 1761
Monday, October 11: Fall Breather, no class. Keep reading.
Wednesday, October 13
Readings: Pauline Maier, “Popular Uprisings and Civil Authority in Eighteenth-Century America,” WMQ 27 (1970), 3-35; Richard Beeman, “Deference, Republicanism, and the Emergence of Popular Politics in Eighteenth-Century America,” WMQ 49 (July 1992), 401-430; and Alfred Young, Liberty Tree, Ch.1, "The Mechanics of the Revolution..."
Primary Sources: Abigail Adams on a female crowd; "The Colonies Reduced"; “We Are All Equally Free”: New York City Workingmen Demand A Voice in the Revolutionary Struggle.
Monday, October 18
Readings: Nash, Unknown American Revolution, Chapters 3, 4, & 5.
Wednesday, October 20
Readings: Wood, Radicalism, Ch. 6-10 (pp. 95-188).
Monday, October 25
Readings: Nash, Unknown American Revolution, Chapters 6,7, & 8.
Wednesday, October 27
Race and Revolution
Readings: “Liberty is Sweet” in Young, Beyond the American Revolution; Pennsylvania - An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, 1780, “Natural and Inalienable Right to Freedom”: Slaves ’Petition for Freedom to the Massachusetts Legislature, 1777, “Is It Not Enough that We Are Torn From Our Country and Friends?”: Olaudah Equiano Describes the Horrors of the Middle Passage, 1780s, "Having Tasted the Sweets of Freedom": Cato Petitions the Pennsylvania Legislature to Remain Free.
"Whose Indian History?", Daniel K. Richter, The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Ser., Vol. 50, No. 2, (Apr., 1993), pp. 379-393; "Indians, the Colonial Order, and the Social Significance of the American Revolution", Edward Countryman, The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Ser., Vol. 53, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 342-362.
Monday, November 1
Begin viewing "Mary Silliman's War" a film about the Revolution. Before you view the film, visit this page to see your second writing assignment, and analysis of a secondary source. Remember I asked you to read Alfred Young, Liberty Tree, Chapter 2, "Persons of Consequence": The Women of Boston and the Making of the American Revolution, 1765-1776 back on September 8 (see above)? You should take another look at that as it will play in to our discussion of the film on 11/3.
Wednesday, November 3
Monday, November 8
Discussion: Book I, “The Great Debate”, (pp. 21-82) in Holton, Unruly Americans. & Discussion: Book II, “Virtue and Vice”, (pp. 85-107) in Holton, Unruly Americans.
Wednesday, November 10
Discussion: Book III, “Unruly Americans”, (pp. 127-176) in Holton, Unruly Americans.
Monday, November 15
Discussion: Book IV, “Reining in the Revolution”, (pp. 179-223) in Holton, Unruly Americans & Discussion: Book V, “Esau’s Bargain,” (pp. 223-271) in Holton, Unruly Americans. Also the Epilogue to the book.
Wednesday, November 17
Discussion: Alfred Young, Liberty Tree, Chapter 4, “Conservatives, the Constitution, and the ‘Genius of the People;’” Wood, Radicalism, Chs. 13, 14, 15.
Monday, November 21-NO CLASS
Wednesday, November 23: THANKSGIVING BREAK
Discussion of Final Paper
Wednesday, December 1
Discussion: Wood, Radicalism, Chs. 16, 17, 18, 19.
Monday, December 6:
How Radical was the Revolution?
Readings: The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Ser., Vol. 51, No. 4. (Oct., 1994)
Forum: How Revolutionary Was the Revolution? A Discussion of Gordon S. Wood's The Radicalism of the American Revolution; "The Radical Recreation of the American Republic", Joyce Appleby; "The Adequate Revolution", Barbara Clark Smith; "Rhetoric, Reality, and the Revolution: The Genteel Radicalism of Gordon Wood", Michael Zuckerman; "Equality and Social Conflict in the American Revolution", Gordon S. Wood.
Young,
Liberty Tree, "How Radical was the American Revolution?"