The Great Seal of the United States bears the legend E Pluribus Unum: ‘Out of Many, One’. The module takes for its central theme the continuing interplay between unity and diversity in American history. It begins with an account of the formation of the American nation in the era of the Revolution, followed by an examination of the sectional conflict between North and South and its partial resolution in the Civil War. The next section sets the divisive impact of industrialisation against the integrative effects of a developing consumer culture and the mass media; it also looks at the relationship between assimilation and ethnic diversity in a society repeatedly transformed by the impact of mass immigration. The third section considers issues of race and cultural identity in post-Second World War America. Finally, we consider the implications for American society of the nation’s role as a world power.
This module provides first-year students with an introduction to the history of the United States of America. It is designed to familiarise students with some of the main themes in American history as a grounding for further courses in American history, literature and politics, and to provide a comparative perspective for those taking courses on British and European history. It is a compulsory module for intending Honours students in American Studies and one of the optional modules offered in Part One History.
There will be two lectures a week during the teaching period of term, that is 20 lectures in all (Week 6, 6-10 March, is a Reading Week when no classes will be held). The times of lectures are
Wednesday, 11.00-12.00
Thursday, 9.00-10.00
The places where lectures are held will be posted on the departmental notice-board early in the term.
There will also be a fortnightly seminar. Students will be allocated to seminar groups at the first lecture. The first seminars will be held during the following week. You will be given specific reading to do for each seminar and may also be assigned certain preparatory exercises.
Attendance at seminars is compulsory, and any unexplained absence will be regarded very seriously. Absences will be reported to the Part One Tutor. In the event of repeated absences a student may be reported to the Head of Department or even to the Dean of the Faculty. Should illness or any other avoidable circumstance make it impossible for you to attend a seminar, it is your responsibility to ensure that your tutor is informed in writing (an e-mail message will usually suffice), preferably in advance.
Students are required to write one essay of 2000-2500 words, which will be returned to them with comments; this accounts for 30% of the mark. Students also sit a 2-hour examination, in which they answer two essay-type questions; this accounts for 70% of the mark.
The deadline for the submission of the essay is:
Tuesday, 21 March
Students must adhere strictly to these dates. Late essays will incur a penalty, and essays submitted more than one week after the deadline will not be marked. For details of penalties see the Guide for Part One Students (p. 9).
For advice on how to approach the writing of essays consult the section on Essay Writing in the Department of History’s Guide for Students (pp. 14-21).
Students are warned against plagiarism, which the University's Unfair Practices Procedure defines as "using other people's work and submitting it for examination as though it were one's own work." This includes not only the attempt to pass over large sections of somebody else's work as if you had written it, but also unattributed direct quotation from secondary sources. Wherever substantial sections of text are reproduced without acknowledgement the Unfair Practices Procedure may be invoked. Plagiarism can result in a mark of zero being awarded for the essay concerned. You should be able to avoid any trace of doubt by careful note-taking, making sure that you note down where you got particular ideas or pieces of information from and clearly distinguishing between extracts which are copied verbatim and those which are paraphrased; by giving the sources for direct quotations (although this is optional); and providing a full bibliography of works consulted. If you are in any doubt at all about what constitutes good practice you should consult me or refer to the appendix on plagiarism in the Department of History’s Guide for Students (pp. 22-3).
You may find me in Room C44, Hugh Owen Building. Times when I will be available for consultation are posted on my office door. Alternatively, you may contact me by e-mail (rxh@aber.ac.uk) or by leaving a message in my pigeon-hole in the History Department Office (C59, Hugh Owen Building).
Web Page: I am indebted to my colleague Dr. R. Gerald Hughes for this Web Page.
Lecture Topics
Seminar Topics
These are brief descriptions of the five seminar topics. Separate handouts will provide more specific information and explain what preparation is required.
1. Introduction
2. Setting a Course for the New Nation
In this seminar we look at the debate between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson over the future destiny of the American nation. Hamilton and Jefferson were members of the cabinet of George Washington, the first US president, and they became the leaders of what eventually became America’s first political parties. The debate arose out of a controversy over the financial arrangements of the new Republic but soon went on to address more fundamental issues of constitutional interpretation, the exercise of political power and the defence of republican liberties, but above all it raised key questions about the kind of country that the United States was to be.
3. Slavery and Sectional Conflict
Slavery appears to be an obvious anomaly in a democratic republic. How did Americans in the early years of the Republic reconcile themselves to its existence, and why did the South’s “peculiar institution” come under increasing criticism during the middle decades of the nineteenth century? How did the growing argument over slavery result in a sectional conflict that ended with America’s bloodiest war? We shall examine the interrelated issues of slavery and race in the context of American social and political development during the mid-nineteenth century.
4. Immigration and Ethnicity
Between the Civil War and the 1920s, 26 million European immigrants entered the United States. In this seminar we examine the ways in which the immigrants adapted to life in the New World. We will consider also the ways in which their coming changed American society. One familiar model of the assimilation process is that of the "Melting Pot," in which immigrants were easily absorbed into the host society. Another, commonly known as "cultural pluralism", sees immigration as producing a multicultural society in which different ethnic groups retain much of their heritage and identity. We shall consider the validity of these alternative views in the light of the historical evidence.
5. Civil Rights
In this seminar we examine the history of the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s. We consider why the deferred commitment to racial equality which had been abandoned shortly after the Civil War was taken up again after the Second World War, noting particularly the active role of blacks themselves in forcing the issue upon white America. We analyse the character of the civil rights movement, with special reference to the role of Martin Luther King. Finally, we attempt to assess the impact of the movement, and of the civil rights laws that it secured, upon the lives of African-Americans.
Students are asked to purchase
Hugh Brogan, The Penguin History of the United States
This book is available from Galloway’s bookshop on Pier Street or from the University Bookshop in the Arts Centre. You may, as an alternative, like to purchase one of the larger (and more expensive American textbooks), such as
George B. Tindall and David E. Shi, America: A Narrative History (Norton)
Paul Boyer et al., The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People: Concise Edition (Houghton Mifflin)
Mary Beth Norton et al., A People and a Nation: A History of the United States: Brief Edition (Houghton Mifflin)
It might be possible to pick up second-hand copies. Also worth purchasing is
Carl Degler, Our of Our Past: The Forces that Made Modern America (Harper)
which does not provide a consecutive narrative but adopts a more analytical approach to some of the main themes of American history. It is a little dated now, but we have used it for many years, and students have found it stimulating and useful.
There follows a list of books on more specialised topics that you might like to consult in your independent research or in revising for the examination. More specific readings will be assigned for essay and seminar topics.
The Early Republic
Edward Countrman, The American Revolution
Noble Cunningham, ed., Thomas Jefferson versus Alexander Hamilton
Peter Onuf and Leonard J. Sadosky, Jeffersonian America
Michael Heale, The Making of American Politics
Reginald Horsman, The New Republic: The United States, 1789-1815
Daniel Feller, The Jacksonian Promise: America, 1815-1840
Harry L. Watson, Liberty and Power: The Politics of Jacksonian America
Peter Kolchin, American Slavery
Peter Parish, Slavery: History and Historians
Stanley Harrold, American Abolitionists
Bruce Levine, Half Slave, Half Free: The Roots of Civil War
Michael F. Holt, The Fate of Their Country: Politicians, Slavery Extension, and the Coming of the Civil War
Brian Holden Reid, The Origins of the American Civil War
Michael Perman, ed., The Coming of the Civil War
James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
Eric Foner, Short History of Reconstruction
Charles W. Calhoun, ed., The Gilded Age: Essays on the Origins of Modern America
Samuel P. Hays, The Response to Industrialism, 1885-1914
Leonard Dinnerstein and David Reimers, Ethnic Americans
Alan M. Kraut, The Huddled Masses: The Immigrant in American Society, 1880-1921
Maldwyn Jones, American Immigration
John M. Cooper, Pivotal Decades: The United States, 1900-1920
Lewis Gould, America in the Progressive Era 1890-1914
S. J. Kleinberg, Women in the United States, 1830-1945
Rosalind Rosenberg, Divided Lives: American Women in the Twentieth Century
Michael E. Parrish, Anxious Decades: America in Prosperity and Depression
David J. Goldberg, Discontented America: The United States in the 1920s
Robert McElvaine, The Great Depression
Richard Polenberg, The Era of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1932-1945
A.J. Badger, The New Deal
William E. Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal
John M. Diggins, The Proud Decades: America in War and in Peace, 1941-1960
Stephen Ambrose, The Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy since 1937
John F. Spanier, American Foreign Policy since World War II
Richard M. Fried, Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective
Ellen Schrecker, The Age of McCarthyism
Robert Cook, Sweet Land of Liberty: The African-American Struggle for Civil Rights in the Twentieth Century
Douglas T. Miller, On Our Own: America in the Sixties
George C. Herring, America's Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975
James T. Patterson, Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974
William H. Chafe, The Unfinished Journey: America since World War II
M.J. Heale, Twentieth-Century America
