Admission requirements
History students have met the first year BSA requirement.
Description
This course offers a survey of American history from the Early Republic to the present. It provides the basis for a better understanding of the United States, its society, its institutions, and its role in the world. The lectures will follow a chronological path and will highlight the foundational elements – and innermost contradictions – of the United States. Students will thus explore the causes and effects of the American Revolution; the institutional consolidation and continental expansion of the Republic; the socio-economic causes of the Civil War; the setbacks of the Reconstruction as well as the many hopes of the Progressive Era; the transformation of the US into a multicultural empire and its rise as a world power; the New Deal and its legacies; the Cold War and its socio-political repercussions; the crisis of US global hegemony; the US-led global war on terror and its long-term consequences; the structural inequalities and ideological and ecological challenges that currently confront the United States. To prepare for the lectures, students are required to read relevant primary sources, pertinent literature, and classic texts in American culture, politics, and society.
Course objectives
General learning objectives
The student can:
1) organise and use relatively large amounts of information;
2) reflect critically on knowledge and understanding as presented in academic literature.
Learning objectives, pertaining to the specialisation
3) The student has knowledge of a specialisation, more specifically;
-in the specialisation General History of the place of European history from 1500 in a worldwide perspective; with a focus on the development and role of political institutions;
-in the track American History of American exceptionalism; the US as a multicultural society and the consequences of that for historiography; the intellectual interaction between the US and Europe;in the track History of European Expansion and Globalisation the development of global networks which facilitate an ever growing circulation of people, animals, plants, goods and ideas, and the central role of European expansion in this from around 1500.
Learning objectives, pertaining to this specific lecture course
The student:
4) has knowledge of a specialisation, more specifically of:
-in the track American History American exceptionalism; the US as a multicultural society and the consequences of that for historiography; the intellectual interaction between the US and Europe;5) has knowledge of:
-American history and culture from its colonial beginnings in the early seventeenth century to the present;
-the American political system and to a number of central themes and concepts in U.S. history, such as republicanism, Manifest Destiny, and the ideology of domesticity;
-historical debates about a.o. slavery, multiculturalism, and American exceptionalism.6) The student has knowledge of basic research skills.
Timetable
The timetables are available through MyTimetable.
Mode of instruction
Lecture
Self-study
Assessment method
Assessment
The course will be assessed through two subtests, covering all course objectives:
Midterm examination : multiple choice questions, short answer questions, and brief essay
Final examination : multiple choice questions, short answer questions, and brief essay
Weighing
Midterm examination: 40%
Final examination: 60%
The final grade for the course is established by determining the weighted average.
Resit
The resit consists of a single exam, covering the entire material for the course and the mark will replace all previously earned marks.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
Elizabeth Cobbs and Edward J. Blum, eds., Major Problems in American History, Vol. I, 4th ed. (New York: Cengage, 2017), ISBN: 9781305585294.*
Elizabeth Cobbs and Edward J. Blum, eds., Major Problems in American History, Vol. II, 4th ed. (New York: Cengage, 2017), ISBN: 9781305585300.*
Additional primary and secondary sources will be available on the Brightspace site.
Please note: Make sure you purchase the 4th edition, since earlier editions have different material. Copies of these books should be available from Studystore.nl. You can also purchase the e-version via the publisher’s website – here is the direct link to the pack: https://www.cengage.uk/c/major-problems-in-american-history-volume-i-ii-4e-cobbs-blum/9781473756489/?searchIsbn=9781473756489
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Huizinga.
Remarks
This introductory course can be followed as a BA lecture course for 2nd-year History students (5EC) and as part of the BA-minor American Studies (10EC). This prospectus lists the information for the 5EC version of the course; there is a separate online prospectus for the 10EC version of the course. International students can opt for either the 5EC or 10EC option.