Course objectives
This course offers a survey of American history and culture from its colonial beginnings in the early seventeenth century to the present, and thus provides a basis for the study of the United States. The weekly lectures will focus on a particular theme, for example New England Puritanism and its cultural legacies, the emergence of a political party system, the reform tradition, slavery and the Civil War, an introduction to the history of Native Americans, African Americans’ struggle for political and civil rights, women’s history, immigration and ethnicity, the New Deal, and the emergence of the U.S. as superpower. To prepare for the lectures students are required to read relevant primary sources, such as the Declaration of Independence, the American Constitution, and various other historical documents and classic texts in American culture.
Timetable
Semester 1, see here
Mode of instruction
Lecture course.
Assessment method
Written exam (multiple choice and essay questions)
The exam will take place on 23 December 2010, between 11.00-14.00.
Students taking the course for 10 ects go to Lipsius/005.
Blackboard
Syllabus, some primary source materials and test materials available on blackboard site.
Reading list
10 ECTS, Minor and elective students:
textbook Paul Boyer, et al, The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People, Concise 4th ed. (Houghton Mifflin, 2002; ISBN 06-1810198-5).
3 anthologies of primary sources: An Early American Reader (AR1), A Nineteenth-Century American Reader (AR2) and A Twentieth-Century American Reader (AR3).
Registration
Exchange and Study Abroad students, please see “the Study in Leiden
website”:http://www.leiden.edu/studyinleiden/sap/application.html for information on how to apply
Contact information
E-mail: dr. E.F. van de Bilt
Remarks
This introductory course can be followed as BA lecture course for 2nd-year history students (5 or 10 ects) and as part of the BA-minor American Studies (minor Amerikanistiek, 5 + 5 = 10 ects). Students who take the course as BA lecture course will be required to take a written exam on lecture notes and assigned primary sources (5 ects); students who take the course as part of the minor in American Studies or as an elective course are required to read both primary sources and the textbook (Boyer, The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People, Concise 4th ed.) and to take a written exam on lecture notes, assigned primary sources and textbook (10 ects). International students can opt for either the 5 or 10 ects option.