Admission requirements
No admission requirements
Description
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 weekly 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to read relevant primary sources, such as the Declaration of Independence, the American Constitution, and various other historical documents and classic texts in American culture.
Course objectives
General Learning Objectives
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The student can:
1. Organise and use relatively large amounts of information.
2. Reflect critically on knowledge and understanding as presented in academic literature
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Learning objectives, pertaining to the specialisation
- The student has knowledge of a specialisation, more specifically of American exceptionalism; the US as a multicultural society and the consequences of that for historiography; the intellectual interaction between the US and Europe.
Learning objectives, pertaining to this specific lecture series
- The student has knowledge of American history and culture from its colonial beginnings in the early seventeenth century to the present;
- The student has knowledge of 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;
- The student has knowledge of historical debates about a.o. slavery, multiculturalism, and American exceptionalism;
- The student has knowledge of basic research skills.
Timetable
Mode of instruction
- Lecture
Course Load
BA History Year 2 Lecture – 5 EC
Total course load: 5 EC x 28 hrs = 140 hours
Lectures: 14 × 2 = 28 hours
Compulsory literature: 14 × 4 = 56 hours
Takehome assignment: 36 hours
Final exam (preparation): 20 hours
Part of Minor American Studies/pre-master track students = 10 EC
Total course load: 10 EC x 28 hrs = 280 hours
Lectures: 14 × 2 = 28 hours
Compulsory literature: 14 × 4 = 56 hours
Takehome assignment: 36 hours
Final exam (preparation, incl. Foner book): 50 hours
Assessment method The course will be assessed through two subtests:
Midterm examination (take-home assignment; brief essay)
Final examination (final exam; final exam consists of multiple choice questions and open essay questions)
Weighing
Midterm examination: 40 %
Final examination: 60 %
The final mark for the course is establised by determination of the weighted average.
Herkansing
The resit exam will take place on one single resit, at which both subtests are offered. For this resit three hours will be reserved, so that students will be able to retake both subtests, if necessary.
Blackboard
Blackboard will be used for:
Part of the readings will be posted on Blackboard;
Questions about the lectures and reading materials can be posted on the blackboard site.
Reading list
BA History Year 2 Lecture course – 5 EC
- Assigned primary sources will be available on the blackboard site
10 ECTS, Minor Amerikanistiek/pre-master track students
Assigned primary sources will be available on the blackboard site
Textbook Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty: An American History (brief fourth edition, W.W. Norton 2014; available at van Stockum bookstore, Bol.com and Amazon.com
Registration
Enrolment via uSis is mandatory.
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Informatie voor belangstellenden die deze cursus in het kader van Studeren à la carte willen volgen (zonder tentamen), oa. over kosten, inschrijving en voorwaarden.
Informatie voor belangstellenden die deze cursus in het kader van Contractonderwijs willen volgen (met tentamen), oa. over kosten, inschrijving en voorwaarden.
Contact
Remarks
This introductory course can be followed as BA lecture course for 2nd-year history students (5 ec) and as part of the BA-minor American Studies (minor Amerikanistiek, 5 + 5 = 10 ec).
Students who take the course as 5 ects BA lecture course will be required to take a written exam on lecture notes and assigned primary sources and a take-home exam
Students who take the course as part of the minor in American Studies or as an elective course (10 ec) are required to read both primary sources and the textbook (Foner, Give Me Liberty: An American History) and to take a written exam on lecture notes, assigned primary sources and textbook and a take-home exam.
International students can opt for either the 5 or 10 ec option.