Lecture Topics for First Half of American History Survey

This resource was developed as part of the AHA’s Globalizing the US History Survey project. 

 

By Brittany Adams

Institution: Irvine Valley College

Location: Irvine, CA

Year: 2016

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This is a sample list of some of the major topics that I have included as I have restructured the beginning of my US history survey course to incorporate more regional history into the early survey and to de-center the British colonial narrative. Most of my revisions focus on the 16th, 17th, and 18th century as listed below:

 

Week One: Course Intro

• Pre-history to mid 16th century
• Examinations of Western Europe, major West African kingdoms, and North American indigenous groups prior to first encounters

Week Two: European Colonization

• Jesuit missionizing in Huron society
• Early settlement in Virginia
• Puritan settlements
• The New Netherlands

Week Three: The Myth of the Thirteen Colonies

• Comparative Spanish, French, and English settlements in the early to mid 1600s

Week Four: Colonial Era

• Choctaw-Chicasaw War and the settlement of Louisiana
• Migrations across the Atlantic
• Explorations of California

Week Five: Colonial Era, II

• Developments in colonial Santa Fe
• Spanish developments in Florida and the growth of escaped slaves from British colonies
• Comparative definitions of race in legal codes across different empires

Week Six: Prelude to Independence from England

• Causes of revolt
• Examination of other colonial empires and other forms of resistance/conflict in Spanish and French empires

Week Seven: American Revolution and the Continued Colonial Era in the West

• Role of France and Spain in alliances with the American Independence movement
• French and Spanish colonialism in the West

Week Eight: Early Republic

• Comparative examination of The American Revolution with the Haitian Revolution, Mexican Independence from Spain, and French Revolution

Week Nine: Early Nationalist Era/Federalism

This week I do take a more traditional look at foundations for early American government

• The Napoleonic Code in Louisiana

Week Ten: Jeffersonian Politics and the War of 1812

• The Growth of Early American Nationalism

Week Eleven: Nationalist Expansion and Economic Shifts

• Tejano culture Santa Fe Trail

Week Twelve: The Era of the Common Man

• Democratic Systems and popular politics during growing entrenchment of slavery

Week Fourteen: Westward Expansion

• Mexican-American War
• Gold Rush(es) across borderlands regions

Week Fifteen: Slavery and Sectionalism

• Failed compromises and questions over the extension of slavery in newly incorporated territories

Week Sixteen: Civil War

• The development of the US postal system and the building of Fort Point (a Civil War era fort built in San Francisco)