Fall 2005

HIS 397K • Lit of US History Before 1865

Course Description

This seminar is intended to introduce students to the field of early American history. This area of study has become increasingly diverse in the past generation, especially as a result of new Atlantic-based histories, new methods imported from other disciplines in the humanities, and an increasing tendency to move away from nationalist themes. This class draws together a group of bookssome canonical, some very newthat exemplify these avenues of thought. In most weeks, we will pair a book with a short original document or a historiographical review essay.

Texts

Jean-Christophe Agnew, Worlds Apart: The Market and the Theater in Anglo-American Thought, 1550-1750 James Brooks, Captives & Cousins: Slavery, Kinship, and Community in the Southwest Borderlands Kathleen Brown, Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, & Anxious Patriarchs Cathy N. Davidson, Revolution and the Word: The Rise of the Novel in America David Eltis, The Rise of African Slavery in the Americas Jane Kamensky, Governing the Tongue: The Politics of Speech in Early America Neil Kamil, Fortress of the Soul: Violence, Metaphysics, and Material Life in the Huguenots New World, 1517-1751 Stephanie McCurry, Masters of Small Worlds: Yeoman Households, Gender Relations, and the Political Culture of the Antebellum South Carolina Low Country Perry Miller, The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century Dylan Penningroth, The Claims of Kinfolk: African American Property and Community in the Nineteenth-Century South Robert Blair St. George, ed., Possible Pasts: Becoming Colonial in Early America Peter Thompson, Rum Punch and Revolution Anthony F.C. Wallace, Rockdale: The Growth of an American Village in the Early Industrial Revolution

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