Messiah College  HIS 342: America in an Age of Revolution Spring 2007 MWF 1:50-2:50 Boyer 130 Instructor: John Fea, Ph.D  Office: Boyer 258 Office Hours:  WF 3-5 and by appointment.  Phone: x2253  e-mail: jfea@messiah.edu Syllabus is on-line at: http://home.messiah.edu/%7Ejfea/His342Spring2007.htm

Course Description
This upper division history course will be a study of the social, cultural and political history of the period 1763-1790.  We will stress the social world of the Revolutionary era, the causes and consequences of the American Revolution, the development of a new nation and new governments, the creation of the constitution of the United States, and their impact upon all the peoples of the new nation.  How did the so-called "Founding Fathers" perceive their revolution?  Was it a radical one?  Was it a social one?  Was it a moral or even Christian one? Was there any consensus at all on these questions?  Just how "revolutionary" was the American Revolution.  We will not only explore the years leading up to the American Revolution and the Revolutionary War, but we will also discuss the meaning of the revolution as it was interpreted in various ways by Americans in the decade that would follow 1776.  Readings will include both primary and secondary sources.

Required Textbooks (Available in the Campus Book Store)
Richard D. Brown, Major Problems in the Era of the American Revolution  2nd edition.
Mark A. Noll, et. al,  The Search for Christian America
Thomas Paine, Common Sense
Gordon S. Wood, The American Revolution: A History
 
A Word on Outside Reading: In addition to the textbooks listed above, we will also rely on required outside reading to be found on the Internet and on JSTOR.  Readings listed as "On-Line" will include an address where the document can be found.   Others will be found in the "JSTOR" database. In order to access these articles you will need to point your Internet browser toward www.jstor.org.  Click on “search,” type the author’s name in the search engine and then scroll down and select “history” as the type of journal that you want to search.  When the article appears, you can either read it on the screen or print it.  I strongly suggest printing these articles so that you can mark them up and bring them to class, but in order to do so you may have to download some software onto your computer.  The JSTOR web site will provide you with instructions (it is fairly easy) on how to do this.  All of these articles will be linked to the on-line version of this syllabus.

Course Requirements
This course will include lecture and discussion.  You are expected to complete the assigned reading before the class period in which it will be discussed and arrive prepared to actively engage in class discussion.  Reading quizzes may be given in any or all class periods.  Missed quizzes will be averaged into your quiz grade as a “zero.”

You will be evaluated based on the following:

10-15 Page Research Paper—35%
Take Home Mid-Term Exam—20%
Final Exam-25%
Participation/Attendance/Quizzes—20%
 
Notes:

• 2 or more unexcused absences will impact your class-participation grade in this course.

• Students who do not take the mid-term exam, final exam and/or hand-in the paper (no matter how late) will fail the course

• Late papers will be penalized a full letter grade for each class period it is late.  Papers handed-in more than 4 class periods late     will receive a failing grade, but must still be handed-in before the end of the semester in order to receive a passing grade for the course.  Late take-home exams will receive a grade of “0”

• AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT:  Any student whose disability falls within ADA guidelines should inform the instructor at     the beginning of the semester of any special accommodations or equipment needs necessary to complete the requirements for this course. Students must register documentation with the Office of Disability Services (OM 342).  If you have questions, call extension 5358.

• Plagiarism will be penalized according to college policies.  According to the Student Handbook, plagiarism is “submitting as one’s own work part or all of any assignment (oral or written) which is copied, paraphrased, or purchased from another source, including on-line sources without the proper acknowledgment of that source. Examples include:  failing to cite a reference, failing to use quotation marks where appropriate, misrepresenting another's work as your own.”  The penalty for plagiarizing all or most of a paper is the assignment of an ‘F’ for the course.

Paper
Each student will write a 10-15 page research paper based on a document(s) in the Early American Imprints Collections and other on-line early American history resources.  We will devote the entire class period on Friday, Feb. 9th to an introduction to the EAI collection and other pertinent databases for obtaining source material for your papers.  On that day a paper guidelines handout will be distributed with more details concerning this assignment.


Tentative Class Schedule

DATE   PROGRAM AND ASSIGNMENTS

Feb. 5:  Introduction to the Course

Feb. 7:  The Historiography of the American Revolution
READ: Brown, 1-13

Feb. 9:  Introduction to Sources for Research Paper

Feb. 12: Colonial America: An Overview
READ: Wood, xxiii-24; Brown 72-75, 77-78
 
Feb. 14  The Stamp Act and Whig Ideology
READ: Wood, 27-30

Feb 16: The Stamp Act Resistance
READ: Brown: Documents 1-7 (pp.99-112); Morgan essay, pp. 119-128; John Wesley, “A Calm Address to Our American Colonies.”

Feb. 19: The Townshend Duties
READ: Wood, 30-44; Brown, 13-25 (Breen), 128-136 (Maier); 113-117(Dickinson)

Feb. 21:  The Coercive Acts
READ:  Wood, 47-52; Brown, 140-146

Feb. 23: Regional Approaches to the American Revolution: Middle Colonies
READ: Brown 173-180 (Doerflinger)

Feb. 26:  Regional Approaches to the American Revolution: Virginia
READ:  Brown 259-260 (Dunmore), 146-15 (Jeffferson); Patrick Henry, Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death Speech

Feb. 28: Regional Approaches to the American Revolution: New England and Religion
READ: Nathan Hatch, The Origins of Civil Millennialism in America

Mar. 2: The First Continental Congress
READ:  Wood, 52-62; Brown, 152-154 (Declaration and Resolves of First Continental Congress).

Mar. 5: Lexington and Concord/Second Continental Congress
READ:  Brown, 154 (“King George…”)

Mar. 7:  The Loyalists
READ:  Brown, 229-237 (Documents), 247-255.

Mar. 9:  Common Sense
READ:  Thomas Paine, Common Sense

Mar. 12: Common Sense

Mar. 14: The Declaration of Independence
READ:  The Declaration of Independence; Brown, 180-190 (Maier)

Mar. 16: The Revolutionary War
READ: Brown, 191-201 (Documents)

March 17-25: SPRING BREAK

Mar. 26:  The Revolutionary War
READ:  Brown, 205-223.

Mar. 28:  The Revolutionary War
READ:  Wood, 74-88.
 
Mar. 30:  The Revolutionary War

April 2:  The New State Governments
READ:  Wood, 65-70.

April 4:  The Articles of Confederation
READ: Wood, 70-74; Brown, 343-353

Apr. 11:  Republicanism
READ: Wood, 89-109; Benjamin Rush, "Of the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic"

April 13:  The Collapse of the Articles of Confederation
READ:  Wood, 139-150; Brown, 355-356

April 15: The Collapse of the Articles of Confederation
READ: Brown, 357-363 (Documents); 374-387 (Brooke)
 
April 18: The Collapse of the Articles of Confederation
READ; Brown, 364-374 (Rakove)

Apr. 20:  The Constitution
READ:  Brown, 411ff (The U.S. Constitution); 419-439 (Banning and Rakove)

Apr. 23:  The Constitution
READ:  Brown, 440-451 (Federalist Documents)

Apr. 25:  The Constitution
READ:  Brown, 451-463; (Documents) John Murrin, “A Roof Without Walls” (On Reserve)

Apr. 27:  Women and the Revolution
READ:  Brown, Chapter 9
 
Apr. 30:  Blacks and the American Revolution
READ: William Freehling, “The Founding Fathers and Slavery” (JSTOR). Brown, 275-286 (Berlin)
 
May 2:  Christian Nation?
READ:  Noll, et. al, Introduction; Ch. 3

May 4:  Christian Nation?
READ:  Noll, et. al, Ch. 4

May 7: Christian Nation?
Noll, et. al, Ch. 6-7
 

FINAL EXAM:  TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2007, 10:30-12:30