This course is designed to introduce first-year students to important themes in American history between the American Revolution and the 20th century. To accomplish that aim, the course examines the history of individuals and groups who wished to reform American society or culture, as well as those who offered radical alternatives to the accepted patterns of life in America. By this process, students will be exposed to many of the significant social and political movements in American history.
Through the vehicle of radicals and reformers in America, this course hopes to achieve the following objectives:
The course is divided into three sections for an in-depth analysis of three very active periods for radical and reform movements in America.
REQUIRED READINGS:
The following books are required readings and are available at the College Bookstore:
Eric Foner, Tom Paine and Revolutionary America.
Douglas Egerton, Gabriel's Rebellion.
Paul Johnson, Shopkeepers' Millennium.
James Stewart, Holy Warriors.
Nell Painter, Sojourner Truth: A Life, a Symbol.
Nick Salvatore, Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland and Selected Stories.
Ida B. Wells, On Lynching.
Tricia Rose, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in
Contemporary America.
Additional readings (listed in the class schedule below) are on reserve at McCabe Library. Occasional handouts may also be added to the required readings. Students may also wish to consult the biographical essays in Mari Jo Buhle, Paul Buhle, and Harvey J. Kaye, eds., The American Radical (New York 1994).
SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS:
The following books are available at the College Bookstore, and will be selected by students and utilized for the analytical paper during the third section of the seminar.
Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives.
Upton Sinclair, The Jungle.
Candace Falk, Love, Anarchy, and Emma Goldman.
W.E.B. DuBois, Souls of Black Folk.
Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Class participation and Discussion Questions: Students are expected to attend all class meetings, complete the readings, and be prepared for discussion of the assigned reading each week. Thoughtful preparation on the part of all students is essential for a seminar to be a positive learning environment for everyone. Hence, students will be asked to submit discussion questions prior to each seminar meeting in which course readings will be discussed.
Discussion questions (usually 3-5 questions) should be thoughtful queries that are designed to elicit further discussion from members of the seminar. They should not be questions of clarification.
Short papers: Two papers (4-6 pages) will be written during the first two-thirds of the course. The short papers will allow the students to express their critical reflection on the readings for each of the first two sections of the seminar. A shorter response paper (4 pages maximum) will also be written for week 14.
Analytical Paper: A longer paper (10-15 pages) will be written based on the assigned and optional readings for the third section of the seminar. These papers will allow students to interpret one or more book-length primary sources on a given topic. Expectations for this assignment will be discussed in greater detail as the semester progresses. Students will select a paper topic in consultation with the professor.
CLASS SCHEDULE: * = Reserve reading at McCabe Library
Week 1 - Sept. 3: INTRODUCTION
PART ONE: THE REVOLUTIONARY GENERATION
Week 2 - Sept. 10: RADICAL POLITICS FOR A REPUBLICAN AGE?
Readings:
Foner, Tom Paine and Revolutionary America.
* Richard K. Matthews, The Radical Politics of Thomas
Jefferson, chap. 2-3, 5.
Additional Readings:
*William Manning, Key of Liberty, pp. 122-170.
* Constantia [Judith Sargent Murray], The Gleaner (Reserve
binder)
Week 3 - Sept. 17: RACE AND FREEDOM IN REVOLUTIONARY AMERICA
Readings:
Egerton, Gabriel's Rebellion.
Stewart, Holy Warriors, ch. 1.
*Benjamin Rush, "Paradise of Negro Slaves -- A Dream" in Essays
Literary, Moral and Philosophical, pp. 187-190.
* Antislavery pamphlets during the revolutionary era. (Reserve
binder)
Week 4 - Sept. 24: First short paper due at the beginning of
class.
PART TWO: ANTEBELLUM REFORM
Week 5 - Oct. 1: RELIGIOUS REFORM OR SOCIAL CONTROL?
Readings:
Johnson, Shopkeepers' Millennium.
*Lori Ginzberg, Women and Work of Benevolence. , pp. 11-35;
98-132.
*Clifford Griffin, "Religious Benevolence as Social Control,
1815-1860" in Mississippi Valley Historical Review 44 (1957),
423-444.
*Lawrence Frederick Kohl, "The Concept of Social Control and the
History of Jacksonian America," Journal of the Early Republic
5 (1985), 21-34. (Reserve binder)
Week 6 - Oct. 8: ABOLITIONISTS
Readings:
Stewart, Holy Warriors, chap. 2-8.
* American Anti-Slavery Society Commission to Theodore D. Weld (1834)
(Reserve binder)
* Lewis Perry, Radical Abolitionism: Anarchy and the Government of
God in Antislavery Thought, pp. 48-91.
Additional Readings:
Jean Fagan Yellin, Women and Sisters: The Antislavery Feminists in
American Culture, chap. 1. (Reserve binder)
Bruce Dorsey, "A Gendered History of the African Colonization Reform
in the Antebellum America," (Unpublished work-in-progress]
FALL VACATION: October 10-18
Week 7 - Oct. 22: CHALLENGES TO RACIAL SLAVERY AND PATRIARCHY
Readings:
Painter, Sojourner Truth: A Life, a Symbol.
* Ann Braude, Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in
Nineteenth-Century America, Introduction & chap. 3
*Declaration of Sentiments, Seneca Falls Woman's Rights Convention
(1848) (Reserve binder).
Additional Readings:
Lori D. Ginzberg, "Fanny Wright," in Buhle, Buhle, and Kaye, The
American Radical, pp. 17-23.
David Walker, David Walker 's Appeal in Four Articles (1830).
(Reserve binder).
Henry Higland Garnet, An Address to the Slaves of the United
States of America (1843) (Reserve binder)
Braude, Radical Spirits, chap. 5.
Week 8 - Oct. 29: Second short paper due at the beginning of
class.
PART THREE: TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY
Week 9 - Nov. 5: LABOR RADICALISM & PROGRESSIVE REFORMERS
Readings:
Salvatore, Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist.
Optional Readings:
Riis, How the Other Half Lives.
Sinclair, The Jungle.
Week 10 - Nov. 12: RADICAL WOMEN
Readings:
Gilman, Herland and Selected Stories, Introduction, pp. 3-146,
165-194, 249-267, 302-308.
* Victoria Woodhull, The Scare-Crows of Sexual Slavery (New
York, 1873) [Reserve binder].
Optional Reading:
Falk, Love, Anarchy, and Emma Goldman.
* Victoria Woodhull, A Speech on the Principles of Social Freedom
(New York, 1871) [Reserve binder].
* Victoria Woodhull, The Elixir of Life (New York, 1873)
[Reserve binder].
Week 11 - Nov. 19: ACTIVISTS FOR RACIAL EQUALITY
Readings:
Wells, On Lynching.
Optional Readings:
Washington, Up From Slavery.
DuBois, Souls of Black Folk.
* T. Thomas Fortune, The Negro's Place in American Life at the
Present Day. (1903) [Reserve binder].
Week 12 - Nov. 26: THANKSGIVING -- No Class
Week 13 - Dec. 3: Analytical Paper due in class.
PART FOUR: CONTEMPORARY AMERICA
Week 14 - Dec. 10: RAP MUSIC, POPULAR CULTURE, AND RADICALISM
Readings:
Rose, Black Noise.
* Robin D. G. Kelley, "Kickin' Reality, Kickin' Ballistics: 'Gangsta
Rap' and Postindustrial Los Angeles," in Kelley, Race Rebels,
pp. 183-227.
Additional Readings:
* Clarence Lusane, "Rhapsodic Aspirations: Rap, Race and Power
Politics," The Black Scholar 23 (Winter/Spring 1993), 37-51.
[Reserve Binder]
Music:
- Students will also be assigned to listen to various musical
selections prior to class.