University of North Texas Department of History. History 5220: Historiography of the American Revolution Graduate Readings

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1 University of North Texas Department of History History 5220: Historiography of the American Revolution Graduate Readings Dr. Chet Office hours: by appointment The outbreak of the American War of Independence ( ), and the formation of the United States as a democratic political entity, ushered in a new era in the history of the West. By couching their grievances against Great Britain in the popularized political philosophy of the Enlightenment, the patriots turned British North America into a practical testing ground for European liberalism. Thus, the American Revolution set the stage for the French Revolution not only by bankrupting and weakening the French Crown, but also by providing European liberals and republicans with a model of a viable and enlightened republic. The rejection of the mother country by its colonists was, and still is, a remarkable and curious aberration for some, while for others it was the culmination of a long-term natural progression. The Revolution, then, is itself an interpretation of something which some see as a process and others as an event. This course will trace tensions between Great Britain and its American colonies in an effort to examine perspectives and interpretations offered by various historians as to the forces that shaped the transatlantic relationship during the Revolutionary era, the impulse for independence, the American victory in the war, and the impact of the war on Americans lives. There are no prerequisites for this course. COURSE OBJECTIVES: 1. Familiarity with the general history of colonial and Revolutionary America the events and processes that shaped colonial society, the transatlantic relationship, the war, and its consequences. 2. Exposure to competing analyses of the causes, nature, purpose, and consequences of the American Revolution. 3. Developing analytical and writing skills. 4. Developing an independent understanding of the methodological trends in the scholarship on the American Revolution. COMMUNICATION: Learning content will be delivered in class, through course readings (textbooks and reading materials posted on Blackboard), and through student reviews circulated via . Students must use their UNT accounts to log into the course from the UNT Blackboard Learn page. To correspond with me, please use (guy.chet@unt.edu), rather than Blackboard. It is too easy for me to miss Blackboard messages; please use . GRADING: Students are expected to attend all meetings, offer book reviews and oral presentations, contribute to class discussion about the weekly readings, and submit two writing

2 assignments (12-point, double spaced): a five-page analysis of the sources covered in the early weeks of the course, and a 15-page final paper assessing the methodological trends in the scholarship on the American Revolution (covering all the sources covered during the semester). Assignments are graded on a scale of 0 to 100, with the final course grade assigned according to the following scale: A (90-100), B (80-89), C (70-79), D (60-69), F (0-59). In grading the exams, I pay close attention to both substance and form (grammar, spelling, and clarity). In evaluating substance, I examine whether the author has demonstrated a critical, historiographical understanding of the material by presenting and substantiating a thesis (a historiographical argument). In order to compute the final course grade, I will add the relative values of each student s number grades for class participation (40%), the first paper (20%), and the final paper (40%). LATE SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN WORK: Assignments must be completed by the due date for full credit. Late submissions will incur a 5-point late-penalty for the first hour, and 5 additional points for every hour thereafter. TIME COMMITMENT: Students should anticipate at least 12 hours per week for studying materials and completing class assignments. Falling behind schedule in this course will be detrimental to a student s final grade, since the concepts covered are cumulative not becoming proficient with information in a particular week will lead prevent a student from comprehending material delivered in subsequent weeks. ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AND PLAGIARISM: As a student-centered public research university, the University of North Texas promotes the integrity of the learning process by establishing and enforcing academic standards. Academic dishonesty breaches the mutual trust necessary in an academic environment and undermines all scholarship. Students are held accountable for understanding UNT s policy on academic integrity. Any violations of this policy may result in a 0 or F on the particular assignment or an F in the course. STUDENT SUCCESS AT UNT: Students who have trouble keeping up with assignments should inform the professor as early as possible. Succeed at UNT provides students support services and resources for success. Moreover, the History Department s Help Center (WH #220, ) and the History Department Library (WH #267, ) are staffed by graduate students who can assist students with tutoring and essay writing advice. STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: Students with special circumstances covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act should register with the Office of Disability Accommodation, and also inform the instructor of the class. Reasonable adjustments will be made to accommodate the special needs of students with disabilities where such adjustments are necessary to provide equality of educational access. SCHEDULE: Week 1: Introduction Tindal & Shi, America: from 1600 to Tom Paine, Common Sense. Week 2: Introduction

3 Tindal & Shi, America: from 1600 to Tom Paine, Common Sense. Week 3: The Frontier George Rogers Taylor, ed., The Turner Thesis (THIRD EDITION). Stephen S. Webb, 1676: The End of American Independence preface, Introduction, Conclusion, reviews [reading packet] Additional, & optional: John Canup, Out of the Wilderness: The Emergence of an American Identity in Colonial New England (1990) Guidelines for writing assignments. Week 4: The Colonial Democratic Tradition Reconsidered Gordon and Trenchard, Cato s Letters [online] Alison Olson, Eighteenth-Century Colonial Legislatures and Their Constituents, The Journal of American History 79:2 (September 1992): [reading packet] J. R. Pole, Gift of Government [reading packet] Edmund Morgan, Inventing the People Michal Jan Rozbicki, Culture and Liberty in the Age of the American Revolution Jack P. Greene, The Quest for Power: The Lower Houses of Assembly in the Southern Royal Colonies, Recommended reading: Paul A. Rahe, Republics Ancient and Modern: Classical Republicanism and the American Revolution II: New Modes and Orders in Early Modern Political Thought, Prologue, Chapters 4-7, Epilogue. Week 5: Roots of Discontent Jack P. Greene, Understanding the American Revolution, Chapters II, III, XII [reading packet]. Jack Green, The Glorious Revolution and the British Empire [reading packet] Bernard Bailyn, The Origins of American Politics. Gordon Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution ( ) T.H. Breen, American Insurgents, American Patriots: The Revolution of the People ( ) Alan Rogers, Empire and Liberty: American Resistance to British Authority, Week 6: The Aftermath of the Seven Years War. Douglas E. Leach, Roots of Conflict: British Armed Forces and Colonial Americans, , Introduction & Conclusion [reading packet].

4 John Shy, Toward Lexington: The Role of the British Army in the Coming of the American Revolution, Preface, Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 [a lengthy book, but worth every minute you spend on it]. [reading packet] Week 7: The Constitutional Crisis. Jack P. Greene, Understanding the American Revolution: Chapter V [reading packet]. Dana Frank, Buy American: The Untold Story of Economic Nationalism (Boston: Beacon Press), Chapter I: Whose Economic Nation? [reading packet] Eben Moglen, review of John Phillip Reid, Constitutional History of the American Revolution [reading packet] A book of your choice on the constitutional crisis of the 1760s & 70s (e.g. Morgan, The Stamp Act Crisis; Jack Greene, Peripheries and Center; Ray Raphael, The First American Revolution Before Lexington and Concord; Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution; Holton, Forced Founders; O Shaughnessy, An Empire Divided; Leslie Hall, Land and Allegiance in Revolutionary Georgia). Writing assignment due the day after class, at high noon. Week 8: Revolutionary Religiosity Fred Anderson, A People s Army, pp [reading packet]. A book of your choice on American religion (e.g. Novak, On Two Wings, Joyce, Church and Clergy in the American Revolution, Kidd, The Great Awakening, Kidd, God of Liberty, Byrd, Sacred Scripture, Sacred War: The Bible and the American Revolution, Frazer, The Religious Beliefs of America's Founders: Reason, Revelation, and Revolution, Hatch, The Sacred Cause of Liberty, Lovejoy, Religious Enthusiasm in the New World, Bonomi, Under the Cope of Heaven, Derek Davis, Religion and the Continental Congress, ); Balmer, A Perfect Babel of Confusion: Dutch Religion and English Culture in the Middle Colonies (1989). Week 9: The Americans Revolutionary War Feeding the War Machine, Eighteenth-Century Style Logistics and the Failure of the British Army in America, , by R. Arthur Bowler. Review by Richard H. Kohn, Reviews in American History 4:2 (June 1976): John Shy, A People Numerous and Armed. Gregory T. Knouff, The Soldiers Revolution. Piers Mackesy, The War for America, ( ) Matthew Spring, With Zeal and with Bayonets Only ( ) E. Wayne Wayne Carp, To Starve the Army at Pleasure: Continental Army Administration and American Political Culture, ( ) Martin and Lender, A Respectable Army: The Military Origins of the Republic, (1982)

5 Week 10: Women s Lives in a Revolutionary (?) Society Mary Bet..h Norton, Revolutionary Advances for Women [reading packet] A book of your choice on American women in the late 18 th to early 19 th century (e.g. Algore, Parlor Politics; Linda Kerber, Women of the Republic; Kathleen Brown, Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs; Holly Mayer, Belonging to the Army: Camp Followers and Community during the American Revolution; Gundersen, Joan R. To Be Useful to the World: Women in Revolutionary America; Dayton, Women Before the Bar; Fliegelman, Prodigals and Pilgrims: The American Revolution Against Partiarchal Authority; Norton, Founding Mothers and Fathers). Week 11: Dynamics of Post-Colonial Strife & Nationalism Skim online: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, The Federalist Papers, Introduction, essays # 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15,16, 17, 21, 22, 23, 29, 30, 31. Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Introduction, pp [reading packet]. Marion Starkey, A Little Rebellion, Prologue, pp. 3-6 [reading packet]. Herbert J. Storing, What the Anti-Federalists Were For. Jackson Turner Main, The Anti-Federalists. Saul Cornell, The Other Founders: Anti-Federalism and the Dissenting Tradition in America, Weeks 12: The Limits of the Revolution Thomas P. Slaughter, The Whiskey Rebellion: Frontier Epilogue to the American Revolution, Introduction, Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 14, Conclusion. Steven R. Boyd, ed., The Whiskey Rebellion: Past and Present Perspectives, Introduction and Chapter VI: Mary K. Sonsteel Tachau, A New Look at the Whiskey Rebellion, pp. 3-7, [reading packet]. Week 13: The Legacy of the American Revolution Joseph Ellis, American Sphinx. Joseph Ellis, Passionate Sage. Ed Countryman, The American Revolution Alfred F. Young, The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution. Ed Lengel, George Washington: A Military Life Week 14: Finish your papers (due Monday, high noon, the following week the last week of classes, before exam week).