HIS 317L Unique Number: 39370 The Origins of the American Revolution Spring 2013 Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30-10:45, UTC 4.112 Robert Olwell Office: GAR 3.108 Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11-1 (or by appointment) Phone: 475-7226; e-mail: rolwell@mail.utexas.edu Teaching Assistant: Laurie Wood Office: Hours: Phone: ; e-mail:
Course Requirements: I. Readings All the readings required for this course will be available on the class s Blackboard web-site (. I encourage you to print copies of the readings, to bring them to class to assist in our discussions, and to keep them as reference materials for exams. II. Exams There will be three exams in this course. Each will cover the preceding five weeks of the semester and will be worth one hundred points. The exams will consist of identifications and essays. Before each exam I will distribute a study guide containing a list of possible questions for the coming exam. At the start of the exam period we will roll a dice to randomly select several of those questions. You will then have to answer one of the selected questions. III. Make-ups On the Friday afternoon following each of the first two exams, I will offer a make-up for all students unable to take the exam at the scheduled time. No excuses are required, but you must inform me of your intention to take the make-up before the regular exam begins (i.e. before the die is cast). The make-up will be based on the same study guide as the regular exam, but students forfeit any choice of essays or ids. (That is, I will give you one question, and five ids and you will have to answer them all.) There will be no make-up given for the final exam. IV. Grades Final Grades will be determined along the following curve: A = 264 points or more, B = 234-263 points, C = 204-233 points, D = 174-203 points, and F = 202 points or less. V. Students with Disabilities: Upon receipt of a letter from the Services for Students with Disabilities Office, accommodations will be made to facilitate students participation in class and exams.
VI. Academic Dishonesty Academic dishonesty is theft, not only from the instructor and the university but, more far importantly, from the majority of students who earn their grades honestly. Here are some possible academic crimes in this course and their punishments. High Crimes: 1.) Bringing a pre-prepared essay or blue book to the exam and attempting to pass it off as one written during the exam period, penalty: F for the course. 2.) Copying or attempting to copy from another student, or using or attempting to use crib notes, notebooks, etc., during the exam period, penalty: F for that exam. Misdemeanors: 3.) Answering the wrong essay (i.e., not one of those randomly selected at the start of the exam period), penalty: F for the essay part of that exam. 4.) Answering more than five of the i.d. terms listed on the exam, penalty: only the first five answers (counting from the front of the blue book or exam) will be scored, even if they are not the best answers. VI. Classroom Etiquette: No attendance will be taken and there will be no penalty for absences (except of course, that of not knowing the material for the exams). Therefore, if you choose to attend class, I expect you to observe the following rules of common courtesy. Please turn your cell-phone off; if you forget and your cell-phone rings in class, turn it off as quickly as possible, do not answer it. If you arrive in class after we have begun, enter as quietly as possible and sit as near the door as you can. You may bring a drink with you, but do not eat during lectures or discussions. Do not leave, or make preparations to leave (gather books, etc..) until I have dismissed the class; I promise that I will never keep the class past the bell. If you must leave before class is over, go as quietly as you can.
Course Schedule: Part One: The Rise of the British-American Empire, 1750-1763 Tues., 15 Jan. Introductions, Requirements, and Themes. Thurs., 17 Jan. - Varieties of British-Americaness; Read: Robert Olwell, Introduction, in Olwell and Tully, eds., Cultures and Identities in Colonial British America, (2006), pp. 1-17. Tues., 22 Jan. American Provincialism; Read: Julie Flavell, The School for Modesty and Humility : Colonial American Youth in London and Their Parents, 1755-1775, The Historical Journal, (1999), pp.377-403; and Journal of an Officer Who Traveled in America and the West Indies in 1764 and 1765, in Mereness, ed., Travels in the American Colonies, (1961), pp. 365-453. Thurs., 24 Jan. - Colonial Political Thought; Read: Bernard Bailyn, Ideological Origins of the American Revolution,(1967), pp. 22-93; extracts from Cato s letters. Tues., 29 Jan. Colonial Political Practice; Read: Robert Munford, The Candidates, (1770); Michael Zuckerman, The Social Context of Democracy in Massachusetts, William and Mary Quarterly, (October 1968), 523-44. Thurs., 31 Jan. War and Colonial Identity; Read: Fred Anderson, A People s Army: Massachusetts Soldiers and Society in the Seven Years War, (1984), pp. 111-141; Rhys Isaac, Landon Carter s Uneasy Kingdom: Revolution and Rebellion On a Virginia Plantation, (2004), pp. 123-61 Tues., 5 Feb. America s Last King; Read: Bolingbroke, The Idea of a Patriot King, (1751); John Brewer, The Misfortunes of Lord Bute: A Case Study in Eighteenth-Century Political Argument and Public Opinion, Historical Journal, (1973), pp. 3-43; Boston Gazette and Country Journal, 5 Jan. 1761; George III, Accession Speech (1761). Thurs., 7 Feb. Film: Liberty!: The American Revolution, Part One, (1997); study guide for the first exam will be made available.
Tues., 12 Feb. Imperial Dreams; Read: Jack P. Greene, Empire and Identity from the Glorious Revolution to the American Revolution, in Marshall, ed., Oxford History of the British Empire, Volume II, pp. 208-230; Robert Olwell, Seeds of Empire: Florida, Kew, and the British Imperial Meridian in the 1760s, in Mancke and Shammas, eds., The Creation of the British Atlantic World, (2005), pp. 263-82; and Franklin s Albany Plan. Thurs., 14 Feb. FIRST EXAM Part Two: The Imperial Crisis, 1763-1770 Tues., 19 Feb. Britain s new Indian subjects: Daniel Richter, Native Americans, the Plan of 1764, and a British Empire that Never Was, in Olwell and Tully, eds., Cultures and Identities in Colonial British America, (2006), pp. 269-92; and The Royal Proclamation of 1763. Thurs., 21 Feb. FILM: Light in the Forest (1956) Tues., 26 Feb. Passing the Stamp Act; Read: Text of the Stamp Act; Eliga Gould, Persistence of Empire, pp. 106-147. Thurs., 28 Feb. Resisting the Stamp Act, Part I; Read:, The Virginia Resolves, (1765); and Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776, (1972), pp. 51-76. Tues., 4 Mar. Resisting the Stamp Act, Part II, A Debate; Read: Thomas Whately, The Regulations lately made Concerning the Colonies and the Taxes Imposed Upon them Considered; Daniel Dulany, Considerations on the Propriety of Imposing Taxes in the British Colonies, for the Purposes of Raising a Revenue, by Act of Parliament, Soame Jenyns, Objections to the Taxation of Our American Colonies by the Legislature of Great Britain, briefly Considered. Thurs., 6 Mar. Repealing the Stamp Act; Read: Benjamin Franklin, Testimony to the British Parliament, (1766). SPRING BREAK Week of 11-15 March Tues., 19 Mar. Townshend Duties and Non-Importation; Read: John Dickinson, Letters from a Pennsylvania Framer (extracts)
Thurs., 21 Mar. - Riots and Massacres ; Read: Pauline Maier, John Wilkes and American Disillusionment with Britain, William and Mary Quarterly, (July 1963), pp. 373-395, Hiller Zobel, The Boston Massacre, (1970), pp. 180-205, John Wilkes, Arms of Liberty and Slavery, (1768). Tues., 26 March Subjects of Property : The Origins of Anti-Slavery; Read: Read: Christopher Brown, Moral Capital: Foundations of British Abolitionism, (2006), pp. 105-153; Phyliss Wheatley, Selected Poems; Petition of Massachusetts Slaves 1773; Epitaph of John Jack. Thurs., 28 March SECOND EXAM Part III: Tues., 2 Apr. - Sexual Politics; Read: T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, (2004), pp. 235-293; and Anna Clark, The Chevalier d Eon and Wilkes: Masculinity and Politics in the Eighteenth Century, Eighteenth-Century Studies, (1998), pp. 19-48. Thurs., 4 Apr. - Domestic Disorders and the Collapse of Colonial Resistance; Read: William Henry Drayton, Letters of Freeman, (1772) extracts; and Richard J. Hooker, ed., The Carolina Backcountry on the Eve of the Revolution: The Journal and Other Writings of Charles Woodmason, Anglican Itinerant, (1953), pp. 256-278. Tues., 9 Apr. The East India Company and the Origins of the Tea Act; Read: Richard Sheridan, The British Credit Crisis of 1772 and the American Colonies, (1960), pp. 161-186; and H.V. Bowen, Revenue and Reform: the Indian Problem in British Politics, (1991), pp. 119-32; Nick Robins, The World s First Multinational, (2004). Thurs., 11 Apr. - The Boston Tea Party and the Coercive Acts; Read: Robert Middlekauf, The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789, (1982), pp. 227-37; Peter Oliver, Origin and Progress of the American Rebellion, (1781), pp. 93-112. Tues., 16 Apr. The Revolution before Lexington; Read: John Shy, Thomas Gage, Weak Link of Empire in George Allan Billias, ed., George Washington s Opponents, (1994), 3-38; Joseph Warren, The Suffolk Resolves.
Thurs., 18 Apr. Making a Revolutionary People; Read: Robert Scribner, ed., Revolutionary Virginia: The Road to Independence, (1977), Vol. III; Nicholas Cresswell, Journal of Nicholas Cresswell. Tues., 23 Apr. Parliament Takes the Plunge; Read: Edmund Burke, Speech on Reconciliation, Greene, The Plunge of Lemmings: A Consideration of Recent Writings on British Politics and the American Revolution, (1968), pp. 141-75. Thurs., 25 Apr. 19 April 1775 and the First Continental Congress; Read: Paul Revere s Report; John Dickinson, Olive Branch Petition; Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms. Tues., 30 Apr. Hearing the Shot heard round the World; Read: Olwell, Domestic Enemies : Slavery and Political Independence in South Carolina; Dunmore s Proclamation, Rhys Isaac, Landon Carter s Uneasy Kingdom: Revolution and Rebellion on a Virginia Plantation, pp. 3-15. (Study Guides for the Final Exam will be Made Available.) Thurs., 2 May The Fall of the British-American Empire; Read: King George III, Proclamation of Rebellion, Jefferson s Draft of the Declaration of Independence. (Course Evaluations). FINAL EXAM Monday, 13 May, 9-12 (place T.B.A.)