Fall 2020 - HIST 212 D100

The United States to 1877 (3)

Class Number: 3489

Delivery Method: Remote

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Sep 9 – Dec 8, 2020: Tue, 2:30–4:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Exam Times + Location:

    Dec 16, 2020
    Wed, 12:00–3:00 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    Recommended: HIST 104.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

The emergence and development of American civilization from the establishment of the colonies through the Civil War and Reconstruction. Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

2020 Alert: Almost all teaching in Fall 2020 will be conducted through remote methods. Enrollment in this course acknowledges that remote study may entail different modes of learning, interaction with your instructor, and ways of getting feedback on your work than may be the case for in-person classes.

Students with hidden or visible disabilities who believe they need class or exam accommodations, including in the current context of remote learning, should register with the SFU Centre for Accessible Learning (caladmin@sfu.ca or 778-782-3112) as soon as possible to ensure that they are eligible and that approved accommodations and services are implemented in a timely fashion.

Overview: This course surveys events from the founding of British America at Virginia to the end of Reconstruction. Lectures and readings will trace key social, cultural, and environmental developments. The goal is to develop temporal reasoning skills, knowing not only what happened and why, but how broader contexts shaped events. Life was less inevitable than contingent. The challenge is to master the personal and specific as well as the general and conceptual. The goal is to understand the past on its terms. Students will engage lectures, primary documents, and secondary texts. Discussions and exams will focus on big themes. The two five-page papers will analyze pre-selected sets of documents available through Canvas.

Mode: Lectures will be provided through recorded PowerPoint files (PPSX). The regularly scheduled meeting time will be used to discuss lectures and readings; there will not be separate tutorial sections. Papers and exams are administered through the Canvas “assignments” platform. Topics: Colonialism, environmental contingencies, industrialism, nationalism, political culture, racialism and racism, religion

Topics: Colonialism, environmental contingencies, industrialism, nationalism, political culture, racialism and racism, religion

Grading

  • Weekly Quizzes 10%
  • Midterm 30%
  • Papers - 2 x 15% 30%
  • Final Exam 30%

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

Thomas Paine, Common Sense

Sojourner Truth, Narrative of Sojourner Truth

Selected American Civil War Diaries and Journals  

John Locke & Ben Wright, The American Yawp

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

SFU’s Academic Integrity web site http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating.  Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community.  Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

TEACHING AT SFU IN FALL 2020

Teaching at SFU in fall 2020 will be conducted primarily through remote methods. There will be in-person course components in a few exceptional cases where this is fundamental to the educational goals of the course. Such course components will be clearly identified at registration, as will course components that will be “live” (synchronous) vs. at your own pace (asynchronous). Enrollment acknowledges that remote study may entail different modes of learning, interaction with your instructor, and ways of getting feedback on your work than may be the case for in-person classes. To ensure you can access all course materials, we recommend you have access to a computer with a microphone and camera, and the internet. In some cases your instructor may use Zoom or other means requiring a camera and microphone to invigilate exams. If proctoring software will be used, this will be confirmed in the first week of class.

Students with hidden or visible disabilities who believe they may need class or exam accommodations, including in the current context of remote learning, are encouraged to register with the SFU Centre for Accessible Learning (caladmin@sfu.ca or 778-782-3112).