Website:  http://mypage.iu.edu/~kdierks/A300-2004B.html

E-mail:  kdierks@indiana.edu

Office hours:  Ballantine 734, Tuesdays, 3:45-5:45 p.m., or by appointment

Office phone:  855-6288

Course grader:  Anvi Hoang, anhoang@indiana.edu, office hours: by appointment

Course description:  This course takes a global and multicultural approach to early American history and focuses on the collision of European, Middle Eastern, Asian, African, and Native American cultures between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries.  The first class of each week will scrutinize European attitudes toward and interactions with other cultures before the “discovery” of the “New World” in 1492.  The second class of each week will then examine to what degree Europeans altered their attitudes and practices upon encountering the “New World” from 1492 onward.  In other words, we will interrogate what is “European” and what is “American” in Early American history.  Topics to be covered include cartography, science, ethnography, literature, art, politics, religion, conquest, migration, slavery, and global capitalism.  Throughout the course we will use ethical dilemmas of the past to interrogate our modern pretensions to a more “enlightened” present.

At the end of the course, I hope you will have a solid grounding in American history, and a keen appreciation of the complexity of the past as well as the contingencies of historical change.  I also hope you will have sharper analytical skills with which to assess evidence and formulate your own arguments, as well as sharper writing skills with which to organize and articulate your own ideas -- beyond the confines of history, and useful in any field of endeavor.

Course requirements:

Reading assignments.  Reading will involve a blend of "primary" documents produced by people in the past, and "secondary" readings written by historians.  Links to the primary documents can be found in the course syllabus below, from where you can print them out using your web browser.  Be sure to bring print-outs with you to class, since we will be analyzing them as a group.  In addition, there are three course books to be purchased (listed below).

Specific questions to keep in mind as you do the weekly reading can be found by clicking on the "Readings" or "Documents" headings in the course syllabus.  For general tips on interpreting primary documents and evaluating secondary readings, see the following two guidelines. Strategies for Interpreting Primary Documents.  Strategies for Evaluating Secondary Readings.

Writing assignments.  There will be six written papers.  These assignments will be posted ahead of time on the course website, from where you can print them out.  Three papers will be of two pages each, counting approximately 25% toward your final grade, and three papers will be of five pages each, counting approximately 75% of your final grade, although improvement over the course of the semester will be rewarded.  Unreliable attendance will be significantly penalized, as explained below.  Participation in class discussion can also count toward your final grade, as explained below.

Papers are due at the beginning of the class period.  They should be double-spaced, in a 10/11/12 point font, and stapled (no folders), with your name (but never your social security number), course number and title, date, and paper title at the top of the first page.  Lateness will be penalized, unless excused by official written notification from the Dean of Students (Franklin Hall 108) or the Indiana University Health Center (600 N. Jordan Avenue).

Plagiarism will result in failure of and withdrawal from the class, and will become a permanent part of the student's transcript and academic record.  Writing must be original, and all quotations, derivative ideas and uncommon facts must be duly footnoted.  Guidelines    Procedures

For assistance with writing papers, you are encouraged to visit Writing Tutorial Services in Ballantine Hall (Room 206).

Attendance and participation.  Attendance is absolutely mandatory.  Prior to attending each class, you must print out the corresponding one-page "reaction sheet" found on the course website.  This "reaction sheet" will serve as the basis of an in-class writing assignment in each class.  These assignments will not be graded, except that failure to demonstrate completion of assigned reading will be penalized as the equivalent of an absence.

If you must be absent at some point, you should have the courtesy to alert either the course grader or the professor beforehand.  If you are absent more than once over the course of the semester, you must have official written notification from the Dean of Students or the Indiana University Health Center for such absences to be excused.  After one grace absence, any unexcused absences will result in steep grade deductions on the next assigned paper.

Also important to the success of this class is participation in discussion -- demonstrating a commitment to analytical engagement with the lecture and reading materials, and demonstrating a commitment to civil discussion with your peers.  Civil and thoughtful participation in discussion will be rewarded.  However, since this is meant to be a lecture course rather than a seminar, failure to participate in discussion will not be penalized.

Assistance.  If at any time during the semester you have questions about the course website, lecture material, reading material, writing assignments, or your performance in this class, please feel free to speak to either your assistant instructor or the professor before or after class, during office hours, via email, or via telephone to make an appointment.

If you have a disability or learning disability, please provide me with official written notification from either Disability Services for Students (Franklin Hall 096, 327) as soon as possible so that any necessary accommodations can be made.

Course books: (available at the college bookstores, via online bookstores, and on reserve at the Main Library)

Kupperman, Karen O.  America in European Consciousness, 1493-1750.  Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995.

Lepore, Jill.  The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity.  New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998.

Mintz, Sidney W.  Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History.  New York: Viking Press, 1985.

Course syllabus: