A300, American History I, Spring 2008 (Prof. Konstantin Dierks)

Horn, James, ed.  Captain John Smith: Writings with Other Narratives of Roanoke, Jamestown, and the First English Settlement of America.  New York: Library of America, 2007.

This exquisitely produced book presents John Smith as, according to the back cover, "one of the truly legendary figures of American history" who produced among "America's best and most significant writing" -- even though Smith was not born and did not die in North America.  He was an Englishmen, an entrepreneur, and an adventurer.  If you read the early narratives, you'll see an extraordinary moment of world history in the outpost at Jamestown, Virginia, which became the first enduring English settlement on North America -- which 180 years later would become a pivotal portion of the United States.  When you read of the hardship inflicted upon and the improvisation required of John Smith and his fellow adventurers -- dealing with famine, captivity, and more -- you might wonder how the colonies (never mind the eventual nation) could ever have been possible.  Smith was there at the inauspicious, fragile, desperate beginning.

John Smith became legendary, though, not for what he did so much as for what he wrote.  He wrote a series of narratives to explain his other-wordly experience and to justify his professional worth.  That experience was mind-boggling for readers at the time; and that worth was contested by both Smith's enemies and the colony's detractors.  If you read pp. 205-206, you can feel some of his defensiveness and aggressiveness in the same instant.

The next two assignments will give you a chance to use these fabulous historical narratives by John Smith as evidence for addressing some of the historical themes and questions central to this class, and central -- I would argue -- to the world in which we live.  Earlier on in this class we focused on the status of "knowledge" and cultural hierarchy -- how it was constructed, where it was located and re-located, et cetera.  More recently we have focused on the justification of violence and the manufacture of virtue, and that will be the main concern of the next two papers.

So, the central question for you to address in writing assignment #4 is:  How did John Smith seek to justify English motivations and activities in the New World, compared to his image of Spanish motivations and activities?  What made the Spanish worse and the English better, according to Smith?

And then the central question for you to address in writing assignment #5 is:  How did John Smith seek to justify English motivations and activities in the wider world, compared to his image of Turks in the Middle East and "Indians" in the Americas?  What made the Turks and "Indians" worse and the English better, according to Smith?

So, the questions for you to address are similar, but you will find the underlying contrasts quite different.  Which is to say, you will find the ideological mechanisms of justification quite different.

To do these two assignments you will not have to read every page of the John Smith document collection, as I have just done not once but twice.  You will have to be strategic in using the index and the various tables of contents to pinpoint your source material.  Once you've done that, the next step will be to organize your source material, and then after that, to select your evidence from that source material for your own argument.  From there you can outline, organize, and write your paper.

In order to address these two questions, you will also want to use your lecture notes as well as various essays (by Horn, Banerjee, Fitzmaurice) on the course website for context and background.  You are encouraged to refer to Silverblatt and Richter as well.  Simply using quotes from Smith's narratives will not be enough.

Here, though, is a guide to the John Smith document collection:

671-770           The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captaine John Smith, In Europe, Asia, Affrica, and America (1630)
675-677           detailed table of contents

771-816           Advertisements For the unexperienced Planters of New-England” (1631)
776-777           detailed table of contents

1195-1209       chronology to Smith's life

1286-1329       index to all the narratives

In this paper as in the others, there is no single right or wrong answer to the question.  Rather, you will be evaluated on your ability to develop a forceful yet nuanced argument in response to the question, to select main themes to organize your analysis, and to provide specific evidence from the Smith documents, the various secondary readings by historians, and your lecture notes from class, to substantiate your argument and analysis throughout the paper.

Be sure to footnote the precise source of any quotations, derivative ideas, or uncommon facts.  See the course website for other guidelines and resources about writing papers.

Sample endnotes/footnotes:
1. Smith,  "True Travels, Adventures, and Observations," p. 715.
2. Silverblatt, p. 194.
3. Horn, "Conquest of Eden," p. 32.
4. Lecture notes, March 20, 2008.