Haverford College

Department of History

History 255a: American Intellectual History

This two-semester course will reconstruct our national historical "project[s]" from the landing of the first Africans at Jamestown in 1619 and the founding of Plymouth Plantation in 1620 to the present. Our Ariadne's thread will be the persisting problems of race, class and regional differences for a would-be republican commonwealth.

Reading widely in the sources, we will relate the architecture of public discourse in America--its rhetorical scaffolding, its recurrent themes, and its alternative blueprints for a well-ordered society--to the perceived constraints of a changing political economy.

This course may be divided. The first semester will cover the years 1619 to the Civil War.

Information

Time & Place: Monday, Wednesday 12:30 pm-2:00 pm, Hall 006.
Office Hours: 1 College Lane Apt. 1, by appointment.
Phone/Email: [610] 649-7841; pjeffers@haverford.edu

Students who think they may need accommodations in this course because of the impact of a disability are encouraged to meet with me privately early in the semester. Students should also contact Rick Webb, Coordinator, Office of Disabilities Services (rwebb@haverford.edu, 610-896-1290) to verify their eligibility for reasonable accommodations as soon as possible. Early contact will help to avoid unnecessary inconvenience and delays.

Course Requirements

1) Close reading and careful discussion of the assigned texts.

2) A written mid-term hour exam.

3) A short essay (7-8 pp.) on American Republicanism, due November 7, 2005.

4) A self-scheduled 3 hour final examination, *or* a term paper (approx. 15 pp.) on a topic to be negotiated.

Core Texts

Richard L. Bushman, From Puritan to Yankee: Character and Social Structure in Connecticut, 1690-1765 (1967)

Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845), ed. by Houston Baker (1987)

Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography and Other Writings, ed. by Kenneth Silverman (1986)

David A. Hollinger and Charles Capper, eds., The American Intellectual Tradition, fourth edition, volume 1 (2001)

Winthrop D. Jordan, The White Man's Burden: Historical Origins of Racism in the United States (1974)

Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787 (1969; 1998)

#Xeroxed Primary Materials, to be distributed in class#

Calendar of Readings

Nota Bene: #ed# texts below will be distributed in class; *ed* texts are available at Magill Library;

August 29. Opening Remarks: What is Intellectual History?

Reference and Background Readings:

*Richard W. Fox and James T. Kloppenberg, eds., A Companion to American Thought (1995)*
[Magill Reference Room: E 169.1 C685 1995]

*Stefani Collini et al., "What Is Intellectual History," in Juliet Gardiner, ed., What Is History Today? (1988), pp. 105-119.*

*Martin Jay, "The Textual Approach to Intellectual History," in [Martin Jay] Force Fields: Between Intellectual History and Cultural Critique (1993), pp. 158-166.*

August 31. Puritanism and the Great Migration. Covenant and Calling in Massachusetts Bay

#William Bradford, "History of Plimouth Plantation" (1650) and "Introduction," in Miller and Johnson, eds., The Puritans (1963), pp. 90-117, 1-19.#

John Winthrop, "A Modell of Christian Charity" (1630) and "Introduction," in David A. Hollin-ger and Charles Capper, eds., The American Intellectual Tradition, fourth edition, volume 1 (2001), pp. 3-15.

September 5. The Puritan Community: Ministers and Magistrates.

#John Winthrop, "Journal" (1639), "Speech to the General Court" (1645); John Cotton, "Letter to Lord Say and Seal" (1636), "Limitation of Government" (1656); and "The Theory of the State and of Society," in Miller and Johnson, eds., The Puritans (1963), pp. 202-214, 181-194.#

Supplementary Readings:

*David D. Hall, "On Common Ground: The Coherence of American Puritan Studies," William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Series, 44 (1987): 193-229.*

*Philp F. Gura, ""Power" in Puritan Massachusetts," Reviews in American History, 26 (December 1998): 644-649.* [available online]

September 7. Doctrinal Conflicts and Community Crises.

"The Examination of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson at the Court at Newtown," 1637, in David A. Hollinger and Charles Capper, eds., The American Intellectual Tradition, fourth edition, volume 1 (2001), pp. 28-38.

#John Winthrop, "Journal" [Account of the Antinomian Crisis] (1636-1637) and "A Defence of an Order of Court Made in the Year 1637," in Miller and Johnson, eds., The Puritans (1963), pp. 129-136, 199-202.#

Supplementary Readings:

*David D. Hall, ed., The Antinomian Controversy, 1636-1638: A Documentary History (1990)*

September 12. Community Growing Pains: Connecticut as Case-Study.

Bushman, From Puritan to Yankee (1967), pp. 3-38, 41 to first paragraph of 66, first paragraph of 71-72, 107, last paragraph of 116-121, 135-143.

September 14. The Janus-Face of the New England Way: Congregationalism and the [Political-Epistemological] Challenge of the Great Awakening

Bushman, From Puritan to Yankee (1967), pp. 147-163, 183-195.

#John Wise, "Vindication of the Government of New-England Churches" (1717), in Miller and Johnson, eds., The Puritans (1963), pp. 256-269.#

#Alan Heimert, "Introduction," in Alan Heimert and Perry Miller, eds., The Great Awakening (1967), pp. xiii-xxix, and xxxv-xliii.#

Jonathan Edwards, Selection from A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections (1746), in David A. Hollinger and Charles Capper, eds., The American Intellectual Tradition, fourth edition, volume 1 (2001), pp. 62-63, 75-91.

September 19. The Great Awakening as Cultural Watershed: Toward A New Social Order.

Bushman, From Puritan to Yankee (1967), pp. 196-second paragraph of 210, 220-232, 267-288.

#Jonathan Mayhew, "A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission" (1750), in Miller and Johnson, eds., The Puritans (1963), pp. 277-280.#

September 21. The Development of Anglo-American Racism: Political Economy, Religion, and Anthropology.

Jordan, The White Man's Burden (1974), pp. 3-68, 87-110.

#"The Germantown Protest Against Slavery" (1688) and the "South Carolina Slave Code" (1740), in Kermit Hall et al., eds., American Legal History (1991), pp. 35-41.#

#“Georgia: The Slave Code, 1860,” in The Government and the Economy, 1783-1861 (1967), ed. by Carter Goodrich, pp. 443-452.#

Supplementary Readings:

*Alden T. Vaughan, "The Origins Debate: Slavery and Racism in Seventeenth Century Virginia," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 97 (July 1989)* F 221.V91 H MGL microform

*Ira Berlin, Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America (1998)*

September 26. The Making of the American: Inventing a Public Self.

Franklin, Autobiography and Other Writings (1986), pp. 3-21, 201-205, 21-77, 206-212.

September 28. From Piety to Moralism to Pragmatism: Your Humble Servant, at Home and Abroad.

Franklin, Autobiography and Other Writings (1986), pp. 78-106, 215-225, 106-191, 237-243.

October 3. Toward the American Revolution, I: Rethinking the Logic[s] of Colonialism

#Daniel Dulany, "Considerations on the Propriety of Imposing Taxes in the British Colonies" (1765), John Dickinson, "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania" (1767-1768), and James Wilson, "Considerations on the Authority of Parliament" (1774), in Jack P. Greene, ed., Colonies to Nation, 1763-1789 (1975), pp. 51-59, 122-128, 133, and 220-227.#

October 5. Hour Exam

Nota Bene: A short essay (7-8 pp.) on American Republicanism is due 7 November 2005. Start framing your thoughts and organizing your note-taking now...

Drawing on class materials and on the texts below, discuss critically the various "readings" of republicanism from 1776 to 1790 by problematizing the question of "point of view." That is to say, play the prospective [or constructive] "readings" of republicanism by historical actors at the time off against the retrospective [or analytical] "readings" of republicanism [and liberalism] by historians today.

#Joyce Appleby, "The Social Origins of American Revolutionary Ideology," in Liberal-ism and Republicanism in the Historical Imagination (1992), pp. 161-187.#

#Daniel T. Rodgers, “Republicanism: The Career of a Concept,” Journal of American History, 79 (June 1992): 11-38.#

#Doron S. Ben-Atar, "Republicanism, Liberalism, and Radicalism in the American Founding," in Intellectual History Newsletter, 14 (1992): 47-59.#

Gordon S. Wood, “Preface to the 1998 Edition,” The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787 (1969; 1998), pp. v-xiii.

Fall Break: Friday October 7 at 4:00pm through Sunday October 16, 2005.

October 17. Toward the American Revolution, II: Common Sense and Declaring Independence.

Franklin, Autobiography and Other Writings (1986), pp. 226-232.

Thomas Paine, "Common Sense" (1776) and Thomas Jefferson, "The Declaration of Independence" (1776), in David A. Hollinger and Charles Capper, eds., The American Intellectual Tradition, fourth edition, volume 1 (2001), pp. 125-136.

October 19. The Whig Science of Politics: Toward Republicanism, the Civil Religion of Revolution.

#John Adams, "Thoughts on Government" (1776) and Anonymous, "Four Letters on Interesting Subjects" (1776), in Jack P. Greene, ed., Colonies to Nation, 1763-1789 (1975), pp. 306-315.#

Wood, Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787 (1969; 1998), pp. 18-48, 53-75, 83-97, 107-124.

October 24. Alternative Blueprints of Government: The Origins of American Constitutionalism.

Wood, Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787 (1969; 1998), pp. 197-206, 214-222, 226-237, 259-305, 319-328, 372-389.

#The Virginia and Pennsylvania Constitutions (1776), in Jack P. Greene, ed., Colonies to Nation, 1763-1789 (1975), pp. 334-345.#

October 26. Revolution Run Riot: If the People be Governors, Who shall be Governed?

#The New Jersey Paper Money Debate (1786), and [The Politics of] Shays's Rebellion, in Jack P. Greene, ed., Colonies to Nation, 1763-1789 (1975), pp. 483-495, 505-507.#

Wood, Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787 (1969; 1998), pp. 393-413, 430-467, 471-475, 562-564.

October 31. The American Science of Politics: New Order of the Ages.

Wood, Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787 (1969; 1998), pp. 593-615.

James Madison, "Number 10" and "Number 51," The Federalist (1787-1788), in David A. Holl-inger and Charles Capper, eds., The American Intellectual Tradition, fourth edition, volume 1 (2001), pp. 155-163.

John Adams to Samuel Adams, 18 October 1790, in David A. Hollinger and Charles Capper, eds., The American Intellectual Tradition, fourth edition, volume 1 (2001), pp. 172-176.

November 2. The Political Economy of Federalism: Hamilton's Program.

#Alexander Hamilton, The Case for a National Bank," and "The Incitement and Patronage of Government," in The Government and the Economy, 1783-1861 (1967), ed. by Carter Goodrich, pp. 279-297, 187-195.#

November 7. Short Essay on Republicanism Due.

November 9. Slavery and Freedom in Nature's Nation.

Jordan, The White Man's Burden (1974), pp. 113-122, 125-133, 134-145, 146-154, 155-161, 165-214, 217-226.

Franklin, Autobiography and Other Writings (1986), pp. 243-245.

Thomas Jefferson, "Query XIV," Notes on the State of Virginia (1787), in David A. Hollinger and Charles Capper, eds., The American Intellectual Tradition, fourth edition, volume 1 (2001), pp. 183-191.

Supplementary Readings:

*Paul Finkelman, Slavery and the Founders: Race and Liberty in the Age of Jefferson, second edition (2001)*

November 14. Rethinking Republicanism. Cultural Norms and Economic Development: Coloni-zation and the "American System."

#Henry Clay, "The American System" (1832) and editor's "Introduction," in Daniel Walker Howe, ed., The American Whigs (1973), pp. 32-43 and 1-7.#

#Robert Goodloe Harper, "Letter to the American Colonization Society" (1817) and "Responses to Schemes for African Colonization" (1817; 1831), in William H. and Jane H. Pease, eds., The Antislavery Argument (1965), pp. 18-38.#

Supplementary Reading:

*David M. Streifford, "The American Colonization Society: An Application of Republican Ideology to Early Antebellum Reform," Journal of Southern History, 45 (May 1979): 201-220.*

#*David Brion Davis, "Reconsidering the Colonization Movement: Leonard Bacon and the Prob-lem of Evil," and George M. Fredrickson, "Comment on Davis," in Intellectual History Newsletter, 14 (1992): 3-20.*#

November 16. Who Speaks for the Negro? Inventing a Counter-Discourse, 1827-1853.

#The Editors, "To Our Patrons," Freedom's Journal (March 16, 1827), in John H. Bracey et. al., eds., Black Nationalism in America (1970), pp. 24-28.#

#David Walker, "David Walker's Appeal" (1829) and "Address of the Colored National Convention to the People of the United States" (1853), in William H. and Jane H. Pease, eds., The Anti-slavery Argument (1965), pp. 298-310, and 273-280.#

#Jane H. Pease and William H. Pease, They Who Would Be Free: Blacks' Search for Freedom, 1830-1861 (1974; 1990), pp. 3-16, 97-123.#

November 21. One Slave's Perspective on the Peculiar Institution.

Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), pp. 33-159.

November 23. Pro-Slavery Argument: Sociology with a Twist.

George Fitzhugh, "Sociology for the South" (1854), in David A. Hollinger and Charles Capper, eds., The American Intellectual Tradition, fourth edition, volume 1 (2001), pp. 470-480.

Thanksgiving Break: Wednesday November 23 at 4:00pm through Sunday November 27, 2005.

November 28. Pro-Slavery Argument: The "American School" of Anthropology.

#Josiah Nott, "Types of Mankind" (1854), in Eric L. McKitrick, ed., Slavery Defended: The Views of the Old South (1963), pp. 126-138.#

November 30. No Room at the Inn: African American Emigrationism at High Tide, 1854.

Martin R. Delany, selection from The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States (1852), in David A. Hollinger and Charles Capper, eds., The American Intellectual Tradition, fourth edition, volume 1 (2001), pp. 481-496.

#Jane H. Pease and William H. Pease, They Who Would Be Free: Blacks' Search for Freedom, 1830-1861 (1974; 1990), pp. 251-277.#

December 5. Alternative Blueprints for a Developing America, I: The Logic[s] of Civil War.

[a] Pro-Slavery Argument: Rethinking Political Theory.

John C. Calhoun, "A Disquisition on Government" (late 1840s), in David A. Hollinger and Charles Capper, eds., The American Intellectual Tradition, fourth edition, volume 1 (2001), pp. 447-456.

[b] Toward a New American Party System, 1854-1856: Pragmatism in Defense of Principles

Abraham Lincoln, "Speech at Peoria, Illinois" (1854), in David A. Hollinger and Charles Capper, eds., The American Intellectual Tradition, fourth edition, volume 1 (2001), pp. 513-522.

December 7. Alternative Blueprints for a Developing America, II: The Logic[s] of Civil War.

[a] The Pro-Slavery Argument: Political Economy Revisited.

#Edward Ruffin, "The Political Economy of Slavery" (1853), in Eric L. McKitrick, ed., Slavery Defended: The Views of the Old South (1963), pp. 69-85.#

[b] The Republican Party Posture: Economic Principles and Political Realism.

Abraham Lincoln, "Address Before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society" (1859) and "Ad-dress Delivered at the Dedication of the Cemetery at Gettysburg" (1863), in David A. Hollinger and Charles Capper, eds., The American Intellectual Tradition, fourth edition, volume 1 (2001), pp. 523-527.

Final Essay (optional: in lieu of exam) is due by 12 noon on December 16, 2005