Active Outline

General Information

Course ID (CB01A and CB01B)
HISTD017B
Course Title (CB02)
History of the United States from 1800 to 1900
Course Credit Status
Credit - Degree Applicable
Effective Term
Fall 2023
Course Description
This course examines U.S. civilization from 1800 to 1900 and includes a survey of United States history (political, economic, intellectual, cultural, and social developments).
Faculty Requirements
Course Family
Not Applicable

Course Justification

This course is a major preparation requirement in the discipline of History at the CSU and UC level for the B.A. degree, is part of a chronological sequence, and meets the needs for history majors and G.E. in providing significant knowledge of American history from 1800 to 1900. This course also contributes to the fulfillment of major requirements for the Associate of Arts Degree for Transfer in History. In addition, this course meets a general education (G.E.) requirement for °®¶¹´«Ã½, CSU GE, and IGETC and is UC and CSU transferable.

Foothill Equivalency

Does the course have a Foothill equivalent?
Yes
Foothill Course ID
HIST F017B

Course Philosophy

Formerly Statement

Course Development Options

Basic Skill Status (CB08)
Course is not a basic skills course.
Grade Options
  • Letter Grade
  • Pass/No Pass
Repeat Limit
0

Transferability & Gen. Ed. Options

Transferability
Transferable to both UC and CSU
°®¶¹´«Ã½ GEArea(s)StatusDetails
2GC2°®¶¹´«Ã½ GE Area C2 - HumanitiesApproved
2GDX°®¶¹´«Ã½ GE Area D - Social and Behavioral SciencesApproved
CSU GEArea(s)StatusDetails
CGC2CSU GE Area C2 - HumanitiesApproved
CGDYCSU GE Area D - Social SciencesApproved
IGETCArea(s)StatusDetails
IG3BIGETC Area 3B - HumanitiesApproved
IG4XIGETC Area 4 - Social and Behavioral SciencesApproved
CSUArea(s)StatusDetails
CUS1CSU US1 US Hist/American IdealApproved
C-IDArea(s)StatusDetails
HISTHistoryApprovedHIST D017A & HIST D017B required for C-ID HIST 130 HIST D017B & HIST D017C required for C-ID HIST 140

Units and Hours

Summary

Minimum Credit Units
4.0
Maximum Credit Units
4.0

Weekly Student Hours

TypeIn ClassOut of Class
Lecture Hours4.08.0
Laboratory Hours0.00.0

Course Student Hours

Course Duration (Weeks)
12.0
Hours per unit divisor
36.0
Course In-Class (Contact) Hours
Lecture
48.0
Laboratory
0.0
Total
48.0
Course Out-of-Class Hours
Lecture
96.0
Laboratory
0.0
NA
0.0
Total
96.0

Prerequisite(s)

Corequisite(s)

Advisory(ies)

EWRT D001A or EWRT D01AH or ESL D005.

Limitation(s) on Enrollment

(Not open to students with credit in the Honors Program related course.)

Entrance Skill(s)

General Course Statement(s)

(See general education pages for the requirements this course meets.)

Methods of Instruction

Lecture and visual aids

Discussion of assigned reading

Discussion and problem solving performed in class

In-class essays

In-class exploration of Internet sites

Quiz and examination review performed in class

Homework and extended projects

Collaborative learning and small group exercises

Field observation and field trips

Guest speakers

Collaborative projects

Other: Film/documentary/or other media

Other: Analytical paper(s)

Assignments

  1. Reading Assignments: Regular reading assignments from college-level texts, including both primary and secondary sources, from which students will gain and demonstrate knowledge of political, economic, social, and cultural events of the historical era for this course.
  2. Writing Assignments: Writing to be selected from a combination of assignments such as: research papers; in-class essays in exam format including for the final exam; book reviews; and other analytic written assignments that critique and evaluate primary sources and secondary sources and demonstrate an understanding of the historical era for this course. Students will write a minimum of 1700 words during the quarter, including at least one individual typed paper of at least 750 words.
  3. Objective evaluation through assignments such as quizzes, map identifications, or objective sections of in-class midterm(s) or the final examination in which students demonstrate knowledge of primary and secondary historical sources.
  4. Group or individual participation in oral analytical expression such as in-class discussions, debates, or analysis of texts, including primary historical documents.

Methods of Evaluation

  1. Oral analysis: participation in and contribution toward classroom discussions, debates, or specified group project(s) in which students demonstrate analytical skills, such as clarity of argument and the use of evidence to support arguments, in oral interpretations of sources, including primary historical documents.
  2. Essay assignments, including for the final exam, that will demonstrate students’ ability to make and support meaningful statements about primary and secondary historical sources and historical events and to exhibit critical thinking and analytical skills in evaluating the era of history for this course. Students will write at least 1700 words during the quarter, including at least one individual typed paper of at least 750 words.
  3. Objective evaluation through assignments such as quizzes, map identifications, objective sections of in-class exams, or other analytical projects in which students demonstrate knowledge of college-level secondary source readings and primary source documents in the era of history for this course.

Essential Student Materials/Essential College Facilities

Essential Student Materials: 
  • None.
Essential College Facilities:
  • None.

Examples of Primary Texts and References

AuthorTitlePublisherDate/EditionISBN
Boyer, Paul S., et al. The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People. 9th edition. New York, NY: Cengage, 2018.
Edwards, Rebecca, and James Henretta, et al. America's History. Value edition. 9th edition. Boston, MA: Bedford St.Martin's/Macmillan, 2018.
Kamensky, Jane, and Mary Beth Norton, et al. A People and a Nation: A History of the United States. 11th edition. New York, NY: Cengage, 2019.
Roark, James L., et al. The American Promise: A History of the United States. Value edition. 7th edition. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2017.
Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States. New York, NY: Harper, 2017.

Examples of Supporting Texts and References

AuthorTitlePublisher
Aptheker, Herbert, ed. A Documentary History of the Negro People. [1951.] Edition with preface by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York, NY: Carol Pub. Group, 1993.
Bauer, K. Jack. The Mexican War, 1846-1848. New York: Macmillan, 1974.
Gutman, Herbert G. Work, Culture, and Society in Industrializing America: Essays in American Working-Class and Social History. New York: Vintage Books, 1977.
Blassingame, John W. The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South. Revised and enlarged edition. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1979.
Blight, David W. Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2001.
Brown, Dee. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. [1971.] Reprinted edition. Picador, NY: 2007.
De Leon, Arnoldo. The Tejano Community, 1836-1900. Dallas, TX: Southern Methodist University Press, 1997.
Daniels, Roger. Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life. 2nd edition. New York, NY: Perennial, 2002.
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. [1845.] Updated edition with new supplementary materials. New York: Penguin Classics, 2014.
DuBois, Ellen Carol. Feminism and Suffrage. [1978.] Edition with a new preface. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999.
Johnson, Susan Lee. Roaring Camp: The Social World of the California Gold Rush. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 2001.
Foner, Eric. Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution. Updated edition. New York, NY: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2014.
Gabaccia, Donna. From the Other Side: Women, Gender, and Immigrant Life in the United States, 1820-1990. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1994.
Horsman, Reginald. Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American Racial Anglo-Saxonism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981.
Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself. Edited by Jennifer Fleischner. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010.
Jeffrey, Julie Roy. Frontier Women: "Civilizing" the West? 1840-1880. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1999.
Limerick, Patricia Nelson. The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2006.
Oates, Stephen. With Malice Toward None: The Life of Abraham Lincoln. Newton, CT: American Political Biography Press, 2002.
Rothman, Ellen Kate. Hands and Hearts: A History of Courtship in America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987.
Stewart, James. Holy Warriors: The Abolitionists and American Slavery. [1976.] Revised edition. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1997.
Takaki, Ronald. Strangers From a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans. Updated and Revised edition. New York, NY: Little, Brown, and Co., 1998.
Woodward, C.V. The Strange Career of Jim Crow. Revised ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Walters, Ronald G. American Reformers, 1815-1860. [1978.] Revised edition. New York, NY: Hill & Wang/Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2011.
Beisner, Robert L. From the Old Diplomacy to the New, 1865 - 1900. Revised ed. Arlington Heights, IL: Harlan Davidson, 1992.
Trachtenberg, Alan. The Incorporation of America: Culture and Society in the Gilded Age. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1982.

Learning Outcomes and Objectives

Course Objectives

  • Analyze the nature of the historical discipline and apply critical thinking skills within a multicultural diverse approach of the historical method to the critical examination and interpretation of primary and secondary sources.
  • Analyze and interpret primary and secondary sources to obtain an informed interpretation of important issues in the application of the Constitution to life in the United States through legislation, Supreme Court decisions, and executive actions, and in addition, examine the extent of political, social, and cultural change, or lack thereof.
  • Apply with use of primary and secondary sources, a broad factual knowledge of the history of diverse people and events as a basis for understanding the development of the society and culture of the United States from 1800 to 1900.
  • Appraise with use of primary and secondary sources, the interactive role of specific events and individuals in affecting social and cultural change and assess why individuals were able to be historical agents for change.
  • Compare and contrast by use of primary and secondary sources, the experiences and contributions of various American cultural groups so that major theoretical and analytical issues relevant, but not limited, to race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation can be evaluated in the development of U.S. society, culture, and history.
  • Summarize and comprehend by use of primary and secondary sources, the rise of the United States from a rural agricultural nation to urban industrial state with global status, analyzing such changes and assessing how this development has influenced United States society, politics, and economics, as well as American culture, and the world.

CSLOs

  • Demonstrate and apply knowledge of nineteenth-century U.S. history to construct defensible statements of meaning and evaluation about this period's developments.

  • Identify, critically evaluate, and interpret nineteenth-century U.S. history using primary source documents to construct historical analysis.

Outline

  1. Analyze the nature of the historical discipline and apply critical thinking skills within a multicultural diverse approach of the historical method to the critical examination and interpretation of primary and secondary sources.
    1. History as a mental construction and act of critical thinking
    2. Primary historical evidence from diverse sources and its analysis and interpretation
    3. The fragmentary nature of historical evidence and the limits and possibilities of what we can know about the past
    4. History as a cultural process and cultural product
    5. History "from the bottom up": the New Labor History, the New Social History, and the inclusion of women and people of color from a multicultural perspective
  2. Analyze and interpret primary and secondary sources to obtain an informed interpretation of important issues in the application of the Constitution to life in the United States through legislation, Supreme Court decisions, and executive actions, and in addition, examine the extent of political, social, and cultural change, or lack thereof.
    1. The role of Justice John Marshall in establishing the concept of judicial review in the landmark Supreme Court case, Marbury v. Madison, 1803, in which the Court in effect assumed the legal authority to nullify acts of the other branches of government if these acts were found to be unconstitutional
    2. Challenges to federal power by advocates of states' rights in actions such as South Carolina's Doctrine of Nullification intended to avoid the 1828 federal tariff and the Supreme Court decision in Worcester vs. Georgia that upheld Cherokee rights to their land but which was ignored by that state and by the U.S. president.
    3. Successful amendments to the Constitution such as Amendment XII (1804) which required electors to vote separately for the president and vice president, and the Civil War and Reconstruction Amendments XIII (1865), XIV (1868), and XV (1870) which ended slavery, defined citizenship, and guaranteed the right to vote to male citizens regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, respectively.
    4. Failed amendments to the Constitution such as removing citizenship rights from any American who accepted a foreign title of nobility without consent of Congress (1810), and the Corwin Amendment to protect slavery where it already existed (1861).
    5. Major court battles that changed (or did not change) American understanding of rights, freedoms, and obligations to others in the nation, including but not limited to: McCulloch v. Maryland, Scott v. Sanford, Butchers' Benevolent Association of New Orleans v. Crescent City Livestock Landing and Slaughterhouse Co., Minor v. Happersett (which denied women the right to vote), and Plessy v. Ferguson (which upheld racial segregation).
    6. The role of legislation, such as, but not limited to: Judiciary Act of 1801, Embargo Act of 1807, Missouri Compromise of 1820, Removal Act of 1830, the Compromise of 1850 over slavery, Wilmot Proviso (1846), Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), Military Reconstruction Act (1867), Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), and Dawes Act (1887) regarding Native peoples and their lands.
    7. Philosophical works that illustrate the cultural impact of constitutional principles and political ideas, including Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, as well as works such as Margaret Fuller's Woman in the Nineteenth Century, the contrast between the views of Henry George and Andrew Carnegie on the causes and cures of poverty in America, and Emilio Aguinaldo's criticism of American imperialism in the Philippines.
    8. Bill of Rights (Amendments 1-10 of the U.S. Constitution), and discussion and debate from a multicultural perspective of whether, or not, the Bill of Rights were enforced and applied equally for all Americans in the nineteenth century, with consideration of the impact of this past history on the present
  3. Apply with use of primary and secondary sources, a broad factual knowledge of the history of diverse people and events as a basis for understanding the development of the society and culture of the United States from 1800 to 1900.
    1. History as the record of the lives and actions of diverse human beings
    2. History as a guide to understanding a people's self-identity and participation in the process of national belonging
    3. History as a test for appreciating and forming the values of American society
    4. History as a tool for self-knowledge
    5. Historians as interpreters of the past and guides to the future
  4. Appraise with use of primary and secondary sources, the interactive role of specific events and individuals in affecting social and cultural change and assess why individuals were able to be historical agents for change.
    1. With use of primary and secondary sources, identify and assess the significance of major events and turning points such as: Lewis and Clark's Exploration of the American West, the Louisiana Purchase, the War of 1812, the Monroe Doctrine, the U.S.-Mexican War, the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, the Seneca Falls Convention regarding Equal Rights for women, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, creation of the Confederacy, firing on Fort Sumter, and Civil War, Reconstruction and its aftermath, the settlement of the American West, the California gold rush, the urban explosion, Social Darwinism and the growth of big business, the New Immigration, the growth of labor unions, and the Populist Movement.
    2. Evaluate with use of primary and secondary sources the actions and impact of individuals as shapers of history, such as: Thomas Jefferson's vision of freedom in America, James Monroe's announcement of the Monroe Doctrine, Frederick Douglass' escape from slavery to become a leading abolitionist, Elizabeth Cady Stanton's and Susan B. Anthony's leadership in women's rights, Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, Chief Joseph's statement to his Nez Perce tribe, and Alfred Thayer Mahan's warning that a great nation must build and maintain a great navy.
    3. Evaluate with use of primary and secondary sources mass movements of ordinary people affecting major social and political reform as well as cultural change: the movement for Women's Rights, the Farmers Alliance and the Grange, Labor's actions for union recognition, the mass immigration to the United States, and the flood of migrants into the American West.
    4. Judge with use of primary and secondary sources the role of the individuals versus larger social forces in causing change ("Great Man" versus Social Determinist theories of historical causation).
    5. Analyze with use of primary and secondary sources, such topics as the philosophical writings of men and women as conduits influencing public attitudes toward: women's rights (the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments, and the writings of Sarah Grimke), human rights (the Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Frederick Douglass' publication of the "North Star"), labor's right to bargain collectively (Samuel Gompers' speeches to Congress in support of organized labor), and the campaign against alcoholism (Frances Willard's writings and speeches in support of the Women's Christian Temperance Union).
    6. With use of primary and secondary sources, analyze and evaluate the media's role in shaping public support of government actions (e.g., military censorship of newspapers in the Civil War, Hearst and Pulitzer's Yellow Press urging the United States to declare war on Spain over Cuba, and Ida B. Wells' anti-lynching campaign in American newspapers) and in shaping social values (Mark Twain's critical views of the Gilded Age).
    7. With use of primary and secondary sources, analyze and evaluate technology's role in shaping American society (e.g., Congressional support for the National Road, canal and railroad construction, manufacturing and mechanization, improvements in weapons of war, the factory system and mass production, steel and oil as twin bases for industrial growth, and inventive Americans and their labor saving devices).
    8. Examine literature and philosophy that reflect American historical experiences and efforts at change in the 1800s, such as Frederick Douglass' anti-slavery Narrative of his life, Sojourner Truth's anti-slavery Narrative, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Transcendentalism, the poetry of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, Henry David Thoreau's Walden and "Civil Disobedience" and themes of individualism, protest, and the natural world, the writings of Mark Twain regarding the Mississippi and the American west, Edgar Allan Poe and Romanticism, Stephen Crane's writings of naturalism regarding urban America and the Civil War, and Kate Chopin's Southern realism and early feminism in her novel The Awakening.
  5. Compare and contrast by use of primary and secondary sources, the experiences and contributions of various American cultural groups so that major theoretical and analytical issues relevant, but not limited, to race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation can be evaluated in the development of U.S. society, culture, and history.
    1. The bifurcation of men's and women's socio-economic roles in the new industrial society; the changing status of women from chattel to workers in the new industrial society.
    2. The historical realities faced by LGBT persons in American society during the 1800s, such as anti-sodomy laws and the criminalization of cross-dressing, but also examples of gay and lesbian efforts at autonomy, such as same-sex couples living in relationships that functioned like marriages, despite not being recognized legally.
    3. The significant role of women in the abolitionist movement to end slavery, and the impact of writings and speeches by abolitionist women (such as Sarah and Angelina Grimke and Sojourner Truth) in changing American cultural views of women's roles
    4. The actions of the Shawnee war chief, Tecumseh, and his brother, Tenskwatawa ("the Prophet"), in inspiring the goal of a united Indian Confederacy by arranging to buy tribal lands in preparation for a pan-Indian effort to halt American settlement.
    5. Religious views of various groups in American history and their cultural impact, including the Protestant Second Great Awakening, the rise of evangelical churches and reform movements, origins of the Mormon church, and the experiences of Catholics and non-Christian minorities. The gradual rise of women's influence in religion, such as the Quaker women whose special calling equipped them to be ministers, and the existence of several New England Baptist congregations in which women served along with men on church governing committees.
    6. The vital participation of African Americans in the United States Army and Navy during the Civil War struggle for Black liberation.
    7. The Freedmen's quest for economic independence following the Civil War and the ongoing quest for African Americans to legalize their marriages and establish independent houses of worship.
    8. African-American resistance to slavery, including rebellions such as that of Nat Turner
    9. Native-American resistance to antebellum westward expansion, Indian Removal Policy, and the Cherokee Trail of Tears.
    10. The Plains Wars and subjugation of Native Plains Peoples, 1863-1890; events at Wounded Knee
    11. Native Americans' forced transition to reservations; native efforts at cultural preservation such as the Ghost Dance Movement.
    12. American women's attempts to abolish child labor and to mandate school attendance.
    13. The ongoing efforts of women's rights activists to promote woman suffrage, temperance, political action, and involvement in organizational projects to improve society.
    14. The development of African American religion, literature, and culture as uniquely American expressions of survival and enrichment, and including music such as African American spirituals and the emergence of ragtime (e.g. Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag")
    15. The experiences of immigrant individuals and groups, including European Americans, Latin Americans, and Asian Americans, as they added their rich cultural backgrounds to American work and life; the struggles against discrimination faced by groups such as the Irish, Southern and Eastern Europeans, Catholics and Jews, Asian Americans, and Mexican Americans.
    16. The attempts of African Americans, Mexican Americans, and women to integrate the American labor movement.
  6. Summarize and comprehend by use of primary and secondary sources, the rise of the United States from a rural agricultural nation to urban industrial state with global status, analyzing such changes and assessing how this development has influenced United States society, politics, and economics, as well as American culture, and the world.
    1. Preparations for the War of 1812 and war's aftermath in solidifying America's view of itself as an independent nation.
    2. Improvements in transportation, factories, and wage labor in Andrew Jackson's America, and the spread of the democratic idea of the "common man" in American culture and politics, related to the increase in the right to vote for white men who did not own property.
    3. Agriculture and land policy in Abraham Lincoln's America; the cultural emphasis on public education as an American goal in Lincoln's America.
    4. Manufacturing and mechanization developments at mid-19th century and beyond; the new technology of photography and its cultural impact in American history, such as the work of Mathew Brady in documenting the realities of battle during the "industrial" Civil War, and Brady's photographs of candidate Lincoln impacting the presidential race
    5. United States' commitment to the ideology of manifest destiny and the building of railroads across the continent.
    6. The impact of the Civil War on industrial development and the cultural understanding of the American nation vs. the regional views of south vs. north.
    7. The conflicts of free-labor versus slave labor; new philosophies of freedom in American culture.
    8. The settlement of the West and the growth of cities and cultural centers around industrial sites.
    9. The unprecedented growth of big business and the role of government in shaping this growth.
    10. The growth of the American labor movement and its gradual improvement of working conditions.
    11. Development of a sound monetary and banking system for the United States.
    12. Commitment to build a world-class navy to protect the nation and to proclaim to the world America's desire to dominate international trade.
    13. United States' involvement in the Spanish-American-Pilipino-Cuban War and the resulting spread of American influence in both the Caribbean and the Pacific areas, including Hawaii.
    14. The development of communication systems such as the telegraph, newspapers, magazines, and telephones as the means of informing society about world conditions, and the impact in creating a national American culture.
    15. Visual art as a reflection of American historical change, from works such as American landscape painting like that of the Hudson River School, to those artists capturing the impact of industrialism, but also views of the new national parks, the works of Eastman Johnson during the Civil War, the new realism in paintings like that of Thomas Eakins depicting surgery, Gilded Age portraits like those of John Singer Sargent, and emerging women artists like Mary Cassatt depicting domestic scenes in 1800s America.
    16. Architectural styles in the 1800s which illustrate American historical trends, such as the Neoclassical style reflecting American admiration for Greek democracy and the Roman republic, as illustrated by Jefferson's Monticello, the U.S. Capitol, the White House, the Supreme Court, and other public buildings; American modernism reflected in skyscrapers and the Brooklyn Bridge; and landscaped public parks such as Central Park in New York City and Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.
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