This course explores United States history and culture from the precontact period through the establishment of American colonies, American Independence, and up to the Civil War and Reconstruction era, ending in roughly 1877. While tracing the development of American societies across this period, the course also traces the political, economic, and cultural threads that forge the United States as an idea and as a political reality. We pay close attention to Native peoples, European colonization and competition, the concept of the “frontier,” the framing and interpretation of the Constitution, ideas of citizenship, and of long-standing battles over who was included, and excluded, from the promises of the American experiment up through the 1870s. In addition to developing a solid foundation in the basic facts of early American history, students will learn how to analyze primary sources, develop historically grounded arguments, improve their written and oral communications skills, and critically engage with the historical narrative presented in the course textbook.
- Teacher: Hannah Archambault