Early American History

This course is designed to offer a general introduction to early American history from the colonial era to the early national era in North America. The goal of the course is to introduce students to the early American field broadly defined. Through weekly discussions of selected monographs and essays we will explore the key themes of early American history, examine methodological innovations and changes, and explore shifting historiographic trends in this broadly defined chronological field.  Accordingly, we will approach our study by examining a few important historical constructs – the representation of the western hemisphere as a New World; the fact that European colonists, their African slaves, and the imperial governments that ruled North America’s settler colonies were part of a larger Atlantic World --connecting people and political regimes in Europe, Africa and the America. And finally, we will wrestle with the fact that as late as the end of the eighteenth century the majority of the North American was controlled by autonomous indigenous peoples making colonial history a story of encounter between an emergent indigenous New World and the peoples and institutions of Europe Empire.