HIST 1031 - U.S. History to 1865

Credits: 4
Hours/Week: Lecture 4 Lab None
Course Description: This course surveys U.S. history from pre-colonial Native North America through the Civil War era, exploring the major events, figures, ideas, and movements during that time using both primary and secondary sources. Students will be introduced to several recurring themes including settler colonialism and indigenous resistance, religion, gender roles, slavery, race, immigration, nation-building, industrialization, and notions of freedom. In addition to examining the past, the course will familiarize students with the uses and limitations of historical sources, how knowledge about the past is produced, and the relevance of history to contemporary issues and questions.
MnTC Goals
5 History/Social/Behavioral Science, 7 Human Diversity

Prerequisite(s): Course placement into college-level English and Reading OR completion of ENGL 0950  with a grade of C or higher OR completion of RDNG 0940  with a grade of C or higher and qualifying English Placement Exam OR completion of RDNG 0950  with a grade of C or higher and ENGL 0090  with a grade of C or higher OR completion of ESOL 0051  with a grade of C or higher and ESOL 0052  with a grade of C or higher.
Corequisite(s): None
Recommendation: None

Major Content

1. Native North America before 1492
2. The European Invasion of the Americas
3. English Settler Colonies in the 17th Century
4. The Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Atlantic World
5. Social Change and Imperial Crisis in Anglo-America
6. The American Revolution
7. Confederation, Rebellion, and the Constitution
8. The Politics and Culture of the Early Republic
9. Economic and Social Transformation in the Antebellum North
10. The Age of Jackson: Democracy, Expansion, and Removal
11. Religion, Abolition, and Women’s Rights in the Age of Reform
12. The Cotton Revolution, Antebellum Slavery, and African America
13. Manifest Destiny, War, and the West
14. The Sectional Crisis
15. The Civil War and Reconstruction

 
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this course students will be able to:

1. explain the relationship of events, people, and developments in U.S. History from pre-colonial Native North America through the Civil War era.
2. make use of historical thinking by evaluating the relevance of U.S. History to the modern world and to their own lives.
3. analyze diverse historical materials, distinguishing primary from secondary sources.
4. demonstrate effective use of historical evidence and methods.
5. evaluate varied perspectives of human history using knowledge of diverse peoples within their distinctive historical contexts.

05. 02. Examine social institutions and processes across a range of historical periods and cultures.

05. 03. Use and critique alternative explanatory systems or theories.
Theme Goals (MnTC Goals 7-10)
07. 01. Understand the development of and the changing meanings of group identities in the United States’ history and culture.

07. 03. Analyze their own attitudes, behaviors, concepts and beliefs regarding diversity, racism, and bigotry.

07. 04. Describe and discuss the experience and contributions (political, social, economic, etc.) of the many groups that shape American society and culture, in particular those groups that have suffered discrimination and exclusion.

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