This survey course focuses on the shifting
political, cultural, economic, and social
developments of the United States from the
Revolutionary period through the Spanish-American
War. The themes underpinning the course will be
the contested nature of freedom and the
relationship between freedom and slavery; settler
colonialism; ideologies about manhood and
womanhood; the growth of capitalism; and the
expansion of the nation-state and the origins of
American empire. Along with attending to these
themes, the course will provide you with an
introduction to the discipline of history itself.
History is not a series of names and dates, but an
interpretive act in which we develop conclusions
based on various types of historical evidence.