230598 American History I (S) (WiSe 2010/2011)

Inhalt, Kommentar

This is the first part of a two-semester course sequence. "American History I" is a required course in PM 5. We will trace the history of what is now the United States from the earliest known human inhabitants through the age of European exploration, settlement, colonization and eventual independence from Britain. We will then see how the "American experiment" developed through expansion, immigration and technological progress and how this “experiment” came to meet its most severe test in the Civil War. We will focus on topics in American history that are relevant for understanding the present: the confrontation and interactions among Native Americans, Europeans and Africans and the task of establishing a democratic constitution and forming “a more perfect union” out of a diverse collection of colonies. We will investigate how the United States came to understand itself as a nation and how divergent interests struggled with each other.

Requirements for participation, required level

Students should have completed Social and Cultural Studies: North America in BM 4.

Bibliography

These United States: The Questions of our Past

by Irwin Unger Concise Edition/ Combined volume

Several copies of the textbook are available in the library.