U.S.A. at 250 is a 30-week course focusing on the significant issues, dramatic events, and pivotal figures that have shaped and defined United States history in the nation’s semi-quincentennial year. Structured around a top twenty-five to thirty list (my homage to David Letterman’s top ten list), this course will integrate historical narrative with examples from American literature, art, film, documentaries, and historiography (what historians have concluded and debated). The course will address how historical events, issues, and figures have influenced and created American intellectualism, legends of mythological proportions, and national ideals. The intent of the course is to reflect on the shortcomings of the United States throughout its history but to also offer academic balance by celebrating the achievements and triumphs of a nation as it enters its 250-year anniversary. Engaging visual support for course content and historical narrative will be offered through power point presentations and video documentaries.
Second Edition: A Republic? A Democracy? An Empire?
1. The issues, debates, and the compromises that helped to structure the Constitution
2. Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic Republicanism and his agrarian westward vision
3. Andrew Jackson: An American Lion and the rise of the common man
4. Indian Removal policy and the Cherokee Trail of Tears
5. America’s immigration to Mexico: Republic of Tejas and the ideology of Manifest Destiny