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History 4620/6620: Colonial America

Fall 2008

Instructor: Maurice A. Crouse <mcrouse@memphis.edu> — 103 Mitchell

Course Requirements

You will not be required to purchase a textbook or collection of supplemental readings, nor will you be required to use them. But if you should feel the need for more factual material than the lectures or your various projects provide you, they will be available in the Reserve Room of the Library (see Suggested Background Readings for guidance on a day-to-day basis).

This course will use the concept of contracting for course grades. Below you will find the requirements for various letter grades. You will find that the requirements “pyramid,” and if you fall short of a particular goal, you will nevertheless have satisfied the requirements for some lower grade. You are not required at the beginning of the course to commit yourself to any particular contract (though you may, if you wish). You should, of course, set some goal for yourself and seek diligently to achieve it. Your grade for the course will depend on which contract level you actually achieve.

All requirements for a particular grade must be satisfied no later than the date specified for that grade (see below). You are encouraged to submit materials before the deadlines for them. A comfortable pace for achieving the grade of C, for example, might be submitting a book report every two weeks.

All materials submitted for a particular grade must actually fulfill the requirements for that grade; any that do not will not be counted. For example: if the term paper does not contain a proper bibliography or reference list, or if the footnotes (or endnotes) and bibliography (or reference list) are not in prescribed scholarly form, the term paper will not be accepted as earning the grade of A.

All materials must be substantial. They must really say something; they must be organized; and they must be literate.

The instructor is the judge of whether contracts have been fulfilled. While he cannot insist on absolute perfection in meeting the requirements, he does expect honest, good-faith efforts on the part of students. This is another reason for early submission of materials: it gives you time to resubmit materials if they are not up to standard.

Any doubts about requirements should be clarified early in the course.

Grade of F:

• Attend fewer than 21 of the 27 class sessions.

Grade of D:

• Attend at least 21 of the 27 class sessions.

Grade of C:

• Fulfill requirements for D.
• In addition, no later than November 6 submit book reports on 4 books (graduate students must do 5) chosen from the Select Bibliography. (Do not report on a book that is not in this bibliography unless you first get the instructor’s approval to do so.) Each report must be submitted in a paper copy directly to the instructor and a copy in electronic form (either Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect, Rich Text Format, or Portable Document Format) to turnitin.com, instructions for which are issued separately. Each report must be in the following format:
  • The report must consist of 2 or 3 typewritten double-spaced pages.
  • The heading of the report must include author, title, place, date, publisher, number of pages, and the library call number. For example: David Hawke, The Colonial Experience (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1966), xx, 774 (E188.H3).
  • The body of the report must indicate the nature of the book, showing what subject matter is covered and what contribution the book makes toward the understanding of the colonial period (see Guide for Book Reports for more complete guidance).

Grade of B:

• Fulfill requirements for C.
• In addition, for the grade of B, you will do all the preliminary work that would be involved with a term paper but you will not actually write the paper. Choose a topic from the list below and no later than November 18 submit for it:
  • note cards
  • an outline of a possible term paper on the topic
  • a bibliography or reference list in proper bibliographical or reference-list form
• There must be at least 30 note cards, taken from at least 8 distinct sources (graduate students must have at least 50 note cards, taken from at least 10 distinct sources). Books used in the contract for the grade of C may be used as sources here. Each note card must contain a clear reference to the page or pages of the book or article used as the source of the material on the card.
• The outline must be a clear indication of the form which the term paper, if written, would take. It must indicate a clear theme and intelligent coverage and development of that theme.
• The bibliography or reference list must include at least the 8 sources (10 for graduate students) used in the note cards and may include more. Items in the bibliography or reference list must follow standard scholarly form as prescribed by Kate Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 7th ed.
• Any topic on this list may be chosen without the need to get the instructor’s approval. If you wish to write on an unlisted topic, you must first get the instructor’s approval to do so.
  • Mercantilist theory
  • The British colonial system
  • Colonial merchants
  • Indian relations
  • Everyday life in the colonies
  • The status of the working class
  • Education in the colonies
  • Colonial science
  • Colonial literature
  • Colonial journalism
  • Colonial finance
  • The status of women in the colonies
  • Witchcraft
  • Colonial architecture
  • Colonial furniture and furnishings
  • The fine arts in the colonies
  • Colonial agriculture
  • Social class and status in the colonies
  • Justice, law, and order in the colonies
  • Political theory in the colonies
  • Forms of local government in the colonies
  • National and racial contributions to colonial culture
  • Land policies in the colonies
  • The Great Awakening
  • Religions in colonial America
  • The development of Puritan theology
  • The Navigation Acts and the American Revolution
  • The Stamp Act
  • Religion and the American Revolution
  • The American Revolution from the British point of view
  • Loyalism in the War for Independence
  • The Declaration of Independence
  • Spies and Traitors in the War for Independence
  • The opposing armies in the War for Independence

Grade of A:

• Fulfill requirements for B.
• In addition, no later than 12:30 pm on Tuesday, December 9, submit a term paper developed from the materials used in the contract for the grade of B. (The deadline is what would be the end of a final examination if the course were to have a final examination.) The term paper must be submitted in a paper copy directly to the instructor and a copy in electronic form (either Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect, Rich Text Format, or Portable Document Format) to turnitin.com, instructions for which are issued separately. The term paper must be in the following format:
  • It must consist of 10 to 15 typewritten double-spaced pages (graduate students must have 15 to 20 pages).
  • Its form and style must follow standard examples. The History Department uses as its official style manual Kate Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 7th ed. The most comprehensive guide is the University of Chicago Press, The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed. For documenting electronic information, use Citing Electronic Information in History Papers.
  • It must contain a bibliography or reference list of materials used. It may be the same bibliography or reference list used to satisfy the requirements for the grade of B, or it may include additional items. Items in the bibliography or reference list must follow standard scholarly form as prescribed by the Turabian manual.
  • It must have notes to acknowledge your use of sources, whether paraphrased or quoted directly. The notes must follow standard scholarly form. If you use a bibliography rather than a reference list, the notes may be placed at the bottom of each page or separately at the end of the paper, just before the bibliography.

Research materials can be compiled from many sources. The Select Bibliography for this course is a good beginning point. Every student of American history should be familiar with Frank Freidel, ed., Harvard Guide to American History. Supplementing its listings is Grace Gardner Griffin, and others, Writings on American History. Limited help is available in The American Historical Association’s Guide to Historical Literature and the Library of Congress, A Guide to the Study of the United States of America. Useful articles and reviews of books on the early American period are found frequently in the William and Mary Quarterly, and to a lesser extent in major journals such as the Journal of Southern History, the New England Quarterly, the Journal of American History, and the American Historical Review. You will probably observe a “snow-balling” effect: one item in your bibliography may contain listings for several other items. Range widely in your search — you may be surprised by the odd places in which pertinent information may be found.