Seminar in United States History
Spring 2013
This course will examine the history of the Confederacy and some of the ways in which historians have chosen to study and interpret it. The primary goal will be to help students select topics for a 25-30 page research paper grounded in sources written by people--black and white, men and women, soldiers and civilians--who lived during the era of the Civil War. The range of possible topics will be limited only by available sources. Students will be encouraged to pursue their interests in questions related to either military or nonmilitary aspects of the Confederate experience.
The first five weeks of the course will be devoted to common background readings and discussion in class, during which time students will select topics. For the remainder of the semester, students will conduct their research and write their papers. The class will continue to meet to discuss their progress, critique drafts of papers, and assess how their research as a group relates to existing scholarship on the Confederacy. There will be no examinations in the course. Grades will be determined by the quality of the paper (75%) and contributions to class discussion (25%).
Note: This course fulfills the second writing requirement.
Required Readings (some substitutions may be made):
- Jacqueline Glass Campbell, When Sherman Marched North from the Sea
- A. J. L. Fremantle, Three Months in the Southern States
- Gary W. Gallagher, The Confederate War
- Caroline E. Janney, Burying the Dead But Not the Past
- Emory M. Thomas, The Confederate Nation, 1861-1865
