HISTORY 40733: THE AMERICAN WEST TO 1900
Fall 2009
Instructor: Todd M. Kerstetter
Office: 308B Reed Hall
Office Hours: Wednesdays, 1:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m.
Thursdays, 2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m.
By appointment
Contact information: (817)257-6736; T.Kerstetter@tcu.edu
Graduate assistant: Brenda Fields (B.Fields@tcu.edu)--available by appointment.
NOTE: This online syllabus is designed to save paper and to be a living document. It will be available online for the semester's duration. Students will receive notification in class and/or by email when new information, normally a hyperlink in the "Course Schedule," appears.
Course description and objectives
This class explores the West's role in American history using human communities to investigate social, cultural, political, and economic issues. The West has meant many things to many people, but this course focuses on the trans-Mississippi West and emphasizes the region's conquest by the United States and its assimilation into the national community. The course also seeks to improve students' reading, analytical, and writing skills. Among other things, students will:
Course requirements
Required readings
NOTE: Howard R. Lamar, ed., The New Encyclopedia of the American West, serves as an excellent reference work for this course.
Graded work
Art essays (2 @ 5% each) 10 %
Film critiques (4 @ 5% each) 20%
Reading quizzes (6 @ 5.83% each) 35%
Final exam 35%
TOTAL 100%
Grading will follow University policy. Grades will be assigned according to the following scale: A (93-100%); A- (90-92%); B+ (88-89%); B (83-87%); B- (80-82%); C+ (78-79%); C (73-77%); C- (70-72%); D+ (68-69%); D (63-67%); D- (60-62%); F (failing, 0-59%). Students must complete all assignments to pass the course.
Course policies
Attendance at all class sessions and course activities is expected as is preparation for class. As noted in the course schedule many meetings require a short writing assignment as a ticket for admission. Students who do not submit the writing assignment as evidence of preparation will be counted absent. Please inform the instructor in advance of University excused absences and as soon as possible after unexpected absences. Students who miss three or four classes will have their semester grade lowered by one letter. Students who miss five or six classes will have their semester grade lowered by two letters. Students who miss seven or more classes should drop the class and will likely be removed from the roster by the instructor.
Students should behave courteously. Please refrain from distracting activities such as reading newspapers,talking out of turn, and texting. Disable or mute phones and pagers before class. Arrive at class on time.
Film critiques will be due the class period following the film’s showing. Art essays will be due the class period following the scheduled visit to the museum. Late assignments will be penalized 10% of the assignment’s original point total for each 24-hour period that passes from the due date until the assignment is received. Film critiques and art essays must be submitted as hard copies and electronically to Turnitin, a plagiarism education and detection service. Students must create accounts with the service and will receive a course identification number and password from the instructor.
Students may make up quizzes during the last week of classes by appointment or during office hours. The final exam must be submitted as indicated below.
Academic dishonesty
Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. Examples of academic dishonesty include, but are not limited to, the following:
Students found guilty of academic dishonesty will be penalized to the fullest extent possible, which may include failing the course.
Each student has the responsibility to know and understand University and College rules and regulations.
Students with disabilities
Texas Christian University complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 regarding students with disabilities. Eligible students seeking accommodations should contact the Coordinator of Services for Students with Disabilities in the Center for Academic Services, located in Sadler Hall 11. Accommodations are not retroactive, therefore, students should contact the Coordinator as soon as possible in the term for which they are seeking accommodations. Further information can be obtained from the Center for Academic Services, TCU Box 297710, Fort Worth, TX 76129, or at 817-257-7486.
Adequate time must be allowed to arrange accommodations and accommodations are not retroactive; therefore, students should contact the Coordinator as soon as possible in the academic term for which they are seeking accommodations. Each eligible student is responsible for presenting relevant, verifiable, professional documentation and/or assessment reports to the Coordinator. Guidelines for documentation may be found at www.acs.tcu.edu/DISABILITY.HTM.
Students with emergency medical information or needing special arrangements in case a building must be evacuated should discuss this information with their instructor/professor as soon as possible.
Course schedule
Week 1: Imagining and Defining the West
Aug. 25
A sample of images of the West in rock music
Aug. 27 Two one-paragraph essays required for admission (see below).
* Read: Frederick Jackson Turner’s classic essay, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” which can be found online at http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/TURNER/chapter1.html.Summarize Turner's argument in no more than 200 of your own words.
* Lakota history tutorial: Use the Smithsonian Institution's Lakota Winter Counts Online Exhibit to answer the following questions: 1) Who are the Lakotas? 2) What are winter counts? and 3) What happened in Lakota history during the years 1803-1806? Use the winter counts recorded by American Horse and Lone Dog as the sources for a one-paragraph interpretation of Lakota history from 1803 to 1806. Essays should not exceed 200 words.
Begin reading James Ronda’s Finding the West. Use this study guide to get the most out of the book.
Week 2: Lewis and Clark and the West:
Sept. 1 Quiz and discussion: Finding the West
Finish reading Finding the West
Sept. 3 Film: Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery (excerpt)
Begin reading The Fur Trade of the American West. Use this study guide to get the most out of the book.
Week 3: Discovery and exploration
Sept. 8
Film critique #1 due--submit an electronic copy to Turnitin and a hard copy to the instructor.
Continue reading The Fur Trade of the American West
Sept. 10 Essay required for admission.
Write an essay based on these instructions.
Continue reading The Fur Trade of the American West
Week 4: The Fur trade
Sept. 15 Essay required for admission.
Write an essay based on these instructions.
Continue reading The Fur Trade of the American West
Sept. 17 Quiz and discussion: The Fur Trade of the American West
Note: Selected students report to Winton-Scott Hall room 169.
** Students whose last names begin with the letters A through H report to RH 104 as usual.
** Students whose last names begin with the letters J through Z report to WSH 169.
Finish The Fur Trade of the American West
Begin The Contested Plains. Use this study guide to get the most out of the book.
Week 5: Oregon and Texas
Sept. 22 Essay required for admission.
Please read the Joint Resolution for the Annexing Texas to the United States. After reading the document, write a sentence or two answering each of the following questions: 1) Who wrote the document? 2) What concerns of the author(s) does the document reflect? 3) What does the document reflect about U.S. history at the time it was written? 4) What does the document suggest about the trans-Mississippi West's significance in U.S. history at the time the document was written? Submit your answers at the beginning of class.
Continue reading The Contested Plains
Sept. 24 Essay required for admission.
Please read the Oregon Treaty. Repeat the assignment for Sept. 22 with the Oregon Treaty and submit your answers at the beginning of class.
Continue reading The Contested Plains
Week 6: Migration and the Mexican War
Sept. 29 NO essay required for admission. (Updated Sept. 27)
Continue reading The Contested Plains
Oct. 1 Art and the West I: Prints of the American West, 1820-1900
NOTE: We will meet as usual at 12:30 and reconvene as possible in the evening at the museum.
Evening session (6:00-8:00) at Amon Carter Museum. This event includes a Gallery Talk at 6:00 p.m. by Rick Stewart, curator of western paintings and sculpture, and Ron Tyler, director, and time to view the exhitibion, “Views and Visions: Prints of the American West, 1820-1970,” which will provide the foundation for the essay due on Oct. 6.
Continue The Contested Plains
Week 7: Gold, part I
Oct. 6 Begin film: The Gold Rush
Art essay #1 due--submit an electronic copy to Turnitin and a hard copy to the instructor.
Continue The Contested Plains
Oct. 8 Conclude film: The Gold Rush; homework assignment (distributed in class Oct. 6) due for attendance
Continue The Contested Plains
Week 8: Gold, part II
Oct. 13 Fall Break
Oct. 15 Quiz and discussion: The Contested Plains
Note: Selected students report to Winton-Scott Hall room 169.
** Students whose last names begin with the letters A through H report to WSH 169.
** Students whose last names begin with the letters J through Z report to RH 104 as usual..
Film critique #2 due--submit an electronic copy to Turnitin and a hard copy to the instructor.
Conclude The Contested Plains
Week 9: Zion and the Divided Nation
Oct. 20 Introduction to the Mormon West (Essay required for admission.)
Visit What Shall Be the Character of This Vast Western Territory? and read its examination of the "Mormon Question" as far as it developed in the 1850s. Please read each of these sections: Overview, The Mormon Question, Popular Sovereignty, Power and Control in the Emerging American West, and Occupation. With that under your belt, read the proclamation by Brigham Young and the proclamation by James Buchanan. Using the proclamations, write a paragraph interpreting the significance of the American West to U.S. history for the 1850s.
Read The Mormon Question and use this study guide to get the most out of the book.
Oct. 22 The West and the Civil War (Essay required for admission.)
Please review What Shall Be the Character of This Vast Western Territory? as a web site. This is a work-in-progress and the author would like feedback from university users. Please write a paragraph (no more than 250 words) in which you address one or more of the following questions or characteristics: Is the argument interesting and provocative? What do you think of the content in general? How do you rate the visualizations? Are they (visualizations) helpful? Why or why not? How easy or difficult to navigate is the site? Submit your one-paragraph review at the beginning of class. I will be sharing your paragraphs with the site's author.
Continue The Mormon Question
Week 10: Zion and the Reconstructed Nation
Oct. 27 The West, Civil War, and Reconstruction (Essay required for admission.)
Please prepare a response of no more than 250 words to this question: What was "the Mormon Question" (according to Sarah Barringer Gordon) and how did it relate to U.S. history through 1862? Submit your resonse at the beginning of class.
Continue reading The Mormon Question
Oct. 29 Quiz and discussion: The Mormon Question
** Students whose last names begin with the letters A through H report to RH 104 as usual..
** Students whose last names begin with the letters J through Z report to WSH 169.
Finish The Mormon Question
Week 11: The transcontinental railroad
Nov. 3 Begin film: The Transcontinental Railroad
Begin reading The Log of a Cowboy. Use this study guide to get the most out of the book.
Nov. 5 Conclude film: The Transcontinental Railroad
Continue The Log of a Cowboy
Week 12: Cattle and cowboys
Nov. 10 Cattle kingdoms and conquest
Film critique #3 due--submit an electronic copy to Turnitin and a hard copy to the instructor.
Continue The Log of a Cowboy
Nov. 12 Quiz and discussion: The Log of a Cowboy
** Students whose last names begin with the letters A through H report to WSH 169.
** Students whose last names begin with the letters J through Z report to RH 104 as usual.
Read: Finish The Log of a Cowboy
Week 13: American Indians and the West, part I
Nov. 17 The Greasy Grass (Essay required for admission.)
* Lakota history tutorial: Using the Smithsonian Institution's Lakota Winter Counts Online Exhibit, view three winter counts. View one for the period 1867-1868; view one from the winter of 1876-1877; and, view one for the winter of 1890-1891. Based on the three winter counts, write a one-paragraph interpretation of Lakota history for the period 1867-1891. Essays should not exceed 250 words.
The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism. Use this study guide to get the most out of the book.
Nov. 19 Film: The Last Stand at the Little Bighorn
Continue The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism
Week 14: American Indians and the West, part II
Nov. 24 The Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee
Film critique #4 due--submit an electronic copy to Turnitin and a hard copy to the instructor.
Continue The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism. Don't forget the study guide!
Nov. 26 No class--Thanksgiving
Continue The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism
Week 15: Art, Colonialism, and Mythology
Dec. 1 Art and the West II: Remington and Russell
Continue The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism
Dec. 3 Quiz and discussion: The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism
** Students whose last names begin with the letters A through H report to RH 104 as usual..
** Students whose last names begin with the letters J through Z report to WSH 169.
Evening session (6:30-8:00) at Amon Carter Museum
Read: Finish The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism
Week 16: Conclusion
Dec. 8 So what about 1890?
Art essay #2 due--submit an electronic copy to Turnitin and a hard copy to the instructor.
Review Turner’s “Significance of the Frontier in American History”
Exam due at 2:00 p.m. of Final Exam date (Dec. 17)--submit an electronic copy to Turnitin and a hard copy to the instructor.