Mar 29, 2024  
College Catalog 2014-2015 
    
College Catalog 2014-2015 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

HIST 136 - American Violence 1800 to 1865: The Early Republic to the Civil War


This course will interrogate the way scholars study large-scale violence in its many forms between human communities. Throughout class discussions we will consider the ways in which violence has been recorded and analyzed in the Early Republic, Antebellum, and Civil War eras. While warfare and major political conflicts will be discussed, the class will also engage the meanings of violence by investigating intra- and inter- cultural violence within and between early America’s many ethnic, political, and religious groups. The chronological focus of the course, circ. 1800-1865, also permits our examination of the idea of American exceptionalism. Is there a specific form or pattern of violence or warfare that can be called “American?” If so, does this type of violence remain present in our contemporary society? Occasionally (4 Credits)