Key Moments in American History Historiography Narrative Forms Comedy: bad things working out in the end Tragedy: fatal flaw (original sin: slavery) Irony: unexpected outcome Not the Alanis Morissette song Teleology: Hegelthesis, antithesis, synthesis ultimate outcome guided by Spirit Material determination: Karl Marx Base and superstructure
Overall Interpretations Germ theory: germs of American society come from Europe (esp. England and Germany) Frederick Jackson Turner: frontier thesis American exceptionalism Richard White: middle ground / borderlands Progressives: class conflict; Charles Beard Consensus: ideological commonality; Richard Hofstadter (New) Social History: demographics, non-elite Post-CRM: Black history, Feminism, neoMarxism, microhistory Colonial
Declension model: falling away (jeremiads) Perry Miller: New England mind, jeremiads as proof of continuity; take words (+ religion) seriously Edmund Morgan: slavery democracy Jack Greene and J.R. Pole: developmental framework: simplification elaboration replication Anglicization Atlantic World: comparative method linking N+S America, Europe, Africa Ira Berlin, From Creoles to Africans
Revolution Classical Republicanism, ideology: Bernard Bailyn, Gordon Wood Neo-Progressives: class conflict w/focus lower orders (pre-elite rebellion against authority); Gary Nash, Howard Zinn Antebellum Charles Sellers: The Market Revolution (neo-Marxist analysis industrialization and impact society) Arthur Schlesinger, The Age of Jackson (neo-progressive: class and ideological
conflict; reading FDR into AJ) Paul Johnson, A Shopkeepers Millennium (reform as middle class control) Slavery and Reconstruction Plantation School (Booker T. Washington, U.B. Phillips) vs. Stanley Elkins (infantilizing concentration camps) vs. Eugene Genovese: Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made Birth of a Nation vs. W.E.B. DuBois and Eric Foner
Points of Conflict Industrialization: Robber Barons or Captains of Industry? Populists and Progressives: Reformers or Conservatives? Great Depression: Free market critics of government (Milton Friedman) vs. Critics of capitalism (J.M. Keynes) 1950s: Conformity or Rebellion? 1960s: Success or failure of social movements Key Moments: Colonial (14921763) Spain dominates; English privateers colonies as refueling/bases for attack ( Armada)
1607: Virginia Company of London Jamestown English Conquistadores, Starving Time (1609-10), Cpt. John Smith, Powhaten Confederacy, John Rolfe, 1619: House of Burgesses, 1st slaves 1620: Virginia Company of Plymouth Plymouth Pilgrims (separatists), Mayflower Compact, Squanto 1630: Massachusetts Bay Colony Puritans, Arabella, John Winthrop, A Model of Christian Charity, Roger Williams + Rogue Island (1634), Anne Hutchinson (1638) Virginia (South) vs. Massachusetts
(New England) Indentured servants vs. families Slaves in both (Mass 1st to legalize) Monoculture (tobacco, rice) vs. mixed agriculture/trade (timber, rum, slaves: Triangle Trade) Anglican vs. Puritan (still Anglican) Individualistic capitalism vs. communitarianism Middle Colonies 1631: Delaware (Dutch + Swede New York)
1664: New Netherland New York 1682: Pennsylvania (Quaker) Deep South 1663: Carolina (later split N + S) 1733: Georgia (initially no slaves; barrier to Spanish in Florida) Violence 1642-1660: English Civil War, Commonwealth, Cromwell Protectorate 1675-76: King Philips War Metacomet, Praying Indians, bloodiest war US history (%) compare Pueblo Revolt (1680)
1676: Bacons Rebellion Anti-Indian biracial burn Jamestown (Declaration of the People); unthinking decision: slavery democracy 1688: Glorious Revolution in England 1739: Stono Rebellion South Carolina + racialization + deskilling 1754-1763: French and Indian War George Washington, Braddocks Defeat, Albany Congress, Pontiacs Rebellion, Proclamation 1763 Revolutionary America: 1764-1800 Debt taxes: Sugar (64), Stamp (65), Tea (73),
etc. Sons of Liberty, Boston Massacre (P. Revere + S. Adams; J. Adams), Boston Tea Party Coercive/Intolerable Acts 1st Continental Congress Lexington + Concord War Declaration of Independence Articles of Confederation (no executive, unicameral Congress w/equal rep., no national judiciary, no army, no tax debt) 1786: Shays Rebellion 1787: Northwest Ordinance, Constitution (3 branches, bicameral, Senate equal rep, tax + army)
1789: Washington (+ French Revolution) Alexander Hamilton (Federalists) vs. T. Jefferson + J. Madison (Democratic Republicans) 1794: Whiskey Rebellion 1795: Jay Treaty 1798: J. Adams; Alien + Sedition Acts 1800: Revolution Jefferson (we arent France, Russia, etc.) Antebellum 1790-1830: 2nd Great Awakening
Temperance, Abolition, come-outerism, utopianism 1803: Louisiana Purchase War of 1812: A. Jackson + New Orleans, status quo antebellum 1820: Missouri Compromise, TJ: a fire bell in the night Industrialization: Lowell Girls King Cotton: Eli Whitneys interchangeable parts (guns) + cotton gin (1793) 1830: Indian Removal + Wars (-1890) Cherokee Trail of Tears 1887: Dawes Severalty Act + reservation policy 1832: Tariff of Abominations + Nullification
1840s: Irish Potato Famine + mass immigration 1846: Mexican-American War 1848: Seneca Falls Convention Civil War Compromise of 1850: CA, Fugitive Slave Law Uncle Toms Cabin 1854: Kansas-Nebraska Bleeding Kansas + John Brown 1859: Harpers Ferry 1860: A. Lincoln elected (split Dems) 1861: Secession + Sumter 1862: Antietam Emancipation Proclamation
1863: Gettysburg + Address 10% Plan vs. Wade-Davis (Ironclad Oath) 1865: Appomattox, Lincoln assassination A. Johnson Reconstruction Johnson 13th Amendment + Black Codes (de jure vs. de facto slavery) Congressional (Radical) Reconstruction Civil Rights Act 14th + 15th Amendments
Ku Klux Klan Enforcement Act Freedmans Bureau 1873 Slaughterhouse Cases + United States v. Cruikshank Mississippi Plan + Jim Crow South 1895: Booker T. Washington Up from Slavery and the Atlanta Compromise W.E.B. DuBois, 1905: Niagara Movement NAACP 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson Gilded Age 1870: John D. Rockefeller + Standard Oil Ida Tarbell, The Octopus; Upton Sinclair, The Jungle
1877: Great Railroad Strike 1892: Homestead Strike Panic of 1893 and Bi-metallism Inflation (debtors) vs. Deflation (creditors) 1896: William Jennings Bryan, former Populist, Democratic National Convention: Cross of Gold speech Foreign Imperialism 1898 Spanish-American War (McKinley) Remember the Maine
Filipino-American war (decades; 4,ooo US; 100,000 Filipinos; free fire zones; concentration camps; water cure) 1899 Open Door Notes T. Roosevelt Corollary + Panama Canal Dollar Diplomacy, Moral Diplomacy World War I (US: 1917-19) W. Wilson, Treaty of Versailles (League of Nations) Red Cross, NAWSA, NWP, 19h Amendment Normalcy The business of America is business: turn away Progressive reform, international entanglements
(except Latin America), nativism, revival KKK, fundamentalism Fords, Flappers, and Fanatics 1925: Scopes Monkey Trial 1929: buying on margin + lots of other, more important things Great Depression H.Hoover (Great Engineer) FDR + New Deal 1st 100 Days, Alphabet Soup agencies, Wagner Act, Indian New Deal Dec 7, 1941: Dr. New Deal Dr. War
Stalingrad vs. D-Day; Hiroshima + Nagasaki; Double V vs. Japanese Internment + coming out under fire Cold War America Marshall Plan, Containment + Truman Doctrine 1950-3 Korean War Kim Il Sun, Police Action (UN), MacArthur Controversy, China Iran (53), Guatemala + Vietnam (54), Egypt (56), etc. etc. 1962 Bay of Pigs Cuban Missile Crisis Secret deal: missiles for missiles
1964 Gulf of Tonkin US longest war 1972: Christmas Bombing fear of leaks plumbers Watergate Nixon resignation Civil Rights 1954: Brown v. Board 55: Rosa Parks + Montgomery Bus Boycott MLK, SCLC 63: Birmingham + March on Washington (I Have a Dream) 64 Civil Rights Act (LBJ Great Society) 64: Selma + Mississippi Freedom Summer 65 Voting Rights Act + splintering SNCC
Nation of Islam, Malcolm X, Black Panthers; SDS Weather Underground 68: King assassinated, RFK assassinated Post-Watergate Peoples Temple; Gay Liberation; Energy crises, stagflation, + Carters cardigan Morning in America (Mr. Mom + Gung Ho; Rising Sun), the Laffer Curve, Reaganomics, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall Iran-Contra: selling missiles to terrorists to get money for other terrorists 1991: Panama + Iraq; its the economy, stupid 1993: 1st WTC attack; 1995: Oklahoma City
1994: Gingrich Revolution, Welfare Reform, NAFTA; Arkansas Project and the elves Ken Starrs report/witch hunt 1998 impeachment 2000: Florida + hanging chads (Diebold, Katharine Harris, felony disenfranchisement) Bush v. Gore
