WELCOME TO
HISTORY 121: THE UNITED STATES TO 1877
Howard
Chandler Christy, Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the
United States (1940)
United States Capitol, House Wing, Washington D.C.
"I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know no way of judging of the future but by the past."
--Patrick Henry, quoting Edward Gibbon in "The War Inevitable" Speech to the Virginia Convention, 23 March 1775
I am often confronted by students who wonder why they must take U.S. History survey courses in order to satisfy general education requirements toward receiving their Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degrees, especially if they have no plans to major in History. By way of a short answer, I can quote historian David McCullough, who wrote that "History is who we are and why we are the way we are," and that is a good answer, albeit a rather obvious one. I believe that a knowledge of one's nation's history leads to informed and effective citizenship, and staves off the apathy and ignorance upon which most politicians rely for their power. As Thomas Jefferson put it, History "will qualify [citizens] as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views." Besides such serious considerations, History really is fun, and I make it my goal to transmit my enthusiasm for it to my students, who at the very least may find this course less tedious than they had expected.
You are the sum total of your life experiences, but at the same time you are part of a nation and culture that is the sum total of its experiences through history. Learn well, and make yourself capable of judging the actions and designs of people, of knowing ambition under every disguise it may assume, and in so doing, defeat its views.
Below are links to the course syllabus and to a page of links to study guides, organized around each chapter of the main course textbook, The American Promise, 3rd edition.
Course Syllabus for Honors History 121
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