Unit name | American Empire |
---|---|
Unit code | HIST30043 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | H/6 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
Unit director | Dr. Julio Decker |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of History (Historical Studies) |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit explores the significance of Empire and imperialism for nineteenth- and twentieth-century American history. Following a chronological order, it explores ideas about American exceptionalism used in continental and overseas expansion. The reading and discussion privileges two perspectives: on the one hand, the mutual dependence of domestic cultural, social and economic processes and imperial expansion is investigated in detail. On the other hand, the course includes transnational and inter-imperial connections, exploring how the American Empire built on and related to imperial predecessors and colonial models such as the British Empire.
Aims:
On successful completion of the unit students will have:
1. Developed an in-depth understanding of the concepts and practices that shaped American imperialism
2. developed a high level of competency in identifying complex historical arguments and use selected secondary sources for their essays
3. a high degree of competency in working with an increasingly specialist range of primary sources
4. an ability to formulate independent lines of thought and to express these with a high level of accomplishment.
Classes will involve a combination of class discussion, investigative activities, and practical activities. Students will be expected to engage with readings and participate on a weekly basis. This will be further supported with drop-in sessions and self-directed exercises with tutor and peer feedback.
1 x 3500-word Essay (50%) [ILOs 1-4]; 1 x Timed Assessment (50%) [ILOs 1-4]
Go, Julian, Patterns of Empire: The British and American Empires, 1688 to the Present (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011)
Kaplan, Amy, and Donald E. Pease, Cultures of United States Imperialism (Durham: Duke University Press, 1993), New Americanists
Madsen, Deborah L. (1998): American Exceptionalism. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
Ninkovich, Frank A., The United States and Imperialism (Malden: Blackwell Publishers, 2001)
Rosenberg, Emily S., A World Connecting, 1870-1945 (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2012)
Stoler, Ann L., Haunted by Empire: Geographies of Intimacy in North American History (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), American Encounters/Global Interactions