Department of History
Historical Fields Taught
American History
American history modules on offer at Stirling give students the chance to explore the emergence of the United States of America, from its infancy as a set of vulnerable British colonies to its current position as the world’s pre-eminent nation. The contests between liberty and slavery, foreign intervention and isolationism, military power and ideological righteousness have a long trajectory across American history. We home in on flashpoints such as the American Revolution in the late eighteenth century, the Civil War of the mid nineteenth century that brought an end to slavery, and the key decisions that precipitated the USA’s involvement in World War 2 and the Cold War in the twentieth century. We also cover more gradual shifts, such as the democratisation of society, the enduring tensions between white, red, and black races, and the changing faces of liberalism and conservatism as the nation came to terms with its hegemony.
The breadth of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century survey courses give students a real insight into how the US became such a dominant force in world politics and economics, and the heritage that underscores her behaviour. The depth offered in the more advanced modules gives you a chance to get your teeth into primary sources, for instance on the conquest and dispossession of Native Americans, and the tortuous decision to separate from the British Empire in defence of republicanism and “liberty” during the 1770s.
MODULE HIS9D4: American History from 1787 to 1890
Module Content: This module explores some of the main trends and developments in United States history during the nineteenth century. Emphasis is placed upon political and social history. After examining the creation of US political institutions it proceeds to study in more depth:
• Slavery and Antebellum Southern Society
• The Civil War and Reconstruction
• The American West
Learning Outcomes: This module aims to provide students with an understanding of the main trends and developments in United States history during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It seeks to deepen history-specific skills already acquired and to help extend further a range of transferable skills. A full description of the learning outcomes of the module is provided in the module handout.
Module Literature:
The module booklet includes a bibliography of secondary sources with recommended reading material for essays. Students are expected to have purchased at least two of the books recommended for purchase, plus the set book.
Set Book: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave (Penguin)
Other:
- M.B. Norton, et. al., A People and a Nation (2 vols.) vol. 1 or G.B. Tindall & D.E. Shi, America.
- Sean Wilentz ed., Major Problems in the Early American Republic 1787-1848.
- Peter Kolchin, American Slavery.
- Brian Holden Reid, The Origins of the American Civil War.
- C.A. Milner ed., The Oxford History of the American West.
- K.M. Stampp, The Era of Reconstruction, 1865-1877.
- Ralph K. Andrist, The Long Death: The Last Days of the Plains Indians.
| HIS9D4 | American History from 1787 to 1890 |
|---|---|
| Module Structure: | The module is taught through a lecture and a one-hour tutorial per week. Attendance at tutorials is compulsory and preparation essential. All tutorials are prescribed classes since students are assessed for their oral performance at them. |
| Pre-requisite: | Two History modules at level 8. |
| Assessment: | The grade is based on an essay of 2500 words (40%), a two-hour examination (50%) and oral work (10%). |
MODULE HIS9D5: The United States since 1890
Module Content: The module considers some of the main trends and developments in United States history during the twentieth century by looking in-depth at three themes:
• The Great Depression and the New Deal
• The United States and the Cold War
• U.S. political history since the 1950s
Emphasis is placed on political and social history. Students will study, for example, the distribution of political power and wealth, ideology and social attitudes, gender and ethnicity.
Learning Outcomes: This module aims to provide students with an understanding of the main trends and developments in United States history during the twentieth century. It seeks to deepen history-specific skills already acquired and to help extend further a range of transferable skills. A full description of the learning outcomes of the module is provided in the module handout.
Module Literature:
The most useful textbooks are David Horowitz, et al., On the Edge: A New History of 20th Century America or G.B. Tindall & D.E. Shi, America. Students may also wish to purchase:
- Anthony J. Badger, The New Deal: the Depression Years, 1933-1940.
- Michael Parrish, Anxious Decades: America in Prosperity and Depression, 1920-1941.
- J. Spanier, American Foreign Policy since World War II.
- R.J. McMahon (ed.), Major Problems in the History of the Vietnam War.
- D.T. Miller, On our Own: Americans in the Sixties.
- John White, Black Leadership in America.
- R. Maidment and M. Dawson, The United States in the Twentieth Century: Key Documents (2nd ed. 1999).
| HIS9D5 | The United States since 1890 |
|---|---|
| Module Structure: | There is a supplementary set of targeted lectures in extra-European history, but the module is predominantly taught through a series of two-hour weekly seminars. Attendance at seminars is compulsory and preparation essential. All seminars are prescribed classes since students are assessed for their oral performance at them. |
| Pre-requisite: | One History module at level 9. |
| Assessment: | The grade is based on two essays of 2500 words (each 45%) and oral work (10%). |
MODULE HIS9D6: The British Atlantic World, c. 1580-c. 1770
Module Content: This module explores the origins and evolution of Britain’s diverse Atlantic empire between the late sixteenth and late eighteenth centuries. It begins by examining the English creation of model plantations in Ireland before turning to colonial projects further afield, in America and the Caribbean. The range of migrant societies, their characteristics, and their interaction with one another will be discussed in the context of huge environmental upheaval and the cultural disparities between ‘Old World’ and ‘New’. The module will include analysis of the growth of slavery, relations with Native Americans, witchcraft, and warfare in the colonial setting.
Learning Outcomes: The module aims to provide students with a thorough understanding of the diverse origins, influences, and linkages between metropolitan Britain and her Atlantic provinces in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It seeks to deepen history-specific skills already acquired and to help extend further a range of transferable skills. A full description of the learning outcomes of the module is provided in the module handout.
Module Literature:
There are no set textbooks, but the following books will be used frequently and provide a useful preparatory backdrop (worth purchasing or reading during the vacation):
- Taylor, Alan. American Colonies: The Settlement of North America (2001)
- Tindall, George B. & David E. Shi. America: A Narrative History (latest edition 2004)
- Armitage, David, ed. The British Atlantic World, 1500-1800 (2002)
- Bailyn, Bernard & Philip D. Morgan, eds., Strangers Within the Realm: Cultural Margins of the First British Empire (1991)
- Greene, Jack P. & Jack R. Pole, Colonial British America (1984)
- Canny, Nicholas, ed. Oxford History of the British Empire: 17th Century (vol. 1, 1999)
- Marshall, Peter J., ed. Oxford History of the British Empire: 18th Century (vol. 2, 2001)
- Berlin, Ira, Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America (1998)
- Hoffer, Peter C., The Brave New World: A History of Early America (2000)
| HIS9D6 | The British Atlantic World, c. 1580-c. 1770 |
|---|---|
| Module Structure: | There are no lectures. The module is taught through a series of two-hour weekly seminars, for which individual reading will be allocated. Attendance at seminars is compulsory and preparation essential. All seminars are prescribed classes since students are assessed for their oral performance at them. Typically each seminar will include a mini-lecture of around twenty minutes outlining the principal themes and historiographical debates pertinent to the topic. Students will be required to make one formal presentation of roughly 10 to 15 minutes on a question of their choice from the outlined seminar topics. |
| Pre-requisite: | One History module at level 9 or 10. |
| Assessment: | The grade is based on an essay of 3000 words (45%), a two-hour examination (45%) and oral work (10%). |
MODULE HIS9D7: The American Revolution
Module Content: The module explores the origins and nature of the American Revolution roughly from 1760 to 1787. It begins with examinations of American colonial politics, society and government, and proceeds to review the imperial relationship before the Revolution, including imperial administration and commerce. Subsequent topics are studied in depth: the imperial crises 1765-1774, the War of Independence, the revolutionary movement, Loyalism and counter-revolution, and the "making" of the United States. The Revolution's impact upon the British Isles is considered more briefly. Emphasis is placed upon ideology and political behaviour although political economy, government, and social history are also covered.
Learning Outcomes: The module aims to provide students with an in depth understanding of the origins and nature of the American Revolution, roughly from 1750 to 1790, and to enable them to assume personal intellectual responsibility in the definition of problems, the formulation of arguments, and the identification of sources. A full description of the learning outcomes of the module is provided in the module handout.
Module Literature:
Recommended purchases:
- Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (1967, 1992)
- Richard D. Brown, ed., Major Problems in the Era of the American Revolution, 1760-1791 (1992).
- Stephen Conway, The War of Independence, 1775-1783 (1995) or Piers Mackesy, The War for America, 1775-1783 (1964, 1992) or Don Higginbotham, The War of American Independence: military attitudes, policies and practice, 1763-1789 (1983).
- Edward Countryman, The American Revolution or Colin Bonwick, The American Revolution or Frank Cogliano, Revolutionary America, 1763-1815: A Political History.
- Colin Nicolson, the 'Infamas Govener': Francis Bernard and the Origins of the American Revolution (2001).
- Harry M. Ward, The War for Independence and the Transformation of American Society (1999).
- Gordon S. Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution (1992).
| HIS9D7 | The American Revolution |
|---|---|
| Module Structure: | There are no lectures. There is one three-hour seminar per week based on student papers. Each student will present two papers. There are a few computer laboratories, at which attendance and participation is compulsory. Attendance is compulsory and preparation essential. All seminars are prescribed classes since students are assessed for their oral performance at them. |
| Pre-requisite: | The module is restricted to 4th-year Honours students. |
| Assessment: | The grade is based on three essays of up to 4000 words (together 50%), two two-hour examinations (together 40%) and oral work (10%). |
