A survey of the United States from colonial times to the end of the Civil War. The establishment and development of national institutions are traced. Students may receive credit for only one of the following courses: HIST 156 or HUMN 119

History 156 is a survey of American history from the time of the first European contact with the Americas to the end of the Civil War. The course examines the establishment, development, and importance of American institutions and the role they have played in American social, political, and economic life.

United States history is a tale rich in color and detail. It is a story of both intended and unintended events, often haphazard and accidental. As is the case with many older societies, this nation developed, through happy and unhappy events, contradictory impulses and occurrences, and occasionally, incredibly fortuitous circumstances. Ours is a chronicle of vast proportions. The United States of America, therefore, was not inevitable.

Furthermore, the history of the United States is not a narrative of just one group. It is a chronicle of many groups and individuals, including Africans, Asians, Europeans, and Native Americans of both genders. It is a tapestry composed of all vestiges of humanity and human cultures. Until the relatively recent past (i.e., the previous three or four decades), this story has often been told from one perspective, a primarily European and Anglo view. But as recent scholarship has progressed, this subject has expanded to include multicultural perspectives of those previously marginalized groups who have had a profound impact on the development of the United States.

In a time when the United States continues to grow ever more culturally diverse, a full understanding of its history must include exposure to the heritages and contributions of all participant groups, both indigenous and immigrant. Viewed from that vantage, United States history can provide insights and wisdom that can aid not only our own citizens but also those of other societies and cultures who have confronted, are confronting, or will confront similar issues in the early years of this new century and millennium.

There are two sets of goals, specific and general, for this course. The specific goals concern the intentions of the designers and instructors to convey an introductory, yet comprehensive, view of United States history and to illustrate the practical and intellectual usefulness of obtaining such knowledge. After completing this course, you should recognize the value of studying history for personal (micro), social (macro), and intellectual uses. You should have a sound working knowledge of early United States history and its relevance to other historical topics and to other disciplines. By the end of the course, you will be able to:

1. Recognize the need for multiple perspectives in culture and heritage in the study of United States history and the various cultures and groups that have contributed to the current United States.
2. Identify the special role of diversity in the United States experience in the past, present, and future.
3. Make use of the availability of new insights and the applicability of those insights to solve current and future problems both on personal and societal levels.
4. Analyze and think critically about what you read and clearly express your views about what you have learned with regard to problems the United States has confronted and the likelihood of the recurrences of those or similar problems.
5. Describe the evolution of United States' political theories and political institutions, and the effects of diverse cultures and societies on those theories and institutions.
6. Explain the play-out of various conflicts and contradictions, both intellectually and practically, in the United States' experience, such as the theory of equality in the face of unequal outcomes, notions of liberty voiced in a slave system, the capability to improve the human condition and a sometimes deep-seated cynicism and introversion.
7. Recognize the roles of foreign policy and of foreign powers on the development of the United States and the effects of the United States on other nations and cultures.
8. Demonstrate a working knowledge of the inherent conflict between competing political and socio-psychological traditions, one espousing small-town collectivism and the other yeoman individuality.

Required:

• Liberty, Equality, Power: A History of the American People v. I: To 1877, by John M. Murrin, Paul E. Johnson, James M. McPherson, Gary Gerstle, Emily S. Rosenberg, Norman L. Rosenberg, 2002 Thomson Wadsworth (ISBN: 9000002125)
• HIST 156 CAT Course CD-ROM
• Study Guide to accompany Liberty, Equality, and Power: A History of the American People Volume I: To 1877

Module 1
Lesson	Chapter Title
1	When Old Worlds Collide:  Contact, Conquest, Catastrophe
2	The Challenge to Spain and the Settlement of North America
3	England Discovers Its Colonies: Empire, Liberty, and Expansion
4	Provincial America and the Struggle for a Continent
1-4	Exam 1
Module 2
Lesson	Chapter Title
5	Reform, Resistance, Revolution
6	The Revolutionary Republic
7	The Democratic Republic, 1790-1820
8	Completing the Revolution, 1789-1815
5-8	Exam 2
Module 3
Lesson	Chapter Title
9	The Market Revolution, 1815-1860
10	Toward an American Culture
11	Society, Culture, and Politics, 1820s-1840s
12	Jacksonian Democracy
9-12	Exam 3
Module 4
Lesson	Chapter Title
13	Manifest Destiny:  An Empire for Liberty- or Slavery?
14	The Gathering Tempest, 1853-1860
15	Secession and Civil War
16	A New Birth of Freedom
13-16	Exam 4

I hope your experience with History of the United States to 1865 will be rewarding and meaningful. This course is designed to help ensure your success. The learning system you will use as you work your way through Liberty, Equality, and Power: A History of the American People 3e, has four components: a Student Notebook, a textbook, a study guide, and a CD-ROM. Together they provide an integrated learning system. Completing the following requirements will facilitate your success in this course:

1. Read through the Student Notebook carefully to be sure that you understand all course objectives, requirements, and assignments.
   
2. Review the Learning objectives for each lesson in the Student Notebook.
   
3. Complete all of the textbook reading assignments found in the Student Notebook.
   
   • Review the summary found at the end of each chapter. They are organized to reinforce the learning objectives stated at the beginning of each chapter.
     
   • Answer the review and discussion questions for each chapter.
     
   • Complete all course enhancement exercises/assignments. They are intended to help you apply the theories and concepts covered in the chapter.
     
4. Use the supplemental study guide.
   
5. Complete all assignments, essays, and exams.
   
6. Watch all of the videos found on the CAT Course CD-ROM.
   
7. Review the PowerPoint slides and additionally assigned exercises.
   
8. Complete the extra credit option (optional).

All exams are proctored by a test administrator. Each exam is worth 100 point. You will also be required to complete two papers, each worth 25 points.

Exams: Each exam will cover material from four chapters of the course text. Exam One will be chapters 1 to 4, Exam Two will be chapters 5 to 8, etc. (See the Overview of Lessons on the previous page.) Each exam will consist of 35 multiple-choice questions and four essay questions. You will be required to answer two of the essay questions. Both the multiple-choice questions and the essay questions are drawn from the study guide. The essay questions are drawn from the section entitled “Discussion and Analysis.” The multiple-choice questions are worth two points each; each essay is worth 15 points.

Papers: Each paper should be 500 to 750 words (2 to 3 pages, double-spaced) in length. Topics for the papers can be found in Section III of the Student Notebook under the words “Possible Paper Topics.” Three topics are given for each chapter. For the first paper, you will be required to choose one topic from any of the eight chapters (24 possibilities); for the second paper, you will be required to choose any topic from the last eight chapters (24 possibilities). The first paper is due when the student takes the second exam; the second is due when the student takes the fourth exam.

Extra credit assignments: Students will also have the opportunity to submit two extra-credit assignments. Each is worth up to five points. For the assignment(s), students can choose from the list of extra-credit questions on pages 12 and 13 and write a 750 word essay in answer to the question.

The grading system will be based on total points acquired through the four exams, two required papers, and two extra-credit assignments. All scores will be added together to determine your final semester grade. Your grade for this course will be determined in the following manner:

4 exams @ 100 points each = 400 points 2 required papers @ 25 points each = 50 points Total = 450 points 2 extra-credit assignments @ 5 points each = 10 points Total points possible = 460 points

Test Grade Scale: Course Grade Scale:

Points	Grade		Points	Grade
90-100	A		405-450	A
80-89	B		360-404	B
70-79	C		315-359	C
60-69	D		270-314	D
59 and below	F		269 and below	F

You may answer one of the questions below from each of the two sets of questions by writing an essay of approximately 750 words (three double-spaced, typed pages). Each extra-credit assignment is worth five points. You may submit just one extra-credit assignment or two. Both assignments can be completed any time up to the time of the last exam. Please mark clearly on the paper that it is an extra-credit assignment. If you include a self-addressed, stamped envelope with the assignment, I will return it to you with comments.

Extra-credit set 1:

1. The Europeans who arrived in the New World took for granted that the native population was comprised of barbarians who were culturally inferior. Was this assumption correct? Give specific examples from the required reading which show the level of development of native cultures by the fifteenth century.
2. What do you see as the major differences and the major similarities between life in the New England colonies and life in the Chesapeake colonies? If you were able to choose which area you could live in, which would it be?
3. What do you see as the three most important events which occurred between the end of the French and Indian War in 1763 and the beginning of the Revolutionary War in 1775? Cite specific events and show why you think they are the most significant.
4. Why did the Americans win the Revolutionary War? Why did the British lose the war? Give specific reasons for your answer.
5. Choose four of the following people and write an essay explaining why each one would or would not be in favor of ratifying the Constitution of the United States. At least one has to disagree with the others. In other words, they cannot all be in favor or all against. The people are a person who was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, a farmer, a New England shipbuilder, a state judge, a smuggler, a black slave, a 30 year old woman, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, a minister and a newspaper publisher.

Extra-credit set 2:

1. Summarize the differences between the Federalists and the Republicans during administrations of Washington, Adams and Jefferson. Can we still see the philosophical differences between them in American politics today? Be specific.
2. We can describe nationalism as a situation in which people share common values and traditions as well as a sense of a common destiny and a vision of a common future. After the War of 1812, America experienced a renewed nationalism. But there were also important sectional issues which were developing. Explain the major sectional issues which were developing in America after the war as well as the events which were making America more of a “national” culture.
3. Why has the Age of Jackson been referred to as a revolutionary age? How was America different when he left office in 1836 than when he first ran for president in 1824? How was he important in bringing about some of those changes?
4. What do you see as the three most important events of the 1850s which lead to the Civil War? Be specific and give reasons for your answer.
5. If you could invite four people you have studied about in this course to dinner to discuss the question “What is the significance of compromise in American history?”, who would you invite, and what would they say? You can invite a type of person as well as a particular person; in other words, you can invite a merchant, or a farmer or a slave, as well as an actual person such as Thomas Jefferson.

You will have the opportunity to take practice quizzes or exams on the computer before taking a graded paper, quiz, or exam. This practice method is designed to help prepare you for the graded quizzes and exams you will take as required with this course. These Quizzes can be found on the CAT Course CD-ROM or on the Wadsworth History website (For Web site address, see below).

As members of an academic community, which places a high value on truth and the pursuit of knowledge, students are expected to be honest in every phase of their academic life and to present as their own work only that which is genuinely theirs. Each student has the responsibility to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity and to refrain from cheating, plagiarism, or any other form of academic dishonesty.

According to UMUC policy, academic dishonesty is the failure to maintain academic integrity. Academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to: cheating (using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information, or study aids in any academic exercise); fabrication (falsification or invention of any information or citation in an academic exercise); bribery offered for grades, transcripts, or diplomas; obtaining or giving aid on an examination; having unauthorized prior knowledge of an examination; doing work for another student, presenting another student's work as one's own; and plagiarism.

Plagiarism is the presentation of another person's idea or product as one's own. Plagiarism includes but is not limited to the following: copying verbatim all or part of another's written work; using phrases, charts, figures, illustrations, or mathematical or scientific solutions without citing the source; paraphrasing ideas, conclusions or research without citing the source; or using all or part of a literary plot, poem, film, musical score or other artistic product without attributing the work to its creator. Students can avoid unintentional plagiarism by carefully following accepted scholarly practices. Notes taken for papers and research projects should accurately record sources of material to be cited, quoted, paraphrased or summarized, and papers should acknowledge these sources in references. Please use the following websites to educate yourself on avoiding plagiarism and on the UMUC policy on plagiarism and academic dishonesty.

Web links to learn more about plagiarism:

• UMUC policy in regards to academic dishonesty and plagiarism.
• Part of the Effective Writing Center's resources, this module defines plagiarism and includes guidelines on how to avoid it.
• This website defines plagiarism, gives tips on how to avoid it, guidelines, and suggestions for developing one's writing skills, and answers to common questions you may have regarding plagiarism.
• Created by Purdue University, this website teaches one how to avoid plagiarizing and correctly cite sources. It includes exercises to familiarize yourself with correct citing techniques.
• What plagiarism is and how to avoid it.
• You can also find many more resources if you use a search engine such as Metacrawler, Yahoo, Google, etc. and simply type in "plagiarism".

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