A235, History of American Empire, Spring 2021

• What Is a University and Why Are You Enrolled in One?
• What Is a Public University and Why Are You Enrolled in One?
• What Is a Research University and Why Are You Enrolled in One?
• Why Study the Humanities?
• Why Study History?

Video:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “The Danger of a Single Story” (TEDGlobal 2009)

Readings:

Hansen, Suzy.  “Unlearning the Myth of American Innocence.”  The Guardian, August 8, 2017.

Immerwahr, Daniel.  How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States.  2019.

Video:

Rockman, Seth.  “What Is Historical Reasoning?”  Brown University, August 2014.  [up to 2:32]

Documents:

Continental Congress, land ordinance, April 23, 1784

Henry Knox to U.S. President George Washington, July 7, 1789

“Harmar’s Defeat,” 1790; “St. Clair’s Defeat,” 1791

Class Decision:  Native American strategy:  Military resistance or diplomatic negotiation?

Documents:

George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

John Adams, Message to Congress, May 16, 1797

Class Decision:  Federal government strategy:  Sweet spot of security in the world?

Documents:

Thomas Jefferson’s expansionary vision, 1801, 1803, 1809

William Apess, An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man (1833)

Class Decision:  What would supposedly make an empire an “empire of liberty”?

Reading:

Manseau, Peter.  “The Muslims of Early America.”  New York Times, February 9, 2015.

Document:

Archibald Robbins, A Journal Comprising an Account of the Loss of the Brig Commerce, of Hartford, (Con.) James Riley, Master, upon the Western Coast of Africa, August 28th, 1815: also of the Slavery and Sufferings of the Author and the Rest of the Crew, upon the Desert of Zahara, In the Years 1815, 1816, 1817; with Accounts of the Manners, Customs, and Habits of the Wandering Arabs; also, a Brief Historical and Geographical View of the Continent of Africa (1818)

Class Decision:  What did an agent of empire look like?

Document:

Robert Walsh, Jr., An Appeal from the Judgments of Great Britain Respecting the United States of America (1819)

Henry R. Schoolcraft, Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley: Comprising Observations on its Mineral Geography, Internal Resources, and Aboriginal Population (1825)

Writing Exercises:

Sample paper — Introduction, Evidence and Interpretion, Signposting

Document:

Henry Clay, speech on recognition of the Independent Provinces of the River Plata, March 24-25, 1818

Class Decision:  Should the United States support the various Latin American rebellions against the Spanish empire?

Documents:

John Quincy Adams, speech to the U.S. House of Representatives on foreign policy, July 4, 1821

James Monroe, Seventh Annual Message, December 2, 1823

Simon Bolivar to Jose Sanchez Carrion, December 7, 1824

Class Decision:  Should the United States accept or reject the invitation to attend the 1826 Panama Congress?

Documents:

Memorial of the Cherokee Nation, December 1829

Address of the Committee and Council of the Cherokee Nation, in General Council Convened, to the People of the United States, July 1830

Class Decision:  What did Cherokees feel they needed to do to help protect themselves from Georgia’s incursions?

Document:

Jane Cazneau, “Annexation,” United States Magazine and Democratic Review (1845)

Class Decision:  How did non-American spaces supposedly become American?

Documents:

“Slavery in Central and South America, and Mexico.”  DeBow’s Review (1857)

William Walker, War in Nicaragua (1860)

Class Decision:  What were the diagnoses of success versus failure in the world?  What enabled success?  What caused failure?

Documents:

“The Attack on Cuba.” Littell’s Living Age (1850)

“Rights of Civilization.” The Independent (1854)

“Central America, a Field for Our Beneficence.” The Independent (1858)

Class Decision:  Who lived in Latin America?

Document:

Matthew Calbraith Perry, A Paper by Commodore M.C. Perry, U.S.N., Read Before the American Geographical and Statistical Society, at a Meeting Held March 6th, 1856 (1856)

Website:

“Black Ships & Samurai: Commodore Perry and the Opening of Japan (1853-1854)”

Class Decision:  How did Americans learn about the world?  How did the world learn about Americans?

Documents:

Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden” (1899)

U.S. President William McKinley, “Executive Order” (December 21, 1898)

U.S. Congress, Platt Amendment (March 2, 1901)

Platform of the American Anti-Imperialist League (Chicago, October 17, 1899)

Emilio Aguinaldo, True Version of the Philippine Revolution (1899)

Class Decision:  How was the receiving end of empire erased?  How was it made visible?

Websites:

“‘Savages’ in the White House and the 1904 World’s Fair”

“1904 St. Louis World’s Fair”

“Tribal Headhunters on Coney Island? Author Revisits Disturbing American Tale”

Class Decision:  What functions do stereotypes serve?

Document:

Theodore Roosevelt, “The Strenous Life,” speech before the Hamilton Club, Chicago (April 10, 1899)

Websites:

Eugen Sandow — Father of Bodybuilding

The First Modern Bodybuilders, 1900s

Class Decision:  How does one become something more than oneself?

Documents:

Hezekiah Butterworth, Zigzag Journeys Around the World (1895)

Edward Stratemeyer, Under Dewey at Manila (1898)

Class Decision:  How does one create cultural authority for oneself, so that people believe what you write or say?

Documents:

Alfred Thayer Mahan, “The United States Looking Outward.” Atlantic Monthly, December 1890.

U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, “Fourth Annual Message” (December 6, 1904)

Video:

“Panama Canal Construction in 1912”

Class Decision:  How does a country ask itself to adapt (to the degree that it can) as it perceives (to the degree that it does) changes in the wider world?

Documents:

Albert J. Beveridge, “The ‘March of the Flag,’ Beginning of Greater America” (1898)

Albert J. Beveridge, “Our Philippine Policy” (1900)

Albert J. Beveridge, “The Young Man and the World” (1905)

Class Decision:  What ideally should change, versus what ideally should not change, about oneself?

Film:

Babel (2006; directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)

Film:

Babel (2006; directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)

Class Decision:  What were/are some main elements of imperial formation?

Class Decision:  How has college started to turn you into an informed citizen, and opened your eyes to new things?