Introduction and Blog

Welcome to the blog for the American Civilization to 1865 seminar, a lower division American Studies course at San Jose State University. My name is Prof. Ormsbee, and I'm the professor for this seminar section and the moderator of the blog. Please find below a rules for posting on the blog and a description of the contents of the course.

GENERAL BLOG RULES: The purpose of this blog is to create a forum for students to explore in more depth the topics of the course, and to open up the possibility for engagement with other readers. Because the primary purpose of the blog is educational, I will carefully moderate to ensure a learning environment and experience for my students.

• Students are required to maintain a degree of anonymity on this blog for obvious reasons. They may use nicknames, screen names, or just their first name without any identifying markers. I am not anonymous, however, and my faculty web page can be found here.
• Student posts and comments are meant to follow a high standard of argumentation. They will be striving to introduce criticism, analysis, argumentation, and evidence to the conversations about these topics. They are being graded on their participation.
• This is not a free speech, anything-goes, free-for-all blog. All participants should consider two key ethical concerns: a) mutual respect and consideration for participants on the blog; and b) objective and fair treatment of the issues and cultures treated. Note: Objectivity does not mean that posters will not be critical; rather, it means that their analyses and criticism will be based in evidence and argumentation.
• Non-students may comment, but will be carefully moderated to maintain the blog as an educational space. Ad hominem, vulgarity, personal attacks, and hostile comments will be deleted.
• Disagreements are welcome, but should be presented in respectful and constructive ways. Both tone and content should be carefully composed before posting.

THE COURSE: American Civilization is an American Studies approach to the cultural history of the United States. We use the methods of many different disciplines across the humanities and social sciences and even biological and physical sciences to understand the cultures of the people of the United States. Rather than a traditional historical approach, focusing on major events and personalities of the past, American Civilization focuses on the beliefs and practices of Americans of all races, ethnicities, religions, and regions, from family life to notions of individuality, from democratic theory to economy. We attempt to hold in our heads the contradictions between the ideals of the United States and the way people actually lived during the period we study. The course is divided into two class sessions: In lecture, we explore in depth a particular cultural issue or phenomenon in a large group, rotating among three professors; in seminar, we break into smaller groups and conduct in-depth studies of important literature, philosophy, poetry, and political documents from America's cultural history. In AMS1A we begin before European contact with the Western Hemisphere and build our understandings of American pluralism (it has never been homogeneous) from these early contacts; we end with the Civil War. This blog is for Prof. Ormsbee's seminar section, where we are doing deep-readings of key American cultural texts.

Key Themes:

1) Democracy and Nation: What is the American conception of democracy? Why did it arise as it did? How has it been modified? What is the relationship between democracy in theory and in practice in the American context? How do Americans deal with the tension between freedom and equality? How do Americans deal with inequality of all kinds, but especially racial and gender?

2) Capitalism: How have Americans organized their economy and why have they done it this way? How have Americans built their identities around economic categories? How has capitalism and the quest for capital shaped American culture? What kind of people are created by American capitalism? How has American capitalism affected non-Americans around the world?

3) Pluralism: Americans have been culturally plural since the beginning. Over the centuries, they have come from nearly all indigenous cultures of North America and

most major cultures from around the world. How has this pluralism affected American identity, culture, and society? How has pluralism been used to create inequality and to distribute power? How have immigration, slavery, Indian removal shaped and constrained the development of American culture and society?

4) American culture: Does it even exist? Are there cultural values, practices, objects that bind us together or are we merely a loose confederation of differences? Is it popular culture? Art? Religion?

Texts for the Seminar (there are other shorter primary readings for the lecture section as well including some Mexican American and Native American texts):

• William Bradford, from Of Plymouth Plantation

• John Winthrop, “A Model of Christian Charity”

• Mary Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson

• Jean de Crèvecoeur, from Letters from an American Farmer

• Olaudah Equiano, The Life of Olaudah Equiano the African, Written by Himself, Vol. 1

• Benjamin Franklin, The Private Life of the Late Benjamin Franklin [The Autobiography]

• Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia

• Thomas Paine, from The Age of Reason

• Margaret Fuller, from Woman in the 19th Century

• Frederick Douglass, A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

• Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

• “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (1852 theatrical version)

• Henry David Thoreau, from Walden

• Herman Melville, Billy Budd [although from 1898, Melville fits in still and content with mid-19th century themes]

• Walt Whitman, from Leaves of Grass: “Song of Myself”, “On Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”, "Memories of President Lincoln" & “Calamus”

For a detailed introduction to the American Studies program at SJSU, please see the program's MySpace page or Facebook Group.