–(I honestly meant to get this posted before Ed posted his second installment, and now I see I am too late. The lesson: never try to be as productive as Ed–it’s too tall a task.)–

I’d like to thank Ed for setting up such a useful site, on how we teach the survey. Because I too am teaching second half of the US survey this semester, Ed and I are going to play a game of back and forth, on what works and what doesn’t. We hope you’ll join us.

I was just going over my syllabus again and I have what we all have in the first section: what are we/you doing here? In dept of ed language, it’s called a “learning objective” or more broadly a “course description.” For me, this is always the most fun part of the course, and the most challenging. What I have now is this:

The study of American history is more than an exercise in self-congratulation and nostalgia. It is more than politics and diplomacy. It is more than a passive absorption of facts, dates, and names. This course — the survey of American history since the conclusion of the Civil War (which happened, you should know, in 1865) — focuses on the human consequences of the politics, policies, ideologies, and wars (declared and undeclared) that comprise our history.

The lectures and readings will introduce you to a wide range of historical actors, examining in particular: (1) economic development, (2) race relations, (3) the laboring classes, (4) reform movements, (5) the interior of everyday lives, (6) the changing conditions for success and survival in the culture that Americans shaped, and (7) the emerging role of the United States as a world power. The idea is to have you feel like you are standing in the shoes of those who came before you. We hope you will come close to understanding the past from the perspective of the men and women who experienced it, to gaining some insight into the daily lives of Americans, to understanding a bit better their work and their leisure, their cultures, and their ideologies, their relations with one another and with the political and economic system under which they lived, and which they passed on to you and me, for better or for worse.

No matter where we trace our ancestry, the fact that you are sitting here means you live in the world they created. It is better to know about it and understand it than not.