Early National United States

Catalog description

This class examines topics and themes in American society, politics, economics, and culture between roughly 1787 and 1850. In this period, deep changes unfolded throughout the young nation. As we will see, America in these years was marked both by more inclusive democracy and greater hierarchy; it became simultaneously more confident and defined as an independent nation, but also more fragmented according to the regional, economic, gender, racial, and ethnic distinctions among its peoples. In our assessment of early national U.S. history, we will pay special attention to the profound economic and cultural upheavals historians refer to as the market revolution as a way to view the period as a whole and to understand the transformations in human experience and national identity that took place during it.