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The AMERICAN WEST

History 358-1, Fall Semester 2009

(4 Credits)

Professor: Douglas Firth Anderson	Class Period: T/Th, 12:05-1:35 p.m.
Office, Phone, & E-mail: VPH 212, x7054, firth@nwciowa.edu	Class Location: VPH 121
Office hours: MWF, 2:10-3:10 p.m., or by appointment
Web page: http://home.nwciowa.edu/firth Course materials and grades available on Synapse

 

WISDOM FOR JOURNEYING IN THE PAST I. Why Study History? A. [W]e intend Northwestern graduates to be persons who     Engage Ideas Demonstrating competence in navigating and contributing to the world of ideas and information, having learned to listen, read, question, evaluate, [and] write ... with a disciplined imagination. Pursuing truth faithfully in all aspects of life; developing, articulating, and supporting their own beliefs; and seeking meaningful dialog with those holding different convictions. From the NWC Vision for Learning B. Life can only be understood backwards ... . Soren Kierkegaard, as quoted in Laurence J. Peter, ed., Peter's Quotations: Ideas for Our Time (New York: Bantam Books, 1977), 305. C. [H]istory holds the potential ... of humanizing us in ways offered by few other areas in the school curriculum. ... The argument I make pivots on a tension that underlies every encounter with the past: the tension between the familiar and the strange, between feelings of proximity and feelings of distance in relation to the people we seek to understand. ... Sam Wineburg, Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts: Charting the Future of Teaching the Past (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001), 5. II. Why Isn't Studying and Understanding History Simple? A. [H]istory [i]s a web of contingency.  Contingency is about events, choices, and agency. Webs are about structures and processes, which amplify the agency of individual choices in some ways, and constrain them in others. David Hackett Fischer, "Response to Yerxa, Kersh, Glen, and Morone," Historically Speaking 7 (Sept./Oct. 2005), 25. B. History-making . . . is a creative enterprise, by means of which we fashion out of fragments of human memory and selected evidence of the past a mental construct of a coherent past world that makes sense to the present. Gerda Lerner, “The Necessity of History,” in Why History Matters: Life and Thought, idem (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 117. III. Themes in Understanding the History of the American West: A. Frontier (Process): Up to our own day American history has been in a large degree the history of the colonization of the Great West. The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward, explain American development. Frederick Jackson Turner, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," in idem, Rereading Frederick Jackson Turner: "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" and Other Essays, ed. John Mack Faragher (New  Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998), 31. B. Region (Place): Frederick Jackson Turner ... started historians down a muddy, slippery slope that ultimately leads to a swamp.... When you are lost, the most sensible strategy is to go back to the point of departure, back where Mr. Turner once stood pointing the way, and look for another road. Ignore the signs saying, "This way to process," and look instead for the one reading, "To a fixed geographical region." Or better yet, look for the specific processes that went on in the specific region.... [A Western historian's] special task is to understand how ... outside economic and political forces, empire and capital, have entered the West and dealt with its regional peculiarities ... [But] the history of the region is first and foremost one of an evolving human ecology. A region [such as the West] emerges as people try to make a living from a particular part of the earth, as they adapt themselves to its limits and possibilities. What the regional historian should first want to know is how a people or peoples acquired a place and, then, how they perceived and tried to make use of it. Donald Worster, "New West, True West," in idem, Under Western Skies: Nature and History in the American West (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 22, 22-23, 27. C. Myth: For a moment, at the frontier, the bonds of custom are broken and unrestraint is triumphant. There is not tabula rasa. The stubborn American environment is there with its imperious summons to accept its conditions; the inherited ways of doing things are also there; and yet, in spite of environment, and in spite of custom, each frontier did indeed furnish a new field of opportunity, a gate of escape from the bondage of the past; and freshness, and confidence, and scorn of older society, impatience of its restraints and its ideas, and indifference to its lessons, have accompanied the frontier. What the Mediterranean Sea was to the Greeks, breaking the bond of custom, offering new experiences, calling out new institutions and activities, that, and more, the ever retreating frontier has been to the United States directly, and to the nations of Europe more remotely. Frederick Jackson Turner, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," in idem, Rereading Frederick Jackson Turner: "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" and Other Essays, ed. John Mack Faragher (New  Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998), 59-60. The West was unformed and malleable in the eyes of nineteenth-century America, a place with mythic meaning and promise of prosperity but without physical and conceptual shape. It seemed a canvas on which to paint the newest nation, to cover the errors of the past ... Like many other mythic locales, the West became intellectually amorphous, a place to become whatever one wanted to be ... Tourism in the West permitted, indeed promoted the filling of this void. Hal K. Rothman, Devil's Bargains: Tourism in the Twentieth-Century American West (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1998), 34-35. As a mental artifact, the frontier has demonstrated an astonishing stickiness and persistence. It is virtually the flypaper of our mental world; it attaches itself to everything--healthful diets, space shuttles, civil rights campaigns, heart transplants, industrial product development, musical innovations. Packed full of nonsense and goofiness, jammed with nationalistic self-congratulation and toxic ethnocentrism, the image of the frontier is nonetheless universally recognized, and laden with positive associations. Patricia Nelson Limerick, "The Adventures of the Frontier in the Twentieth Century," in The Frontier in American Culture: An Exhibition at the Newberry Library, August 26, 1994-January 7, 1995, essays by Richard White and Patricia Nelson Limerick, ed. James R. Grossman (Chicago: The Newberry Library and Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), 94. IV. How Might a Christian Perspective Shape Our Understanding of the Past? Does Micah’s injunction to “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God” (6:8) have any bearing on a Christian’s historical work?  I believe that it does.  We do justice when we give all the historical actors their due, not privileging those who had the most power, or for whom we have more data.  Loving kindness means exercising compassion towards our historical subjects.  They were no more limited by their location and biases than we are.  They were creating their lives as they went; we need to re-create those lives with a minimum of moralizing.  To walk humbly is to recognize that even hindsight is not fully accurate and that our accounts are never definitive. G. Marcille Frederick, “Doing Justice in History: Using Narrative Frames Responsibly,” in History and the Christian Historian, ed. Ronald A. Wells (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1998), 220.

 

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COURSE DESCRIPTION:

What is this course? The course will focus on the historical development of that portion of the continental United States west of the Mississippi River. Themes considered will include the frontier thesis, place and regionalism, American Indians, natural and social landscapes in the West, western developments in relation to gender, race/ethnicity, and class, religion in the West, and the mythic West.

What will class meetings be like? The course will meet twice a week. This is not a lecture course, nor is it a survey course. Rather, it is a seminar course; that is, the emphasis will be on student inquiry. There will be some lectures, but major components of the course's format include student discussion, presentations, and writing.

What will be expected in general of each student? The workload of the course reflects its upper division level. Attendance at all class meetings is, of course, expected. Some 2500 pp. of reading, including that for research, will be required. Each student will be expected to write a major research paper and several other shorter pieces. Discussion and oral reports will also be regularly expected in the course.

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COURSE OBJECTIVES (what difference this course should make):¹

1. To become familiar with the complex and diverse history of the American West up through the twentieth century, since the West has held and still holds an important historical and mythic place in American life and thought.
2. To further develop in connection with reading, writing, and discussion what historian Lendol Calder has termed the "cognitive habits" of questioning, connecting, sourcing, making inferences, considering alternative perspectives, and recognizing limits to one's knowledge, since such liberal arts habits are key tools for learning how, with the Apostle Paul, to "take every thought captive to obey Christ" (2 Cor. 10:5).
3. To foster the practice of historical method beyond the lower division level of coursework through attention to such signature practices and concepts as 

• identifying, critiquing, and comparing culturally grounded assumptions that have influenced the perception and behavior of people in the past;
• identifying, critiquing, and comparing the theories, concepts, values, and assumptions that historians have used to create coherent interpretations of the past;
• taking responsibility for one's own embeddedness in time and for one's own theories, concepts, values, and assumptions in discussing, reading, and writing about the past.
• researching primary and secondary sources on a topic in such a way that a major historical research paper is written demonstrating an ability to construct a critical interpretation (analysis and synthesis) of a selected historical topic.

4. To provide tools and opportunity for integrating a basic understanding of issues in the development of the American West with a Christian perspective on history, life, and faith, for "in [Christ] all things hold together" (Col. 1:17).

^1. For some of the ideas and terminology in these objectives, I am indebted to Lendol Calder, "Uncoverage: Toward a Signature Pedagogy for the History Survey," Journal of American History 92 (March 2006): 1358-1370 and John C. Savagian, "Toward a Coherent Curriculum: Teaching and Learning History at Alverno College," Journal of American History 95 (March 2009): 1114-1124.

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COURSE OUTLINE:

Date (T/Th)	In-Class Subjects	Reading Assignments (to be done FOR class on the date noted)
Aug. 25	Introductions I: To Each Other, the Course, and Frontier, Region, and Myth	*Turner, on Synapse
Aug. 27	Introductions II: To Each Other, the Course, and Frontier, Region, and Myth	*Worster, on Synapse *Limerick, on Synapse
Sept. 1	Western Lives and Fluid Borders I	*Etulain, Chaps. 1-4
Sept. 3	Western Lives and Fluid Borders II	*Etulain, Chaps. 5-8
Sept. 8	Western Lives and Fluid Borders III	*Etulain, Chaps. 9-12
Sept. 10	Western Lives and Fluid Borders IV	*Etulain, Chaps. 13-16
Sept. 15	PROJECT BRAINSTORMING (in-class discussion of project ideas; clarification of project expectations)
Sept. 17	Mythic West I	*Fort Apache, Pt. I
Sept. 22	Mythic West II	*Fort Apache, Pt. II
Sept. 24	Mythic West III	*Little Big Man, Pt. I
Sept. 29	Mythic West IV	*Little Big Man, Pt. II
Oct. 1	Making Sense of Western Sources: The U.S. War with Mexico I	*Chávez, pp. vii-34
Oct. 6	Making Sense of Western Sources: The U.S. War with Mexico II	*Chávez, pp. 35-152
Oct. 8	FILM ESSAY DUE (No class; Western History Association Annual Meeting, Denver)
Oct. 13	Making Sense of Western Sources: Violence in the West I	*Johnson, pp. vii-33
Oct. 15	Making Sense of Western Sources: Violence in the West II	*Johnson, pp. 37-159
Oct. 22	RESEARCH PROSPECTUS (No class; instructor available for consultation in VPH212)
Oct. 27	Historians Interpret the West: Converting California I	*Sandos, pp. ix-98
Oct. 29	Historians Interpret the West: Converting California II	*Sandos, pp. 99-184
Nov. 3	Historians Interpret the West: The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction I	*Gordon, pp. ix-108
Nov. 5	Historians Interpret the West: The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction II	*Gordon, pp. 109-208
Nov. 10	Historians Interpret the West: The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction III	*Gordon, pp. 209-318
Nov. 12	Historians Interpret the West: Devil's Bargains I	*Rothman, pp. 1-112
Nov. 17	Historians Interpret the West: Devil's Bargains II	*Rothman, pp. 113-251
Nov. 19	Historians Interpret the West: Devil's Bargains III	*Rothman, pp. 251-377
Nov. 24	Fluid Wests	*Anderson, on Synapse *Tirman, on Synapse
Dec. 1	PROJECT Reports I
Dec. 3	PROJECT Reports II
Dec. 8	PROJECT Reports III
Dec. 10	WRITING DAY (No class)
Dec. 15	Research Paper Due (by Tu., 12:30 p.m., per finals schedule)

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COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

1. Reading (in alphabetical order):

• Anderson, Douglas Firth. "Toward an Established Mysticism: Judeo-Christian Traditions in Post-World War II California and Nevada." In Religion and Public Life in the Pacific Region: Fluid Identities. Eds. Wade Clark Roof and Mark Silk. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2005. Pdf on SYNAPSE.
• Chávez, Ernesto. The U.S. War with Mexico: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. ISBN 9780312249212
• Etulain, Richard W., ed. Western Lives: A Biographical History of the American West. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2004. ISBN 0826334725
• Fort Apache. Videocassette.  Directed by John Ford. 1948; Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2000.
• Gordon, Linda. The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999. ISBN067400535X
• Johnson, Marilynn S. Violence in the West: The Johnson County Range War and the Ludlow Massacre: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009. ISBN 9780312445799
• Limerick, Patricia Nelson. "Introduction: Something in the Soil." In Something in the Soil: Legacies and Reckonings in the New West. New York: W.W. Norton, 2000. Pdf on SYNAPSE.
• Little Big Man. Videocassette. Directed by Arthur Penn. 1970; Beverly Hills, CA: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 1995.
• Rothman, Hal K. Devil's Bargains: Tourism in the Twentieth-Century American West. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1998. ISBN 9780700610563
• Sandos, James A. Converting California: Indians and Franciscans in the Missions. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004. ISBN 9780300136432
• Tirman, John. "The Future of the American Frontier." American Scholar 78 (Winter 2009): 30-40. Pdf on SYNAPSE.
• Turner, Frederick Jackson. "The Significance of the Frontier in American History." In idem, Rereading Frederick Jackson Turner: "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" and Other Essays. Ed. John Mack Faragher. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998. Pdf on SYNAPSE.
• Worster, Donald. "New West, True West." In Under Western Skies: Nature and History in the American West. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Pdf on SYNAPSE.

2. Recommended Survey Texts:

• Anderson, Douglas Firth. "Western America: Many Places, Many Peoples. Part 1 of a draft for a book." [Orange City, IA: NWC Print Room,] c. 2004 by D.F. Anderson. ON SYNAPSE.
• Hine, Robert V. and John Mack Faragher. Frontiers: A Short History of the American West. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007. ISBN 9780300136203

3. Recommended Resources:

• LibGuide <http://nwciowa.libguides.com/>
• Lamar, Howard R., ed. The New Encyclopedia of the American West. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998. Ref. F591 .N46 1998
• Phillips, Charles, and Alan Axelrod, eds. Encyclopedia of the American West. 4 vols. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1996. Ref. F 591 .E485 1996
• Wishart, David J., ed.  Encyclopedia of the Great Plains.  Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004. Ref. F591 .E4856 2004

4. Assignments:

A. A RESEARCH PAPER will constitute 40% (+5%; see 2b) of the course grade.

1) WHAT IS YOUR TASK IN THIS RESEARCH PROJECT?

1. To select a primary document/set of primary documents significantly connected to the American West about which

2. you pose an interesting historical problem or question and make a significant claim

3. persuasively supported by your substantive analysis of the primary document(s) and research of relevant context

4. in a paper that demonstrates critical historical understanding of the primary and secondary sources and makes a persuasive case for the significance of the topic in relation to the American West.

2) WHAT ARE THE KEY STAGES IN THE PROCESS FOR THIS PROJECT?

1. Oct. 22 (Th.): Research Prospectus due by 11:59 p.m. , Th., Oct. 22. A prospectus should be a preliminary description of your project.

• The prospectus should be 2 pages, typed single spaced, with a header (your name, a preliminary title, the prospectus due date, your e-address).
• It should contain on one page an explanation of your topic
• and a second page consisting of a preliminary bibliography (including your primary document[s]), formatted in Chicago Style. (See guides for this form either linked to the Ramaker Library homepage or to the LibGuide.)
• Please submit the prospectus as a Microsoft Word file (that is, .docx, .doc, or rtf. file) through Synapse (when in your Synapse account, click on the link to this course, then click on assignments, then click on the appropriate paper, then, in the drop box, search for your Word file, select it, and send it in).  If you encounter trouble in submitting the paper through Synapse, consult with the folks in the Computer Center, especially Paul Beltman (belt@nwciowa.edu; he oversees Synapse).
• The prospectus will not be graded. However, failure to submit a prospectus that meets the above specifications by the specified due date will mean that the final paper will receive a penalty reduction of a third of a letter grade. That is, if the paper is a B+, the penalty will knock it down to a B; if a B, then down to a B-, etc.

2. Dec. 1, 3, & 8: Project Reports (dates will be assigned after the course begins). Each report will be graded (5% of course grade), and each report should conform to the following specifications:

• You should prepare a preliminary outline of your research paper to present to the class in two forms, written and oral.  Both forms should address the following (not necessarily in this order): a) what is the topic and what is your primary source? b) what relevant problems, issues, and/or controversies are connected with your sources and/or topic, and how are you proposing to deal with them? c) what thesis or claim are you making about your topic? d) what main points, supported by what kind of evidence, from what sort of sources, do you intend to make? e) how is your topic significant in relation to the history of the American West?

• The written form should be 1-2 pp., typed single spaced, with a header including your name, the assigned presentation date, your RSC Box #, and the title of your research project.  You should make enough copies for yourself, for each other class member, and for the instructor.  Distribute these at the beginning of your oral presentation.

• The oral form should be based on the written form that you have distributed.  The oral report should take no longer than 10 minutes to present orally. (The timing is subject to change depending on how many total reports have to be made.)

• Class members and the instructor will listen carefully, ask questions following your report, and return to you within 24 hours your written report with any questions, advice, or comments. (In other words, this oral presentation is a chance to get feedback before the paper is completed.)

• I will also include a grade on the written report that I return to you.  The most important factors in evaluating the report (written and oral) include a) how completely and well are all of the formal specifications stated above met? and b) how clear, coherent, and thoughtful are the two forms of the report?

3. Dec. 15: Paper due by 12:30 p.m. (end of scheduled final period). (It can be turned in earlier, of course; late papers are subject to the penalty stated in the Course Miscellany section of this syllabus.) Please submit the finished paper as a Microsoft Word file (that is, .docx, .doc, or rtf. file) through Synapse (when in your Synapse account, click on the link to this course, then click on assignments, then click on the appropriate paper, then, in the drop box, search for your Word file, select it, and send it in).  If you encounter trouble in submitting the paper through Synapse, consult with the folks in the Computer Center, especially Paul Beltman (belt@nwciowa.edu; he oversees Synapse).  A graded copy will be returned to you by e-mail attachment.
4. I will be happy to meet with you about the paper at any point in the course; do not be shy about scheduling one or more meetings with me.

3) WHAT IS A PRIMARY DOCUMENT?

1. A primary document is a firsthand source.

2. Primary documents come in many forms, e.g., recorded oral accounts, memoirs, diaries, correspondence, sermons, speeches, government reports, court documents, editorials, paintings, songs, photographs, films, novels, financial records, buildings, clothing, tools, etc.

4) HOW MIGHT I CONSTRUCT AN INTERESTING HISTORICAL QUESTION AND A CLAIM?

1. Sometimes a problem or question easily presents itself, either before or during research: Why was this document written/created? How could the author think this when they did something that seems to contradict this? What does this document mean? Is this really what went on, or is this intentionally misleading?  Was this really written by the author? Why was this document so popular/unpopular?  Why do historians disagree about the meaning/importance/authenticity of this document?

2. When a problem or a question does not so easily present itself, try working back from what seems a significant claim or a thesis supported by the historical evidence.  That is, turn into a problem or a question that which you wish to argue or claim about the document(s) and their author.

5) WHO IS THE AUDIENCE FOR THIS PAPER?

1. Address your paper to adults who know little about your topic, but who are curious about the past and who appreciate well-researched, thoughtful, and clearly written work.

6) WHAT ARE THE RESEARCH REQUIREMENTS FOR THIS PAPER?

1. A general rule of thumb: the deeper and broader one researches, the deeper and broader the possibilities for historical understanding.
2. Required: the substantive use of one or more significant primary documents.
3. Required: the use of at least the following sorts and numbers of secondary sources:

• one specialized reference work, e.g., a biographical or topical dictionary or encyclopedia (Wikipedia and general encyclopedias such as Encyclopedia Britannica are NOT specialized reference works)
• three books, i.e., topical monographs and biographies
• two academic articles (normally, in a historical journal published quarterly, and with foot- or endnotes; articles in topical book collections can count for this).

4. Of course, assigned course materials are appropriate for your use, as relevant.
5. Online sources are not required, but you might well find important primary and secondary sources there, so do look. Consider the links I have made to the LibGuide for this course, at http://nwciowa.libguides.com/.
6. Recommended databases for periodical literature are America: History and Life and JSTOR, both available through the NWC Ramaker Library Homepage under Databases/Major-discipline/History.
7. I and the reference staff of Ramaker Library will be happy to provide advice on research possibilities if you ask.

7) WHAT IS THE REQUIRED FORMAT FOR THIS PAPER?

1. An opening section should introduce readers to the topic, that is, what your paper is about, what problem or question you are addressing, and what your position/claim/thesis in relation to the problem or question is.
2. A concluding section should summarize your position/claim/thesis in relation to the problem or question you raised at the beginning of the paper (and which you have kept before readers in the course of your paper), and provide some final reflections about the historical significance of your topic.  These reflections should not come as a surprise to the reader; rather, they should arise “naturally” out of the analysis and argument that you have made in your paper.
3. The paper should have footnotes (Chicago Style; see guides for this form either linked to the Ramaker Library homepage or to Course Links). Footnotes are required for all quotations.  Footnotes may also be used to alert the reader to one or more source of information even when not directly quoted, and they may be used to provide further detail or discussion that is relevant but which would divert readers from the main argument if put in the main text of the paper.
4. The paper should have a bibliography (Chicago Style; see guides for this form either linked to the Ramaker Library homepage or to Course Links). A bibliography should include all sources consulted, not only the ones cited.
5. The paper should have a title page including a title, your name, the due date, and your e-address.
6. The paper should be typed double spaced, except for single-spaced block quotations, footnotes, and bibliography.
7. The paper should be 17-20 pp. including title page and bibliography.

8) WHAT ARE THE CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION OF THIS PAPER?

1. How consistently have you met the stipulations of the assignment?
2. How thoughtfully and thoroughly have you researched your topic?
3. How historically attuned is your project (i.e., accuracy, engaged with historical context, aware of interpretive challenges)?
4. How lucid and cogent is your presentation, including presenting and supporting your historical problem/claim/thesis?
5. How deep and insightful is your analysis and interpretation, including your consideration of your topic’s significance in relation to the history of the American West?

B. EXPLORING WESTERN LIVES will constitute 16% of the course grade.

1. For each day on which reading is assigned in Etulain's Western Lives (Sept. 1, 3, 8, 10), your admission to class is bringing an "Exploring Western Lives" page. That is, if you do not show an “Exploring Western Lives” page to me at the beginning of class, you will need to leave the class, since you will not be prepared for participation.
2. An "Exploring Western Lives" page should consist of the following:

• One page, typed single spaced, with a header (your name, date, and RSC Box #).

• A one-to-three sentence explanation of a question, problem, or topic of interest arising from one of that day’s chapters.

• When quoting or otherwise referring to specific pages in the Etualin chapter, it is sufficient to note the page(s) in parentheses, e.g. (17-18).

• A one-to-two paragraph report stemming from your question, problem, or topic of interest, based on using one or more of the recommended texts and resources noted above or in the relevant Essay on Sources in the Etulain chapter chosen.

• A listing, in Chicago Style bibliographic form, of the source(s) you consulted for your report.

3. Each “Exploring Western Lives” page is worth 4% of the course grade (4% x 4 = 16%)
4. The criteria for evaluation of each “Exploring Western Lives” page are

• How consistently have you met the stipulations of the assignment?

• How historically attuned is your question/problem/topic and your report (i.e., how thoughtfully have you read the assignment and your additional resource[s], showing awareness of relevant historical context and interpretive challenges)?

• How lucid and cogent is your writing?

C. A FILM ESSAY will constitute 10% of the course grade.

1. Two films will be viewed in class: Fort Apache and Little Big Man.
2. There will be some time for in-class discussion of these films.
3. Due on Th., Oct. 8, is a film essay comparing the two in light of the following set of questions: What are the most important changes in the depiction of the frontier West in Little Big Man compared to Fort Apache? What is significant about the changes? About what doesn't change? What does your comparison suggest about the mythic West?
4. In your essay, draw on your viewing of the films, in-class discussion, relevant assigned readings up to that point, and Richard Slotkin, Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America (New York: Atheneum, 1992), Ramaker Library E169.12 S57 1992 (on course reserve).
5. Your essay should be 5-6 pages, typed double spaced, with a header of your name, due date, e-address, and essay title.
6. Use Chicago Style footnotes for sources for your quotations.
7. Your essay is due by 11:59 p.m., Th. Oct. 8. Please submit the essay as a Microsoft Word file (that is, .docx, .doc, or rtf. file) through Synapse (when in your Synapse account, click on the link to this course, then click on assignments, then click on the appropriate paper, then, in the drop box, search for your Word file, select it, and send it in).  If you encounter trouble in submitting the paper through Synapse, consult with the folks in the Computer Center, especially Paul Beltman (belt@nwciowa.edu; he oversees Synapse).  A graded copy will be returned to you by e-mail attachment.
8. The criteria for evaluation of the Film Essay page are

• How consistently have you met the stipulations of the assignment?

• How thoughtful and insightful is your analysis in light of the set of questions asked and the relevant resources available?

• How lucid and cogent is your writing?

D. A TEAM-LED DISCUSSION OF PRIMARY DOCUMENTS will constitute 10% of the course grade.

1. Once the course is underway, two student teams will be formed. One team will lead an in-class discussion on Oct. 6 (Tu) of the primary documents in Chávez's The U.S. War with Mexico.  The other team will lead an in-class discussion on Oct. 15 (Th) of the primary documents in Johnson's Violence in the West.
2. On their assigned day, each team is responsible for leading the class in examining, understanding, questioning, and/or connecting the assigned primary documents to each other, to the book topic, and to other relevant Western American issues deemed pertinent by the team. 
3. Each team has the entire class time (minus any announcements and course business) at its disposal.
4. Each book has a section entitled Questions for Consideration, which each team is invited to use or to adapt as seems relevant.
5. The format of the document discussion is up to each team. PowerPoint may be used, but it is not required. Other course materials, reference materials, recommended texts and resources, LibGuide, etc., may be used as may seem best.
6. Each team should prepare outline notes and provide a copy of these notes (and/or PowerPoint sheets) to the course instructor at the beginning of their class discussion time.
7. Each team will be graded as a team, so it is in each team's interest to divide the work of preparation and presentation so that the work as well as the learning is collective.
8. The criteria for evaluation of the team-led document discussions are

• How consistently have you met the stipulations of the assignment?

• How thorough is your preparation, particularly as evidenced in your outline notes?

• How attentive are you to the culturally grounded assumptions that have influenced the perception and behavior of people in the past as reflected in the relevant historical documents?

• How attentive are you to the theories, concepts, values, and assumptions that historians have used in interpreting the relevant historical documents?

• How engaging/resourceful/persistent is your presentation?

E. RESPONDING TO HISTORIANS will constitute 16% of the course grade.

1. For each day on which reading is assigned from Sandos, Gordon, and Rothman, your admission to class is bringing a "Responding to Historians" page. That is, if you do not show an “Responding to Historians” page to me at the beginning of class, you will need to leave the class, since you will not be prepared for participation.
2. A "Responding to Historians" page should consist of the following:

• One page, typed single spaced, with a header (your name, date, and RSC Box #).

• A two-to-four paragraph interaction with some aspect of the argument/interpretation in the day's assigned reading.

• Interaction can take varied forms--agreement, disagreement, puzzlement, questioning the support offered, seeking clarification, etc.

• Be prepared to read from your written interaction and explain and/or defend it in class.

• When quoting or otherwise referring to specific pages in the reading, it is sufficient to note the page(s) in parentheses, e.g. (17-18).

3. Each “Responding to Historians” page is worth 2% of the course grade (2% x 8 = 16%)
4. The criteria for evaluation of each “Responding to Historians” page are

• How consistently have you met the stipulations of the assignment?

• How historically attuned is your interaction (i.e., how attentively have you read the assignment, showing critical awareness of relevant historical context and the arguments and assumptions of the historian)?

• How much does your oral participation foster the class' collective understanding?

• How lucid and cogent is your writing?

F. CLASS PARTICIPATION will constitute 3% of the course grade.

1. Class participation is a portion of the grade based on the instructor’s estimation of the integrity of each student’s timely engagement with the course material and the classroom environment.
2. Participation includes discussion, listening, and note-taking.  Talkativeness is not the standard, any more than is silence.  Rather, the goal for each student is an overall consistent engagement with the material of the course in class, which, while allowing for differences in personalities and variety in class sessions, could by a reasonable observer at the end of the course be deemed at least "good."
3. When appropriate, the instructor is prepared to be flexible with occasional student scheduling problems, but the instructor must be consulted.  “Exceptions” are not an entitlement.

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COURSE MISCELLANY:

1. Late Assignments

1. All assignments are due in class or by class time unless otherwise noted in the syllabus or announced in class.
2. Exceptions for illness, approved field trips, regularly scheduled games or performances, or other reasons outside the control of the student can be made, but it is up to the student to petition the instructor for such legitimate exceptions.
3. If a written assignment is handed in late and without a legitimate exception, it will normally receive a penalty of at least one full grade down from whatever score the work merits apart from the penalty.  If the assignment is over a week late, it will not be accepted.

2. Academic Honesty

1. It is expected that all reading and written work done in and for the course will be done with integrity.  That is, reading and writing as assigned is to be done with honest single-mindedness by each student, without undue reliance on others to do the work and without deceit about the work's timeliness, authorship, and sources.  Integrity of this sort is not easy or convenient; it does not provide shortcuts or guarantee "As."  Yet it is the best path to growth in wisdom, and wisdom is the fruit of education most to be savored.
2. Academic dishonesty includes cheating and plagiarism, as defined in the Student and Faculty Handbooks.
3. Cheating in exams, plagiarizing in papers, and other forms of academic dishonesty, will, when duly determined, lead to a "0" score for the assignment involved and the filing of a report with the Academic Dean (VPAA), per the Student and Faculty Handbooks.

3. Grading

1. We the faculty of the History Department do not believe that "grade inflation" is good for you. Jesus admonishes us to "Let your word be 'Yes, Yes' or 'No, No'" (Mt. 5:37); in other words, let grades have integrity as indicators of knowledge and/or competence for a given assignment or course.
2. Therefore, an A=excellent or outstanding work; B=good work (more than adequate but not excellent); C=sufficient work (the assignment or the course’s requirements have been met, but not with any remarkable quality); D=insufficient work (does not fully meet the assignment); F=failing work.
3. Grades for assignments and for the course as a whole are based on a 100% scale, as follows:

A = 90-100

B = 80-89

C = 70-79

D = 60-69

F = 0-59

4. Within the 100% scale for letter grades, + and - will be given on the following scale (exceptions: no A+ or F + or F-):

+ = x7-x9

- = x0-x2

5. Remember--grades are NOT a measure of your personal worth; that is already established by God! Grades are measures of the quality of your work for a given assignment and/or course--nothing more and nothing less.

4. Advice for Doing Well in History Courses

A. TIME IN AND OUT OF CLASS

• The old wisdom still stands: "you reap what you sow" (Gal. 6:7b).  Sooner or later, what one puts into something is usually directly related to what one receives, whether one is engaging in farming, music, sports, drama, or studying.
• Reading is central to this class--and reading takes time.  A rule of thumb for humanities courses (history, literature, philosophy, religion) is that spending 2 hours on the class in addition to every hour in class usually brings better fruit than spending less than that.  That is, for a 3-hour-a-week course, an average of 6 hours per week on the class is a reasonable goal if you wish to do well in the class.
• If you signed up for this course, I expect you to be in class.  I hope that you are interested in the course (or that I can awaken interest in you for the course), and that you will thus want to come.  I will try hard not to waste your time.  Apart from this, someone is paying lots of money for you to attend here, and presumably you (and whoever else is involved) are interested in getting your money's worth from your investment.  And, the less you are in class, the more you miss opportunities for understanding the course material: discussions; concepts explained; themes noted; issues to ponder; connections to make; additional material presented; explanations of assignments or other things; etc.  On the one hand, I do not formally take class attendance.  On the other hand, if you are often absent, I do tend to notice.  If you are absent a lot, and with no legitimate explanation, then when it comes time for me to total up your work for a course grade, I will have little to no reason to give you any benefit of the doubt.

B. STUDY ADVICE 

• Rule of thumb: If you wish to do well in history classes, generally plan on two hours of outside work for every in-class hour. Much reading and some writing is involved, and this takes time to do adequately, let alone well.
• Spirituality: Approach your studies with a prayerful attitude. Pray for discipline, for attentiveness, for discernment and understanding. Christ is Lord of all of life, so he is Lord of our learning. Give him the glory with the mind he has given you. We don't think of playing an instrument or playing basketball without practice; why would anyone think that glorifying God with our minds takes any less time--any less prayer and disciplined action?
• Reading: READ ATTENTIVELY AND INTELLIGENTLY. For history courses, the point of reading is to gain information AND to put that information within some context, or thesis, or pattern. Your goal in reading for a history course is to watch for all the cues the author gives you as to 1) what facts are more important than others and 2) how the facts are marshaled into larger patterns that "tell a story" or "make a point."
• Taking notes is always relevant—in and on your reading, on lectures, on discussions, on videos.  (If you have a photographic memory or already know all the material, then of course taking notes would be pointless . . .)
• Further Help: DON'T HESITATE TO ASK ME FOR HELP.

 

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