Introduction to US History

For more courses in this subject, please visit the Department of American history.

This course is a survey of the history of the United States of America taught at the college level. This is a course, therefore this entails lectures, assignments, quizzes (& quiz reviews), and a final test. Since this is an introduction, this history course will only cover US History from the 1500s to 1877. You will learn the interactions of various nations, including the European giants, Native Americans, and Africans, and their economic, social, and cultural impact. This will go over America before Europe, European exploration, the 13 colonies, the American Revolution, Independence, Development of the American government, and the Civil War & Reconstruction.

Along the course, you will have questions below each lecture that you're encouraged to answer. There will also be essays that you're encouraged to write and a student example for you to model your response off of. You'll benefit from reading this course's textbook, which will be on our sister project, Wikibooks (link is below). If you have any questions pertaining to this course, please reach out to the talk page of this course or to my talk page.

Although knowledge of early US History isn't essential in life, I surely recommend that every American citizen should be well accustomed to their nation's history. If I may inject my own two cents, the history of the US is fascinating and entails a moral story to not give up. To think that arguably the most powerful nation in the World in our current times was only founded three centuries ago (compared to our European counterparts) is mind-blowing. The American Revolution, itself, is bizarre in its event. How did a small number of untrained, armed citizens defeat, at the time, the World's most powerful military? You'll figure out the answer to this question.

With that, I say good luck and happy learning! —Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 20:08, 3 January 2022 (UTC)

Lectures

 * Week 1: America Before Columbus
 * Week 2: Foreign Exploration
 * Week 3: The Early Colonies
 * Week 4: Discontent with Britain
 * Week 5: The American Revolution
 * Week 6: A New Nation
 * Week 7: War of 1812
 * Week 8: 1800s America
 * Week 9: Westward Expansion
 * Week 10: Immigration & Industrial Revolution
 * Week 11: Civil War
 * Week 12: Reconstruction

Assignments

 * Week 1-2 Essay(s): Life as an Indentured Servant, Deerfield Massacre
 * Week 1-3 Quiz Review: Quiz Review 1
 * Week 4-6 Essay(s): What would YOU do?
 * Week 7-9 Essay(s): John Marshall
 * Week 4-8 Quiz Review: Quiz Review 2
 * Week 10 Essay(s): Cotton Gin, Abolitionists
 * Week 9-11 Quiz Review: Quiz Review 3
 * Week 12 Essay(s): Rebuilding a Nation
 * Final Exam Review: Final Exam Review

Resources
The following books are resources that can be used to study US History. You do not need to splurge on textbooks. If you have a copy or can acquire one cheap, use them. Otherwise they are a waste of money as I have yet to find a single textbook that accurately portrays US History.
 * US History Wikibook -Free text developed by Wikibooks, missing some areas.
 * The American Pageant. David Kennedy and Lizabeth Cohen. - The most commonly used textbook. If you have a copy, I recommend it as a reference.
 * People's History of the United States. Howard Zinn. - This book focuses on providing an alternative view of history from marginalized viewpoints. Because it is controversial, read it with a grain of salt.
 * CliffsNotes on US History I - Readable online
 * UCCP course - A whole course designed for use by teachers.

United States History Textbook
This will be a textbook created and improved by students. We will be using this as our reference for this class.


 * US History