HIST 319(F) Politics and Culture in Colonial America

An investigation of the growth of an ultimately revolutionary "American" system of political practice and theory in the British colonies of North America. We will survey the changing relation of governmental and economic power (provincial and imperial) to other aspects of colonial culture: the regional distinctiveness of social systems, population growth, ethnic diversity, a growing consumer economy, religious practice and ideology, and the evolution of social and political theory. A wide variety of primary and secondary sources will be read, and careful attention will be paid to methods, assumptions, and quarrels of modern historians. The format will be mostly reading and discussion. Students will write two short interpretive essays and take midterm and self-scheduled final exams, or submit a research paper based on primary sources. Groups A and D

Hour: TRACY