Special Course Descriptions
AMS

AMS 300. American Studies Colloquium
W 2:00pm-4:30pm
Prof Goodheart

The late, great political sage Tip O.Neill famously said: .All politics is local.. In "Chestertown's America," we will test whether his maxim applies to history as well. This class will follow four centuries of American history from the vantage point of Chestertown and its surrounding region of the Upper Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. From the Revolution and Civil War through the 1960s Civil Rights movement and beyond, we will trace the ways that national events and movements made themselves felt in the lives of people here, as well as trying to identify some of the things that made this area unique. Race relations, social history, and the natural and built environment will be subjects of particular concern. There will be several field trips (and mini-field trips), as well as extensive primary source readings. The course will be taught seminar-style, with students conducting their own independent research using old newspapers, courthouse records, oral-history interviews, etc., and then presenting their findings for discussion in class.

Prerequisite: HIS 201-202 or permission of the instructor; participants should have a solid general knowledge of American history. For American Studies majors, AMS 300 fulfills the requirement of an American Studies Colloquium.


AMS 394 10/HIS 394 11 Capital Matters: Creating a Federal City for the United States, 1780-1828
T 4:00pm-6:30pm
Prof. Fredrika Teute

To form an American union took more than politics. Creating united states out of thirteen British colonies involved publicizing a sense of continental community. Essential to this process was establishing a capital, ultimately located on the Potomac in the District of Columbia but most commonly referred to as the Federal City during the early republic. Using primary and secondary sources, including contemporary children's stories, novels, city directories, guidebooks, and portraits, this course will examine a variety of venues in the capital for their functions in projecting national identification and in shaping the contours of politics.