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HU Credits:
2
Degree/Cycle:
1st degree (Bachelor)
Responsible Department:
History
Semester:
1st Semester
Teaching Languages:
Hebrew
Campus:
Mt. Scopus
Course/Module Coordinator:
Yoav Hamdani
Coordinator Office Hours:
Tuesday, 2:00-3:30 p.m.
Teaching Staff:
Dr. Yoav Hamdani
Course/Module description:
This class is about the origins of the United States of America, covering the years from 1492 to
1865. We will start when colonists invaded a continent of hundreds of Native nations. We will
examine how an unlikely republic formed out of thirteen British provinces and came to dominate
the continent’s midsection. And we will end with the American Civil War, the war that nearly tore that fast-growing republic in two. Our major themes will include the control of land and people, the evolution of American political and economic institutions, the relationships between religious and social movements, and the link between ideologies of race and gender with larger processes such as enslavement, dispossession, and industrialization. All along, we will keep asking how, why, and what were they thinking?
This class is also about the discipline of history, the business we historians call “an argument without end.” You will not just be learning standalone “facts,” rather, you will learn why scholars ask certain questions, and how we try to answer them. Each lecture introduces a central question that animates historians’ research and debates. The readings and paper assignments will also challenge you to do what historians do, that is, read sources and make arguments about the past. My hope is that you leave this course with a greater appreciation of the depth of the American story, and a better understanding of how we study it.
Course/Module aims:
To develop historical and critical thinking
Understanding North American History as inseparable from Indigenous and African-American History
Understand how historians use textual evidence to construct narratives about the past.
Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
Critically evaluate secondary and primary sources through close reading and analysis.
Interpret selections of primary and secondary sources and to construct original arguments
from those sources
Evaluate different accounts of the same event and adjudicate between varying interpretations
of that event.
Synthesize a larger historical narrative through an exam that combine ideas and events
introduced in lectures into coherent analyses.
Attendance requirements(%):
80
Teaching arrangement and method of instruction:
Course/Module Content:
A detailed syllabus will be on the course website
Themes:
Indigenous History
European Invasions of America
Slavery and Enslavement
Religious, Social, and Cultural History
Racism & Gender
Democratization
The American Revolution
Federalism and the Constitution
Conquest, Dispossession and Territorial Expansion
Industrial and Market Revolutions
The U.S. -Mexico War
The Civil War
Required Reading:
Reading assignments will be on the course website
Additional Reading Material:
Grading Scheme :
Written Exam % 50
Submission assignments during the semester: Exercises / Essays / Audits / Reports / Forum / Simulation / others 30 %
Mid-terms exams 10 %
Attendance / Participation in Field Excursion 10 %
Additional information:
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