Welcome History 4070 bloggers.

Welcome to each of you to the blogosphere. Here on deliberatingtheER, we'll explore the world of the early American Republic.

I want to welcome each of you and encourage you to use this forum to get your opinions out there, make your voice heard, and actively engage the arguments you will be reading about this semester.

The more we are each committed to engaging the materials and each other during the course, the more meaningful this learning experience will be.

Your prof.

January 15: "Interpreting the Early Republic"

After reading this chapter, if you were asked to describe the "early republic" what would that description look like? What elements of Wilentz's, Rossiter's, Pasley's, Perkins's interpretations and points of emphasis would you include or exclude? Why?

January 29: "The Political Crises of the 1790s"

Do you agree that the 1790s were years filled with political crises? Why/not? Drawing from Waldstreicher, Lewis, and/or Ashworth, how would historians who disagree with you construct their arguments?

February 5: "The Republican Jefferson and the Jeffersonian Republic"

Drawing from the primary sources, how would you characterize Thomas Jefferson, as planter, president, political theorist, etc.? How do the assessments of Appleby, McDonald, and Gordon-Reed compare to your characterization?

February 12: "The War of 1812: National Honor and Aggressive Expansion"

From the primary sources, what do you make of the conflicting arguments for and against the War of 1812? And what of its outcomes according to Horsman and Dowd?

February 19: "Religious Revivals and the Second Great Awakening"

What do you make of religion's place in the early republic in terms of empowering the individual? How did politics reflect/co-opt Americans' religiousity or commitments to morality (note Abzug's analysis of Northern revivals versus Snay's work on Southern religion and its evolution toward defending slavery)?

March 5: "The Slaveholders' Regime"

What did slavery in the early republic look like for slaves? For slaveowners? How do Johnson and McCurry differ in their analyses of American slavery? Which do you find more convincing?

March 19: "Struggles for the West"

How do you think differing early republic individuals/ethnic groups like Native Americans and Euro-Americans might disagree on what "the West" was and who might "own" it? How do Faragher's and Cronon's Wests compare to one another?

March 26: "The Era of Bad Feelings"

Are there a handful of events or developments that one might point to as making this era one of bad feelings? If not, what makes it one of "bad feelings?" How is the Missouri Compromise utilized by Brown, Wilentz, and Crocker?

April 2: "Jacksonians, Whigs, and the Politics of the 1830s"

What are the differences you see between the Jacksonians and the Whigs? According to Basch, how do these differences result in a culture war? After reading Sellers and Howe, what do you make of the suggestion that Jacksonian Democrats were nothing more than anti-elitist, mobocratic, populists while Whigs were elitist, establishment-bound, Federalists reborn?

April 9: "Perfecting the Nation and the World"

What efforts fell under the penumbra of "reform" during the early republic? Do any of these seem counter-productive to each other? Do you think individuals found themselves working for a variety of reform groups? What do you make of Ryan's interpretation of a gendered, middle-class reform phenomenon? And of Johnson's depiction of varying definitions of perfection?

April 16: "Abolitionism, Antiabolitionism, and Proslavery"

Who were abolitionists? What did they believe? Who were their opponents? Where did women fit into the abolitionist movement? How did southern pro-slavery theorists attack abolitionism?

April 23: "Toward an American Culture"

If one existed or was steadily evolving during the early republic, what elements help define an emerging American culture in the early decades of the 19th century? According to Widmer and Lewis respectively, how did the political ideology of democracy and sports like baseball contribute to an American culture?

April 29: "Manifest Destiny, Slavery, and the Politics of Expansion"

How did the politics of slavery complicate the "rightful" expansion of the American nation state as promoted by the notion of manifest destiny? What did this mean for America's war with Mexico and the emergence of a Free Soil movement?