HUM 2450.001/002 Assignments
03/16-03/25/04 (Weeks 11-12)


Assignments can be updated at needs/speed of the class; you will be notified of updates by e-mail, and are responsible for checking the page after notification. Click on links for online readings.
»»WEEK 13 (03/30-04/01/04)

  • for TUESDAY March 30

    -- Pohl Ch.4 197-211, 211-224
    -- Frederick Douglass, The Hypocrisy of Slavery (excerpt) [1852]: more than a decade before the Civil War (or War Between the States, whatever) Frederick Douglass, the most famous and outspoken black individual of the day shows up slavery for what it was.

  • for THURSDAY April 1

    -- Pohl Ch. 4 224-238, Ch.5 239-242, 245-258, 286-288
    Online readings:
    -- James Monroe, The Monroe Doctrine: from James Monroe's message to Congress on December 2, 1823, this is the concept that drove America Westward; that some used to excuse slavery; and that still haunts concepts of "American" identity today.
    -- John O'Sullivan, Manifest Destiny (also available in another format here) [1839]: previously enabled by the Monroe Doctrine, the concept of "manifest destinty" fired the American will and imagination along the "course of empire." The original "go west," this concept sealed the doom of native tribes, and consigned black slaves to firther toil, eventually including Asian immigrants to the Pacific coast.
    -- Sarah Winnemuca, Life Among the Piutes [1883]: As a Piute, Sarah Winnemucca was already in the Nevada Territory when Sam Clemens arrived there in 1861. By the 1870s she had become an active and articulate witness against the wrongs and misunderstandings inflicted on Native Americans. Her autobiography, one of the first written by an Indian, attempts to give white readers in the east a Piute perspective on Indian culture and the history of their interactions with the steadily growing white population out west.
    -- Frederick Jackson Turner, Significance of the Frontier [1893]: Historian Frederick Jackson Turner presented this paper to a special meeting of the American Historical Association at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. His assessment of the frontier's significance was the first of its kind and revolutionized American intellectual and historical thinking.
    -- Lawrence Michael Fong, Chinese in Arizona: Much of the literature on early Chinese immigrants to the western United States focuses on their experiences in California and as laborers on the great railroad construction projects of the late nineteenth century. Their role in Arizona Territory, however, has been largely neglected and bears deeper examination.


    »»WEEK 14 (04/06-04/08/04)

    -- Pohl Ch. 4 224-238, Ch.5 239-242, 245-258, 286-288
    Online readings:
    -- James Monroe, The Monroe Doctrine: from James Monroe's message to Congress on December 2, 1823, this is the concept that drove America Westward; that some used to excuse slavery; and that still haunts concepts of "American" identity today.
    -- John O'Sullivan, Manifest Destiny (also available in another format here) [1839]: previously enabled by the Monroe Doctrine, the concept of "manifest destinty" fired the American will and imagination along the "course of empire." The original "go west," this concept sealed the doom of native tribes, and consigned black slaves to firther toil, eventually including Asian immigrants to the Pacific coast.
    -- Sarah Winnemuca, Life Among the Piutes [1883]: As a Piute, Sarah Winnemucca was already in the Nevada Territory when Sam Clemens arrived there in 1861. By the 1870s she had become an active and articulate witness against the wrongs and misunderstandings inflicted on Native Americans. Her autobiography, one of the first written by an Indian, attempts to give white readers in the east a Piute perspective on Indian culture and the history of their interactions with the steadily growing white population out west.
    -- Frederick Jackson Turner, Significance of the Frontier [1893]: Historian Frederick Jackson Turner presented this paper to a special meeting of the American Historical Association at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. His assessment of the frontier's significance was the first of its kind and revolutionized American intellectual and historical thinking.
    -- Lawrence Michael Fong, Chinese in Arizona: Much of the literature on early Chinese immigrants to the western United States focuses on their experiences in California and as laborers on the great railroad construction projects of the late nineteenth century. Their role in Arizona Territory, however, has been largely neglected and bears deeper examination.

  • for THURSDAY April 8

    Whatever we didn't finish from last time
    Online readings:This section's online readings contain one essay and a few poems:
    Walt Whitman, "I Hear America Singing" [~1856]
    Zora Neal Hurston, "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" [1928]
    Claude McKay, "America" [1921]
    Langston Hughes, "I, Too, Sing America" [1921]


    »» Links:
    Schedule for Weeks 1-2 | Schedule for Weeks 3-4 | Schedule for Weeks 7-8 | Schedule for Weeks 9-10 | Schedule for Weeks 11-12 | Schedule for Weeks 13-14 | Schedule for Weeks 15-16
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