HUM 2450.001/002 Assignments
02/03-02/12/04 (Weeks 5-6)


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 5 (02/03-02/05/04)

  • for TUESDAY February 3

    -- If we didn't finish with last week's readings, we'll do so today.
    New Online readings:
    -- Thomas Paine, "Common Sense [1776]. Paine's "pamphlet" influenced Jefferson and the other composers of the Declaration and Constitution. It remains one of the hallmarks of Enlightenment (and native-American)-influenced thought of the Revolutionary period.
    -- Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence [1776]. The biggie, wherein Jefferson and his Revolutionary chums break America's ties with George III, King of England, over the Taxation Without Representation issue (all matters of religious freedom & etc. aside). Herein, the leaders of the Revolution came to think of themselves as "Americans."
    -- Bill of Rights [1789/1791]. The legislative proposals whereby Revolutionary fervor, Enlightenment ideals, and indigenous-inflected democracy met to map out a "new" order that would soon come into conflict with itself by the disparate interests of those who composed it.
    -- U.S. Constitution. The document from which every subsequent concept of "American" would be mapped, and to which every sense would be appealed and contested.
    -- Philip Freneau, The Indian Burying Ground [1787]. (There's also a different print version available at another site. We read Freneau's "To Sir Toby" last week, on slavery. In this poem, Freneau represents the native peoples who lived ambivalently in the Revolutionary period: from them, Jefferson and others derived part of the democratic and legislative thought that went into the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; yet these indigenous peoples were also continually displaced by European-descendant settlers and "pioneers" as they moved further inland (and, historically, toward the concept of "Manifest Destiny"). Freneau's poem is yet another example of how native peoples were "represented" with increasing frequency in the white American mind, often without any self-representation of their own.

  • for THURSDAY Fenbruary 5

    -- Pohl Ch.2 pp. 74-98, 104-112
    Continue with Tuesday's Online readings:
    -- Thomas Paine, "Common Sense" [1776].
    -- Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence [1776].
    -- Bill of Rights [1789/1791].
    -- U.S. Constitution
    -- Philip Freneau, The Indian Burying Ground [1787]. (There's also a different print version available at another site.
    Journal 1 due (date changed from last week;see Cultural Event and Journal page for reminders/details).

    »»WEEK 6 (02/10-02/12/04)

  • for TUESDAY February 10

    -- we will finish the material we didn't finish last week: Freneau, and "Building the 'Enlightened' Republic 2" (previous material for this week pushed back one day)

  • for THURSDAY February 12

    -- Pohl Ch.3 130-171
    New Online readings:
    -- de Crevecour, "What Is an American?" [1782]. De Crevecour, citizen of France, attempts to encapsulate this odd new creature for both himself and those back in France as that nation dragged toward its own revolution. Often quoted for jingoistic purposes, de Crevecour's ideas cast "Americans" in probably the best light they've ever been seen in.
    -- Benjamin Franklin, "Information Such as Would Remove" [1782]. Franklin's wry wit here attempts to discuss "Americans" and "America" to those thinking of joinging the new endeavor.
    -- Alexis de Tocqueville Democracy in America (excerpt) [1831]. De Tocqueville's discussions of the then-new "American-style" democracy has become a classic text of not only governmental portrayal, but also of equal keen critical insight and romanticization.

    »» Links:
    Schedule for Weeks 1-2 | Schedule for Weeks 3-4 | Schedule for Weeks 7-8
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