American Women's History, to 1865 (303-1-20)
Instructors
Susan Pearson
847/491-3744
Harris Hall - Room 338
Meeting Info
Locy Hall 301: Mon, Wed 11:00AM - 12:20PM
Overview of class
This course is a survey of U.S. women's history from colonial settlement through 1865. It focuses not only women's experiences and activities in the past but also on how constructions of gender have been critical to American political and economic development.
As we march through time we will survey not only different ways of thinking about women and gender in the past, but we will also pay attention to how the category of "woman" has been fractured by the differences in status and experience that result from divisions of class, race, region, religion, and ethnicity.
Learning Objectives
By the end of the course, students will be expected to understand how gendered construction of womanhood have changed over time and intersected with other categories of difference. They will understand not only women's role in early American history, but also how gender as a category has been used to structure social institutions and political order.
Evaluation Method
Weekly writing responses, final paper.
Class Materials (Required)
Rosemarie Zagarri, Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007), paperback, ISBN 978-0812220735
Deborah Gray White, Ar'n't I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South, Revised Edition (Norton, 1999), paperback, ISBN 978-0393314816
Class Notes
History Area of Concentration: Americas
Class Attributes
Historical Studies Distro Area
Associated Classes
DIS - Kresge Centennial Hall 2-343: Thurs 10:00AM - 10:50AM
DIS - Kresge Centennial Hall 2-343: Thurs 11:00AM - 11:50AM
DIS - Kresge Centennial Hall 2-331: Thurs 1:00PM - 1:50PM