Undergraduate Course: The American Civil War: History and Memory (HIST10334)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 40 |
| Home subject area | History |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | This course will provide students with a broad understanding of the major issues and events relating to the causes, course, consequences, and commemoration of the American Civil War. In addition to the basic topics of causes, strategies, reasons for victory and defeat, and enduring consequences, themes of the course will include: gender, northern uncertainty about emancipation, nationalism and dissent on both sides, the war&©s international significance, and the causes and consequences of different groups&© commemorations of the war. In addition to mastering the historiography of this era, students will gain experience in the interpretation and contextualization of primary sources. Some sessions will involve comparisons with other countries&© experiences of civil war, emancipation, and
commemoration, encouraging students to reflect on similarities and difference and to consider the benefits and limitations of comparative history. |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | A pass in 40 credits of third level historical courses or equivalent.
Before enrolling students on this course, Directors are asked to contact the History Honours Admission Secretary to ensure that a place is available (Tel: 503783). |
| Additional Costs | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Delivery period: 2012/13 Full Year, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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WebCT enabled: Yes |
Quota: 17 |
| Location |
Activity |
Description |
Weeks |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
| Central | Lecture | Room 1.01, Appleton Tower | 1-29 | | | 11:10 - 13:00 | | |
| First Class |
First class information not currently available |
| No Exam Information |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, students should have demonstrated in presentations, seminar discussions, essays and exams:
&· advanced knowledge of the causes, course, consequences, and commemoration of the American Civil War.
&· awareness of the major historiographical debates involving the interpretation of the American Civil War and its remembrance.
&· the ability to evaluate critically secondary sources and the seminar contributions of their colleagues.
&· the ability to analyse in depth a range of primary sources and place them in historical context.
&· the ability to use these critical skills to advance clear, well-reasoned and independent arguments in both written and oral forms.
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Assessment Information
Assessment will be based on two final exams (20% each), one essay per
semester (20% each), one presentation per semester (7.5% each), and oral participation in seminar discussions (5%). Marks for the presentations will be based partly on peer assessment. (Students will fill out a brief assessment of each presentation and the results will be tallied to arrive at a score out of 7.5.
The course organiser will use the peer assessment score as a guide,
adjusting it up or down if necessary by a maximum of one point.) |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Not entered |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Sample reading list for an individual session: Emancipation
Michael J. Bennett, &«"Frictions": Shipboard Relations Between White and Contraband Soldiers,&ª Civil War History 47 (2001): 118-145.
Ira Berlin, &«Who Freed the Slaves? Emancipation and its Meaning,&ª in Union and Emancipation: Essays on Politics and Race in the Civil War Era, eds. David W. Blight and Brooks R. Simpson (1997).
_____, et al., Slaves no More: Three Essays on Emancipation and the Civil War (Cambridge, 1992).
_____, et al., Freedom&©s Soldiers: The Black Military Experience in the Civil War (Cambridge, 1998).
Richard Carwardine, Lincoln (Harlow, 2003), chap. 5.
Catherine Clinton and Nina Silber, eds., Divided Houses: Gender and the Civil War (New York, 1990), chap. 5.
Dudley Cornish, The Sable Arm: Negro Troops in the Union Army (New York, 1956)
Barbara Jeanne Fields, Slavery and Freedom on the Middle Ground: Maryland During the Nineteenth Century (New York, 1985).
Eric Foner, Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction (New York, 2005), chap. 2.
John Hope Franklin, The Emancipation Proclamation (Garden City, 1963).
George M. Fredrickson, The Inner Civil War: Northern Intellectuals and the Crisis of the Union (New York, 1965), chap. 8.
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| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Teaching will be by weekly seminars of 1hr 50mins each. Seminars will begin with a brief overview by the course organiser, followed by one or more student presentations (some of which will focus on the analysis of primary sources) and student responses to those
presentations. Then the class as a whole will discuss the issues raised. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Paul Quigley
Tel: (0131 6)50 9963
Email: |
Course secretary | Ms Marie-Therese Rafferty
Tel: (0131 6)50 3780
Email: |
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