Lecture in New England Cultural History, 1600-1865

The New England region is one of the most distinctive and culturally influential regions in early American history. As the “most English” of all the English colonies, New England seemed the perfect place to study the birth of American culture. Puritan ideology, Witchcraft crises, Revolutionary sentiment, and important contributions to Abolitionist and other reform causes gave the New England states a significance disproportionate to their size. Lately, historians have begun to reconsider the impact of the New England region, and have begun to argue that, in fact, this region was more like the rest of British colonial America (in terms of race relations, commercial goals, and social hierarchy) than has been understood before. Through a mix of primary sources, secondary readings, and class investigation, we will explore the significance of New England and the value of studying its regional culture during the formative centuries from first colonization to the American Civil War. We will explore the meaning of cultural history, looking at both microhistorical studies of single individuals or communities, as well as larger-scale studies of important social movements. Our study of New England will expose us to many of the most important developments of these two and a half centuries of American culture and nation building. We will also compare conventional historical and interdisciplinary American Studies methodologies,

This class will meet once weekly in a three hour block to allow for a mixture of discussion and lecture. Because missing one class session means essentially missing a whole week, students may not miss more than once over the course of the quarter. Please plan accordingly.