This course surveys the economic, political, social, and environmental history of the trans-Mississippi West.  Beginning with initial European conquest of the region, we will explore the history of the western frontier as a zone of contact and conflict between Euro-Americans, Indians, Mexicans, and Asian and African-American migrants.  In the twentieth century, the course will examine the rise of the modern urban West and its impact on the region's natural and social environments.  Finally, we will also consider the changing role of the West in the American popular imagination.
 
 

• Clyde Milner, et al., eds., Major Problems in the History of the American West
• George Stewart, Ordeal by Hunger
• Colin Calloway, ed., Our Hearts Fell to the Ground
• Ruth Moynihan, et al., eds., So Much to Be Done
• Donald Worster, The Dust Bowl
• Jeanne Huston, Farewell to Manzanar

The course will meet on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and will generally include at least one lecture and one or two discussion sessions per week.  Attendance and participation is essential and will be crucial in determining your grade for the course.  We will be viewing several documentary films in class during the semester as well as three feature films (westerns, of course) that will be aired on the BC History Channel.  There will be a midterm, two short papers, and a final exam.  Grading will be based on the following formula:
 

Paper #1	15%
Paper #2	15%
Midterm	20%
Final Exam	30%
Class Participation	20%

 

Sept. 2  Introduction to Course
Sept. 4  The Significance of Western History

• Clyde Milner, Major Problems (MP), pp. 1-14

Sept. 7  LABOR DAY--No class
Sept. 9  Native Peoples, Native Lands
Sept. 11  The Collision of Old Worlds

• Milner, MP, pp. 88-92
• Calloway, Our Hearts Fell to the Ground, pp. 37-53
• Alfred Crosby, "Virgin Soil Epidemics" (handout)

Sept. 14  The Spanish Conquest
Sept. 16  Colonial New Mexico and California

• Milner, MP, pp. 54-56, 68-80
• Guest article and documents on California missions (handout)

Sept. 21  Frontier Commerce and the Fur Trade

• Milner, MP, pp. 96-113

• Calloway, Our Hearts Fell to the Ground, pp. 89-101

Sept. 28  Western Migrants and Migration

FIRST PAPER DUE IN CLASS

Sept. 30  The Overland Trail

• Stewart, Ordeal by Hunger, pp. 7-87
• Faragher, "Men's and Women's Work..." (handout)

Oct. 5   The Donner Party

• Stewart, Ordeal by Hunger, pp. 91-265

Oct. 9   MIDTERM EXAM
________________________

Oct. 12  COLUMBUS DAY--No Class
Oct. 14  Settling the Postwar West
Oct. 16  Women and Children on the Frontier

• Moynihan, et al., So Much to Be Done, pp. 18-27, 124-46, 147-66
• Milner, MP, pp. 247-55

Oct. 19  The Industrial Revolution in Western Mining
Oct. 21  Labor on the Frontier

• Moynihan, et al., So Much to Be Done, pp. 28-37, 169-87
• Milner, MP, pp. 274-78, 309-12, 328-39

Oct. 26  Western Farming and the Rise of Agribusiness
Oct. 28  The Farm Frontier

• Milner, MP, pp. 354-59, 370-77

Nov. 2  Film: Last Stand at Little Big Horn
Nov. 4  Indian Wars and Assimilation Campaigns
Nov. 6  Life on the Reservation

• Calloway, Our Hearts Fell to the Ground, pp. 150-203
• Milner, MP, pp. 359-70
• Moynihan, et. al., So Much to Be Done, pp. 203-13

Nov. 9  The Mythic West and the End of the Frontier

• Milner, MP, pp. 541-55

SCREENING:  The Unforgiven (date and time TBA)
________________________

Nov. 16  Los Angeles: Twentieth-Century Boom Town
Nov. 18  The Dustbowl

• Worster, The Dust Bowl

________________________

Nov. 23  World War II:  The Second Gold Rush

SECOND PAPER DUE IN CLASS

Nov. 25/27  Thanksgiving Vacation--No Class

________________________

Nov. 30  Japanese Internment

• Houston, Farewell to Manzanar

• Milner, MP, pp. 476-83, 500-517

Dec. 7  Rethinking Western History
 

FINAL EXAM: Wednesday, December 16 at 9:00

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