21H 112 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION Spring 2010 TR 11 12 30 Instructor Prof Pauline Maier REQUIREMENTS 1 Class attendance and participation in discussions which will focus upon the readings assigned for the week 2 A mid term exam on March 18 and a final exam during exam period 3 A research paper of about 12 15 pages in length Papers should answer a carefully posed historical question and be based to a substantial extent upon research in primary sources that is documents that for most topics will be from the eighteenth century The papers can focus upon any aspect of the Revolution but must go beyond work done in class All topics must be approved on or before Tuesday April 6 The final papers must include footnotes or endnotes and a bibliography composed in a correct and comprehensible form and are due on Thursday May 13 the final day of classes ASSIGNED BOOKS Jensen Merrill ed Tracts of the American Revolution 1763 1776 Hackett Publishing ISBN 0872206939 Lengel Edward General George Washington A Military Life Random House Trade Paperbacks ISBN 0812969502 and 978 0812969504 Locke John Second Treatise of Government Any unabridged edition Recommended edition Peter Laslett ed John Locke Two Treatises of Government Cambridge University Press paperback ISBN 0521357306 Madison James Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 with an introduction by Adrienne Koch Norton paperback 1987 ISBN 0 393 30405 1 Maier Pauline From Resistance to Revolution Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Resistance to Britain 1765 1776 Norton paperback ISBN 0393308251 Morison Samuel Eliot ed Sources and Documents Illustrating the American Revoluion Oxford University Press paperback ISBN 0195002628 Readings for 21H112 The American Revolution Available on electronic reserves through the course website Shy John A People Numerous and Armed Revised edition University of Michigan Press paperback ISBN 0472064312 Wood Gordon S The American Revolution A History Modern Library Chronicles New York 2002 ISBN 0679640576 READING SCHEDULE February 2 4 Introduction and Historiography Background Society Economy Politics and Government America and Britain Wood American Revolution xxiii xv 3 24 Maier From Resistance to Revolution to p 26 21H 112 spring 2009 p 2 February 9 11 Background continued and Ideology Locke Second Treatise of Government chs 1 4 8 13 17 19 Note that Locke s treatise is available at http www constitution org jl 2ndtreat htm Maier From Resistance to Revolution 27 48 Lengel General George Washington 3 19 You can either skim or skip the stories of Washington s disastrous service as a Virginia military officer in 1754 and of British General Edward Braddock s astounding defeat in western Pennsylvania in 1755 but read the conclusions on pages 60 62 and also 63 67 77 80 February 16 Monday Schedule February 18 Overview of the Independence Movement Wood American Revolution 27 44 Maier From Resistance to Revolution 51 157 Start the readings for next Tuesday February 23 25 Arguments and Actions 1764 1770 For Feb 23 Stephen Hopkins Essay on Trade 1764 Hopkins The Rights of Colonies Examined later 1764 Daniel Dulany Considerations on the Propriety of Imposing Taxes in the British Colonies 1765 Richard Bland An Inquiry into the Rights of the British Colonies 1766 note the quotations from a British writer Thomas Whately that Bland includes and John Dickinson Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania 1768 in Merrill Jensen ed Tracts of the American Revolution pp 318 41 62 94 163 Also Morison Sources and Documents 14 24 and 43 45 which includes the Virginia Resolutions of 1765 Soam Jenyns The Objections to the Taxation of our American Colonies by the Legislature of Great Britain briefly consider d London 1765 and Dickinson s Letter III which Jensen strangely skipped NOTE It s a good idea read the pamphlets in chronological order How did the American argument shift between the two Hopkins pamphlets and between Dulany and Dickinson If you can identify where an author is saying what everyone is saying and focus instead on what s new and on how the American position is developing the British didn t change much you ll be reading efficiently and intelligently It might take some practice to get the hang of that Be sure to take notes on each pamphlet immediately after finishing it or all of them will quickly melt together in your mind For Feb 25 Accounts of the Stamp Act uprisings the Sons of Liberty and the Virginia Association of 1770 in Readings March 2 4 From Resistance to Revolution 1770 1776 Jefferson Summary View 1774 and Paine s Common Sense in Jensen Tracts 256 76 400 446 Morison Sources and Documents 100 115 Wilson 1774 116 25 137 48 Wood American Revolution 47 62 Maier From Resistance to Revolution 161 296 Lengel General George Washington 81 127 21H 112 spring 2009 p 3 The discussion will focus in part on the three pamphlets in the assigned readings What distinguishes the arguments of Wilson and Jefferson from Dickinson s in the Farmer s Letters Is Paine s Common Sense a logical outgrowth of the line of argument American pamphlets had taken or something else altogether How exactly did Paine justify Independence Also what developments between 1774 and 1776 help explain the changing character of the conflict from resistance to revolution March 9 11 Declarations of Independence Loyalism Especially for March 9 The English Declaration of Rights 1689 an early draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights by George Mason that appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette June 12 1776 the Jefferson committee draft of the Declaration of Independence with Congress s editings all in Readings The main focus of attention will be the draft Declaration with Congress s editings What did Congress do and why You might also take a look at Morison s version of the preamble to the Virginia constitution on p 151 of Sources and Documents and see if you notice anything odd Especially for March 11 Mary Beth Norton The Loyalist Critique of the Revolution The Development of a Revolutionary Mentality Washington D C 1972 pp 127 48 in Readings Joseph Galloway A Candid Examination of the Mutual Claims of Great Britain And the Colonies 1775 and James Chalmers Plain Truth 1776 in Jensen Tracts 350 99 447 88 March 16 The British View Review Andrew Jackson O Shaughnessy If Others Will Not Be Active I Must Drive George III and the American Revolution Early American Studies Vol II Spring 2004 1 46 in Readings March 18 Midterm Exam March 23 25 Spring