Welcome to HIST/FSEM 159: Legendary Americans! In this course we will be exploring the lives of a few of the most famous figures in American history, as well as the legends and stories that surround their lives.

[Get a downloadable (PDF) copy of the syllabus here.]

Professor

Dr. Caleb McDaniel
Assistant Professor, Department of History
Office: Humanities Building 330; Office Hours: M, 1-3, and by appt
Phone: x2556
Email: caleb.mcdaniel@rice.edu

Course Description

Our aim this semester is to learn more about the kind of work that historians do, as well as to consider and subject to critical examination the ways that Americans in general remember and represent their own past. By consulting scholarly articles and book as well as historical documents, we will attempt to separate what we can establish about these historical figures from the myths that have often become associated with them. (For example, can we determine how Davy Crockett died? Is it possible to know how many slaves Harriet Tubman helped escape to freedom?) At the same time, however, we will be as interested in thinking about what the myths themselves can tell us about different periods in American history. (For example, why does the way that Crockett died matter to Americans? What explains why different writers have offered different accounts of Tubman’s rescue missions?) Through both scholarly readings and analysis of cultural artifacts like songs and films, we will consider why and how “legendary Americans” have become iconic and explore the relations between history, biography, and collective memory.

Learning Objectives

In this course students will learn …

• The basic procedures by which historians learn about the past.
• How to read and evaluate scholarly works of history.
• To formulate, defend, and communicate their own positions on contested historical questions.
• To develop critical and informed perspectives on representations of American history in popular culture.
• To treat visual and verbal representations of famous Americans as historical documents that can themselves teach historians about different periods of American history.

Required Books

The following books are required reading and are recommended for purchase. They are available at the Ley Student Center and are also available for 2-hour checkout at the Fondren Library reserves desk.

• Francois Furstenberg, In The Name Of The Father: Washington’s Legacy, Slavery, And The Making Of A Nation (paperback, Penguin, 2007). ISBN: 0143111930
• James E. Crisp, Sleuthing The Alamo: Davy Crockett’s Last Stand And Other Mysteries Of The Texas Revolution (paperback, Oxford, 2005). ISBN: 0195163508
• Milton Sernett, Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory, And History (Paperback, Duke UP, 2007). ISBN: 0822340739
• Scott Reynolds Nelson, Steel Drivin’ Man: John Henry, The Untold Story Of An American Legend (paperback, Oxford, 2008), ISBN: 0195341198

What to Expect

This course is designed as a seminar, rather than as a lecture course. That means that students will complete a large amount of reading (from 150-200 pages per week, on average), and that class time will be focused on discussion and dialogue about those readings. To succeed in this course, you will need to prepare for each class by making notes to yourself about the readings. Come to the seminar ready to share your thoughts. You will also be completing regular, short writing assignments throughout the semester. In other types of courses, your primary responsibility is often to listen to lectures, read a textbook, take notes, study those notes, and recall information for an exam or a major essay. In this seminar, though, you should have different expectations. Your primary responsibilities will be to contribute to class discussions, ask questions as well as answer them, write regularly in short bursts, and read a variety of books and articles with an eye towards discussing their major points and arguments, rather than with an eye towards recalling specific facts, information, or procedures for an exam.

Policies

Attendance in class is mandatory. You should not miss class unless you have a medical emergency that is documented to my satisfaction. It is your responsibility to contact me as soon as possible if you will not be in class.

Plagiarism and intellectual dishonesty are violations of the Rice Honor Code and will be reported to the Honor Council. Plagiarism is defined by the Honor Council as “quoting, paraphrasing, or otherwise using another’s words or ideas as one’s own without properly crediting the source. … The Honor Council assumes that, unless otherwise credited, all work submitted by the student is intended to be considered as his or her own work. Any time a student draws particularly or generally from another’s work, the source should be properly credited.” Specific information about how to credit the ideas and words of other writers will be provided to you in class, but I, like the Honor Council, assume that all the work you submit is your own original work and that doing otherwise is a form of intellectual dishonesty. Because this is a seminar, some of the work you do in this course will require you to collaborate with other students, but since I will make clear when it is okay to work with other students, you should assume that in all other cases you must complete your work independently. If any of the course requirements are unclear, students are responsible for coming to me directly for clarification. For more information on these policies, you can also consult the Rice Honor Council webpage.

If you have a documented disability that will impact your work in this class, please contact me outside of class to discuss accommodations confidentially. You will also need to contact and register with the Disability Support Services Office in the Allen Center.