Think about this image, painted by Diego Rivera in 1951, Palacio Nacional in Ciudad de México.
What is the story in this image? Who are its central actors? How accurate is the depiction? What might the biases be? How do you feel about this image as a primary source? Is it a primary source?
Really. Today, we are going to create a timeline of American history to 1877. Together, we are going to get acquainted with the text; we are going to create a “master narrative” for our course. What are the key moments? What drives change? How would you organize change? Where does our story begin and end?
History 111, U.S. History Survey, to 1877, is now underway. Part of the Cleveland History Blogs, a wordpress multi-user site developed by the Center for Public History and Digital Humanities devoted to teaching and learning in Cleveland, this is your basic course blog. Professor Mark Tebeau (@urbanhumanist on twitter) is the course instructor and your host. Tebeau blogs as urbanhumanist.
The first day of class feature introduction to the course textbooks, Give Me Liberty, written by Professor Eric Foner. Also, the first day will feature a discussion of the course syllabus and a presentation of assignments related to the second course text, edited by Professors Robert Wheeler and Mark Tebeau, The Social Fabric. Finally, we will discuss the course website.
Mark Tebeau