Week 1
1/8: Northeastern University
1/10: Cahokia and Caddo
- Fenn, Encounters at the Heart of the World (Prologue)
Week 2
1/15: No Class (MLK Jr. Day)
1/17: Double Ditch Mandan Village
- In-class geography quiz
- Fenn, Encounters at the Heart of the World (Ch. 1, 3, 4)
Week 3
1/22: Taos, New Mexico
- Reséndez, The Other Slavery (Introduction, Ch. 4, 6)
1/24: St. Louis
- West, The Essential West (Ch. 6: The West Before Lewis and Clark)
Week 4
1/29: Comancheria
- Reséndez, The Other Slavery (Ch. 7, 9)
1/31: Boston
- West, The Essential West (Ch. 1, Lewis and Park)
Week 5
2/5: Visit to Massachusetts Historical Society (meet in the MHS lobby at 3:10PM).
2/7: Fort Vancouver
- Fenn, Encounters at the Heart of the World (Ch. 10, 13, 14)
Week 6
2/12: Sutter’s Mill
- West, The Essential West (Ch. 2: Golden Dreams)
- Backstory Podcast, “All That Glitters? Legacies of the California Gold Rush” 19 January 2018
2/14: Fort Laramie
- Reséndez, The Other Slavery (Ch. 10)
- West, The Essential West (Ch. 12: American Pathways)
Week 7
2/19: No Class (President’s Day)
2/21: Webbers Pass, Cherokee Nation
- Reséndez, The Other Slavery (Ch. 11)
- Federal Writers’ Project Slave Narrative of Betty Robertson, Oklahoma (PDF)
Take-home midterm due Sunday, 2/25
Week 8
2/26: Sand Creek, Colorado
- Layli Long Soldier, “38” (poem from Soldier’s collection WHEREAS)
2/28: Promontory, Utah
- West, The Essential West (Ch. 10: Bison R’ Us, Ch. 11: Jesse James, Borderman)
Week 9
3/12: Standing Rock Reservation
- Martha Sandweiss, “Still Picture, Moving Stories: Reconstruction Comes to Indian Country”
- Frederick Jackson Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” [excerpts]
3/14: Angel Island
- Kathryn Schulz, “Citizen Khan: The Old West’s Muslim Tamale King”, The New Yorker, June 2016
Pop Culture Review due Sunday, 3/18
Week 10
3/19: Ludlow, Colorado
- Watch Ken Burns, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, Episode 1: The Scripture of Nature (first 29:00 minutes)
3/21: Hetch Hetchy Valley
- Prep for mock Congressional hearing on proposal to dam Hetch Hetchy Valley (primary source packets distributed by professor).
Week 11
3/26: East Los Angeles
- Watch Salt of the Earth (1954) - 1 hr, 32 min. Available on YouTube or Amazon Video (Option 1 or Option 2).
3/28: Hollywood
- Watch through first 1 hr, 26 min of The Magnificent Seven (1960). Available for rent on YouTube or Amazon Video.
Week 12
4/2: Topaz Internment Site
- Miné Okubo, Citizen 13660
4/4: Las Vegas Strip
- Patricia Limerick, “Seeing and Being Seen: Tourism in the American West”
Week 13
4/9: Silicon Valley
- Margaret O’Mara, “Silicon Valleys,” Boom, Summer 2011.
4/11: Place Analysis Presentations
Final Version of Place Analysis due Friday, 4/13
Week 14
4/16: No Class (Patriot’s Day)
4/18: Northeastern University
Take-Home Final Exam due Sunday, 4/22 by 11:59PM