I. CROSSROADS BACKGROUND SURVEY COURSE

I. CROSSROADS BACKGROUND SURVEY COURSE
FOR TEACHERS OF AMERICAN HISTORY

Introduction
The following incorporates an extended syllabus that sketches a two-semester survey course for American history as one component of the CROSSROADS curriculum development project. It is designed to complement the other components of the CROSSROADS project, thereby fulfilling the project's goal of proposing a fully integrated curriculum for American history from elementary school through undergraduate college.

This syllabus can be used in three ways: as an inservice refresher course by teachers who are new to the teaching of American history or the CROSSROADS curriculum; as an AP American history course for high school students; or as a college course for pre-service social studies majors. The course is presented as a one-year, two semester or trimester sequence, though the teacher can condense it as appropriate.

Organization: Two Semesters versus Three Trimesters
A survey course for American history can take the form either of the traditional two-semester format, breaking after Reconstruction, or the newer trimester format that is increasingly finding favor. The semester approach has long dominated the field, and has shaped virtually every major undergraduate history text; it therefore is the basis for this syllabus. It should be noted, however, that history professors are finding the semester structure increasingly problematic for the simple reason that there is more history to cover, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Quantitatively, the semester approach began in the 1940s; it simply is not suited to expand indefinitely to cover the additional crowded half-century of history since the end of the Second World War. Qualitatively, college history courses increasingly have integrated historiography with history, to introduce students to the various ways that historians study and interpret the past; the explosion of diverse approaches to the study of American history in the past half-century makes it even more difficult for a traditional semester college history course to cover the full sweep of American history.

The trimester approach permits fuller coverage of the history itself and of the development of American historiography. Such an American history survey course would serve more effectively another function traditionally assigned to survey courses -- that of providing an introduction to the study of history both for prospective history majors and for those who are taking the survey course to satisfy a distribution requirement.

Note: There are two ways to divide American history into a trimester format. In both of these, the first trimester would cover American history from the pre-Columbian era to the end of the eighteenth century, with a final set of reflections on the legacy of the American Revolution. In one version, the second trimester would span the nineteenth century, beginning with the inauguration of Thomas Jefferson and ending with the assassination of William McKinley, with the third trimester beginning with the Progressives and running up to the present. In the other version, the second trimester would begin with Jefferson and end with the end of the First World War, with the third trimester beginning with the 1920s and running up to the present. The first version is preferable, as it comports with the growing tendency of colleges to offer courses on the 19th century and the 20th century. The following table shows how the two-semester course can be reconfigured for three trimesters.

Resources:

Back to Table of Contents