A235, History of American Empire, Spring 2025

Prof. Konstantin Dierks

COURSE SYLLABUS
WEEK ONE
January 14
   
 

Reflective Writing and Discussion

January 16
› student profile form  
 

Reflective Writing and Discussion

WEEK TWO
January 21
› response sheet 1 Reading Guide for Week 2
 

Reading:

Hansen, Suzy.  “Unlearning the Myth of American Innocence.”  The Guardian, August 8, 2017.

Video:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “The Danger of a Single Story” (TEDGlobal 2009).

Reflective Writing and Discussion

January 23
› response sheet 2 Reading Guide for Week 2
 

Reading:

Immerwahr, Daniel.  How to Hide an Empire.  New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019.  “Introduction: Looking Beyond the Logo Map” (pp. [3]-19)

Video:

Rockman, Seth.  “What Is Historical Reasoning?”  Brown University, August 2014.  [up to 2:32]

Reflective Writing and Discussion

WEEK THREE
January 28
› response sheet 3 Reading Guide for Week 3
 

Reflective Writing and Discussion

January 30
› response sheet 4 Reading Guide for Week 3
 

Reflective Writing and Discussion

WEEK FOUR
February 4
› response sheet 5 Reading Guide for Week 4
 

Documents:

Photographs — Panama Canal [1904-], U.S. Military Academy Special Collections.

Panama Canal Centennial [1914-2014] exhibitions, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida.

Ralph Emmett Avery, America’s Triumph at Panama (1913).

“The Panama-Pacific International Exhibition [1915],” National Park Service.

Reflective Writing and Discussion

February 6
› response sheet 6 Reading Guide for Week 4
 

Documents:

President Amador’s Address; President Roosevelt’s Speech (November 1906).

Mahan, Alfred Thayer.  “The Panama Canal and Sea Power in the Pacific.” Century Magazine 82:2 (June 1911): 240-248.

“Off for the Ditch”: Theodore and Edith Roosevelt Visit Panama in 1906.

Reflective Writing and Discussion

WEEK FIVE
February 11
› response sheet 7 Reading Guide for Week 5
 

Documents:

February 13
 

WRITING ASSIGNMENT #1 DUE

› response sheet 8 Reading Guide for Week 5
 

Documents:

Reflective Writing and Discussion 

WEEK SIX
February 18
› response sheet 9 Reading Guide for Week 6
 

Documents:

U.S. Congress, Teller Amendment, April 20, 1898.

U.S. Congress, Platt Amendment, March 2, 1901.

February 20
› response sheet 10 Reading Guide for Week 6
 

Documents:

Reflective Writing and Discussion 

WEEK SEVEN
February 25
› response sheet 11 Reading Guide for Week 7
 

Documents:

“Manifest Destiny of the World — Its Republic and its Empire.”  Southern Literary Messenger, September 1859.

“The Two Great Powers of the Future. I. — Russia.”  The Round Table, August 10, 1867.

“The Two Great Powers of the Future. I. — America.”  The Round Table, August 24, 1867.

Reflective Writing and Discussion 

February 27
› response sheet 12 Reading Guide for Week 7
 

Document:

U.S. President Ronald Reagan, address to the 41st Annual Convention of the National Association of Evangelicals, Orlando FL, March 8, 1983.

Center for Justice and Accountability, “Transitional Justice in El Salvador” [n.d.].

American Archive of Public Broadcasting, “Salvadoran Civil War (1979-1992)” [n.d.].

Reflective Writing and Discussion 

WEEK EIGHT
March 4
› response sheet 13 Reading Guide for Week 8
 

Documents:

Hezekiah Butterworth, Zigzag Journeys Around the World (1895).

Edward Stratemeyer, Under Dewey at Manila (1898).

Reflective Writing and Discussion 

March 6
› response sheet 14 Reading Guide for Week 8
 

Readings:

St. James, Emily.  “With great power comes great uncertainty: Marvel’s slowly evolving politics.”  Vox, February 26, 2018.

Immerwahr, Daniel.  “We’re the Good Guys, Right?”  N+1, April 26, 2018.

St. James, Emily.  “With great power comes great uncertainty: Marvel’s slowly evolving politics.”  Vox, February 26, 2018.

Reflective Writing and Discussion 

WEEK NINE
March 11
› response sheet 15 Reading Guide for Week 9
 

Document:

Reflective Writing and Discussion 

March 13
 

WRITING ASSIGNMENT #2 DUE

› response sheet 16  
WEEK TEN
March 17-21

Spring break — no class

WEEK ELEVEN
March 25
› response sheet 17 Reading Guide for Week 11
 

Documents:

Reflective Writing and Discussion 

March 27
› response sheet 18 Reading Guide for Week 11
 

Documents:

Reflective Writing and Discussion 

WEEK TWELVE
April 1
› response sheet 19 Reading Guide for Week 12
 

Documents:

Morris, Charles.  Our Island Empire; A Hand-Book of Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippine Islands.  Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1899.

Reflective Writing and Discussion 

April 3
› response sheet 20 Reading Guide for Week 12
 

Documents:

U.S. President William McKinley, “Executive Order” (December 21, 1898).

Platform of the American Anti-Imperialist League (Chicago, October 17, 1899).

Reflective Writing and Discussion 

WEEK THIRTEEN
April 8
› response sheet 21 Reading Guide for Week 13
 

Document:

Reflective Writing and Discussion 

April 10
› response sheet 22 Reading Guide for Week 13
 

Documents:

Reflective Writing and Discussion 

WEEK FOURTEEN
April 15
 

WRITING ASSIGNMENT #3 DUE

› response sheet 23 Reading Guide for Week 14
 

Documents:

Reflective Writing and Discussion 

April 17
› response sheet 24 Reading Guide for Week 14
 

Documents:

Reflective Writing and Discussion 

WEEK FIFTEEN
April 22
› response sheet 25 Film Guide for Week 15
 

Film:

“Babel” (2006; directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)

April 24
› response sheet 26 Film Guide for Week 15
 

Film:

“Babel” (2006; directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)

Reflective Writing and Discussion

April 25-26

Little 500

WEEK SIXTEEN
April 29
› response sheet 27  
May 1
WEEK SEVENTEEN
May 5-9
 

TAKE-HOME FINAL EXAMINATION due by **

WEEK EIGHTEEN
May 12-16