A235 course syllabus | History of American Empire

COURSE SYLLABUS
WEEK ONE
January 14	Course Introduction I: Course Logistics and Conditions of Learning

	*Reflective Writing and Discussion*
January 16	Course Introduction II: Collective Mission
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	*Reflective Writing and Discussion*
WEEK TWO
January 21	Lecture 1: Setting Terms of Analysis — “Imperial Literacy”
› 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	Lecture 2: Setting Terms of Analysis — Empire Talk
› 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	Lecture 3: Greenland Lab Report I
› response sheet 3	Reading Guide for Week 3
	*Reflective Writing and Discussion*
January 30	Lecture 4: Greenland Lab Report II
› response sheet 4	Reading Guide for Week 3
	*Reflective Writing and Discussion*
WEEK FOUR
February 4	Lecture 5: Panama Lab Report I
› 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	Lecture 6: Panama Lab Report II
› 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	Lecture 7: Canada Lab Report I
› response sheet 7	Reading Guide for Week 5
	*Documents:*
February 13	Lecture 8: Canada Lab Report II
	WRITING ASSIGNMENT #1 DUE
› response sheet 8	Reading Guide for Week 5
	*Documents:* *Reflective Writing and Discussion*
WEEK SIX
February 18	Lecture 9: Cuba Lab Report I
› 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	Lecture 10: Cuba Lab Report II
› response sheet 10	Reading Guide for Week 6
	*Documents:* *Reflective Writing and Discussion*
WEEK SEVEN
February 25	Lecture 11: Russia Lab Report I
› 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	Lecture 12: Russia Lab Report II
› 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	Lecture 13: The Socialization of Children into Empire
› 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	Lecture 14: Socialization into Empire
› 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	Lecture 15: Imperial Formation and Empire, So Far
› response sheet 15	Reading Guide for Week 9
	*Document:* *Reflective Writing and Discussion*
March 13	Lecture 16: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Empire....
	WRITING ASSIGNMENT #2 DUE
› response sheet 16
WEEK TEN
March 17-21	Spring break — no class
WEEK ELEVEN
March 25	Lecture 17: China Lab Report I
› response sheet 17	Reading Guide for Week 11
	*Documents:* *Reflective Writing and Discussion*
March 27	Lecture 18: China Lab Report II
› response sheet 18	Reading Guide for Week 11
	*Documents:* *Reflective Writing and Discussion*
WEEK TWELVE
April 1	Lecture 19: 1898 Empire Talk I
› 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	Lecture 20: 1898 Empire Talk II
› 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	Lecture 21: British Imperial Inheritance, American Expansionism, and Native American Resistance I
› response sheet 21	Reading Guide for Week 13
	*Document:* Henry Knox to U.S. President George Washington, July 7, 1789. Henry R. Schoolcraft, Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley: Comprising Observations on its Mineral Geography, Internal Resources, and Aboriginal Population (1825). *Reflective Writing and Discussion*
April 10	Lecture 22: British Imperial Inheritance, American Expansionism, and Native American Resistance II
› response sheet 22	Reading Guide for Week 13
	*Documents:* Memorial of the Cherokee Nation, December 1829. Address of the Committee and Council of the Cherokee Nation, in General Council Convened, to the People of the United States, July 1830. *Reflective Writing and Discussion*
WEEK FOURTEEN
April 15	Lecture 23: Empire and Masculinity
	WRITING ASSIGNMENT #3 DUE
› response sheet 23	Reading Guide for Week 14
	*Documents:* Eugen Sandow — Father of Bodybuilding First Modern Bodybuilders, 1900s Theodore Roosevelt, “The Strenous Life,” speech before the Hamilton Club, Chicago (April 10, 1899). *Reflective Writing and Discussion*
April 17	Lecture 24: American Empire in Indiana
› response sheet 24	Reading Guide for Week 14
	*Documents:* *Reflective Writing and Discussion*
WEEK FIFTEEN
April 22	Lecture 25: American Empire on Film, Pt. I
› response sheet 25	Film Guide for Week 15
	*Film:* “Babel” (2006; directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)
April 24	Lecture 26: American Empire on Film, Pt. II
› 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	Course Conclusion
› response sheet 27
May 1	Optional class — review session
WEEK SEVENTEEN
May 5-9	FINALS WEEK
	TAKE-HOME FINAL EXAMINATION due by 10:00 a.m., Thursday, May 8th
WEEK EIGHTEEN
May 12-16	GRADING WEEK

A235, History of American Empire, Spring 2025

Prof. Konstantin Dierks