Atl_hist_and

EUH 5934 Atlantic History and Beyond [Spring 2012]

Jessica Harland-Jacobs (25 Keene Flint; office hours: Weds 9:30-11:30)

Mondays 7-9 Keene Flint library

Description

Unlike a typical history course that focuses on a particular nation or continent, Atlantic History examines the history and historiography of an oceanic region. It challenges the assumption that oceans historically have been barriers to human interaction and proposes instead the idea that oceans have been connective forces, facilitating the exchange of commodities, capital, and cultures across vast distances. Readings are drawn primarily from the British Atlantic world of the seventeenth through early nineteenth centuries, but we will range widely throughout the broader Atlantic basin. Students will define the geographic, historical, and intellectual contours of Atlantic studies and constantly test the viability of the Atlantic Ocean as a unit of analysis. The final unit of the course will push beyond Atlantic history to examine alternative macro-units of analysis: hemispheres, empires, and the world.

Goals

provide an introduction to the literature on Atlantic history

facilitate students' prepartation for qualifying exams in the Department of History
offer opportunities to discuss and practice the teaching of Atlantic history to undergraduates

facilitate students' progress on their own scholarly agendas

Required Texts

Jack Greene and Philip Morgan, Atlantic History: A Critical Appraisal

J. H. Elliott, Empires of the Atlantic World

April Hatfield, Atlantic Virginia: Intercolonial Relations in the Seventeenth Century

Robert Harms, The Diligent: A Voyage through the Worlds of the Slave Trade

Jon Sensbach, Rebecca's Revival

Emma Rothschild, The Inner Life of Empires

David Armitage and Sanjay Subrahmanyam (eds), The Age of Revolutions in Global Context, c. 1760-1840

Recommended Texts

Armitage and Braddick, The British Atlantic World

Stephanie Smallwood, Saltwater Slavery: A Middle Passage from Africa to American Diaspora

John Thornton, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World

Jane Landers, Atlantic Creoles

Jorge Canizares-Esguerra, Puritan Conquistadors

Wim Klooster, Revolutions in the Atlantic World: A Comparative History

Note: most of the required and recommended texts will be available on reserve [ARES]

Assignments

intellectual biography/bibliography (10%): choose one "Atlantic" scholar and write a 3-5-page intellectual biography; be prepared to distribute and present it to the class; include a bibliography the author's works
journal analysis (15%): select a historical journal, either one that has a self-consciously macro-historical approach (e.g. Journal of World History, Atlantic Studies, Itinerario) or one based on more traditional units of analysis (e.g. French Historical Studies, Hispanic American Historical Review, William and Mary Quarterly). Survey the journal's issues over an extended period of time, paying close attention to its geographic perspective. Write a 5-page analysis of the journal in which you identify trends and shifts in topics covered, metholodogies represented, geographic scope, etc.
undergraduate assignment (choose option 1 or 2) and lecture (15%)
historiographical paper (30%)
participation/reaction papers (30%)

Schedule

Week	Topic and reading	Assignment
1 (1/9)	Introductions
2 (1/16)	MLK -- no class Greene and Morgan, Chaps 1 - 3, 6, 10
3 (1/23)	Concepts Antoinette Burton, "Who Needs the Nation? Interrogating 'British' History," Journal of Historical Sociology 10, 3 (Sept 1997): 227-248. [Wiley Online Library (E-Journal)] Bernard Bailyn, "The Idea of Atlantic History," Itinerario 20 (1996): 29-44 [ARES] see also: International Seminar on the History of the Atlantic World website David Armitage, "Three Concepts of Atlantic History" in Armitage and Micahel Braddick, The British Atlantic World, 1500-1800 (Palgrave, 2002): 11-27, 250-54 [ARES] Jack Greene and Philip Morgan, "The Present State of Atlantic History" in Greene and Morgan, Atlantic History Supplemental (not required): Karen Wigen and Jessica Harland-Jacobs (eds), "Oceans Connect" special issue of The Geographical Review 89, 2 (April 1999) Nicholas Canny, "Writing Atlantic History; or, Reconfiguring the History of Colonial British America," Journal of America History (Dec 1999) *Alison Games, "Atlantic History: Definitions, Challenges, Opportunities," AHR* 111, 3 (June 2006) Lara Putnam, "To Study the Fragments/Whole: Microhistory and the Atlantic World,"Journal of Social History 39, 3 (Spring 2006): 615-30	reaction paper: what is Atlantic history? [2-page max] intellectual bio: Bailyn (Matt D)
4 (1/30)	Empires Peggy Liss, Chap 10 "Some Observations," in Atlantic Empires (Baltimore, 1983): 222-241 [ARES] J. H. Elliott, Empires of the Atlantic World	RP intellectual bio: Elliott (Brian) Elliott interview
5 (2/6)	People Trevor Burnard, "The British Atlantic" in Greene and Morgan Alison Games, "Introduction" to Migration and the Origins of the English Atlantic World (Cambridge, 1999): 1-12 [ARES] [see also her chapter "Migration" in Armitage and Braddick] Bernard Bailyn, "Preface" and Chap 12 "Failure in Xanadu" in Voyagers to the West: a passage in the peopling of America on the eve of the Revolution (New York, 1986): 430-468 [ARES] Smyrnea: Dr. Andrew Turnbull and the Mediterranean Settlement at New Smyrna and Edgewater, Florida, 1766-1777 Florida History Online	undergraduate assignment option 1: Chambers Delvaux intellectual bio: Games (Aurelia)
2/7	Peter Wood lecture
6 (2/13)	Colonies April Hatfield, Atlantic Virginia
7 (2/20)	Commodities David Hancock, "Commerce and conversation in the eighteenth-century Atlantic: the invention of Madeira wine," Journal of Interdisciplinary History 29, 2 (Autumn 1998): 197-220 [JSTOR] Max Edelson, "The Character of Commodities" in Peter Coclanis (ed), The Atlantic Economy during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (Columbia, 2005): 344-360 [ARES] Wim Klooster, "Inter-Imperial Smuggling in the Americas, 1600-1800," in Bailyn and Denault, Soundings in Atlantic History [ARES]	journal analysis intellectual bio: Hancock (Matt C)
8 (2/27)	Slavers Laurent Dubois, "The French Atlantic" in Greene and Morgan Robert Harms, The Diligent	RP
9 (3/5)	Spring Break -- no class
10 (3/12)	Slaves John Thornton, "Introduction" to Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800 (Cambridge, 1998 (1992)): 1-9 [ARES] Stephanie Smallwood, "Introduction" and Chapters 4 and 5 in Saltwater Slavery: A Middle Passage from Africa to American Diaspora (Cambridge, 2008) [PDF1 PDF2] Vincent Brown, "Social Death and Political Life in the Study of Slavery," American Historical Review 114 (Dec 2009): 1231-1249 [JSTOR Complete] The TransAtlantic Slave Trade Database [Morgan in Greene and Morgan]	undergraduate assignment option 2: Aubert Corrigan Hamm intellectual bio: Thornton (Mandy)
11 (3/19)	class cancelled optional reading for lecture assignment: "Revolutions in the Americas," American Historical Review Forum 105, 1 (Feb 2000) [JSTOR] Wim Klooster, Chap 6 "The Revolutions Compared: Causes, Patterns, Legacies," in Revolutions in the Atlantic World: A Comparative History (New York, 2009): 158-174 [ARES]	undergraduate lecture assignment: Aubert Chambers Corrigan Delvaux [ppt]
12 (3/26)	Preachers Rebecca Larson, Introduction and Chap 5 "In the Service of Truth": Impact of Women Ministers' Travels on the Transatlantic Quaker Community in Daughters of Light: Quaker Women Preaching and Prophesying in the Colonies and Abroad 1700-1775 (Chapel Hill, 1999): 3-13,172-231 [ARES] Jon Sensbach, Rebecca's Revival
13 (4/2)	Beyond Atlantic history "WMQ Forum: Beyond the Atlantic" William and Mary Quarterly 63, 4 (Oct 2006): 675-742 (Games, Stern, Mapp, Coclanis) [JSTOR] Nicholas Canny, "Atlantic History and Global History" and Peter Coclanis, "Beyond Atlantic History" in Greene and Morgan Supplemental: Peter Coclanis, “Drang Nach Osten: Bernard Bailyn, the World-Island, and the Idea of Atlantic History,” Journal of World History 13, 1 (Spr 2002): 169-182 Jorge Canizares-Esguerra, "Some Caveats about the Atlantic Paradigm," History Compass (2003)
14 (4/9)	Hemispheric history Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Chap 1 "Americas? America?," in The Americas: A Hemispheric History (New York, 2003): 3-20 [ARES] Jorge Canizares-Esguerra, Chap 6 "Toward a 'Pan-American' Atlantic," in Puritan Conquistadors: Iberianizing the Atlantic, 1550-1700 (Stanford, 2006): 215-233 [ARES] Greene "Hemispheric History and Atlantic History" in Greene and Morgan	intellectual bio: Greene (Mike)
15 (4/16)	Imperial history Emma Rothschild, The Inner Life of Empires	intellectual bio: Rothschild (Curran)
16 (4/23)	World history David Armitage and Sanjay Subrahmanyam (eds), The Age of Revolutions in Global Context, c. 1760-1840	discussion of undergraduate lecture assignment
4/27		final papers