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In this course, we will explore the history and literature of the United States from its first settlement by Europeans until the end of the Civil War. We will discuss the political, economic, and philosophical roots of democracy, migration, and religion; contact between Native American and European populations; race, class, gender, war, nature, and expansion. Our readings, including firsthand accounts, poetry, short stories, slave narratives, political writing, sermons, and letters, will raise a variety of ethical, social, and aesthetic problems that we will examine. I welcome and encourage you to draw connections with other contemporaneous disciplines (science, art, etc), American and otherwise, as well as with current political events.

In this course, we will explore the history and literature of the United States from its first settlement by Europeans until the end of the Civil War. We will discuss the political, economic, and philosophical roots of democracy, migration, and religion; contact between Native American and European populations; race, class, gender, war, nature, and expansion. Our readings, including firsthand accounts, poetry, short stories, slave narratives, political writing, sermons, and letters, will raise a variety of ethical, social, and aesthetic problems that we will examine. I welcome and encourage you to draw connections with other contemporaneous disciplines (science, art, etc), American and otherwise, as well as with current political events.

The essays collected in your anthology are focused on New York City and urban issues. Reflecting on your own urban experiences alongside these essays will help you become an active participant in discussions about communities, public space, urban art forms, education, homelessness, crime, gentrification, the environment, and other topics of debate. Thinking critically about cities will also help you learn to use writing as a technology for managing competing ideas and clarifying and defending your own.

The essays collected in your anthology are focused on New York City and urban issues. Reflecting on your own urban experiences alongside these essays will help you become an active participant in discussions about communities, public space, urban art forms, education, homelessness, crime, gentrification, the environment, and other topics of debate. Thinking critically about cities will also help you learn to use writing as a technology for managing competing ideas and clarifying and defending your own.

This course will allow students to examine the relationship between film and their literary sources.

This course will allow students to examine the relationship between film and their literary sources.

This ENG1101 course introduces concepts of critical writing and thinking; introductory research methods; and strategies for constructing effective college level essays. As a First Year Learning Community, we will pair with MAT 0630 to explore the problem of procrastination and form plans for battling this common challenge.

This ENG1101 course introduces concepts of critical writing and thinking; introductory research methods; and strategies for constructing effective college level essays. As a First Year Learning Community, we will pair with MAT 0630 to explore the problem of procrastination and form plans for battling this common challenge.

This course explores the history and literature of the United States starting from the end of the Civil War till the present day. Students will read a mix of genres and a number of classic tales, focusing not just on aesthetics but on the history embedded in these texts. We will cover a variety of issues relating—but not limited to—religion, class, gender, race, politics, human rights, and the history of publishing and authorship. All told, we will try to come to terms with the ethical, social, and aesthetic problems that our readings raise to both better understand our past and present.

This course explores the history and literature of the United States starting from the end of the Civil War till the present day. Students will read a mix of genres and a number of classic tales, focusing not just on aesthetics but on the history embedded in these texts. We will cover a variety of issues relating—but not limited to—religion, class, gender, race, politics, human rights, and the history of publishing and authorship. All told, we will try to come to terms with the ethical, social, and aesthetic problems that our readings raise to both better understand our past and present.