Course Catalogue

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This course explores the history of the United States in a time of continental consolidation and overseas expansion (1860s-1920s). The period witnessed the violent closing of the frontier, the rise of new race regimes in former slave states, an increasing fixation on foreign markets and labour, and the formal acquisition of a colonial empire. US power in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries also relied upon new circuitries of exchange in a rapidly connecting world. These global transfers complicated distinctions between nation and empire, and placed the United States in close conversation with European imperial formations. In studying overlapping histories of nation and empire, the course traces the origins and character of US global power.

10 x 2-hour seminars per student. This is one of the Honours options in History and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

Available to all students fulfilling requirements for Honours entry into History, and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other Honours programmes who qualify under the University's 25% regulation.

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The standard assessments for this course are: 

■ Primary Source Document Analysis - 35% - 1500 words 

■ Research Essay - 60% - 3000 words 

■ Seminar contribution - 5% 

If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available: 

■ There are no alternatives to the Document Analysis and Essay, but flexible deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustment (Students should follow the usual process for extensions). 

■ Written self-evaluation reflecting on seminar contribution as alternative to seminar contribution. 

Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor.  

This course aims to:

■ Analyse the significance of empire in US history during a period of tremendous national and global change.

■ Use empire as a category of analysis in historical study.

■ Consider and assess innovative methodological approaches to US history from a variety of disciplinary sub-fields.

■ Hone their abilities as historians by evaluating and critiquing primary and secondary source documentation on weekly topics of study.

■ Review relevant scholarly articles and primary sources and present their findings to their peers.

■ Interrogate popular narratives about America's place in modern global history.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Explain how race, war, and empire informed the creation of American empire.

■ Determine the origin points of contemporary US global power by analysing its formation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

■ Identify practical and conceptual linkages between the construction of the American nation-state and the acquisition of overseas territories.

■ Critically assess salient historiographical questions and debates surrounding the period of US history under study.

■ Construct reflective and convincing written arguments based on their readings of primary and secondary source literature.

■ Discuss and debate complex topics related to US empire, both as individuals and in small group settings.