131-018 Creating America: Immigration, Class, and Conflict in New England and New York

Note

Availability

Credit Points

Coordinator

Prerequisites

37.5 points of second/third year History, see Prerequisites.

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

This subject studies how immigrants coped with the environment found in the New World, and how 'America' was created. The subject will examine the Puritans in New England, with students visiting historical sites such as Plymouth Plantation and Harvard University, and examining some of the papers and documents held at these sites. This combination of physical sites and documentary evidence continues throughout the subject, as students follow each new wave of migration to Boston and New York. The Irish working-class experience is traced through visits to Ellis Island, the Tenement Museum, and the New York Fire Department Museum, then examine written material held at the U.S. Department of Labour Library. Similar material relating to the African-American experience is available in Harlem at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and by examining these materials students can form an understanding not only of the lives Irish-American and African-American workers lived, but how they fought with employers and the authorities to improve their lives. This working class experience will be contrasted with ways in which elites used their wealth to promote a capitalist vision for America.

Assessment

Written work totalling 8000 words. This will consist of exercises totalling 2000 words written in Boston and New York, and a research essay/s of 6000 words submitted in second semester.