Graduate Seminar: U.S. Before 1900

This graduate seminar studies key questions, debates, and transformations in the field(s) of U.S. history from the colonial period through the Gilded Age, entering the Progressive Era (or the Nadir). Students will read a selection of both recent and classic writings across subfields, including social, labor, political, and intellectual histories. Students will analyze historians' methods, their selection and interpretation of sources, and matters of storytelling and craft. Students will write original research papers on a topic of their choosing, with the goal of presenting at an academic conference, or transforming their papers into articles for publication in a scholarly journal.