Worldly Republic: The U.S. and the World in the Nineteenth Century

After the stormy Age of Revolutions, the nineteenth century is often thought of as an inward-looking century.  But in fact it was engaged with the wider world in a myriad ways, from whaling voyages to territorial annexations, from cultural imports to forced and willing migrations, from missionaries and reformers to travelers and adventurers. As participants investigate U.S. connections to every settled continent, four key themes will structure the learning: culture and commodities, expansionism (westward and beyond) and national identity, slavery and freedom, and immigration/migration and travel. In other words, the course addresses core U.S. history content standards of the pre- and post-Civil War eras, viewed through a global lens. As new identities were forged in this period, we will consider how Americans of different backgrounds felt about internationalism and international connections, and how different cultural groups expressed what it meant to be American. The course offers several opportunities to choose differentiated pathways depending upon interests.

Standards: [USI.T4] Describe important religious and social trends that shaped America in the 18th and 19th centuries,  [USI.T4] Social, political, and religious change, [WHII.T3.3] Analyze the impact of Western imperialism in Asia, Africa, and Latin America [USI.T3] Economic growth in the North, South, and West