MEETS: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 2:00 to 2:50 p.m. SSKV 120
INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Donald Holtgrieve
OFFICE: Butte 511
PHONE: (530) 898-5780; Email:dholtgrieve@oavax.csuchico.edu
OFFICE HOURS: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 4:00 - 5:00 p.m., by appointment, and by email 24 hours a day.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
1) To introduce students to the academic discipline of HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY
2) To provide geographic, historical, and environmental background on the heritage of the United States
3) To illustrate examples of geographic processes by viewing landscape changes through time.
4) To supply future classroom teachers with content ideas for geography, history, and social studies classes.
COURSE COVERAGE:
Historical Geography is a regional and topical analysis of the United States through selected time periods. Discussions focus on the physical environment, exploration and mapping settlement patterns, population and migration, ethnic diversity, agriculture, cultural and economic systems, resource utilization, urbanization, transportation, and current issues that resulted from these historic processes. The required textbook, is on reserve in Meriam Library provides a starting point for class discussions of each topic listed below.
TEXT: Michael Conzon, The Making of an American Landscape
SUPPLEMENTAL TEXTS (Reserve Book Room): Hardwick, S and D. Holtgrieve Valley For Dreams: Life and Landscape in the Sacramento Valley, Zelensky, W. The Cultural Geography of the United States, Brown, R. Historical Geography of the United States, Mithcell and Groves North America The Historical Geography of a Changing Landscape A. Cooke America, and D. Holtgrieve, compiler, Readings in the Historical Geography of the United States for Geography 135.
BOOKS FOR BOOK REVIEWS (select one): Mitchner, J. Centennial, Texas, Hawaii, Alaska, Chesapeake or other works of American historical fiction as agreed upon with instructor. Click here for more information about the book review assignment.
REFERENCE -(Available in University Library and in Instructor's Office) National Geographic Society. Historical Atlas of the United States. National Geographic Society. Atlas of North America: Space Age Portrait of a Continent. Turner and Allen. We The People: An Atlas of America's Ethnic Diversity. Paullin. Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States. Rooney. This Remarkable Continent. Andrews and Fonseca The Atlas of American Society. Conzen, M. et.al. A Scholar's Guide to Geographical Writing on the American and Canadian Past.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY A list of survey works dealing with the course content may be found in the course bibliography. These works are supposed to be in the library general collection and are catalogued in Libcat.
ANNOTATED LIST OF WWW LINKS is a list of links representing a brief sampling of sources of information related to the study of the historical geography of the United States. The list is categorized by some basic themes, concepts, and methods of inquiry. The list is by no means comprehensive; however, it does represent the results of numerous web searches on the subject. Many of the sites on the list are from universities, libraries, and museums, and normally contain source references to the material presented. Other sites on the list are from individuals or organizations that sometimes don't provide source information. Consider the source when citing information presented on the web.
STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES AND GRADES:
1) Quizzes and Summaries of readings 10 pts ea.X 10 = 100 = 20%
2) Book Review: 50 pts = 10%
3) Town Founding Presentation: 50 = 10%
4) Midterm Exam: 150 =30%
5) Final Exam: 150 =30%
TOTAL PTS: 500 = 100%
Exams and quizzes are essay responses to questions given in lecture outlines or posed to the class during discussion. Click here for tips on writing essay exams. Click here for guidance on how to write book reviews. Sample exam questions from past semesters are available by clicking questions. Guidance on the town founding exercise will be given during the fifth week of the semester. In addition, graduate students who will use this course as part of their masters degree program will write a term paper on a topic to be agreed upon by the student and the instructor (see list of selected topics)
Basic Questions Guiding the Course:
1) Who are Americans -what are the specific sources of our identity as a distinct nation of people? (ethnic and religious background, political ideals, economic practices, etc.)
2) What processes, physical, cultural, economic and political, have molded the present landscape? What are evidences of these processes and patterns today?
3) How do historical geographers contribute to applied geography to solve real world problems?
4) What may be predicted for the future of the United States based on its historical-geographic experience.
Associated Historical Maps
| Maps with Topographic Base |
| Explorer Routes - 1500's |
Previews and Expectations; What is Historical Geography?
Methods and Approaches to Historical Geography
Themes and concepts in geography
(Read "The American Scene" by D. Lowenthal and Chapter 1. Introduction in Mitchell and Groves)
(Read Chapter 1 in Conzen,The Making of an American Landscape)
View video: America: The New-Found Land
Setting the Stage, the Physical Setting
(Read Hardwick and Holtgrieve Chapters 1 and 2)Americans Not Indians
(Read Chapter 2 in Conzen)
Map quiz on Physical Regions and States
Early Exploration and Mapping
Spanish/Mexican Settlement
(Read Chapter 3 in Conzen and Chapter 3 in Hardwick)
Quiz on Reading
Week 4
French Settlement
(Read Chapter 4 in Conzen)
English Settlement
(Read Chapter 5 in Mitchel and Grove or chapter 5 in Conzen)
(Read Hardwick Chapter 4)Quiz on Reading
Week 5
Mirror for Americans; A Regional Geography in 1810
(Read Chapter 6 in Conzen)
Write book review in class (see book review guidelines)
Week 6
The Transportation Frontier, sail, rivers, canals and roads
View video America By Design: The Road
Regional and Cultural Indicators; language, religion, diet
View video America: A Home Away from Home
(Read Chapter 11 in Mitchell and Groves and Chapter 5 in Hardwick)
Week 7
Territorial Acquisition
(Read Chapter 7 in Conzen)
View video America: Gone West
Mid-term Examination
Week 8
Settlement Patterns and Survey Systems
(Read Chapter 11 in text)
The fur trade and the opening of the west
(Read Chapter 12 in Mitchell and Grove and Chapter 10 in Conzen)
(Read Chapter 6 in Hardwick)Quiz on Reading
Week 9
The Disposition of the Public Domain
(Read Chapter 9 in Conzen)
(Read D. Holtgrieve "Land Speculation and Other Processes in Historical Geography")
The Far West , cattle, agriculture
(Read "American Wests: Preface to a Geographical Interpretation" by D. Meinig -
and "Dear Brother" Letter)
(Read Hardwick Chapter 7)Quiz on Reading
View video: America: Domesticating A Wilderness
Week 10
Transportation: Railroads, Streetcars, Highways, Aircraft
(Read J. Vance "The Oregon Trail and The Union Pacific Railroad" and Chapter 15 in Mitchell and Groves)
View video: In Search of the Oregon Trail
D. Holtgrieve "The Effects of the Railroads on Small Town Populations")
Week 11
Conservation and Resource Management: minerals, soil, timber, wildlife
(Read M. Mitchell "Land and Water Policies in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta")
(Read Chapter 8 in Hardwick)Quiz on Reading
Week 12
Resource Management: water
(Read D. Walters "Northern California: The Empty Quarter")
View Video: To Conquer The Inland Sea
American Landscapes
(Read Chapter 9 in Hardwick)Quiz on Reading
Week 13
Immigrant Settlement and Survival
(Read Chapter 12 in Conzen)
Cultural and Ethnic Patterns
View video: America: The Huddled Masses
Week 14
Economic and Urban Development
(Read Chapter 14 and 15 in Conzen and Chapter 10 in Hardwick)
Map Quiz: Cities
Week 15
Wrap Up discussion: Applied Historical Geography
(Read "Afterward" by M. Conzen and Chapter 11 in Hardwick)
Week 16
Final Examination
