My Spring 2012 American Identities Schedule of Assignments

The latest version of my syllabus for AMST/ENGL 296: American Identities can be found at http://www.fredonia.edu/department/english/simon/ai5/, but just in case the Fredonia site goes down, I'm posting the schedule of assignments here.  For my students' reference, the teams listed in it are as follows:

1. Team Impartial
2. Team Manifest Destiny
3. Laissez Faire
4. Boss Sauce
5. Team Yuengling
6. Blue Barracudas
7. Team SAC
8. Team Ramrod

And the texts referred to by the authors' last names in what follows are:

• Amy Chua, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (Penguin, 2011)
• James Der Derian, Virtuous War: Mapping the Military-Industrial-Entertainment Network (2nd ed., Routledge, 2009)
• Cory Doctorow, Little Brother (Tor, 2010)
• Matthew Frye Jacobson, Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race (Harvard, 1999)
• Jill Lepore, The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party's Revolution and the Battle over American History (Princeton, 2010)
• Barack Obama, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (Three Rivers Press, 2004)
• Eric Rauchway, Blessed Among Nations: How the World Made America (Hill and Wang, 2007)
• Margaret Regan, The Death of Josseline: Immigration Stories from the Arizona Borderlands (Beacon, 2010)
• Peter Spiro, Beyond Citizenship: American Identity After Globalization (Oxford, 2008)
• Karen Tei Yamashita, Tropic of Orange (Coffee House, 1997)

OK, here goes:

T 1/24 Introductions, Overview, Set-up.
Th 1/26 American? Identities?

American Revolutions

T 1/31 Lepore, Prologue-Ch. 2 (1-69); Prologue focus: Teams 1, 2; Ch. 1 focus: Teams 3, 4, 5; Ch. 2 focus: Teams 6, 7, 8
Th 2/2 Lepore, Ch. 3-Ch. 4 (70-125); Ch. 3 focus: Teams 1, 2, 3, 4; Ch. 4 focus: Teams 5, 6, 7, 8
F 2/3 IDENTITY PAPER due by 11:30 pm in IP Drop Box on course ANGEL site (attach as .rtf, .doc, .docx, or .pdf document, please).

T 2/7 Lepore, Ch. 5-Afterword (126-175); Ch. 5 focus: Teams 1, 2, 3, 4; Epilogue-Afterword focus: Teams 5, 6, 7, 8
Th 2/9 Regan, Prologue-Ch. 3 (ix-63); Prologue-Introduction focus: Teams 4, 5; Ch. 1 focus: Teams 3, 6; Ch. 2 focus: Teams 2, 7; Ch. 3 focus: Teams 1,8

T 2/14 Regan, Ch. 4-7 (64-147); Ch. 4 focus: Teams 3, 6; Ch. 5 focus: Teams 2, 7; Ch. 6 focus: Teams 1, 8; Ch. 7 focus: Teams 4,5
Th 2/16 Regan, Ch. 8-Afterword (148-224); Ch. 8 focus: Teams 2, 7; Ch. 9 focus: Teams 1, 8; Ch. 10 focus: Teams 4, 5; Epilogue-Afterword focus: Teams 3, 6

American Transformations

T 2/21 Jacobson, Introduction-Ch. 3 (1-136); Introduction-Section Introduction focus: Teams 2, 7; Ch. 1 focus: Teams 3, 6; Ch. 2 focus: Teams 4, 5; Ch. 3 focus: Teams 1, 8
Th 2/23 Jacobson, Ch. 4-5 (137-200); Ch. 4 focus: Teams 1, 3, 5, 7; Ch. 5 focus: Teams 2, 4, 6, 8

T 2/28 Jacobson, Ch. 6-Epilogue (201-282); Ch. 6 focus: Teams 3, 6; Ch. 7 focus; Teams 1, 8; Ch. 8 focus: Teams 2, 7; Epilogue focus: Teams 4, 5
Th 3/1 Obama, Preface-Part One (vii-130)

T 3/6 Obama, Part Two (131-296)
Th 3/8 Obama, Part Three-Epilogue (297-442)

M 3/12-F 3/16 SPRING BREAK: NO CLASSES.

American Competitiveness

T 3/20 Rauchway, Introduction-Ch. 3 (3-84); Introduction-Ch. 1 focus: Teams 1, 3, 5; Ch. 2 focus: Teams 2, 4, 6; Ch. 3 focus: Teams 7, 8
Th 3/22 Rauchway, Ch. 4-Conclusion (85-173); Ch. 4 focus: Teams 1, 2, 3; Ch. 5 focus: Teams 4, 5, 6; Ch. 6-Conclusion focus: Teams 7, 8

T 3/27 Chua, Part One-Part Two (1-154)
Th 3/29 Chua, Part Three (155-229)
F 3/30 FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL due by 11:30 pm on discussion forum on course ANGEL site (attach as .rtf, .doc, .docx, or .pdf document, please).

American Citizenship

T 4/3 Spiro, Introduction-Ch. 3 (3-80); Introduction-Ch. 1 focus: Teams 4, 6, 7; Ch. 2 focus: Teams 1, 3, 5; Ch. 3 focus: Teams, 2, 8
Th 4/5 Spiro, Ch. 4-Conclusion (81-163); Ch. 4 focus: Teams 2, 4, 8; Ch. 5 focus: Teams 1, 3, 7; Ch. 6-Conclusion focus: Teams 5, 6

T 4/10 Yamashita, Ch. 1-14 (1-94)
Th 4/12 Yamashita, Ch. 15-28 (95-172)

T 4/17 Yamashita, Ch. 29-42 (173-240)
Th 4/19 Yamashita, Ch. 43-49 (241-268)
F 4/20 IDENTIFICATION PROJECT due by 11:30 pm in IP Drop Box on course ANGEL site (attach as .rtf, .doc, .docx, or .pdf document, please).

American Battlefields

T 4/24 Der Derian, Preface-Ch. 7 (xvii-176); Preface-Ch. 1 focus: Teams 5, 7; Ch. 2-3 focus: Teams 1, 3; Ch. 4-5 focus: Teams 2, 4; Ch. 6-7 focus: Teams 6, 8
Th 4/26 Der Derian, Ch. 8-12 (177-294); Ch. 8 focus: Teams 1, 2; Ch. 9-10 focus: Teams 3, 4; Ch. 11 focus: Teams 5, 6; Ch. 12 focus: Teams 7, 8

T 5/1 Doctorow, Ch. 1-13 (9-213)
Th 5/3 Doctorow, Ch. 14-Epilogue (214-365); course evaluations

TBA Final Project presentations
F 5/11 FINAL PROJECT due by 11:30 pm in FP Drop Box on course ANGEL site (attach as .rtf, .doc, .docx, or .pdf document, please).