Course Syllabus

Course Information
HUHI 6340, Readings in American Culture: The Nineteenth Century
Spring 2008

Professor Contact Information

Professor D. Wickberg, x6222, wickberg@utdallas.edu
JO 5.428, Office Hours T 9:00-10:00; R 1:00-2:00

Course Pre-requisites, Co-requisites, and/or Other Restrictions

Graduate Standing, School of Arts and Humanities

Course Description
This is a graduate-level introduction to, and overview of, recent scholarship in the field of
nineteenth-century American cultural history. Cultural history is a dynamic and expanding field
of study, currently at the forefront of historical inquiry; its perspectives and methods in the past
25 years have reshaped the entire historical profession, including the fields of political, social,
economic, and intellectual history. Fields such as foreign policy history or business history have
experienced a “cultural turn”; historians are now more likely to cite anthropologists such as
Clifford Geertz or cultural theorists such as Foucault than economists, political scientists or
sociologists; new concerns with narrative, cultural representation, and the production of meaning
are everywhere in current historiography. Nowhere is this more true than in the historical study
of the United States in the nineteenth century. The older concerns of historians of this era—such
as the emergence of market capitalism and Jacksonian democracy, the consolidation of American
corporations, American expansionism, national unification, evangelical religion and reform
movements, urbanization—have been revisited in new contexts in which terms such as
“memory,” “the body,” “narrative,” “representation,” “sentimentalism,” “the humanitarian
sensibility,” “gender” and “whiteness” have become central to the discussion of the nineteenth-
century past.
This course, then, has two primary purposes: to introduce students to the distinctive
varieties of cultural history and their interpretive approaches; and to provide an overview of
issues specific to nineteenth-century American culture. The first purpose involves a focus on
methodology, conceptual approaches, and the ways in which cultural historians differ among
themselves, as well as from non-cultural historians. One of the main questions we will be asking
is whether culture should be understood as a discrete sphere of life—the realm of the arts, or
“popular” genres, including music, theater, literature, etc.—or whether it should be seen in a
broader sense as infusing all spheres of experience, including economic and political life. The
second purpose is more concerned with the substantive questions of the nineteenth century: e.g.
how did culture and values change in response to the emergence of a market society? In what
way did the changing legal status of slaves and free laborers shape new values about gender and
individual rights? What role did cultural memory play in reconstructing the nation in the period

Course Syllabus Page 1

after the Civil War? What accounts for the appearance of new genres of horror and
sensationalistic murder trial accounts, or for the fascination with deception of the senses in
popular culture? What are the cultural consequences of new forms of communication, such as
the postal system?
This course might be viewed as a preparatory course for students thinking about doing a
PhD exam field in American cultural history; it lays the foundation by introducing recent work
and pointing to a larger body of scholarship that students might be expected to master. That said,
as with any course of this nature, it only touches the surface of a large and complex body of
scholarship. Through their papers students will be able to examine a particular subject matter in
more detail.

Student Learning Objectives/Outcomes

Students will be able to demonstrate knowledge of varieties of approaches to studying the
past that are identified as cultural history.
Students will demonstrate knowledge of principle areas of nineteenth-century American
culture.

Required Textbooks and Materials

The following required texts are available for purchase at both the campus bookstore and Off
Campus Books.

David Blight, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory
James Cook, The Arts of Deception: Playing With Fraud in the Age of Barnum
Karen Halttunen, Murder Most Foul: The Killer and the American Gothic Imagination
David Henkin, The Postal Age: The Emergence of Modern Communications in Nineteenth-
Century America
Kristin Hoganson, Consumer’s Imperium: The Global Production of American Domesticity
Walter Johnson, Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market
Scott Sandage, Born Losers
Michael Sappoll, A Traffic of Dead Bodies: Anatomy and Embodied Social Identity in
Nineteenth-Century America
Amy Dru Stanley, From Bondage to Contract: Wage Labor, Marriage, and the Market in the Age
of Slave Emancipation
Michael Zakim, Ready-Made Democracy: A History of Men’s Dress in the American Republic,
1760-1860

Additional required readings of periodical literature will be indicated (*) in the schedule, and will
be available through electronic journal databases maintained by McDermott Library. Other
readings will be available through electronic reserve.

Course Syllabus Page 2

Assignments & Academic Calendar

Week I: Tuesday, January 8

Introduction. No Reading

Week II: Tuesday, January 15

Defining Cultural History
Reading: Lynn Hunt, “Introduction: History, Culture, and Text” in The New Cultural
History (University of California Press, 1989): 1-22
William Sewell, “The Concept(s) of Culture” in The Logics of History: Social
Theory and Social Transformation (University of Chicago Press, 2005): 152-174
Daniel Wickberg, “Heterosexual White Male: Some Recent Inversions in
American Cultural History,” Journal of American History vol. 92 (1), 2005: 136-
157
Daniel Wickberg, “What is the History of Sensibilities? On Cultural
Histories, Old and New,” American Historical Review vol. 112 (3), 2007: 661-
684
Jean-Christophe Agnew, “Capitalism, Culture, and Catastrophe: Lawrence
Levine and the Opening of Cultural History,” Journal of American History
vol. 93 (3), 2006: 772-791

Week III: Tuesday, January 22

The Communications Revolution
Reading: David Henkin, The Postal Age

Week IV: Tuesday, January 29

Clothing as Text: Reading Culture through Fashion
Reading: Michael Zakim, Ready-Made Democracy
Jill Fields, An Intimate Affair: Women, Lingerie, and Sexuality, pp. 18-46

Week V: Tuesday, February 5

Slave Historiography and the Culture of Commodities
Reading: Walter Johnson, Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market
Nell Irvin Painter, “Soul Murder and Slavery: Toward a Fully-Loaded Cost
Accounting,” in U.S. History as Women’s History: New Feminist Essays
ed. Linda Kerber, Alice Kessler-Harris, Kathryn Kish Sklar (1995): 124-46

Week VI: Tuesday, February 12

Library Session
Due: short paper

Week VII: Tuesday, February 19

The New and Newer Middle Classes
Reading: Scott Sandage, Born Losers
Burton J. Bledstein, “Introduction: Storytellers to the Middle Class,” in The
Middling Sorts: Explorations in the History of the American Middle Class , ed.
Burton J. Bledstein and Robert D. Johnston (Routledge, 2001): 1-25

Week VIII: Tuesday, February 26

Course Syllabus Page 3

The Trial as Popular Culture Text: Gender, Ideology, and Genre
Reading: Karen Halttunen, Murder Most Foul
Sara Maza, “Stories in History: Cultural Narratives in Recent Works in European
History,” American Historical Review vol. 101 (5), 1996: 1493-1515
Jill Lepore, “Historians Who Love Too Much: Reflections on Microhistory and
Biography,” Journal of American History vol. 88 (1), 2001: 129-144

Week IX: Tuesday, March 4

No Reading
Paper Proposals Due

SPRING BREAK

Week X: Tuesday, March 18

Seeing is Believing: Popular Culture and the Problem of Knowledge
Reading: James W. Cook, Arts of Deception: Playing With Fraud in the Age of Barnum
Leora Auslander, “Beyond Words” American Historical Review vol. 110 (4).
2005: 1015-1045
Michael L. Wilson, “Visual Culture: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis?”
In The Nineteenth-Century Visual Culture Reader ,eds. Vanessa R. Schwartz
And Jeanine Przyblyski (London: Routledge, 2004): 26-33

Week XI: Tuesday, March 25

Discourse, Power, and Science
Reading: Michael Sappol, A Traffic in Dead Bodies

Week XII: Tuesday, April 1

Liberalism, the Market, and the Problem of Dependency
Reading: Amy Dru Stanley, From Bondage to Contract
Elizabeth Clark, “’The Sacred Rights of the Weak’: Pain, Sympathy and the
Culture of Individual Rights in Antebellum America,” Journal of American
History vol. 82(2), 1995: 463-493

Week XIII: Tuesday, April 8

Race and Cultural Memory
Reading: David Blight, Race and Reunion
Barbara Jeanne Fields, “ Ideology and Race in American History” in
Region,Race and Reconstruction, ed. J. Morgan Kousser and James M.
McPherson (1982): 143-77
Jay Winter, “The Memory Boom in Contemporary Historical Studies,” Raritan
21 (1), 2001: 52-66

Week XIV: Tuesday, April 15

No Meeting
Paper Drafts Due

Week XV: Tuesday, April 22

Cultural History in a Transnational Age: The Newest Empire
Reading: Kristin Hoganson, Consumers’ Imperium

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 Charles Bright and Michael Geyer, “Where in the World is America? The
History of the United States in the Global Age,” in Rethinking American History
in a Global Age , ed. Thomas Bender (University of California Press, 2002): 63-
99

Exam Week: Tuesday, April 29

No Class Meeting. Final Paper Due in JO 5.428 by 3:00 pm

Grading Policy

Grades will be determined on the following basis:

Short paper (due February 12): 20%
Class participation: 40%
Final Paper (due April 29) 40%
All assignments must be completed. Participation grade will be determined by a combination of the
following: attendance, demonstrated evidence of having completed and thought about assigned readings,
quality of comments, questions, and criticisms about readings. Failure to do the readings and to participate
in class discussion will result in a low participation grade.

Course & Instructor Policies

Students are expected to attend all class meetings prepared to participate in discussion of assigned readings.
The only legitimate excuses for failing to attend class are illness and personal/family emergencies. Any
other absence will be regarded as a choice made by the student not to attend. Tardiness disrupts class
meetings. Please make every effort to be on time. Repeated tardiness will lead to a lower participation
grade. Please make sure all cell phones are off or disabled during class. Please do not use laptops or other
electronic devices during class unless required to do so by a disability. Students are expected to treat one
another with civility, and to allow all students the freedom to participate in discussion. Debate is the
lifeblood of intellectual work, and vigorous debate is encouraged. Rudeness and personal remarks,
however, will not be tolerated. As much as is possible, I encourage students to consider ideas on their
merits, and not take criticism of ideas personally. I try to encourage a classroom that is both intellectually
lively and open to a variety of views, and at the same time, respectful of the views and concerns of others.
I will do my best to abide by that spirit; I ask that you do as well.

All assignments are due on the designated dates. Students should meet all deadlines. If there are legitimate
reasons why an assignment cannot be completed, it is the student’s responsibility to request an extension.
If no extension is granted, late assignments will not be accepted.

Technical Support

If you experience any problems with your UTD account you may send an email to: assist@utdallas.edu or call the UTD
Computer Helpdesk at 972-883-2911.

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Field Trip Policies
Off-campus Instruction and Course Activities

Off-campus, out-of-state, and foreign instruction and activities are subject to state law and University policies and
procedures regarding travel and risk-related activities. Information regarding these rules and regulations may be found at
the website address http://www.utdallas.edu/BusinessAffairs/Travel_Risk_Activities.htm. Additional information is
available from the office of the school dean. Below is a description of any travel and/or risk-related activity associated
with this course.

Student Conduct & Discipline

The University of Texas System and The University of Texas at Dallas have rules and regulations for the orderly and
efficient conduct of their business. It is the responsibility of each student and each student organization to be
knowledgeable about the rules and regulations which govern student conduct and activities. General information on student
conduct and discipline is contained in the UTD printed publication, A to Z Guide, which is provided to all registered
students each academic year.

The University of Texas at Dallas administers student discipline within the procedures of recognized and established due
process. Procedures are defined and described in the Rules and Regulations, Series 50000, Board of Regents, The
University of Texas System, and in Title V, Rules on Student Services and Activities of the university’s Handbook of
Operating Procedures. Copies of these rules and regulations are available to students in the Office of the Dean of
Students, where staff members are available to assist students in interpreting the rules and regulations (SU 1.602, 972/883-
6391) and online at http://www.utdallas.edu/judicialaffairs/UTDJudicialAffairs-HOPV.html

A student at the university neither loses the rights nor escapes the responsibilities of citizenship. He or she is expected to
obey federal, state, and local laws as well as the Regents’ Rules, university regulations, and administrative rules. Students
are subject to discipline for violating the standards of conduct whether such conduct takes place on or off campus, or
whether civil or criminal penalties are also imposed for such conduct.

Academic Integrity

The faculty expects from its students a high level of responsibility and academic honesty. Because the value of an
academic degree depends upon the absolute integrity of the work done by the student for that degree, it is imperative that a
student demonstrate a high standard of individual honor in his or her scholastic work.

Scholastic Dishonesty, any student who commits an act of scholastic dishonesty is subject to discipline. Scholastic
dishonesty includes but is not limited to cheating, plagiarism, collusion, the submission for credit of any work or materials
that are attributable in whole or in part to another person, taking an examination for another person, any act designed to
give unfair advantage to a student or the attempt to commit such acts.

Plagiarism, especially from the web, from portions of papers for other classes, and from any other source is unacceptable
and will be dealt with under the university’s policy on plagiarism (see general catalog for details). This course will use the
resources of turnitin.com, which searches the web for possible plagiarism and is over 90% effective.

Copyright Notice

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other
reproductions of copyrighted materials, including music and software. Copying, displaying, reproducing, or distributing
copyrighted works may infringe the copyright owner’s rights and such infringement is subject to appropriate disciplinary
action as well as criminal penalties provided by federal law. Usage of such material is only appropriate when that usage
constitutes “fair use” under the Copyright Act. As a UT Dallas student, you are required to follow the institution’s
copyright policy (Policy Memorandum 84-I.3-46). For more information about the fair use exemption, see
http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/copypol2.htm

Email Use

The University of Texas at Dallas recognizes the value and efficiency of communication between faculty/staff and students
through electronic mail. At the same time, email raises some issues concerning security and the identity of each individual
in an email exchange. The university encourages all official student email correspondence be sent only to a student’s U.T.
Dallas email address and that faculty and staff consider email from students official only if it originates from a UTD
student account. This allows the university to maintain a high degree of confidence in the identity of all individual
corresponding and the security of the transmitted information. UTD furnishes each student with a free email account that

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 is to be used in all communication with university personnel. The Department of Information Resources at U.T. Dallas
provides a method for students to have their U.T. Dallas mail forwarded to other accounts.

Withdrawal from Class

The administration of this institution has set deadlines for withdrawal of any college-level courses. These dates and times
are published in that semester's course catalog. Administration procedures must be followed. It is the student's
responsibility to handle withdrawal requirements from any class. In other words, I cannot drop or withdraw any student.
You must do the proper paperwork to ensure that you will not receive a final grade of "F" in a course if you choose not to
attend the class once you are enrolled.

Student Grievance Procedures

Procedures for student grievances are found in Title V, Rules on Student Services and Activities, of the university’s
Handbook of Operating Procedures.

In attempting to resolve any student grievance regarding grades, evaluations, or other fulfillments of academic
responsibility, it is the obligation of the student first to make a serious effort to resolve the matter with the instructor,
supervisor, administrator, or committee with whom the grievance originates (hereafter called “the respondent”). Individual
faculty members retain primary responsibility for assigning grades and evaluations. If the matter cannot be resolved at that
level, the grievance must be submitted in writing to the respondent with a copy of the respondent’s School Dean. If the
matter is not resolved by the written response provided by the respondent, the student may submit a written appeal to the
School Dean. If the grievance is not resolved by the School Dean’s decision, the student may make a written appeal to the
Dean of Graduate or Undergraduate Education, and the deal will appoint and convene an Academic Appeals Panel. The
decision of the Academic Appeals Panel is final. The results of the academic appeals process will be distributed to all
involved parties.

Copies of these rules and regulations are available to students in the Office of the Dean of Students, where staff members
are available to assist students in interpreting the rules and regulations.

Incomplete Grade Policy

As per university policy, incomplete grades will be granted only for work unavoidably missed at the semester’s end and
only if 70% of the course work has been completed. An incomplete grade must be resolved within eight (8) weeks from
the first day of the subsequent long semester. If the required work to complete the course and to remove the incomplete
grade is not submitted by the specified deadline, the incomplete grade is changed automatically to a grade of F.

Disability Services

The goal of Disability Services is to provide students with disabilities educational opportunities equal to those of their non-
disabled peers. Disability Services is located in room 1.610 in the Student Union. Office hours are Monday and Thursday,
8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Tuesday and Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; and Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The contact information for the Office of Disability Services is:

The University of Texas at Dallas, SU 22
PO Box 830688
Richardson, Texas 75083-0688
(972) 883-2098 (voice or TTY)
disabilityservice@utdallas.edu

If you anticipate issues related to the format or requirements of this course, please meet with the Coordinator of Disability
Services. The Coordinator is available to discuss ways to ensure your full participation in the course. If you determine that
formal, disability-related accommodations are necessary, it is very important that you be registered with Disability Services
to notify them of your eligibility for reasonable accommodations. Disability Services can then plan how best to coordinate
your accommodations.

It is the student’s responsibility to notify his or her professors of the need for such an accommodation. Disability Services
provides students with letters to present to faculty members to verify that the student has a disability and needs
accommodations. Individuals requiring special accommodation should contact the professor after class or during office
hours.

Religious Holy Days

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 The University of Texas at Dallas will excuse a student from class or other required activities for the travel to and
observance of a religious holy day for a religion whose places of worship are exempt from property tax under Section
11.20, Tax Code, Texas Code Annotated.

The student is encouraged to notify the instructor or activity sponsor as soon as possible regarding the absence, preferably
in advance of the assignment. The student, so excused, will be allowed to take the exam or complete the assignment within
a reasonable time after the absence: a period equal to the length of the absence, up to a maximum of one week. A student
who notifies the instructor and completes any missed exam or assignment may not be penalized for the absence. A student
who fails to complete the exam or assignment within the prescribed period may receive a failing grade for that exam or
assignment.

If a student or an instructor disagrees about the nature of the absence [i.e., for the purpose of observing a religious holy
day] or if there is similar disagreement about whether the student has been given a reasonable time to complete any missed
assignments or examinations, either the student or the instructor may request a ruling from the chief executive officer of the
institution, or his or her designee. The chief executive officer or designee must take into account the legislative intent of
TEC 51.911(b), and the student and instructor will abide by the decision of the chief executive officer or designee.

These descriptions and timelines are subject to change at the discretion of the Professor.

Course Syllabus Page 8