Time once again to post next semester’s readings. I’m doing things a bit differently with my two introductory survey courses. I chose a theme for all of the readings, with the purpose of having the students write a paper that ties all three books together in an end-of-the-semester paper.
Early U.S.
The theme for this course is, obviously, slavery.
Gary Kornblith, Slavery and Sectional Strife in the Early American Republic, 1776-1821 (Rowman and Littlefield, 2009) ISBN 978-0-7425-5096-4
Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave (Dover, 2000) ISBN 978-0-4864-1143-9
Peter H. Wood, Strange New Land: Africans in Colonial America (Oxford Univ. Press, 2002) ISBN 978-0-1951-5823-6
Modern U.S.
The theme for this course is the search for perfection within U.S. society.
Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward, 2000-1887 (Bedford/St, Martin’s, 1995) ISBN 978-0-312-10591-4
Van Gosse, The Movements of the New Left, 1950-1975 (Bedford/St, Martin’s, 2005) ISBN 978-0-312-13397-9
Daniel K. Williams, God’s Own Party: The Making of the Christian Right (Oxford Univ. Press, 2012) ISBN 978-0-1999-2906-1
Southern U.S. History
William W. Freehling, The South vs. the South: How Anti-Confederate Southerners Shaped the Course of the Civil War (Oxford Univ. Press, 2002) ISBN 978-0-1951-5629-4
Jack P. Greene, Pursuits of Happiness: The Social Development of Early Modern British Colonies and the Formation of American Culture (Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1988) ISBN 978-0-8078-4227-0
Walter Johnson, Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market (Harvard Univ. Press, 2001) ISBN 978-0-6740-0539-6
Donald G. Mathews, Religion in the Old South (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1979) ISBN 978-0-2265-1002-6
Jacksonian America: Society, Personality, and Politics 
The South v. The South is a great read. Good pick!
*bows*