INQ-271 | Vast Early America

Full Title: Vast Early America

Topic Description:

Why must early America be vast? In the past, historians focused their studies of colonial America on the trajectory of the “original thirteen colonies” from settlement to revolution. Over the past twenty years, historians have expanded their view to include continental, Atlantic, and global views of early American history. Tracing the circulation of goods, ideas, and people has allowed historians to gain a fuller picture of the vast array of actors that shaped the early American experience. This course will examine key themes connected to the history of the settlement of the North American continent and the wider Atlantic world. Together we will read and discuss primary and secondary sources to explore the vastness of early America and to better understand how Europeans, Africans, and Indigenous people came into sustained contact (voluntarily and involuntarily) and ultimately changed each other in far-reaching ways.

Counts as Global? No

Topic Approved: February 2023