Table of Contents
- Week One: Historians and Presidential Elections
- Week Two: The Bugs in the System
- Week Three: 1824 The “Corrupt Bargain,” Congress, and the Electoral College
- Week Four: 1860 This Means War
- Week Five: 1876 The “Compromise” that Killed Reconstruction
- Week Six: 2000 The Electoral College and The Supreme Court
- Week Seven: 2020 Can an Election Be Overturned?
- Week Eight: Contested Elections: What Does History Show Us?
Week One: Historians and Presidential Elections
Friday, August 30: Course Introduction: Using History to Contextualize Elections
Week Two: The Bugs in the System
Monday, September 2 The Constitution and Presidential Elections
Reading Due:
- Beeman, The Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, pp. xxv-xlv, 25-77 (concentrate especially on pp. 49-60)
- Jack N. Rakove, “Presidential Selection: Electoral Fallacies,” Political Science Quarterly 119, no. 1 (2004): 21–37, https://www.jstor.org/stable/20202303
1800 The Results Weren’t Contested, but the Election Was
Wednesday, September 4 The Election of 1800
Reading Due:
- James Horn, “Election of 1800,” Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia, https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/election-1800/
- Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, “A Nation Divided: The Election of 1800” interactive site, https://artsandculture.google.com/story/wgURxDCU-6gaJA
- National Constitution Center, “Adams Jefferson and the Turbulent Election of 1800,” https://constitutioncenter.org/news-debate/americas-town-hall-programs/adams-jefferson-and-the-turbulent-election-of-1800 (as part of this, watch YouTube Video– https://www.youtube.com/live/UtMyVY0sLv8?si=Dh7F7sBvTlRyd0Lh OR listen to podcast– https://megaphone.link/NCC6290644154)
- John J. Turner, Jr., “The Twelfth Amendment and the First American Party System,” The Historian 35 (February 1973): 221-237, https://www.jstor.org/stable/24443256
- Beeman, The Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, pp. 94-97
Friday, September 6 Interpreting the Primary Sources
Reading Due:
- Thomas N. Baker, “‘An Attack Well Directed’ Aaron Burr Intrigues for the Presidency,” Journal of the Early Republic 31, no. 4 (2011): 553–98, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41261652
- Herbert Sloan, “‘In a Choice of Evils… Jefferson Is in Every View Less Dangerous than Burr’: Alexander Hamilton to Harrison Gray Otis on the Deadlocked Presidential Election of 1800,” OAH Magazine of History 18, no. 5 (2004): 53–57, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25163723
- Library of Congress, “Creating the United States: Election of 1800,” https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/creating-the-united-states/election-of-1800.html (click through to read the documents)
- Resource: Founders Online Database: https://founders.archives.gov/
Primary-Source Assignment due at 5:00 pm on P-web
Week Three: 1824 The “Corrupt Bargain,” Congress, and the Electoral College
Monday, September 9 The Election of 1824
Reading Due:
- William Nester, “The Corrupt Bargain,” In The Age of Jackson and the Art of American Power, 1815-1848 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2013), 88-100, https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1ddr80h.11
- Margaret Hogan, “Corrupt Bargain,” The Miller Center at the University of Virginia, https://millercenter.org/contested-presidential-elections/corrupt-bargain
- Donald Ratcliffe, “Popular Preferences in the Presidential Election of 1824,” Journal of the Early Republic 34, no. 1 (2014): 45–77, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24486931
Wednesday, September 11 Interpreting the Primary Sources
Reading Due:
- Craig B. Hollander, “Corrupt Bargaining: Partisan Politics, the Election of 1824, and the Suppression of the African Slave Trade,” Journal of the Early Republic 42 (3): 359–87, https://www.jstor.org/stable/27284359
- Library of Congress, “Presidential Election of 1824: A Resource Guide,” https://guides.loc.gov/presidential-election-1824/digital-collections
Friday, September 13 Engaging the Public
Blog post due at NOON
Week Four: 1860 This Means War
Monday, September 16 The Election of 1860
Reading Due:
- Michael Burlingame, “Abraham Lincoln: Campaigns and Elections,” University of Virginia Miller Center, https://millercenter.org/president/lincoln/campaigns-and-elections
- Adam I. P. Smith, “Beyond the Realignment Synthesis: The 1860 Election Reconsidered,” in America at the Ballot Box: Elections and Political History, ed. Gareth Davies and Julian Zelizer (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015), 59-74, https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt16f8d6d.6
- Jon Grinspan, “‘Young Men for War’: The Wide Awakes and Lincoln’s 1860 Presidential Campaign,” The Journal of American History 96, no. 2 (2009): 357–78, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25622297
Wednesday, September 18 Interpreting the Primary Sources
Reading Due:
- Library of Congress, “Presidential Election of 1860: A Resource Guide,” https://guides.loc.gov/presidential-election-1860/digital-collections
- Sally Heinzel, “‘To Protect the Rights of the White Race:’ Illinois Republican Racial Politics in the 1860 Campaign and the Twenty-Second General Assembly,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1998) 108, no. 3–4 (2015): 374–406, https://doi.org/10.5406/jillistathistsoc.108.3-4.0374
Thursday, September 19 Optional Class-Engagement Event Documentary “Texas USA” and discussion with producer Sarah Labowitz ’04, sponsored by the Rosenfield Program Time and Location TBA
Friday, September 20 Engaging the Public: How Did the Election of 1860 precipitate secession and the U.S. Civil War?
Blog post due at NOON
Week Five: 1876 The “Compromise” that Killed Reconstruction
Monday, September 23 The Election of 1876
Reading Due:
- Beeman, The Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, pp. 98-104
- Shiela Blackford, “Disputed Election of 1876,” University of Virginia Miller Center, https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/educational-resources/disputed-election-1876
- Michael A. Ross, “Rutherford B. Hayes,” in The Presidents and the Constitution: A Living History, ed. by Ken Gormley, 253–65.(New York: NYU Press, 2016), 253-65, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1803zfw.22
- Watch: “History with David Rubenstein, Manisha Sinha,” PBS, February 8, 2023 (26:40), https://www.pbs.org/video/manisha-sinha-pxiqzt/
- Michael W. Fitzgerald and Mark Bohnhorst, “Reconstruction, Racial Terror, and the Electoral College,” The Journal of the Civil War Era 14, no. 1 (March 2024): 31-57, https://muse-jhu-edu.grinnell.idm.oclc.org/pub/12/article/919853
Wednesday, September 25 Interpreting the Primary Sources
Readings Due:
- Kate Côté Gillin, “Sin and Redemption: The Election of 1876,” In Shrill Hurrahs: Women, Gender, and Racial Violence in South Carolina, 1865-1900, 80–104 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2013), https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv6sj8sb.9
- Library of Congress, “Presidential Election of 1876: A Resource Guide,” https://guides.loc.gov/presidential-election-1876/digital-collections
Friday, September 27: Engaging the Public
Reading Due:
- Equal Justice Initiative, “Reconstruction in America,” Chapter 3, Documenting Reconstruction Violence, https://eji.org/report/reconstruction-in-america/documenting-reconstruction-violence/
- John Copeland Nagle, “How Not to Count Votes,” Columbia Law Review 104, no. 6 (2004): 1732–64, https://www.jstor.org/stable/4099382
Blog post due at NOON
Week Six: 2000 The Electoral College and The Supreme Court
Monday, September 30 The Election of 2000
Due for today:
- Watch: CNN, “Bush v. Gore: Too Close to Call,” (2015), https://youtu.be/wufOcpTH0HU?si=HJjcyBN26n9NmTMn (42:18)
- Listen to podcast: On the Media, “What Bush v. Gore Revealed about Contested Elections,” WNYC, May 17, 2024, https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/articles/what-bush-v-gore-revealed-about-contested-elections?tab=transcript (57:17)
October 1 at 7:30 pm –Optional Class Engagement event: Federico Finchelstein—a historian at the New School for Social Research who studies fascism, populism, and the Dirty Wars in Argentina—will deliver a talk based on his new book, The Wannabe Fascists: A Guide to Understanding the Greatest Threat to Democracy (University of California Press, 2024), which places Donald Trump in the context of other illiberal leaders from around the world, including Jair Bolsonaro, Viktor Orbán, and Narendra Modi. Sponsored by the Rosenfield Program—location TBA.
Wednesday, October 2 Interpreting the Primary Sources
Reading Due:
- J. Dionne and William Kristol, eds. Bush v. Gore: The Court Cases and the Commentary (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2001), http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7864/j.ctvddztfj; Read Chronology and Introduction, choose at least ONE court case to read carefully
Friday, October 4: Engaging the Public
- Resource: Library of Congress, United States Elections Web Archive, https://www.loc.gov/collections/united-states-elections-web-archive/about-this-collection/
Blog post due at NOON
Week Seven: 2020 Can an Election Be Overturned?
Monday, October 7 The Election of 2020
Watch Documentaries (this will take about four hours, more if you choose three total documentaries):
- Choose ONE or TWO of the documentaries from this list “January 6, Three Years Later, 10 Documentaries to Watch” Frontline, PBS, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/january-6-insurrection-capitol-attack-documentaries-streaming/ ; write down which titles you watch, and take notes
- EVERYONE WATCH “Democracy on Trial (full documentary),” Frontline, PBS, dir. Michael Kirk (2024) https://youtu.be/Y44fyh4ap7k?si=b5-S_cDryiLTTkvR (2:23:18)
Wednesday, October 9 The Role of Historians
October 10 at 11:00 am Optional Class Engagement Event: Scholar’s Convocation Talk by Kathleen Belew of Northwestern University—author of Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America and coeditor of A Field Guide to White Supremacy. Co-sponsored by the Rosenfield Program and the Department of History. Talk title and Location TBA
Friday, October 11: Engaging the Public
Final Project informal proposal due at NOON on Pweb
Week Eight: Contested Elections: What Does History Show Us?
Monday, October 14 Final Project
Wednesday, October 16 Final Project
Wednesday, October 15 NOON “Election Table” sponsored by the Rosenfield Program—show off your public project, and help lead a community discussion about the upcoming election.
Friday, October 18 Final Project
Final Project must be completed, and individual reflection turned in by 5:00 pm today!
