Monday, Sept.8:
Read Course Outline.
Read the section on Christopher Columbus from Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States (distributed in class). Answer the following reflection questions in your notebook. Be ready to discuss them in class.
1. What do you think of Christopher Columbus after reading Zinn's article? Is this a different opinion than you had before the reading? Does this change your perspective on American history?
2. What do you think of Howard Zinn? Does he write good history?
Tuesday/Wednesday, Sept. 9/10:
Read Chapter 1 in your textbook. You do not need to take notes on this chapter, but informally answer these questions in your notebook.
1. How was Native American culture different from European culture?
2. What happened when the New World and Old World collided? How did it affect the Old World and the New World?
3. Why did Europeans win the conflict with native people so decisively?
4. What kind of culture developed in the Spanish colonies?
The podcast below is a great interview of Charles Mann about his book, 1493, which discusses how Columbus' discovery of the new world radically changed both the Old World and the New World by exchanging germs, plants and animals between the two.
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=138924127&m=139024924
