History of American Citizenship (HSTAA 110 A)
Fall 2025
Tuesday/Thursday, 2:30-4:20 p.m.
Mechanical Engineering Building 248
Dr. Ross Coen
E-mail: rcoen@uw.edu
Office: TBD
Office hours:
In-person: 1:00-2:00 p.m., and by appointment
Zoom office hours: Wednesdays, 9:00-11:00 a.m.
Course Description:
This course surveys the history of American citizenship from the colonial period to the present. Lectures address the theme of citizenship in American history and are meant to provide information and context, offer arguments, invite questions and comments, and develop an overall narrative.
The course interprets the history of the United States by examining how the American definition of citizenship evolved from colonial times to the present. More specifically, it considers how different groups within the American population, such as white men (with and without property), Native Americans, specific groups of immigrants, women, and enslaved and free African Americans, at different times were denied (or gained) “full membership” (or less-than-full membership) in the United States. Another related theme, developed particularly in the readings and the research paper, is the varied experience of families in American history.
Citizenship has been defined as the membership of an individual in a nation. In 1957 U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren argued,
"Citizenship is man’s basic right for it is nothing less than the right to have rights. Remove this priceless possession and there remains a stateless person, disgraced and degraded in the eyes of his countrymen. He has no lawful claim to protection from any nation, and no nation may assert rights on his behalf. His very existence is at the sufferance of the state within whose borders he happens to be. In this country the expatriate will presumably enjoy, at most, only the limited rights and privileges of aliens, and like the alien he might even be subject to deportation and thereby deprived of the right to assert any rights."
Warren’s definition of citizenship—as well as its implications—is problematic. Yet it points to a key aspect of citizenship in the United States: the possession of legal rights guaranteed by the Constitution and other authorities. And it points out that those without citizenship—and, it should be added, those without full citizenship, for throughout history many, many Americans have technically been “citizens” but never enjoyed all the rights normally associated with complete membership in the nation—have often been at the mercy of others to watch and speak out for them. For most of American history, the majority of peoples, both in the U.S. and around the world, were ineligible for full American citizenship due to their place of birth, nationality or race or sex or religion or sexual preference or age, or other factors. In many ways American citizenship has been an exclusive category. This course explores how that category has evolved, expanded, contracted, and taken on new meanings. While recognizing that full citizenship entails a wide range of rights and responsibilities, this class often uses the right to vote and the act of voting as shorthand for complete membership in the nation.
Course Schedule:
The course consists of units that will be covered on the dates below. Please pay close attention to readings and assignments. All readings should be completed by the first class in the given unit, and due dates for all assignments are listed below. The course schedule is subject to change. All changes will be announced in class and posted to Canvas.
Part 1: American Citizenship from Colonization to Civil War
Week 1: September 25
Introduction to Course
Week 2: September 30-October 2
European Colonizers of North America, 1492-1763
Native Americans’ Encounters with European Colonizers, 1492-1874
Readings:
J. William T. Youngs, “The British American: William Byrd in Two Worlds,” in American Realities, Historical Episodes, vol. I, From the First Settlements to the Civil War, 5th ed. (New York: Longman, 2001), 55-73.
Paige Raibmon, “Naturalizing Power: Land and Sexual Violence along William Byrd’s Dividing Line,” in Virginia J. Scharff, ed., Seeing Nature through Gender (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2003), 20-39.
Assignment: Portfolio essay due (uploaded to Canvas) by the start of class on Tuesday, September 30
Week 3: October 7-9
Colonization and Citizens in British North America
English Colonization in the 17th and 18th Centuries
Readings: None. Please use time to begin working on your Family History Paper.
Week 4: October 14-16
Enslaved Persons, Citizens, and In Between: Revolutionary America, 1750-1850
American Slavery in the 17th and 18th Centuries
Slaves, Citizens, and Republican Government, 1775-1789
Party Politics in the New Republic, 1790s-1850s
Readings: Andrew C. Lannen, “Liberty and Slavery in Colonial America: The Case of Georgia, 1732-1770,” The Historian 79, no. 1 (2017), 32-55.
Assignment #1: Portfolio essay due (uploaded to Canvas) by the start of class on Tuesday, October 14
Assignment #2: Family History Paper, 1-page paper on topic, due at the start of class on Tuesday, October 14
Week 5: October 21-23
Citizens, Immigrants, and The Market Economy: North and South, 1790-1860
Growth of the Market Economy, 1790-1860
The Expansive North and the Rise of Reformers
The Slave South
Immigrants in the Antebellum Republic
Readings: John F. Quinn, “Expecting the Impossible? Abolitionist Appeals to the Irish in Antebellum America,” New England Quarterly 82, no. 4 (December 2009), 667-710.
Assignment: Portfolio essay due (uploaded to Canvas) by the start of class on Tuesday, October 21
Week 6: October 28-30
Disunion, Civil War, Emancipation, Reconstruction, 1820-1896
America Grows Apart over Issues of Slavery and Citizenship, 1820-1857
Civil War and the Emancipation of Slaves
Reconstruction and African American Citizenship
The Rise of Jim Crow and the Demise of African Americans’ Rights
Readings: None. Please use the time to study for the Midterm Exam.
Assignment: Midterm Exam will be given in class on Thursday, October 30
Part 2: Citizenship during the U.S. Rise to Global Power
Week 7: November 4-6
Indigenous Americans and the “Promise” of Citizenship
Indians and Indian Policy in the 19th Century
Readings: Chief Seattle Speech (2 versions)
Assignment: Portfolio essay due (uploaded to Canvas) by the start of class on Tuesday, November 4
Week 8: November 11-13
Westward Expansion, Racial Minorities, and American Empire, 1840-1914
The American West in the 19th Century
Mexicans and 19th-century Americans
The Industrializing West and Chinese Immigrants
Foreign Policy and Empire: U.S. Acquisition of Overseas Territory, 1890-1941
Readings: Daniel Immerwahr, How to Hide an Empire, Chapter 5: Empire State of Mind
Assignment #1: Portfolio essay due (uploaded to Canvas) by the start of class on Tuesday, November 11
Assignment #2: Family History Project, Bibliography due at the start of class on Tuesday, November 11
Week 9: November 18-20
Industry, Immigration, and Reform, 1877-1930
Industrialization and Immigration
Radicals, Progressives, and Modernizing America
Redefining Who Can Vote and Who Can Immigrate, 1882-1934
Race, Migration, and Cultural Change, 1920-1960
Readings: Fae Myenne Ng, Orphan Bachelors, Chapters 1-2, 4
Assignment #1: Portfolio essay due (uploaded to Canvas) by the start of class on Tuesday, November 18
Assignment #2: Family History Project, submit at least one page of your rough draft, due at the start of class on Tuesday, November 18
Week 10: November 25
American Citizenship from Depression to Cold War and Beyond, 1930-2000
Depression, New Deal, and Economic Citizenship
Readings: John Okada, No-No Boy, Chapter 1
Assignment: Portfolio essay due (uploaded to Canvas) by the start of class on Tuesday, November 25
No class on Thursday, November 27: Happy Thanksgiving!
Week 11: December 2-4
World War Two and Immigrants in the U.S.
Cold War and Containment Policy
African Americans and the Civil Rights Movement
The Courts and “Rights-Based” Citizenship in Postwar America
Citizenship Amid Economic and Political Change, 1970-2000
Readings: None.
Assignment: Family History Project, FINAL PAPER due at the start of class on Tuesday, December 2
Week 12 (Finals Week)
The Final Exam will be given at 4:30-6:20 p.m., Tuesday, December 9.
Course goals:
The overall goals of the course are to improve students’ abilities to read critically, think historically and conceptually, write well, and broaden their understanding of the history of the United States. In support of those aims, students in HSTAA 110 are expected to attend lectures, participate in class discussions, read and think about the assigned readings and videos, and complete all assignments. Please note that although this is a 100-level lecture course, class discussions are an important component of class meetings and students will be expected to participate.
Course readings:
There is no required textbook for the course. Instead, throughout the quarter students will read a selection of articles, chapters, speeches, and other materials that are posted under the appropriate Module on Canvas. Please see the course schedule below for more information. The instructor has attempted to stagger the reading load across the quarter so as to make it manageable for students. The instructor will give reminders during lectures of upcoming reading assignments, and it is the student’s responsibility to keep apprised of the readings and complete them each week. In order to facilitate class discussions of the readings, the professor will provide study questions in advance of all readings. These questions are intended to guide students through the readings and direct their attention to important aspects, topics, arguments, etc.
Assignments and Grading:
Students will complete four written assignments: Weekly Portfolio, Family History Paper, Midterm Exam, and Final Exam. Complete instructions for the Family History Paper and Exams will be provided separately. The grade breakdown is as follows:
Weekly Portfolio 20%
Family History Paper 40%
Midterm Exam 20%
Final Exam 20%
Students must complete all assignments to receive a passing grade. Late papers will not be accepted without permission of the professor, and they may be graded down at the discretion of the professor.
Weekly Portfolio
Seven times during the quarter students will submit via Canvas a typed, 300-word essay response to assigned readings. The instructor will provide study questions for each reading one week before they are due, and the student has the option of answering one or more of the questions or responding more broadly to some aspect(s) of that week’s reading they found interesting. As long as the essays demonstrate that students have done the reading and engaged them in a thoughtful manner, full credit will be awarded.
The essays must be submitted on Canvas no later than the start of class each Tuesday. Late papers will not be accepted without permission. Permission will be granted for valid reasons only. The essays will not be graded on an individual basis but will be assessed on a completed/not completed basis. The portfolio is worth 20 percent of your course grade.
Family History Paper
Students will write a Family History Paper of 7-8 pages in which they illustrate how personal and family stories intersect with U.S. history. Students will interview one or two family members, conduct research in secondary sources on themes raised in the interviews, and integrate their personal stories with events or forces operating at the national level. More information will be provided. The paper is worth 40 percent of the course grade, and it is due at the start of class on Tuesday, December 2.
Midterm Exam
Students will complete a mid-term exam on Thursday, October 30. More information on the exam, including a study guide, will be provided as the date draws near. The Midterm Exam is worth 20 percent of your course grade.
Final Exam
Students will complete a final exam on Tuesday, December 9. More information on the exam will be provided as the date draws near. The final exam is worth 20 percent of your course grade.
Class Attendance:
Students are expected to attend class having completed readings and other assignments. Students should contact the professor if they know they will be absent or unable to complete the assignments on time. Students should prioritize their physical and mental health, as well as that of their classmates. Do not attend class if you are feeling unwell.