ASSIGNMENTS

The short writing assignment requires students to turn in one one-page (typed or word-processed) paper that analyzes some aspect of the primary-source readings assigned for April 3, 10, or 17 (Vancouver, Simpson, or Swan).  These papers should run no longer than one side of one sheet of paper; however, they may be single-spaced with narrow margins and small fonts.  The short papers are not meant to be book reviews or summaries; that is, they are not supposed to describe the reading.  Rather, they ask students to reflect on the significance of the readings.  The simplest way to find a suitable topic for this paper is to answer one of the study questions that will be provided to help guide students through the readings.  But students are invited to take up any topic that interests them.  The short papers are due at the very beginning of the class during which the reading is to be discussed, and thus should act as a stimulus to conversation.  Students may want to (or be asked to) summarize the paper as part of the day's discussion.  Students are welcome to submit more than one short paper; only the best grade will be counted in the overall course grade.  They cannot revise a previous short paper, however.  Only those students attempting a second (or third) short paper may write on the primary-source reading (Swan) for April 24.

Students will take two in-class, blue-book, essay exams, a midterm on April 28 and a final on June 11.  These exams will entail writing integrative essays.  That is, both exams require that students integrate factual information and ideas—from lectures, readings, and discussions—into cogent essays with theses or arguments that respond to the exam questions.  In the exam essays, students are expected to make explicit reference to as many of the course readings as are pertinent to the exam questions.  Students can expect to be asked to choose to write about one of two or more exam questions.  The midterm exam covers Part I of the course.  The final exam covers the Introduction and Parts I and II, or the entire course. 

Ten discussion sections will be devoted to understanding the readings and relating them to one another and to themes raised in the lectures.  General expectations for these discussions include regular attendance, completion of the pertinent reading assignment, and thoughtful participation in discussion.  The Teaching Assistants will spell out their specific expectations for sections.

Research projects.  Students have a choice of two kinds of projects, due on Tuesday June 2 at the start of class.  One is a research paper of roughly 7-9 double-spaced pages, not including footnotes.  Topics for the papers, to be chosen by students in consultation with your T.A. or the professor, must deal clearly with themes raised during Part II (The American Northwest…1846-2000) of the course.  Papers should have a proper form of footnotes, endnotes, or references.  Students must consult primary sources, i.e. documents or other sorts of information (e.g. artifacts, interviews, film) created by contemporary participants in or observers of the historical events being considered.  Students are expected to undertake research outside of the assigned readings, and will normally use secondary materials as well as primary sources.  Like the exam essays, the research papers should have theses or arguments.  Students are invited to discuss papers with T.A.'s or the professor, and to submit outlines, thesis statements, introductions, or rough drafts for comments prior to writing the final version.  However, the T.A.'s and professor must be allowed ample time to look over drafts.  Note that a crucial part of having a successful paper is asking the right questions!

Because so many prospective teachers enroll in HSTAA 432, I have devised an alternative research project with them in mind, although any person enrolled in HSTAA 432 may choose this option.  The assignment is to prepare a sample week-long lesson on a topic from Part II of the course, targeting secondary-school teachers and students and incorporating an array of primary-source materials.  This lesson must include:  1) an introductory essay of 5-6 pages, written for teachers, that lays out the topic and its key issues, presents a bibliography, and suggests teaching strategies or ideas; and 2) an arrangement of edited, annotated, probably excerpted, primary sources (most likely documents, but not necessarily), selected for distribution to students so that they can study the same materials that historians themselves use to study the past.  Those doing this assignment must select and research their own topics, ideally in consultation with their T.A. or the professor, and then combine the materials (the introduction as well as the primary sources) in a packet of some sort that any teacher could pick it up and use off the shelf.  As with the research paper, we invite submission of rough or partial drafts before finalizing the project.  Please note that the resulting packet of materials should not be used in a school without proper copyright permissions being obtained.  There is much latitude here for students to choose themes of special interest to them, and to use such resources as museums or elders who might be willing to speak to students about events.  For a sample of quite comprehensive packets of curriculum materials, go to

http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Resources/Curriculum/Curriculum%20Main.html.  (Your packet is not expected to be so comprehensive.)

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The History Writing Tutor (Mr. Mahlon Meyer in Smith 218B) offers individual assistance on writing.  This service has an excellent track record of improving students' writing.  It offers proven handouts that discuss the mechanics of writing good history essays, and presents occasional workshops on writing essay exams and research papers.  Students may work on papers with the tutor on an individual basis, and are encouraged to contact him and make appointments appropriately early.

CRITERIA USED IN EVALUATING WRITING

Eighty-five percent of the total grade for HSTAA 432 is based on written work—specifically, the four written assignments for the course.  To succeed, then, you will need to write effective essays that demonstrate historical and conceptual thinking.  In evaluating papers and exams, the T.A.'s and professor will look to see that you have an appropriate thesis or argument; that it is developed clearly; that you use ample, specific evidence from the lectures and readings (as appropriate) to support your argument; that you account for the complexities of issues; and that historical facts, writing, grammar, and spelling are correct.  Your writing should show that you have done a thorough job on the reading assignments (or in your research) and thought critically about them, that you are thinking historically and conceptually, and that you are making connections between the lectures, the different readings, and the different eras under consideration. 

When grading history essays, the instructor takes into account a combination of factors.  This is hardly an exact science, but below is a list giving criteria used in assessing first-rate midterm and final exam essays.  (Criteria for shorter assignment and the research project will be quite similar, except you won't be responding to specific questions as in the case of the midterm and final.) 

For grades in the A and A- range we expect to see: 

1.       Question is clearly and methodically addressed.

2.       All subtopics of a question are covered.

3.       Writing is grammatically correct.

4.       Spelling is correct.

5.       Evidence is presented to substantiate the positions taken on a question.

6.       Evidence is factually correct and properly attributed; all obvious sources of evidence are cited.

7.       Student is able to draw material from lectures and readings as necessary.

To make our expectations clearer, let me add more detail about what we generally find that sets "A" essay apart.  It includes an effective introduction that presents a clear argument, it pursues that argument from start to finish, and it ends well.  It balances evidence with analysis in support of the argument, uses appropriate and direct language, and acknowledges sources of evidence.  The essay mentions virtually all of the key ideas, facts, or developments, as provided in readings and lectures, that pertain to the exam question, and does not omit particularly relevant readings.  In a research paper, "A" work employs a consistent, standard system of citations (e.g. footnotes or a bibliography).  In the case of an exam essay, readers should know exactly from where evidence comes ("Vancouver said…," or "Thrush argues…").  In general, "A" work maintains a high level of excellence throughout.  It shows creativity, thoughtfulness, and good historical and conceptual thinking.  It builds arguments, develops explanations, and offers insights.  By contrast, simply knowing facts and repeating them, without an effective thesis or argument, is no better than C work.  HSTAA 432 is an upper-division course.

University regulations about plagiarism will be followed strictly.

KEYS TO EFFECTIVE READING AND WRITING IN HSTAA 432

SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR READING PRIMARY SOURCES CRITICALLY

You are expected to read and write about primary sources critically.  Study questions and brief biographies for specific readings are offered to assist you.  Following are some questions that could be asked about any primary source.

What kind of document is this (published account, diary, memoir, journalism)?  How does this affect your reading of it?  How does this affect the content?

Who produced the document, and what do we know about her or him and the time period in which the document was written?

For what kind of audience was it written?  How does the writer's attempt to address a particular audience shape the document and its contents?

What were the author's unconscious or unspoken assumptions and beliefs (e.g. about religion or Indians)?  What were the author's conscious intentions in trying to reach readers?

How does the historical context of the production of the text relate to its argument and the way it is presented?

How does the document enrich, complicate, or contradict our understanding of the period as presented by other primary sources, the lectures, or other historians' accounts?

How does the form of the document relate to its content?  For example, contrast the daily journal entries of Simpson with the looking-backward view of Hudson and Kittredge.

How does the text relate to major themes raised in lessons and the text?  For example, how does the Vancouver account of exploring Puget Sound illuminate the lectures about discovery, international rivalry, and relations between Indians and non-Indians?

How do your own perspectives, experiences, and biases affect your reaction to the primary source?

SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR READING SECONDARY MATERIALS CRITICALLY

You are expected to read secondary works critically.  Study questions regarding each reading are offered to assist with this.  Here are some questions that could be asked of any secondary work.  (Note that the same kinds of questions ought to be raised regarding the lectures.)

Who is the author, and in what kind of history does she or he specialize?  For example, is this article political or social or economic history?  As you progress through the secondary readings, compare and contrast the approaches of different writers.

Historians are usually arguing both against other scholars and in support of their own (and other scholars') positions.  So, what is this author arguing against, and what is she or he arguing for?  In other words, can you situate this essay in an intellectual context and explain why it was written?  Keep in mind when and where it was published.

How does the author support an argument?  What kind of evidence is used, and is it sufficient to make a persuasive case?  Has the historian used evidence correctly?  Do you think that contradictory evidence is being ignored?

Is this a new way of looking at history, or is it a new argument about data that others have already tried to analyze?  Comparing and contrasting the works of different authors will help answer this question.

Historians usually don't disagree about who did what when.  They tend to disagree about why things in the past are significant and deserve attention.  What kinds of arguments is this historian making (or assuming) about what is significant, and how do his or her arguments differ from those by other historians?

Sometimes historians try to write a definitive assessment of a topic; other times they try to write more provocatively or tentatively to open up a new area of study.  Of which case is this reading an example?

SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING THE MIDTERM AND FINAL ESSAYS

The following suggestions for writing midterm and final exam essays are meant to help you avoid the weaknesses that affect many student essays.

1.       The key thing to remember is to write an essay that presents a thesis or argument that responds to the question you have chosen to answer.  Too often, students approach an essay as an occasion to write down all they remember.  Don't forget you are being asked to answer a specific question, and to develop a thesis while doing so.

2.       An essay is an exercise in controlling information and ideas, not simply inundating the paper with them.  It is not the quantity of facts and claims that you assert that counts, so much as your ability to think conceptually and historically, and to write your thoughts in essay form.

3.       The thesis or argument for an essay should be presented in an introduction, and readers should gain from that introduction a sense of direction for the rest of the essay.  Readers should not get to the end of the introduction and wonder what the essay is about or which question is being answered.  Neither should readers at any time in the main body of the essay be confused about what the author is doing or where she or he is headed.  Finally, the introduction should never merely restate the question.

4.       In writing a history essay, you are expected to integrate information and ideas from different places—the lectures, the readings, the discussion sections, and even things you learned outside of HSTAA 432.  You need to draw connections between the different kinds of information and ideas you have learned, and you need to demonstrate that you have grasped the central ideas and key details of the materials covered in the class.  When citing readings, you ought to refer explicitly to authors or titles so that it is clear what readings are being used.  We don't expect full annotations or footnotes in an exam setting, but mention of the author, and possibly the context from which the evidence comes, will be useful for readers and make your thesis more persuasive.

5.       In writing midterm and final essays, you are expected to be selective in your choice of topics and materials to include.  It is neither possible nor wise in an essay to touch upon everything that has been covered in the course.  Rather, you need to select for inclusion in your essay those topics and materials that are most appropriate for answering the exam question and developing a thesis or argument.  Moreover, you will need to pick—out of all the bits of evidence that are too numerous to be included—the best or most appropriate examples for illustrating your argument.

6.       If you have a choice of questions to answer, you ought to select the question that plays to your strengths.  This implies, of course, picking a topic about which you remember a good deal, but it also implies picking a topic where your conceptual and historical thinking are strongest, where you feel you have more insights or creativity in addressing an issue.

7.       If it sounds to you that writing a history essay is hard work, you are correct.  It is a lot of work to control information rather than simply regurgitating it.  How do you become able to develop a good thesis, integrate material from different kinds of readings and the lectures, select the best examples to illustrate an argument, draw connections between different eras and events and ideas, and know what your strengths are?  By really studying the material thoughtfully, and not at the last minute.  We have you write integrative essays not just to get something to grade, but to push you to really learn the material, and to master the skills of conceptual and historical thinking.

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STUDY QUESTIONS FOR VANCOUVER, April 3

1.     What kind of man was George Vancouver, and what attributes (or "cultural baggage") did he bring to his exploration and his observations of the Puget Sound area?  What did it mean that he identified his voyage with the "noble science of discovery"?

2.     Consider the importance of Vancouver's arriving by sea rather than by land.  How might his experience have differed from that of such overland explorers as Lewis and Clark?  Consider, for example, relations with Indians.

3.     What were Vancouver's reactions to the country he was seeing?  What potential, or practical value, for Europeans did he think it possessed?  What places did he most like and dislike, and why?

4.     How did Vancouver respond to the Indians he and his men encountered?  What kinds of evidence were there that suggested an awareness of whites among Indians and some impacts of whites upon Indians—even though Vancouver was the first non-Indian to sail into Puget Sound?

5.     What can readers learn about Indian culture, society, and demography from Vancouver's account?   In turn, what can readers learn about Vancouver's own culture and society from his comments on Indians?

6.     There is basically one voice in Vancouver's account—Vancouver's.  What other voices would be needed to provide a fuller and more complicated picture?

7.   Who was Vancouver's audience?  For whom did he write?

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BIOGRAPHICAL AND TEXTUAL BACKGROUND

Captain George Vancouver was sent to the Northwest Coast of North America by Great Britain in order to help resolve the Nootka Sound controversy, a diplomatic dispute between the British and the Spanish.  He and a Spanish captain, Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, were supposed to implement the terms of the Nootka Sound Convention of 1790.  (After meeting the two men could not agree on how to interpret the agreement, so they politely referred it back to diplomats in Europe.)  Vancouver was also supposed to explore the North Pacific Coast, and indeed he mapped the coastline between Baja California in the south to Alaska's Cook Inlet in the north in the years 1792-1794.  Vancouver was not the first non-Indian to chart the west coast of North America, but he was the first non-Indian to explore certain parts of it.  He determined, for example, that Vancouver Island was in fact an island and not an extension of the mainland, and he was also the first European to sail into Puget Sound.  The excerpt assigned here describes Vancouver's voyage through the Sound from late April to late June of 1792.

It is important to keep in mind that Vancouver's voyage of 1791-95 was not his first to the North Pacific.  Born in 1757, Vancouver grew up close to the sea in King's Lynn, England, and at age fourteen was sent to train under the premier English navigator of the time, James Cook.  Vancouver accompanied Cook on the latter's second and third voyages to the Pacific.  Cook's second voyage, from 1772 to 1775, toured the South Pacific.  The third voyage, from 1776 to 1780, went to the North Pacific.  Vancouver and Cook's crew spent a month at Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island in March and April of 1778, and it was there that he first encountered the peoples and lands of the Northwest Coast.  When touring Puget Sound in 1792, note how Vancouver constantly compared and contrasted the Indians he finds there to "the Nootkas" he had met in 1778.

Vancouver's expedition to the North Pacific broke his already fragile health, and he spent his few remaining years preparing an account of the voyage for publication.  It was not quite finished when he died on May 12, 1798.  The published account tells us much about what Vancouver was trying to leave for his audience.  He had little patience for what he called "theoretical geographers," and categorized his own work as "the noble science of discovery" (p. 224 of Vancouver's account).  In other words, he took pride in describing what he had observed with his own eyes, and in leaving a record for others who followed.   Indeed, as you read Vancouver's account of Puget Sound you may well become impatient with the level of detail with which he described waters and lands.  Try to keep in mind that he was leaving information for sailors who needed to know how deep a harbor was and where to find fresh water and new spars for their ships.  Also, such close description was incontrovertible proof that Vancouver, unlike the "theoretical geographers" who imagined America from their libraries and salons back in Europe, had actually been there.  Vancouver realized that this kind of description might strike readers as dull, but he saw his duty as providing detailed information "in a way calculated to instruct, even though it should fail to entertain."  (A good and attractively illustrated introduction to the man and his expedition is Robin Fisher, Vancouver's Voyage:  Charting the Northwest Coast, 1791-1795 [Vancouver and Seattle, 1992].)

Let me add a few points on the Vancouver selection.  Over the years, I have tried to find a good map of Vancouver's trip around Puget Sound to reproduce with the reading, but it has never photocopied well.  You may locate a good map, however, in Robert Ballard Whitebrook, Coastal Exploration of Washington (1959).  A special map may not be necessary, because Vancouver was so busy naming so many things (with names that stuck) that it should not be too difficult to follow his travels on a regular map.  Keep in mind, too, that Vancouver's longitudinal readings are unreliable.  European navigators had not yet perfected instruments for measuring longitude (although they were getting close).  Finally, I recognize that this account is not easy to read because in many places the letter s looks like f.  This is because some early-modern European publishers used two types of s in printing—a long or "medial" s, meant to be (but not always) used in the middle of words, and a short or round s, similar to the one is use today.  (This practice died in the 19^th century.)  It does not bother me to use this account—partly because it gives readers a sense of how documents from different eras can look different, and partly because this old account is not subject to modern copyright law, and therefore requires no copyright permission fees.

Finally, you might appreciate learning how Vancouver regarded rival sailors on the North Pacific Coast.  He makes comments suggesting that he was not too impressed with Spanish explorers.  And he also disparaged the accounts of discovery by the American fur trader Robert Gray, the first non-Indian to record entrance into the mouth of the Columbia River.  To learn more about Vancouver's perceptions of his U.S. competitors, go to http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Hist%20n%20Lit/Part%20Two/Commentaries/Boit%20Gray%20comm.html.

  

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Study Questions for "George Simpson's Remarks…," for April 10

1.  What did Simpson value about the lands through which he traveled?  What did he not value?  Where did his values regarding the land come from?  Contrast Simpson's attitudes toward the land and its resources to those of George Vancouver.

2.  Explain the organization of the Hudson's Bay Company, as reflected in Simpson's writing.  How did different kinds of employees fit in?  Where did outsiders belong?  Think about for whom Simpson was writing, and how his intended audience may have affected what he wrote.

3.     Using Simpson's account as evidence, describe gender relations in fur trade society.  How did Simpson regard Indian women, and why?  Summarize his "family values."

4.  How did the Hudson's Bay Company, acting through agents such as Simpson, assert British interests in the Pacific Northwest?  Compare its "imperial" methods to those of the explorer George Vancouver and those of the Spanish on the Northwest coast.

5.  What roles did Indians play in fur trade society?  How did they try to turn the trade to their advantage?  Using Simpson's account, what can we deduce about natives' responses to European trade and traders? 

6.      Fur trade society brought together a quite diverse mixture of people.  How did Simpson view this diversity, attempt to control it, and attempt to make use of it?  Do you think he was as effective in controlling members of fur trade society as he claimed to be?

Study Questions for Swan's Northwest Coast, 17-67, 277-305, 392-407, and

"Prescott, "'Why she didn't marry him,'" 25-45 (available on-line), for 17 April

1.  What were James Swan's reasons for being in the Pacific Northwest?  In what ways did his activities and opportunities reflect the colonial practices and policies of the United States?

2.  Contrast James Swan's description of the environment in Washington Territory with those of Vancouver and Simpson.  In what ways is Swan's account different, and why?  Are there similarities?  Consider his audience(s) and his purposes in writing his account, among other things.  Did Swan have different expectations for how the land could and should be used?

3.  Pioneers such as Swan have long been romanticized as rugged individualists.  Does Swan's account support or contradict that image?  How "rugged" was Swan's experience, considering his relationships to local communities, the city of San Francisco, and the federal government?

4.  Compare and contrast James Swan's interactions with and depictions of Native Americans to those of Vancouver and Simpson.  What role did Native Americans play in the economy of Shoalwater Bay?  Do Indians' activities qualify the image of Washington settlers as rugged individualists? How do Indian's roles in the 1850s differ from the trade that Indians conducted in the 1790s with Vancouver and in the 1820s with the Hudson's Bay Company?  What might account for the changes?

5.  By contrast with Swan, do Prescott's images of first- and second-generation women pioneers in the Willamette Valley correspond to our ideas of rugged individualists on the frontier?  More broadly, how might white women's experiences of (or perspectives on) settling the Northwest have differed from white men's experiences (or perspectives)?  Finally, were there places for Native women in the settlements that Swan and Prescott depict?

6.  A key question of Northwest history is the region's relationship to people and institutions "back East."  What do the Swan and Prescott readings suggest about the connections (or absence of connections) between the East and the Northwest in the mid- and late 19^th century?

7.  Comment on the differences between a primary source (Swan) and secondary work (Prescott).

Study Questions for Swan, The Northwest Coast, 327-91, and

Thrush, Native Seattle, xiii-xvi, 3-65

1.  What "problems" and "promise" did Vancouver, Simpson, and Swan detect in the Indians of the Pacific Northwest?  How does one explain their different (or similar) perceptions?  Did perceptions change as time passed?

2.  Comment on Swan's a) critique of the American system of making treaties, and b) attitudes toward the Hudson's Bay Company.

3.  Respond on the following statement:  James Swan was more sensitive and sympathetic to Northwest Natives than were George Simpson and George Vancouver.  However, the designs of Swan and his countrymen for the region, as laid out in The Northwest Coast, would in the end prove much more destructive to native peoples.

4.  Considering encounters between Native Americans and U.S. settlers in and around Seattle, as depicted by Coll Thrush, assess the motives of the Indian peoples.  For instance, what did Indians hope to gain when they met the Denny party at Alki Beach?  Why did some Indians warn Seattle that their town was going to be attacked in 1856?  Why did some whites oppose Indian residence in the city, while others were more favorable?  More broadly, how does the interpretation in Native Seattle differ from more conventional accounts of a) Indian-white relations in the Pacific Northwest and b) the pioneers' founding of Seattle?  Speculate on the reasons behind Thrush's divergent portrayals.  That is, why has he been able to uncover a past that has been overlooked?

5.  Accounts of Northwest history in the mid-19^th century, like Cynthia Culver Prescott's article on marriages, have tended to focus on the experiences of the agriculture-oriented settlers in the Willamette Valley.  Does a focus on town life significantly alter the story line concerning regional development?

6.  The appendix to Thrush's book, "An Atlas of Indigenous Seattle," pp. 209-255, has not been assigned as part of the required reading for HSTAA 432.  But it is strongly recommended that you take a look at it.  Among other things, it forms the basis for Thrush's understanding of how Native peoples perceived the environs around Seattle.  It also attests to the value in historical research of knowing languages other than English.

7.  So far in HSTAA 432 we have spent a good deal of time analyzing the agendas of the authors of our primary sources (Vancouver, Simpson, Swan).  Can you do the same thing for authors of secondary works?  That is, who do Prescott and Thrush see as their audiences?  To whom or what, specifically, are they responding when they develop their theses or arguments?

Midterm Exam Study Questions

Below is a replica of the kind of exam you will receive on Tuesday 28 April. Pay special attention to the words in boldface. Please bring an empty blue book and pen for the exam.  The exam will cover Part I, last about 80 minutes, and count for 20% of the course grade.  Advice for taking the exam is on pp. 10-11 of the syllabus.

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Answer ONE of the following essay questions.

Please read the question carefully.  Think.  Read the question again.  Organize your answer, either in your blue book or in your mind.  Think.  Then write, utilizing all the readings from Part I of the course (Vancouver, Simpson, Swan, Prescott, Thrush) to substantiate or illustrate your argument.

1.     Compare and contrast the attitudes of explorers, fur traders, and settlers toward the natural resources of the Pacific Northwest, 1774-1860.

2.  Compare and contrast the approaches of Spain, Great Britain, and the United States to the Pacific Northwest between 1774 and 1890.  Pay particular attention to how each nation's method or plan or system for colonization played out in the region.

3.  Assess the major themes and changes in British and American attitudes toward and polices for Indians in the Pacific Northwest, 1778-1890.  Considering among other things the account in Native Seattle, suggest how Native Americans responded to Anglo-American attitudes and policies.

4.  Explain how the three primary-source accounts of the Pacific Northwest that we have read (Vancouver, Simpson, Swan) express the attitudes toward native peoples among successive groups of colonizers between 1792 and 1860.  Keep in mind the background and intended audience of each writer, his reasons for being in the region, and the telling changes over time that occurred in the years between each author's account.

5.  How did native peoples experience the different phases of colonization in the Pacific Northwest by Europeans and Americans?  You might think about the roles that Indians played in relationships (ranging from intermarriage through trade to war) with the colonizers, and how the Indian groups' capacity for self-determination shifted over time.

6.  What roles did Native and non-Native women play in fur trade society and in American settler society?  How and why did these roles change over time?

Study Questions for Henry George, "What the Railroad Will Bring Us" (1868), 297-306, and "H.H." [Helen Hunt Jackson], "Puget Sound" (1883), 218-31, for 1 May

1.  Each of these essays was written on the eve of the arrival of the trans-continental railroad.  George wrote his piece for the San Francisco publication Overland Monthly in 1868, and Jackson wrote hers for the national magazine Atlantic Monthly after visiting western Washington.  Compare and contrast the authors' attitudes toward the arrival of the railroad (and industrial technology more broadly) on the West Coast.

2.      After examining the exploitation of forests in western Washington, Helen Hunt Jackson wrote, "Americans are often reproached, and justly, for their lack of reverence for the past; there seems even a greater dishonor in their lack of sense of responsibility for the future" (p. 223).  Compare and contrast Jackson's view with the outlooks of James Swan and Henry George regarding western natural resources.  How does one explain the different perceptions?

3.      Assess Jackson's conclusions regarding the fate of Indians in the West and Northwest.   Does Henry George discuss the role or fate of Indians, or any other minority group?  If so, does his approach resemble or diverge from Jackson's?

4.      Cynthia Culver Prescott depicts the changes that the Willamette Valley society went through during the later 19^th century as it became more closely connected to the culture of the East Coast, presumably by such means as railroads.  One could say that she depicts Oregon evolving from a somewhat crude outpost into a more refined and comfortable society—at least from the perspective of middle-class women.  Compare and contrast Prescott's perspective on regional change to that offered by Henry George's prediction of how the railroad would change pioneer California.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON HELEN HUNT JACKSON AND HENRY GEORGE

            Henry George (1839-1897) was a prominent U.S. thinker and journalist of the later 19^th century.  Born to a lower-middle-class family in Philadelphia, in 1855 he sailed aboard ship to Calcutta, where he discovered the disparities between rich and poor—a topic that preoccupied him for the rest of his life.  His travels landed him in California in 1857, where he worked at many jobs, most of them in newspapers and journalism.  He paid special attention to the growing power of wealthy individuals and large corporations, and over time developed theories postulating that the creation of a class of quite wealthy people necessitated the creation of a very large impoverished class.  This paradox sat at the center of his most famous book, Progress and Poverty:  An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth (1879).  George's best-known reform was the idea of the Single Tax.  Living in the West, Henry George had a front-row seat at that region's great speculation in real estate.  In particular, he observed how the impending arrival of the transcontinental railroad drove up real-estate prices, making it increasingly difficult for people of average means to acquire land.  Rising land values meant that only the very wealthy could afford to acquire property, a condition that heightened the gulf between rich and poor.  George came to view increases in land values as basically unearned wealth, and proposed that society rely on a Single Tax on the growing value of land as a means to redistribute wealth in order to reduce the great inequities in American society.  During the later 19^th century, many Americans agreed with George's ideas, and they entered the political debate over how the U.S. ought to respond to industrialism and inequality.  George himself moved to New York City in 1880 and became involved in city politics.  His influence declined over the 20^th century, but his ideas remain vital in selected circles of economists and reformers.

            Helen Maria Fiske was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, on October 15, 1830.  She married twice, first to Major Edward Bissell Hunt (who died in 1863), and then to Colorado financier William Sharpless Jackson. She began her writing career following the death of her first husband, using the nom de plume "H.H." for many of her poems, essays, novels, and travel pieces (of which her visit to Puget Sound was one). She became a zealous convert to Indian reform in 1879 after hearing a lecture on the condition of the Poncas, a Midwestern tribe forced to resettle in Indian Territory. She spent the next two years compiling evidence to document the effects of federal Indian policy on Native Americans in the West. The result of this work, A Century of Dishonor: A Sketch of the United State's Government's Dealings with Some of the Indian Tribes, was published in 1881. Helen Hunt Jackson's attention was then drawn to the Mission Indians of southern California where, in 1883, she was appointed to investigate their condition and suggest federal legislation (which was not enacted) to correct injustices. This work led to her last novel, Ramona, published in 1884, one year before her death. The book was intended to become a kind of Uncle Tom's Cabin for the cause of native peoples.  Jackson's concern about the treatment of Indians made her into a reformer, and she brought this perspective to her observations of conditions—both social and environmental—around Puget Sound. Note that her article appeared in the same year as the transcontinental railroad to the Northwest was finished. Jackson meant to give eastern audiences a glimpse of the newly accessible region. Her sense of environmental loss is remarkable, because it predates the rise of a widespread awareness of the problems of conservation and preservation.  For more information see Kate Phillips, Helen Hunt Jackson:  A Literary Life (Berkeley:  University of California Press, 2003).

Paper Topics for Pacific Northwest History (HSTAA 432)

The list of prospective paper topics could go on forever.  What follows will seem a little generic, but it is not difficult to take a particular broad category and develop it into something more interesting and specific.  For instance, under "Government and Politics" is the category of woman suffrage.  One might look at a particular territory or state (Washington, Oregon, Idaho), at campaigns that failed or that succeeded, at one or more leading figures such as Abigail Scott Duniway or May Arkwright Hutton, at treatment of the issue in Northwest newspapers, or at how the enfranchisement of women actually affected the outcome of elections.  There is no end to the number of good ideas for research papers.

The list will be updated periodically as additional ideas occur.   JF

Biographies

Cultural Development

Architecture

Arts

Cinema

Historiography

Landscape Architecture and Gardens

Literature and Poetry

            Memoir, Fiction

Museum Development

Music

Native American Arts

Newspapers

Northwest Identity

Northwest's Insecurity

Opera

Schools

            K-12, Universities, Community Colleges, Private Colleges

Theater

Demographic Change

Diversity

Migration

Rural to Urban Movement

Sex Ratios

Economic Development

            Farming and Farm Labor

            Fisheries and Canneries

            Government Investment and Planning

Health Care

Industrial Development

Infrastructure Development

Labor Unions and Organizing

Livestock

Service Economy

Shipping

Tourist Industry

Trade

Wartime Expansions and Contractions

Environment and Natural Resources

            Conservation Movement                      

            Dam Development and Destruction

Endangered Species

            Floods and Flood Control

            Forestry Issues

            Hunting and Fishing

Parks (National, State, City)

Recreation

            River Management       

Wilderness Preservation

Government and Politics

Anti-communist Crusade (McCarthyism, Canwell Committee)

Communist Party

Conservatism in Pacific Northwest

            Ku Klux Klan, John Birch Society

Court Decisions

Diplomacy with Canada

Elections

Federal Government

            Citizenship

            Civil Rights

            Defense Spending and National Security State

            Immigration Policy

            Natural Resource Policies

            Naturalization

Red Scare       

Relations with States

            Resource Policy

Industrial Workers of the World

Initiatives

Labor

Litigation

Political Figures

            Senators, Governors, Congressmen and Congresswomen, Mayors, etc.

Political Parties

            Democrats, Republicans, Socialists, Third Parties

Radicalism

Reform Movements

            Populism, Progressivism, New Deal, Great Society, Civil Rights

Regional Planning

State Constitutions

Utopian Communities

Welfare State

Woman Suffrage

Military History

Defense Industry

Hanford

Military Bases

Northwest in U.S. Wars

World War I, World War II, Cold War, Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War

Race and Ethnicity

African Americans

Black Power

Civil Rights

Economic Opportunities

Migration to Northwest

Chinese

            Chinatowns

            Chinese Exclusion

            Civil Rights

European Immigrant Groups

            Germans

            Irish

            Italians

            Scandinavians

Filipino/as

Japanese

            Incarceration of Japanese during World War Two

Jews

Mexicans and Mexican Americans

            Bracero Program

Native Americans

            Economic Development

            Fishing Rights

            Self-Government

            Termination Policy

Refugees

Religion

            Denominations

            "None Zone" (high number of "unaffiliated")

            Religion and Politics

Science and Technology

Transportation

Automobiles and Trucks

Aviation

Bicycles

Ferry Systems

Highways and Roads

Railroads

Urban / Suburban Development

Housing

Planning

Suburbanization

Urbanization

            World's Fairs (Portland 1905, Seattle 1909, Seattle 1962, Spokane 1974)

Study Questions for Thrush, Native Seattle, 66-150, and

Dana Frank, "Race Relations and the Seattle Labor Movement, 1915-1929"

1.  Looking back on the early days of Seattle in 1888, pioneer Arthur Denny included the following commentary in his reminiscences:

The object of all who came to Oregon in early times was to avail themselves of the privilege of a donation claim, and my opinion to-day is that every man and woman fully earned and merited all they got, but we have a small class of very small people here now who have no good word for the old settler that so bravely met every danger and privation, and by hard toil acquired, and careful economy, saved the means to make them comfortable during the decline of life. These, however are degenerate scrubs, too cowardly to face the same dangers that our pioneer men and women did, and too lazy to perform an honest day's work if it would procure them a homestead in paradise. They would want the day reduced to eight hours and board thrown in . . . . The man who had the best stock of health and the most faith and pluck, was the most wealthy, for we were all capitalists in those days. Each one expected to help himself, and as a rule all went to work with energy to open up the country and make homes for themselves, and at the same time they were ever ready to help each other in case of need or misfortune, and I will presume to say that if the people now possessed more of the spirit that then actuated the "old moss backs," as some reproachfully style the old settlers, we would hear less about a conflict between labor and capital, which in truth is largely a conflict between labor and laziness. We had no eight hour, nor even ten hour days then, and I never heard of any one striking, not even an Indian….

What do Denny's words suggest about changing perceptions of opportunity, class, and Native Americans?  Consider in particular the idea that pioneers like Denny toiled to "open up the country," including from a Native perspective.

2.  What do the readings by Dana Frank and Coll Thrush tell us about the evolving roles of a) people of color and b) unions in Seattle's labor markets, 1870-1930?

3.  The growth of Seattle's population and economy between 1880 and 1930 is customarily regarded as evidence of the city's progress from pioneer town to major metropolis.  How did that "progress" affect the different Native peoples who lived in or passed through the city in the period 1880-1930?  Keep in mind Thrush's distinction between "indigenous" Seattle and "Indian" Seattle, and the importance to Native peoples of the city capturing its own sizeable hinterland.

4.  In Part One of the course, we spent some time considering the role of the federal government in shaping economic and social conditions in the 19^th-century Northwest.  In what ways did the national government serve as an influential force in the urbanization and industrialization of the Northwest between 1880 and 1920?  In realms such as Indian policy and immigration policy, were federal rules and regulations rigorously followed?

Study Questions for Watkins, "Contesting the Terms of Prosperity and Patriotism,"

and Dick, "When Dams Weren't Damned," for 15 May

The readings by Dana Frank (on race and organized labor), Marilyn Watkins (on populists and family farms), and Wesley Dick (on the New Deal state and technology) all explore visions of progress in an industrializing Pacific Northwest between 1900 and 1940.  

a)      Compare and contrast how the different groups (unions, populists, New Deal planners) analyzed their society (e.g. in terms of class and race, rural vs. urban divisions, gender differences, etc.), understood the contributions of technology to "progress," and viewed the proper role of government.   

b)      How did social and political conditions change between 1900 and 1940?  According to Frank, Watkins, and Dick, what were some of the key turning points that altered Northwest visions of progress?

Wesley Dick writes, "The dams as symbols embodied a myth of the future which had repercussions for the present" (135).  What was this myth of the future, and why was it so powerful in the 1930s?

Woody Guthrie sang, "Big river while you're rambling,/ You can do some work for me."  What do these lyrics suggest about ideas during the 1930s regarding the relationships between humans, nature, and technology?  How did these attitudes differ from those in earlier times, such as the periods during which James Swan and Helen Hunt Jackson wrote (the 1850s and 1880s) and the period of the Populists depicted by Marilyn Watkins (1900-1920)?

In Native Seattle, Coll Thrush explores how Indians experienced urbanization on Puget Sound.  How do you suppose Native Americans experienced the damming of the Columbia River?  Is this a topic covered by Wesley Dick?

During the period 1900-1945 the Pacific Northwest experienced two world wars.  Using Watkins's and Dick's articles, reflect on the influence wars have had on modern political and social movements.

Study Questions for Fiset, Imprisoned Apart, for 22 May 2009

(Read pp. 1-111 and at least 25 letters from 1942 and 25 letters from 1943)

1. Readings in HSTAA 432 have included different kinds of primary sources—an explorer's account, written and published after the fact (Vancouver); business correspondence (Simpson); a pioneer's observations (Swan); and articles from regional and national magazines (George, Jackson).  Imprisoned Apart presents us with another type of primary source—personal letters.  Discuss the relative strengths and weaknesses of different kinds of primary sources as lenses on history.  Which have you found most reliable or trustworthy, and why?  Think about the scale of the stages that the different authors were acting on (e.g. Vancouver's national agenda vs. the Matsushitas' personal travails).  Finally, in contrast to the other primary sources assigned in HSTAA 432, the Matsushitas' letters are accompanied by introductory chapters by the editor Louis Fiset.  What difference does such a historical context make to understanding the material?

2. When discussing the experience of Japanese and Japanese Americans in the United States during the Second World War, historians make a lot out of language, i.e., the specific terms with which they discuss the events and trends of the era.  For example, what (if any) are the distinctions between "internment" and "incarceration," between "Japanese" and "Japanese Americans," between "relocation centers" and "concentration camps"?  What terms did the Matsushitas use to describe what was happening to them, and the places where they were locked up?  In short, reflect on the importance of language, and especially word choice, in discussing historical events, and on why different words get chosen to reflect different emphases and meanings.

3. Reflect on Iwao Matsushita's and Hanaye Matsushita's preoccupation with nature, health, or both nature and health in the correspondence in Imprisoned Apart.  What do their concerns tell us about attitudes toward the environment in these selected contexts?

4. To date we have considered the experiences of several minorities, including Native Americans, African Americans, and people of Chinese and Japanese descent, as well as the fate of groups of radicals, in the Pacific Northwest.  Reflect on how the treatment of peoples of color as well as of political minorities has been influenced by a) swings in the economy; b) periods of regional and national crisis, including war in particular; and c) initiatives from the federal government.  Put another way, how have economic, political, and social conditions helped to influence thinking about who "belongs" in the Pacific Northwest, and what roles has the U.S. government played in the treatment of those minority groups?

Study Questions for Parker, reports on Hanford ground contamination problems, 1954,

and Kittredge, "Owning It All," for 29 May

There are a couple of steps to accessing the Parker materials.  To reach the excerpts available on a UW website, go to http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/ and in the left-hand column click on "History and Lit."  Under Section IV, "Aggressive Regionalism," click on "Commentaries" and then click on "Hanford Literature, Parker and Shaw."  This is a brief introduction to the Parker documents.  A highlighted phrase in the second paragraph is a link to the 1954 documents themselves (which can also be reached by clicking on the button marked "Texts" under Section IV, then clicking on "Parker letter and report").  To access the Kittredge reading on E-reserves in the University Libraries, go to http://www.lib.washington.edu/, click on Course Reserves, enter the course number (HSTAA 432), and then click on the phrase "Connect to this Title Online."  The Kittredge essay will appear as a PDF file.

1. Regarding the memo and report by health physicist Herbert Parker, depicting a radioactive release by the Hanford plant in 1954, consider the following:

a.       What were Parker's priorities in addressing the problem of the release of radioactive ruthenium—health, secrecy, national security, or…?  Explain.

b.       What do Parker's memos tell us about Hanford's attitudes toward a) the natural resources around Hanford, and b) nearby civilian communities?

2.  The 20^th-century Northwest has been reshaped by massive federal investment and public-sector engineering projects, including Hanford and the Columbia Basin Project.  Contrast the assumptions underlying such developments to the beliefs among rural Northwesterners (as depicted by Kittredge) about the individual rights of property owners.  Do you think that the two sets of attitudes have been able to coexist relatively easily?

3.  Looking to both Parker and Kittredge for examples, consider how attitudes toward natural resources in the Pacific Northwest have changed (and are still changing) in the years since 1940 as a result of the nation's sustained mobilization for war.

4.  As attitudes toward natural resources have changed, different groups of people have come into conflict.  Identify and discuss the divisions that exist within the Pacific Northwest over the "proper" use of natural resources, calling upon not just Kittredge and Parker but also Swan, Jackson, Dick, Watkins, Thrush, and other materials (including current news) as appropriate.  How have these divisions and debates altered the Northwest's regional identity?

Study Questions for Thrush, Native Seattle, 151-207

1. In Native Seattle, Thrush depicts the efforts of the United Indians of All Tribes.  Reflecting on the name of this organization, summarize the composition of the city's Indian population during the later 20^th century.  How did it differ from and resemble the Native population of earlier times?

2.  In the U.S., the years after 1929 were characterized by reforms at the national level, associated with the New Deal, World War Two and the Cold War, and the Great Society, that brought changes in the realms of civil rights, immigration policy, and urban renewal. 

a.       Using Seattle as a case study, explain how these reform movements affected Native Americans, and vice versa.  Should the 1974 Boldt Decision concerning treaty fishing rights be viewed as part of these reforms?

b.      Was the federal government's denial of recognition to the Duwamish tribe in 1979 and in 2001-2002 an indication that the era of national reform in matters of race, ethnicity, immigration, and urban renewal had drawn to a close?

3.  Thrush tells us that in the 1970s people around the world rediscovered Chief Seattle's speech.  What did this rediscovery suggest about non-Indians perceptions of Native Americans as ecologists?  Did Native peoples make effective use of these perceptions?

4.  Native Seattle portrays modern Seattle as "Ecotopian."  How appropriate is this characterization?  Thinking back on 200 years of regional history, put the characterization of the city into historical perspective.   That is, what might George Vancouver or George Simpson or James Swan or Helen Hunt Jackson or Herbert Parker have thought about the prospect of an ecological utopia in the Pacific Northwest?

Final Exam Study Questions

Please read the question carefully.  Think.  Read the question again.  Organize your answer, either in an outline in your blue book or in your mind.  Think.  Then write, utilizing the readings specifically and regularly (Vancouver, Simpson, Swan, Prescott, Thrush, George, Jackson, Frank, Watkins, Dick, Fiset, Parker, and Kittredge) to substantiate or illustrate your argument.  Be prepared to make the questions manageable by dividing the two centuries or so under consideration into appropriate periods for the purpose of analysis, or by organizing your answer around a sequence of readings (or individuals) that illuminate key points. 

1.      What have been the main forces driving economic and demographic change in the Pacific Northwest between 1774 and 1994?  When did the most dramatic periods of growth occur, and why?

2.      Trace the growing role of the American national government in the Pacific Northwest from the Presidency of Thomas Jefferson to the present.  How have Northwesterners regarded Uncle Sam over the decades?

3.      Explore changing uses of natural resources—and changing attitudes toward the environment—in the Northwest as the forces of urbanization and industrialization became more powerful after 1840.

4.      What roles have racial and ethnic minorities played in the Northwest economy since the start of the fur trade, and how have those roles influenced their social position?  What (if anything) served to improve minorities' position during the 20^th century?

5.      Explain how the Northwest's relationships to other places (e.g. global markets, "the East," California, Washington, D.C.) have shaped its development since the 1780s.

6.       Explain how competition and conflict between nations or empires—from the Anglo-Spanish rivalry of the late 18^th century to the Cold War of the late 20^th century—affected the economy, society, and politics of the Pacific Northwest.

 THE FINAL-EXAM REVIEW SESSION WILL BE HELD MONDAY 8 JUNE AT 12:30-2:20 IN SMITH 309.