Inventing America (U.S. Survey)
Course Overview
This course offers a historical overview of North American history from its settlement by Native Americans through the founding of the United States. The course title — “Inventing America” — refers to four major developments that we will explore together. First, indigenous peoples created thriving societies linked by trade, diplomacy, and technology exchange. Second, Europeans “discovered”America, forcing them and Indigenous Americans to re-evaluate world geography and human history. Third, the invasion and colonization of North America by Europeans createda “new world” for all people living in the Americas, linking Native American, African, and European worlds and transforming them all. Fourth, a powerful group of these colonizers staged a revolt against their king, which ended in the invention of a new nation, the United States of America.