COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES

Currently American history is part of the joint, one-semester course entitled History of Briain and the United States. Its chief objective is to give students a general overview of the most important periods, people and ideas in American history in terms of its political, economic and cultural development. In seminars students will have a chance to explore and discuss seminars some of the documents, issues and ideas that have shaped the modern American nation.

COURSE TEXTBOOK

There's no traditional coursebook required for this course (i.e. one printed on paper). Instead, you will access all your compulsory weekly reading assignments as well as some other study materials electronically, via the internet. Your new electronic "coursebook" is called A Biography of America. This in fact a telecourse, video series and a web site designed by US university professors (produced by WGBH Boston, funded by Annenberg Media, U.S.) Apart from all reading materials, the Biography of America webpages give you the possibility to watch all the accompanying videos online, free of charge. Please follow the instructions bellow to make full use of the website materials.For their weekly reading assignments as well as for exam preparation students are recommended to buy I DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT AMERICAN HISTORY by Kenneth C. Davis. AN OUTLINE OF AMERICAN HISTORY published by the United States Information Agency can be used as supplementary course material. For detailed treatment of all the topics covered in the course see A PEOPLE & A NATION (M. B. Norton et al.)

LECTURES AND SEMINARS

For each lecture, there is lecture worksheet with relevant vocabulary, dates and test questions. To access all topic-by-topic lecture worksheets click here. Themes covered in lectures will be followed up by seminar activities. It is essential that students prepare for each seminar by doing the following homework assignment: 1. Regular weekly reading assignments (a corresponding chapter from the coursebook). 2. Specific topic preparation (this may including reading an additional article, translating a vocabulary list from the seminar worksheet, listening to a recording or other assigned task). To access a list of topic-by-topic seminar preparation assignments with all the available downloadable materials click here.

ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES

The overall assessment of the History of the United States consists of the following assessed tasks: 1. TEST I, 2. TEST II. There may be a third assessed task - WRITTEN HISTORICAL ESSAY. Please check in the Announcements section whether you have to do this task or not. In addition to above mentioned tasks, students can be awarded points for active participation in class discussions (3 points per seminar). In addition, there may be a non-compulsory assessed task (Check Announcements if there is one in your academic year). Test I is a mid-term test written in week 7 or 8 and Test II after the end of classes (during exam time). The tests are based on the lectures, weekly reading assignments and topics discussed in seminars. Attendance at seminars is compulsory. Students are allowed to miss a maximum of 2 seminars. For the guidelines how to go about writing a historical essay (or comparative analysis) go to Written assignment. For more information on the breakdown of points for all the assessed tasks and an overview of the points you have collected go to Assessment.

NOTE

All the information you need about the course as well as distribution of additional course materials will be handled via the internet on this website. Check the Announcements section weekly for test dates, essay submission deadlines, etc.

Mgr. Roman Ličko, PhD
E-mail: licko@fhv.umb.sk
Tel.: +421 48 4465022
Department of English and American Studies
Faculty of Humanities
Matej Bel University
97401 Banská Bystrica