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In histories of North America, the phrase “the making of early America” is repeated so frequently that it seems almost meaningless. If we take a step back from its acquired banality, however, we might well ask: what does it actually mean to “make” a new world? This seminar explores the relationship between material and ideological constructions of early America, from the colonial period through the early republic, with particular attention to the environment and artifacts of New England. We will ask: how did early Americans grapple tangibly with the unfamiliar environment of North America, and how did they apply the lessons of those engagements to new ideas about politics, sociality, and culture?
While the course focuses on the American context, it will provide students with a methodological lens and body of technical knowledge that can be translated to other fields of study. Each week is centered on a technique or method of making that provides a springboard for discussion of making’s meanings. Focusing on acts of making necessarily draws our attention to those who make—and so we will continually return to the question of how acts of making inflected, and were inflected by, the agency and interests of different groups: enslaved and free persons, indigenous and colonial inhabitants, women and men; and how these different modes of making sponsored a variety of cultural models.
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