Teaching HST 244 By Jonathan Sassi What makes a general
education course a general education course? What makes a course
in social scientific analysis a course in social scientific
analysis? Well you may ask. I had to ask myself those questions
when I began to teach one of my regular course offerings, HST
244, the survey of United States history from the colonial
period through the end of the Civil War in 1865. Over the years,
I have developed an approach to the course that aims to meet the
needs of both students taking the class as part of their history
major and the typically larger number of students who are
enrolled so as to satisfy the general education category of
“social scientific analysis.” I do so by focusing the course
around the twin themes of “coverage” and “uncoverage.” For
historians at colleges and universities across the country, the
U.S. survey is a bread-and-butter course. It typically covers
the sweep of the nation’s history during two semesters with the
Civil War forming the dividing poin