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Southern Utah University
Southern Utah University
Fall Semester 2025

Atlantic History (Online)

HIST 4700-30I

Course: HIST 4700-30I
Credits: 3
Term: Fall Semester 2025
Department: HSOC
CRN: 32363

Course Description

From time to time, faculty will offer a course pertaining to a special area of interest or a particularly timely topic under this course number. Course topics can address any time period or region of study. Both the class schedule and handouts in the department office will provide further information as to what is being offered under this special topics title. (Fall, Spring, Summer) [Graded (Standard Letter)] Repeatable for Add’l Credit? Yes - Total Credits: 9


Topic for Fall 2025: Atlantic History


In this course, we will examine the history of the Atlantic world from 1492 to the mid-nineteenth century as well as some of the historiography (interpretations of history) on the subject. Atlantic history is a pivotal field in the historical discipline that emerged first as the result of the Anglo-French-American alliance that won the Second World War and emphasized transatlantic ties. The field then broadened to countries and continents beyond western Europe in the post-war era. 


Going beyond national boundaries, the field of Atlantic history explores the connections between and among the four continents bordering the Atlantic ocean: Europe, Africa, and North and South America. Its major premise is that during the early modern era, the Atlantic Ocean was not a barrier to exploration, travel, trade, and communication but rather a highway (a superhighway, some historians even say!) for all sorts of connections among the people, animals, and microbes inhabiting those continents as well as ideas and trade goods. 


This online course combines recorded lectures with secondary source readings, online discussions, and written assignments. In focusing on historiography, students will be introduced to the academic journal article as one of the most important formats through which historians present and communicate their research. Students will advance their skills in understanding and interpreting historiography through academic journal articles. In reading effective examples of doing history, they will also gain insight into organizing their thoughts into historical critiques and arguments, which they will practice in their own written work for the course and will provide a useful foundation for their future academic studies and their careers in whichever field they pursue.



Required Texts

No textbook to buy, but required readings posted below. 

Alison Games, “Introduction, Definitions, Historiography: What is Atlantic History?”  OAH Magazine of History

David Armitage, “Three Concepts of Atlantic History,” in The British Atlantic World edited volume 

Christopher Miller, “Change and Crisis: North America on the Eve of European Invasion.” History Now: The Journal

Edmund Morgan, “Columbus’ Confusion about the New World,” Smithsonian Magazine.

The Lives of African People Before the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.” From NCpedia. 

Alfred Crosby, “Columbian Exchange” Gilder Lehrman Institue of American History  

Daniel Richter, Native American Discoveries of Europe, Gilder Lehrman…

“Who Were the Taino?” Smithsonian Magazine

Jess Romeo, The Tainos Refused to Grow Food, the Spanish Starved, JSTOR Daily

Marcy Norton, Tasting Empire:  Chocolate and the European Internalization of Mesoamerican Aesthetics, American Historical Review 

Ira Berlin, The Discovery of the Americas and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Gilder Lehrman Institute…

Marcus Reducer, Under the Banner of King Death: The Social World of Anglo-American Pirates, 1716-1727, Willam and Mary Quarterly. 

Patrick O’Brien, Gilded Misery: The Robie Women in Loyalist Exile and Repatriation, 1775-1790, Acadiensis. 

Laurent Dubois, Why Haiti Should Be At the center of the Age of Revolution, Aeon. 

Laurent Dubois, Rocky Cotard, The Slave Revolution that gave birth to Haiti

Michelle Orihel, Paine’s Yellow Fever: Pandemic Disease and Opposition Politics in the Early Republic, Journal of the Early Republic

Matthew Rainbow Hale, On Their Tiptoes: Political Time and Newspapers during the Advent of the Radicalized French Revolution, circa 1792-93. 

Atlantic History entry, Wikipedia 









Learning Outcomes

 
Learning Outcomes


  • KNOWLEDGE: Students will demonstrate their acquisition of factual and conceptual knowledge about the development of the Atlantic World. 


  • INQUIRY AND ANALYSIS: Students will analyze historical events and interpretations within the framework of Atlantic history. In particular, students will learn how to evaluate and assess the significance of the arguments advanced by professional historians in journal articles, one of the most important formats through which historians communicate their research.


  • WRITTEN COMMUNICATION: Students will write weekly discussion posts as well as cumulative short to medium-length assignments in which they practice and hone their written communication skills.

Course Requirements

Weekly Work:  weekly online group discussions, weekly individual assignments 50%
Cumulative Projects:  two journal article analyses timed at midterm and final 50%

Course Outline

Week One-- Introductions
Week Two -- What is Atlantic History?
Week Three -- Three Worlds Before 1492
Week Four -- Environmental and Indigenous Perspectives on 1492
Week Five -- Beyond the Pilgrims and Pocahontas: Atlantic Perspectives on Colonization/ Midterm Project Due
Week Six -- The Atlantic Slave Trade
Week Seven -- The Colonization of the Caribbean 
Week Eight --  Pirates of the Caribbean (and the Atlantic World) 
Week Nine -- The American Revolution from an Atlantic Perspective:  The Patriots
Week Ten -- The American Revolution from an Atlantic Perspective:  The Loyalists
Week Eleven -- The Age of Atlantic Revolutions
Week Twelve -- The Haitian Revolution
Week Thirteen -- Pandemic Disease in the Revolutionary Atlantic World
Week Fourteen -- A Symphony for the Revolutionary Atlantic:  Beethoven's Ninth 
Week Fifteen -- Final Exam Week -- Final Project Due

Instructor's policies on late assignments and/or makeup work

 
COURSE COMPONENTS, PROCEDURES, POLICIES 


 
WEEKLY WORK
The course is organized into weekly modules. You have ONE WEEK to complete each module. The modules will be completed in sequence.


Weekly assignments will always be due by Friday at 5pm, but there will always be a grace period until Sunday at 11:59pm in which I accept assignments without penalty. However, no late assignments will be accepted AFTER Sunday.


Note that I do not open up weekly assignments early and I do not allow for make up work.  


 
General Warning:    I do NOT allow for the completion of last-minute assignments during or at the end of the semester because that is neither an effective way for you to learn nor is it practical for me to grade and assess all of your assignments at the end. Instead, you must keep up with the course work on a weekly basis. If you run into problems such as a serious illness or a family crisis that interfere with your ability to keep up with your work, let me know immediately and we can work something out for a week or two. Do not wait to contact me. Missing beyond a week or two of modules is not advisable. 

HOWEVER, you can miss participation in FOUR of the Weekly Discussions or Individual Assignments  (that's about a week of work) without penalty to your final grade. This covers all reasons from illness to accident to forgetfulness to fatigue to anything you want. Note that this does NOT apply to the two journal article analyses. 


      • If you miss more than FOUR Discussion Board questions and have a legitimate reason for missing the deadlines like major illness or family crisis, then, we will make arrangements for late work to be submitted. This is only warranted in serious situations. Documentation will be required. 
      • Most important, let me know as early as possible if this situation ever applies to you. I will work with you. Again, missing beyond one week even for a legitimate reason is not advisable. In my experience, students do not end up doing well in the course under such circumstances.  


Attendance Policy

This course is online asynchronous, so there is no attendance policy. However, there are regular, weekly deadlines which students are expected to meet, and indeed, completing the course in this way will result in the best learning experience for the student, which each week's readings and activities building on the last one's.

Course Fees

 Program Fees for courses in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences: $4/ credit hour 

ADA Statement

Students with medical, psychological, learning, or other disabilities desiring academic adjustments, accommodations, or auxiliary aids will need to contact the Disability Resource Center, located in Room 206F of the Sharwan Smith Center or by phone at (435) 865-8042. The Disability Resource Center determines eligibility for and authorizes the provision of services.

If your instructor requires attendance, you may need to seek an ADA accommodation to request an exception to this attendance policy. Please contact the Disability Resource Center to determine what, if any, ADA accommodations are reasonable and appropriate.

Academic Credit

According to the federal definition of a Carnegie credit hour: A credit hour of work is the equivalent of approximately 60 minutes of class time or independent study work. A minimum of 45 hours of work by each student is required for each unit of credit. Credit is earned only when course requirements are met. One (1) credit hour is equivalent to 15 contact hours of lecture, discussion, testing, evaluation, or seminar, as well as 30 hours of student homework. An equivalent amount of work is expected for laboratory work, internships, practica, studio, and other academic work leading to the awarding of credit hours. Credit granted for individual courses, labs, or studio classes ranges from 0.5 to 15 credit hours per semester.

Academic Freedom

SUU is operated for the common good of the greater community it serves. The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition. Academic Freedom is the right of faculty to study, discuss, investigate, teach, and publish. Academic Freedom is essential to these purposes and applies to both teaching and research.

Academic Freedom in the realm of teaching is fundamental for the protection of the rights of the faculty member and of you, the student, with respect to the free pursuit of learning and discovery. Faculty members possess the right to full freedom in the classroom in discussing their subjects. They may present any controversial material relevant to their courses and their intended learning outcomes, but they shall take care not to introduce into their teaching controversial materials which have no relation to the subject being taught or the intended learning outcomes for the course.

As such, students enrolled in any course at SUU may encounter topics, perspectives, and ideas that are unfamiliar or controversial, with the educational intent of providing a meaningful learning environment that fosters your growth and development. These parameters related to Academic Freedom are included in SUU Policy 6.6.

Academic Misconduct

Scholastic honesty is expected of all students. Dishonesty will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent (see SUU Policy 6.33). You are expected to have read and understood the current SUU student conduct code (SUU Policy 11.2) regarding student responsibilities and rights, the intellectual property policy (SUU Policy 5.52), information about procedures, and what constitutes acceptable behavior.

Please Note: The use of websites or services that sell essays is a violation of these policies; likewise, the use of websites or services that provide answers to assignments, quizzes, or tests is also a violation of these policies. Regarding the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), you should check with your individual course instructor.

Emergency Management Statement

In case of an emergency, the University's Emergency Notification System (ENS) will be activated. Students are encouraged to maintain updated contact information using the link on the homepage of the mySUU portal. In addition, students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the Emergency Response Protocols posted in each classroom. Detailed information about the University's emergency management plan can be found at https://www.suu.edu/emergency.

HEOA Compliance Statement

For a full set of Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) compliance statements, please visit https://www.suu.edu/heoa. The sharing of copyrighted material through peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, except as provided under U.S. copyright law, is prohibited by law; additional information can be found at https://my.suu.edu/help/article/1096/heoa-compliance-plan.

You are also expected to comply with policies regarding intellectual property (SUU Policy 5.52) and copyright (SUU Policy 5.54).

Mandatory Reporting

University policy (SUU Policy 5.60) requires instructors to report disclosures received from students that indicate they have been subjected to sexual misconduct/harassment. The University defines sexual harassment consistent with Federal Regulations (34 C.F.R. Part 106, Subpart D) to include quid pro quo, hostile environment harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking. When students communicate this information to an instructor in-person, by email, or within writing assignments, the instructor will report that to the Title IX Coordinator to ensure students receive support from the Title IX Office. A reporting form is available at https://cm.maxient.com/reportingform.php?SouthernUtahUniv

Non-Discrimination Statement

SUU is committed to fostering an inclusive community of lifelong learners and believes our university's encompassing of different views, beliefs, and identities makes us stronger, more innovative, and better prepared for the global society.

SUU does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, sex (including sex discrimination and sexual harassment), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ancestry, disability status, pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, genetic information, military status, veteran status, or other bases protected by applicable law in employment, treatment, admission, access to educational programs and activities, or other University benefits or services.

SUU strives to cultivate a campus environment that encourages freedom of expression from diverse viewpoints. We encourage all to dialogue within a spirit of respect, civility, and decency.

For additional information on non-discrimination, please see SUU Policy 5.27 and/or visit https://www.suu.edu/nondiscrimination.

Pregnancy

Students who are or become pregnant during this course may receive reasonable modifications to facilitate continued access and participation in the course. Pregnancy and related conditions are broadly defined to include pregnancy, childbirth, termination of pregnancy, lactation, related medical conditions, and recovery. To obtain reasonable modifications, please make a request to title9@suu.edu. To learn more visit: https://www.suu.edu/titleix/pregnancy.html.

Disclaimer Statement

Information contained in this syllabus, other than the grading, late assignments, makeup work, and attendance policies, may be subject to change with advance notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.