Home Page for HIST 431/631

HIST 431/631
The North American Plains
This is the home page for Dr. Tom Isern's course in the history of the Great Plains of North America, taught at North Dakota State University. Students, this website is essential to your progress in the course. Everyone else, feel free to look around. Note: the course DOES NOT use Blackboard. It does, however, use Facebook as a medium of instruction, and so you need to have a Facebook account.

Administration & Assignments Lectures & Readings People & Connections
Administration

Calendar
Goals
Evaluation
Record Your Own Grades: Use This Excel File
Scholastic Honesty

Assignments

Response Papers on Lectures
Response Papers on Essays
Analysis of Primary Documents
Attendance & Participation
German-Russian Community Report
3D Models of Historic Buildings - guidelines under revision
Service Learning - dates to be set
Book Reviews
Film Reviews
Heritage Food Projects
Graduate Students

GREAT PLAINS FOLK FESTIVAL

Class Lectures
Welcome to My World

1. The Question Mark in the Circle (scholarly interpretations)

2. The Wild Land (the Great Plains environment)

3. The Great American Desert (exploration)

4. Born Upon the Prairie (Plains Indians)

5. That Pike County Rose (transportation)

6. Ways and Habits of the West (ranching)

7. The Farmer Is the Man (agriculture)

8. That Tool Pusher from Snyder (mineral industries)

9. Wir Sehen Uns Nimmer Mehr (immigration & ethnicity)

10. Fire on the Ice (political culture)

11. It Looked So Awful Black (Dust Bowl)

12. The Continuity of Progress (community)

Core Texts
Three Threads

The Great Plains
A fundamental text, by Walter P. Webb

Thinking About the Great Plains
Ideas That Matter

The Great Plains at the Grassroots
Primary Documents of Regional Life

 Who's in charge?
Professor Tom Isern

TripAdvisor

Resource Links

Bibliography of the North American Plains
Institute for Regional Studies & University Archives
Germans from Russia Heritage Collection
Center for Heritage Renewal
Plains Folk Home Page

Facebook
Heritage Trails

Webshots
Heritage Image
Plains Folk Photo Annex

YouTube
Heritage Video
Plains Folk Video Annex

Bulletin description:The course treats the history of the Great Plains of North America as an international region, comprising the Canadian prairies and the American plains.
Accommodations for Persons with Disabilities:Any students with disabilities who need accommodations in this course are encouraged to speak with Professor Isern as soon as possible to make appropriate arrangements.
General Education:Meets requirements for Humanities and Cultural Diversity
Acknowledgments:This course was made international--that is, the Canadian aspect was introduced and made co-equal with the American--with the assistance of a grant from the Faculty Enrichment Programme, Embassy of Canada. Because of that support, this is the only college course in the world that treats the history of the Great Plains of North America as a continental, bi-national region.

Another agency that has helped in all my Canadian work by appointing me a Research Fellow is the Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina.

Isern Home Page - NDSU History Department