William A. Link
University of Florida
Courses
Undergraduate
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On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested in a bungled burglary at the Watergate, a Washington, D.C., complex housing the Democratic National Committee. Although the extent of involvement by the Richard Nixon reelection campaign remained unclear for months, eventually the break-in, and the attempt to cover it up, brought down the Nixon presidency.
This seminar examines the crisis through general reading and by exposing students to the rich primary sources that document it.
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This course examines the particular history of the US South by examining, through various perspectives, how people have constructed and/or reconstructed the past through literature, film, history, and visual representations. We will examine the subjects central to the American South—slavery and race, Civil War, and the civil rights movement—and how various representations have competed to dominate the understanding of southern traditions. We will spend a portion of class engaged in readings for background and perspective.
The course, as a practicum, has a second important objective: to expose students to learning history by doing history, and an introduction to the methods of historical inquiry. We seek to introduce students to the discipline of history, to the basic skills—among other things, critical reading, analytical thinking, historical research, and argumentative writing—that are required to excel as a major.
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This course explores United States history from Reconstruction to the present, employing perspectives of culture, economy, society, race, gender, and politics. Our topic is a big one; we will tackle it by focusing selectively on themes and trends. We will also emphasize exposure to the things historians do and how they think—in brief, to analyze, understand, and explain. In other words, we want to learn about our past, but also engage in critical thinking, interpretation of evidence, and expository writing.
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This course examines the particular history of the US South by examining, through various perspectives, how people have constructed and/or reconstructed the past. We will spend a portion of class engaged in readings for background and perspective. Then, early in the course, we will pivot in order to think about, conceptualize, and execute a topic that uses first-person accounts of remembering and constructing the past.
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This class examines the causes, fighting, and results of the American Civil War and Reconstruction. We will begin by considering how this disastrous war began and then examine some of the dimensions of the conflict itself. Finally, we will look at the immediate and longer-term aftermath of the war: how Reconstruction unfolded as a process, and what the war meant for future generations of Americans.
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The most important consequence of the Civil War was the destruction of slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, the wartime liberation of a half million enslaved southerners, and the adoption and ratification of the 13th Amendment in became a central threads in the progress of the war and the defeat of the Confederacy. But the end of the war did not necessarily mean freedom, and a struggle for a truer emancipation extended many years beyond 1865. This seminar examines the demise of American slavery, and considers it in terms of its implication for life inside and outside of the US South during and after the war.
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This course examines the evolution of the American South since the Civil War. Although the class is organized chronologically, our emphasis will also be topical, including a sampling of various ways to approach an understanding of regional history. The course will combine lecture and discussion, and students will be expected to come to class having completed readings and prepared having considered important issues for discussion.
Graduate
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This course explores power and politics in the South, broadly construed, beyond electoral politics–including the rise and fall of white supremacy, and the history of southern education. Students will have the opportunity to construct a semester project around their interests—should that be suitable to their program of study.
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This course seeks to expose graduate students to the changing interpretations about modern America. Although the class is organized chronologically, our emphasis will be primarily topical and historiographical, including a sampling of social, cultural, intellectual, diplomatic, and political approaches. In each of the classes, students will be asked to consider important issues and the diverse ways in which historians have attempted to address them.
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This course explores the sources of race and power in the South between 1820 and 1900. We will read in topics such as slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction, the destruction of slavery, racial violence, and the establishment of white supremacy. Students will have the opportunity to construct a semester project around their interests—should that be suitable to their program of study. Most of us, however, will be engaged in intensive reading, as part of an effort to explore and understand the topic.