SUNY Adirondack is offering an online course “History of New York State” for the Spring 2017 semester.

This is a survey course providing an overview of the peoples and land of New York State from the earliest human occupation to the 21st century. The course will focus on physical geography, literature and the arts, demographics, government and politics relating to various time periods in New York State’s history including but not limited to Native American occupation, New Netherland, the Colonial and Revolutionary eras, and the Industrial Revolution.

The course will draw on popular recent historical literature such as:

Joanne Reitano, New York State: People, Places, and Priorities, Routledge (2016).
Peter Eisenstadt, The Encyclopedia of New York State, Syracuse University Press (2005).
Bruce Dearstyne, The Spirit of New York, SUNY Press (2015).

The course will also draw on selections from literary classics as Washington Irving’s A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, by Diedrich Knickerbocker, Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Rip Van Winkle.

The course will be led by Edward Knoblauch, MA, who was one of the managing editors of The Encyclopedia of New York State and the editor of The Papers of Sir William Johnson digital edition.

HIS 216 History of New York State will be held from January 23 to May 11 2017. Three credit hours. Students at any SUNY school may register through Open SUNY. For more information on SUNY Adirondack, or to register, click here  or call Admissions at (518) 743-2264.

Photo: The Great Seal of New York State, courtesy Benson J. Lossing, An Outline History of the United States (New York: Sheldon & Company, 1878).