The midterm will draw on the following major themes we have discussed so far during the course. As you study, please consider not only each individual theme, but also the ways in which these themes may be related to one another. Essay questions will be drawn from these themes, but may ask you to relate two or more of them within the same question. The best answers will synthesize thematic material we have discussed in lecture with specific details from both lecture and readings.
Colonial Recreation and Leisure: How did changing Anglo-American attitudes about work, labor, and leisure in the 1600s and 1700s shape the recreational practices of colonial America? What does Nancy Struna mean by the “leisure preference,” and how does she believe it influenced attitudes about sport, recreation, and play in Anglo-America in the 1600s and 1700s? Be aware of significant regional differences in the culture, economy, and labor regimes of colonial America and how these differences influenced attitudes about work and play. What were the basic religious tenets and social values of Puritanism, and how did they shape attitudes about work and play in both England and the New England colonies? How did the labor and land use patterns of the tobacco-growing Chesapeake influence work, play, and recreation? To what extent did these regional differences remain influential into the nineteenth century? What impact did the availability, or lack thereof, of material culture specifically dedicated to play and recreation have on colonial recreational practice? In what ways were labor and leisure blurred in Anglo-America in the 1600s and 1700s, and in what ways did a gradual separation of the two begin to emerge? What was the importance of publicly demonstrated and identified “prowess” to colonial culture?
Modern, Premodern, Traditional: Mel Adelman, in discussing the development of horse and harness racing in the nineteenth century, describes