Even through reading fiction pieces, literary analysts get a glimpse into days gone by. The multidisciplinary approach works well in an American or British literature course. In many schools, American history is required during the same school year that the students are taking American literature. If you're homeschooling, the process is fairly easy. If you're in a public school, suggest that the required course schedules be rearranged to adopt this technique.
Studies show that students retain more of BOTH subjects when the content overlaps.
If your goal is to help students understand how current trends developed, you will want to start from the past to the present. As the class progresses to the next time period, add the new timeline to the previous one. Overloading your students with too many unconnected details will actually hinder their perception of the real themes. For example, one can obviously see that the early American authors were concerned with religious freedoms and religious expression from reading even their secular writings and private reflections. Avoid devoting too much time to the biographies of the famous writers.