AM 260 - themes in American Culture

Institution:

Skidmore College

Subject:

Description:

Interdisciplinary examinations of critical themes in the development of American culture and American life. (The course may be repeated for credit with focus on a different theme.) A. Civil Rights in Twentieth-Century United States 3 An examination of the interactions of individuals, groups, institutions and agencies seeking to achieve, enforce, or dismiss those civil rights guarantees contained primarily in the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution of the United States and in subsequent twentieth century legislation. Although a major focus of the course is on the attempts of women and African-Americans to secure full civil rights protections, students are encouraged to investigate civil rights issues that range beyond these two groups. The course uses a variety of materials including legislative histories, autobiographies, executive orders, judicial decisions, biographies, histories of specific aspects of the civil rights struggle, journalistic accounts, documentary films, works of fiction, and oral histories. (Fulfills social sciences requirement.) W. Grady-Willis B. The Machine in the Garden 3 An introduction to the relations between agricultural industrialization and the American pastoral ideal. In the early twentieth century, the longstanding association of American identity with an agrarian paradise was challenged, reconfigured, and/or redirected by newly emerging discourses in sociology, domestic and industrial labor, eugenics, and advertising, among others. At the same time, rural life was radically altered as many small family farms gave way to agribusiness. This course traces these shifts, focusing primarily on the transformative period between 1900 and 1945, and considers efforts to retain the notion of an American Arcadia in the face of the Machine Age. (Fulfills social sciences requirement.) G. Pfitzer, J. Casey C. African-American Experience, 1860s-1980s 3 A study of the African-American experience, 1860s-1980s. Using both primary and secondary source material, the course examines the critical issues and period relevant to the African-American struggle toward freedom and equality. Topics include slavery, emancipation, and Reconstruction; the woman's era; the age of Jim Crow and the new Negro; the civil rights movement; and the post-reform period. Sources include narratives, documents, photographs, and films. (Designated a Cultural Diversity course; fulfills social sciences requirement.) W. Grady-Willis, J. Woodfork I. Popular Culture 4 A topical examination of the cultural-historical process of the creation, dissemination, and consumption of mass or popular culture and analysis of popular culture as a defining characteristic of Americans. Specific focus will be upon the evolution of modern electronic forms of communication in the twentieth century, and the interrelationships between the popular and elite and folk culture will be explored. Illustrative topics include: popular genre literature, mass movements, celebrities and heroes, and film, radio, and television. D. Nathan J. Diversity in the United States 3 An examination of the ways in which people in the United States try to reconcile the realities of cultural difference with preconceived notions of a unified America and American identity. Students will learn about the United States as a complex, heterogeneous society that has been profoundly shaped by both the connections and conflict implicit in its multicultural heritage. Students will also address interrelationships and tensions that characterize a culturally diverse democracy by examining how accepted cultural traditions intersect with contested themes such as race, the family, adoption, gender, sexuality, and education. (Fulfills social sciences requirement; designated as a Cultural Diversity course.) J. Woodfork

Credits:

3.00 - 4.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.skidmore.edu/

Phone Number:

(518) 580-5000

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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