AMER ST 2052 - The Class Experience in America

Institution:

Temple University

Subject:

Description:

This course surveys the enduring importance of class in the United States as well as the enduring myth of American classlessness. We will start with the myths themselves, where they came from and how they were constructed. From there, we will examine theories of social class (in some ways attempts to explain why the myths weren’t true) and efforts to objectively measure poverty, inequality, and the distribution of wealth. At the outset, we will also examine social mobility patterns and how these objective categories of class are related to race, region, sex, and gender. We will then spend time looking at how class is lived and how it is represented in the larger culture. We will explore how social class shapes the daily lives of ordinary Americans in cities, suburbs, small towns, and rural hinterlands through such things as housing, community, work, leisure activities, shopping tastes, dress, diet, language, education, and family. We will examine how class has been represented, reproduced, and contested, in literature, art, music, film, television, and the broader popular culture.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

WWW.TEMPLE.EDU

Phone Number:

(215) 204-7000

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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