HIST W4412 - Americans and the Good Life, 1750-1910

Institution:

Columbia University in the City of New York

Subject:

Description:

Americans have not always agreed about the nature of the good life or about how to achieve it. In this course we focus on a range of compelling writers, among the best in American history, each with a different perspective on what matters and each articulated within a different context. Among the paths to good life examined will be religion, nature, aesthetics or beautify, farming or country life, urban living, untrammeled individual expression, and money and consumption. We begin with the sermons of Jonathan Edwards and end with Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser. In between are works by Benjamin Franklin, Henry Thoreau, Walt Whitman, George Santayana, Liberty Hyde Bailey, Anna Comstock, Charles Cooley, and William James.

Credits:

4.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.columbia.edu

Phone Number:

(212) 854-1754

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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