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Course Criteria
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3.00 Credits
Sport, a major part of American entertainment and culture today, has roots that extend back to the colonial period. This course will provide an introduction to the development of American sport, from the horseracing and games of chance in the colonial period through the rise of contemporary sport as a highly commercialized entertainment spectacle. Using a variety of primary and secondary sources, we will explore the ways that American sport has influenced and been influenced by economics, politics, popular culture, and society, including issues of race, gender and class. Given Notre Dame's tradition in athletics, we will explore the university's involvement in this historical process.
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3.00 Credits
What does it mean to be a slave in America? Were African-Americans the only slaves in America? Are indentured servants, captives, or laborers in company towns free? Are they slaves? This course examines slavery and other forms of unfree labor in the United States. Through lectures and discussions, the class will investigate unfree labor in American history-chattel slavery in the South and New England, Puritan captives in French Canada, Indian slave trade in the South and Southwest, indentured servants in Virginia, and company towns in the post-war South and West. By the end of the course, students will be equipped to explore how chattel slavery in America fit into a global context, how modernity was related to slavery, and how the experiences of African-American slaves differed by time and region in the United States. After a broad survey of slavery and unfree labor in the United States, students will be prepared to tackle the following questions: What does it mean to be free in America? What was the impact of slavery and unfree labor on American politics and society?
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3.00 Credits
This course traces the roots of southern American culture by exploring the centrality of the relationships between sex, manliness, and slavery in the development of the US South from 1619 to 1865. By examining how European men viewed their own sexuality and that of European women in contrast to that of African men and women, this course seeks to examine the complex racial and gendered identities at the center of southern culture. The underlying current of the class is to understand the complexity with which racial and gendered identities defined all relationships and culture in the South. Using primary and secondary sources, we will critically engage the debates about slavery, racism, gender, and class in southern culture. We will reevaluate the historiographic arguments on American racism. We will take the notion of "southern gentlemen" to task, juxtaposing their responsibility as patriarchs to the ugly underbelly of slavery, race, and sexual exploitation. Our efforts in this class will be to understand the contours of the relationships between sexual control, manliness, and racism. We will explore the daily lives of men and women who lived during the time. A variety of perspectives will constitute our sources about slavery, including those of blacks, free and enslaved, as well as planters, abolitionists, women, and yeomen.
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3.00 Credits
This course introduces students to the historical study of women in the United States South. It will cover topics such as women in slavery, the transition to freedom, race relations, and social movements. Through student-centered discussions, presentations, and a variety of different writing assignments, students will analyze how race, class, and gender structured the experiences of women in southern society. At the end of the semester, students will be prepared to pursue more advanced research in the field of women's history.
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3.00 Credits
This examines how the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s shaped the history of the United States of America. What is the meaning of "Black Power"? To what extent can we trace its origins or antecedents in the Civil Rights era? What does studying this particular socio-political movement tell us about urbanization, intellectual production, labor unionism, student activism, cultural innovation, and class and gender relations? In what ways does critically analyzing the diverse political and cultural practices provide insight not only into black identity politics, but also into broader international contexts such as the Cold War, Third World decolonization, and the Vietnam War? These are just a few questions that will be explored throughout the course. By introducing students to a variety of texts/sources, including critical essays, oral interviews, autobiography, poetry, speeches, music and film, we will attempt to generate news of ways of thinking and understanding of postwar developments in African American politics and activism.
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3.00 Credits
Few periods in American history have been as controversial as the 1960s. Sometimes called the "Long Sixties," it runs conceptually from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s, and was a turbulent time. Concentrating on politics and society, this course explores the major personalities and events, including Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, the New Frontier, the Great Society, the Vietnam War, the breakdown of the liberal consensus, the rebirth of the conservative movement, and national movements led by youths, women, and African Americans. Although the emphasis is on the US, the course also visits several major international issues. There are two goals for students: acquiring knowledge about the period, and developing analytical tools to form their own judgments about it. Toward the first goal, students will encounter a combination of readings, videos, mini-lectures, and class discussions. Toward the second, they will be exposed to four different approaches: 1) discussing primary documents and writing a paper on some of them; 2) studying three small-scale case studies; 3) examining the large-scale phenomenon of protest; and 4) reading the memoirs of a Cabinet member, hence gaining an insider's view of the life and activities in the White House.
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3.00 Credits
This course explores the political, economic, cultural, and social history of the Great Depression and New Deal years in the United States, from the stock market crash of 1929 to the beginning of World War II in 1941.
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3.00 Credits
What does it mean to be male or female in America? Where did our ideas about gender come from and how do they influence our lives, institutions, values, and cultures? In this course we will begin by reviewing colonial and Victorian gender systems in the U.S. Our focus, however, is the twentieth century, and the development of modern (early 20th-century) and contemporary (post-1970s) gender roles and ideas. How much have they changed over time and what aspects have been retained? We will explore the ways that cultural images, political changes, and economic needs have shaped the definition of acceptable behavior and life choices based on sex and gender. We will also pay close attention to the roles that race, class, culture, sexuality, marital status and other key factors play in determining male and female roles and influencing images of femininity and masculinity.
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3.00 Credits
This course will look at protest movements for civil rights and other related issues, focusing on the 20th century, especially the second half. One central theme will be the African American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. How did race, gender, class, religion, and region impact the strategies, goals, and reception of various threads of black struggles for full citizenship? In addition, we will explore previous and later generations of African American activism, as well as other protest movements in the post WWII period. How did the civil rights movement that emerged in the 1950s draw on early 20th-century activism and leadership? What directions did African American protest movements take after the late 1960s? How did other civil rights, racial and ethnic consciousness, and social reform movements in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s develop from their own historical experiences and in relationship to other protest movements?
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3.00 Credits
What does it mean to be male or female in America? Where did our ideas about gender come from and how do they influence our lives, institutions, values, and cultures? In this course we will begin by reviewing colonial and Victorian gender systems in the U.S. Our focus, however, is the twentieth century, and the development of modern (early 20th-century) and contemporary (post-1970s) gender roles and ideas. How much have they changed over time and what aspects have been retained? We will explore the ways that cultural images, political changes, and economic needs have shaped the definition of acceptable behavior and life choices based on sex and gender. We will also pay close attention to the roles that race, class, culture, sexuality, marital status and other key factors play in determining male and female roles and influencing images of femininity and masculinity.
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