Course Descriptions for Fall 2009
(As of 3/17/2009)

REMEMBER: ATTENDANCE IS REQUIRED FOR THE FIRST WEEK IN ALL AMERICAN STUDIES COURSES. STUDENTS WILL BE DROPPED FROM CLASS FOR NON-ATTENDANCE.

INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN STUDIES

10 - American Education and the American Dream (4 units) - CC# 02003
MW 2:00-4:00 2 Leconte Instructors: M. Brilliant
Sec. 101: CC# 02006 Tu 08:00-09:00, 221 Wheeler
Sec. 102: CC# 02009 Tu 11:00-12:00, 41 Evans
Sec. 103: CC# 02012 W 01:00-02:00, 106 Wheeler
Sec. 104: CC# 02015 M 01:00-02:00, 258 Dwinelle

This class will explore the relationship between American education – its history, law, policy, and culture – and the American Dream, which views schooling as the most integral, public institutional means to its realization. This subject, in turn, will serve as a lens for exposing students to the development and methodological approaches of American Studies. Given their many distinctively American attributes, American education, the American Dream, and the relationship between the two provide an ideal lens for learning about American Studies – the only academic field of inquiry that takes America as a whole as its unit of analysis. To begin with, when it comes to education, Americans, in fact, put their money where their mouth is. A recent report of educational expenditures among the United States and the other seven leading industrialized countries that comprise the G-8, for example, found that "the United States ranked highest among the G-8 countries in terms of expenditure per student at the combined primary and secondary education levels as well as at the higher education level." (By contrast, the United States spends significantly less than its industrialized counterparts on most social welfare programs.) Of course, overall expenditures – the bulk of which come from state and local tax revenues and, for K-12 alone, outstrip annual spending on social security and national defense, which are the largest items in the federal budget – mask profound inequalities in spending both within and between states. These statistics, in turn, reflect another distinctively American feature of its educational system: its highly localistic nature, consisting of some 15,000 separate school districts. Among the specific topics this course will tackle are: the origins of public school systems during the half century or so after the American Revolution; the evolution of public school systems in response to the transformations wrought by immigration, industrialization, and geopolitics; the recurring culture wars over curricular content; the efficacy of public education at promoting (or precluding) socioeconomic mobility; and the sociolegal struggles over desegregation and school finance equalization. Each of these subjects speaks in some way to the role of schooling in supporting (or thwarting) equality of opportunity, which resides at the heart of the American Dream.

OTHER AMERICAN STUDIES COURSES

American Studies 24 - Food Politics and American Popular Culture- (1 unit) – CC# 02017
F 11:00-12:00 202 Wheeler Instructor: K. Moran
We will read Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, and think about the way issues of growing, distributing, eating food have been represented, constructed and reflected in American Popular Culture, including films, television, and advertising.

American Studies 110 – Advertising America - (3, 4 units) – CC# 02030
TTh 03:30-05:00 155 Donner Lab Instructor: K. Moran
This course will discuss: 1.) the way advertising reflects and constructs American history and culture; 2.) a number of approaches to "reading" and decoding advertising images; and 3.) the practices of advertising from the perspective of the industry.

“TIME” COURSES

101, Section 01 – The Harlem Renaissance (4 Units) - CC# 02021
TTh 09:30-11:00 155 Donner Lab Instructor: C. Palmer
This course explores the social, cultural, political and personal awakenings in the literature, art and music of the Negro Renaissance or the New Negro Movement, known as the Harlem Renaissance. This is remembered as a time (roughly 1918-1930) when, in the midst of legal segregation and increasing anti-black mob violence, black American writers, artists, philosophers, activists, and musicians, congregating in New York City's Harlem, reclaimed the right to represent themselves in a wide range of artistic forms and activist movements. This course will focus on the forces that led to this "renaissance" as well as those that fueled it. Primary texts for this course include Jean Toomer, Cane; Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God; George Schuyler, Black No More; Nella Larsen, Passing; poetry by Langston Hughes; and works by Claude McKay, Alain Locke, Jessie Fauset, W.E.B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson, Anne Spencer, Alice Dunbar-Nelson and others.

American Studies 101AC– The Age of Monopoly: American Culture 1865-1929 (4 units) - CC# 02024
TTh 02:00-03:30 155 Donner Lab Instructor: M. Cohen
Between the end of the Civil War and start of the First Great Depression, the United States of America transformed itself from an isolationist and agricultural country into the richest, most powerful nation in the world. This era is characterized by the stunning growth of industrial and finance capitalism and the seemingly insignificant birth of what quickly became the dominant institution in our world: the modern business corporation. The building of vast corporate monopolies in money, steel, tobacco, movies, food, oil, electricity, organized crime, etc. reorganized every aspect of American life and culture from our cities to our sports, from our politics to our popular entertainment. The Age of Monopoly represents the birth of modern America, and with these great changes came epic social, sexual and racial conflicts characterized by the often violent clash of labor and capital, the repression of African American rights and the triumph of white supremacy, the cataclysmic end to 400 years of Indian wars, the challenge of feminism and the New Woman, the confrontation of Americans with the rest of the world in the form of mass immigration and imperial expansion, the rise of major reform and revolutionary movements, and the growth of state institutions dedicated to stopping them. The focus of this class will be to consider the economic and political changes of the Age of Monopoly through a study of its culture, for it was this half-century that gave birth to modern American culture in the form of illustrated magazines and comic strips, world's fairs and amusement parks, Wild West shows and vaudeville, the advertising and public relations industry, window shopping and department stores, skyscrapers and national parks, military buildups and IQ tests, talk radio and Jazz music, automobiles and suburbs, and most importantly, the Hollywood movie. Course will require two short papers, a mid-term and final exam.
Readings include:
W.E.B Dubois, Souls of Black Folk; Alix Shulman ed, Red Emma Speaks: An Emma Goldman Reader; Hamilton Holt, ed. The Life Stories of Undistinguished Americans as Told by Themselves; Grey Brechin, Imperial San Francisco; Matthew Jacobson, Barbarian Virtues; Stuart Ewen, Captains of Consciousness

American Studies C111E, Section 2 – A Gallery of Wonders, Curiosities, Spectacles, Cynics, and Suckers: Consumer Culture in Post-Civil War America (4 units) - CC# 02036
MW 04:00-05:30 170 Barrows Instructor: D. McQuade
Also cross-listed as English 136, Section 2.
This course will focus on the interrelations of the rise of consumerism and the culture industry in post-Civil War America. We will examine a wide range of materials, including advertisements (especially patent medicine ads), trade cards, commercial art and photography, dime novels, other best sellers as well as literary works, popular magazines, amusement parks and large-scale exhibitions. The course will begin with the remarkable and long-lived career of P. T. Barnum, at times a moral reformer, a habitual hoaxer, an insightful critic, a savvy expert at “puffery,” a master of images, and an impresario who transcended local cultural markets to cultivate a powerful and profitable presence on the national and global stage. We will end with The Columbian Exposition, a World's Fair held in Chicago to observe the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World as well as to celebrate America’s belief in its exceptionalism and its industrial and cultural optimism. Along the way, we will read generous selections from The Colossal P. T. Barnum Reader as well as novels by Horatio Alger (Ragged Dick, Or, Street Life in New York with the Boot-Blacks), Mark Twain (A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court), Orison Swett Marden (Pushing to the Front), and Edward Bellamy (Looking Backward), as well as such texts as Russell Conwell’s “Acres of Diamonds” (one of the most successful “sermons” on the sanctity of wealth), and selections from Andrew Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth, Charles Sheldon’s In His Steps, and Elbert Hubbard’s “A Message to Garcia,” among others. Throughout the course, we will consider the ways in which consumerism sponsored major economic, political, social, and cultural changes in the everyday lives of Americans in the late-nineteenth century. We will also consider these texts as opportunities to study methodological approaches and theoretical debates.

“PLACE” COURSES

102, Section 01 - Indian Reservations as Place (4 units) – CC# 02027
TuTh 12:30-02:00 9 Evans Instructor: K. Biestman
The course explores the role of Indian Country in American history, law, economics, literature, popular culture, identity and imagination. The course addresses frontier cultural intersections and representations, dueling political, economic and spiritual philosophies, and tribal survivance. Specific analysis will be given to the built environment (Indian casinos, tourist destinations), landscapes (historic battlegrounds, sacred geography) and constructed realities/fictions (film, sports mascots).

C112A – American Built Environment (4 units) - CC# 02039
TTh 11:00-12:30 112 Wurster Instructor: P. Groth
Also cross-listed as ED c169A, Geog c160A.
Sec. 101: CC# 02042 Tu 01:00-02:00, 170 Wurster
Sec. 102: CC# 02045 W 12:00-01:00, 170 Wurster
Sec. 103: CC# 02048 Th 10:00-11:00, 170 Wurster
Sec. 104: CC# 02051 Th 04:00-05:00, B51 Hildebrand

This course introduces ways of seeing and interpreting American histories and cultures, as revealed in everyday built surroundings: homes, highways, farms, factories, stores, recreation areas, small towns, city districts, and regions. The course encourages students to read landscapes as records of past and present social relations, and to speculate for themselves about cultural meaning.
Note that although this course deals with culture, and America, it does not deal equally with three different cultures. Thus, it does NOT satisfy the University’s American Cultures requirement. This course satisfies the pre-1900 requirement for American Studies majors.

History 127AC – California (4 units) – CC# 39561
TTh 12:30-02:00 145 Dwinelle Instructor: K. Klein
The History of California from pre-European contact to the present, with emphasis on the diversity of cultures and the interplay of social, economic, and political developments. This course satisfies the American Cultures requirement.

SENIOR THESIS SEMINARS

SENIOR THESIS SEMINARS: Students will meet in a seminar, which will help them research and write their senior theses.
191, Section 01 – SENIOR SEMINAR (4 Units) – CC# 02078
Th 12:00-02:00 61 Evans Instructor: C. Palmer

191, Section 02 – SENIOR SEMINAR (4 Units) – CC# 02081
Tu 04:00-06:00 35 Evans Instructor: K. Biestman

H195 – SENIOR HONORS SEMINAR (4 Units) – CC# (see Faculty Advisor)
W 10:00-12:00 72 Evans Instructor: C. Palmer

***NOTE: In order to receive honors in American Studies, a student must have an overall GPA of 3.51, and a GPA of 3.65 for all courses taken in completion of the major (upper and lower division). Students should discuss with their major faculty adviser the preparation of a bibliography and a brief description of their proposed honors thesis and their eligibility to enroll in honors, based on GPA, the semester before they plan to enroll in H195. They also must secure a faculty adviser from an appropriate field who will agree to direct the honors thesis (the "honors thesis adviser"). THE FACULTY ADVISER’S AGREEMENT MUST BE SUBMITTED TO COURSE INSTRUCTOR NO LATER THAN THE 2ND WEEK OF CLASSES.

SPECIAL COURSES OF INTEREST TO A.S. STUDENTS

American Studies C111E, Section 1 – The Literature and History of Mexican American Farm Workers - (4 units) – CC# 02033
TTh 12:30-02:00 160 Dwinelle Instructor: M. Gonzalez
Also cross-listed as English C136, section1. Course Description TBA.

American Studies C132B- U.S. Intellectual History, Mid-19th Century to the Present- (4 units) – CC# 02054
MW 04:00-05:30 100 Lewis Instructor: TBA
Also cross-listed as History 132B, Section 1.
In this course we will be discussing key developments in U.S. thought since the middle of the nineteenth century, roughly beginning with the reception of Darwin. The broader story told in the class weaves together in the history of science and engineering, the arts and popular culture, philosophy, and education. Our goal is to trace how ideas, whether they are dominant, challenging, or look back, have affected the ways in which Americans live together. We will look at how intellectual life has empowered and expanded the capacity of Americans to understand their world and achieve goals more effectively. We will also consider how intellectual theories have contributed to inequality and injustice.

American Studies C134- Information Technology and Society- (4 units) – CC# 02069
M 02:00-05:00 140 Barrows Instructor: M. Laguerre
Also cross-listed as African American Studies C134, Section 1.
This course assesses the role of information technology in the digitization of society by focusing on the deployment of e-government, telecommuting practices in Silicon Valley, the organization of the virtual office, the ramifications of the digital divide,, gender and the Internet, and privacy, security and surveillance. It examines how IT has contributed to the mobility of agents, tools, and social structure. It discusses the role of information technology in the governance and transformation of the American and Canadian metropolises with a specific focus on the social production of the digital neighborhood. It explains the phenomenon of virtual migration, the rise of digital diasporas, and how IT is a conduit through which the globalization process is deployed.

History 100, Section 2 – Global History Since 1945- (4 units) – CC# 39294
TTh 11:00-12:30 166 Barrows Instructor: D. Sargent
see http://history.berkeley.edu/undergraduate/courses/ for course description

History 100, Section 3 – American Encounters- (4 units) – CC# 39297
MWF 10:00-11:00 110 Barrows Instructor: B. Delay
see http://history.berkeley.edu/undergraduate/courses/ for course description

History 125A – The History of African Americans: 1550-1860- (4 units) – CC# 39558
TTh 09:30-11:00 88 Dwinelle Instructor: W. Martin
This is an upper division History lecture class that explores how Africans became African Americans, beginning with the 16th-century Atlantic slave trade and ending with the coming of the US Civil War. Political, economic, social, and cultural developments are highlighted.

History 131B – Social History of the U.S. from the end of the Civil War to the Global Age - (4 units) – CC# 39566
TTh 09:30-11:00 101 Barker Instructor: P. Fass
see http://history.berkeley.edu/undergraduate/courses/ for course description