Multidisciplinary AMERICAN STUDIES

Course Descriptions for Spring 2008
(As of 10/15/2008)

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

10 - INTRO. TO AMERICAN STUDIES, Section 01: (4 units) - CC# 02003
MW 10:00-12:00 3 Leconte Instructor: S. Saul
Sec. 101, CC# 02006 Tu 02:00-03:00, 109 Dwinelle
Sec. 102, CC# 02009 W 09:00-10:00, 179 Stanley
Sec. 103, CC# 02012 M 03:00-04:00, 203 Wheeler
Sec. 104, CC# 02015 Tu 09:00-10:00, 6 Evans

The Short American Century: America from WWII to the New Frontier

This course is designed to introduce students to the intellectual and cultural history of America in the years between WWII and the New Frontier ˜ the era that invented the nuclear bomb, the nuclear family, the car with tailfins, the blacklist, the sit-in, the mall,
Disneyland, film noir, TV, the CIA, rockabilly, the mass-merchandized paperback novel, and much, much else.

On the broadest level, the class will investigate the large-scale social and political transformations of the 40s and 50s: the fracturing of FDR's New Deal coalition, the rise of suburbia and the nuclear family ideal, the American military's assumption of a larger role in global geopolitics, the surge of the Civil Rights Movement and the beginnings of second-wave feminism, among others. But it will do
so primarily through the lens of culture, by zooming in on the new forms of writing, film, visual art, music and theater that were produced in the period. Material to be covered in the class will include films like Double Indemnity, The Apartment, and The Ten Commandments; plays like Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth and Adrienne Kennedy's Funnyhouse of a Negro; the
music of Elvis Presley; and the short stories, poetry and novels of writers like Paul Bowles, Allen Ginsberg, Ralph Ellison, Alice Childress and Richard Wright.

101, Section 01 – Time: The 1970s (4 Units) – CC# 02027
MW 12:00-02:00 9 Evans Instructor: M. Meeker

The 1970s occupy a peculiar place within the American historical imagination. People tend to think of it as the decade of disco, Patty Hearst, the oil crisis, and “Tricky Dick” Nixon – a period summed up in one word by President Carter: “malaise.” But the 1970s, by which we mean roughly the years from 1968 to 1981, were much more dynamic and interesting than can be encapsulated in one, rather downbeat word. Afterall, the 1970s found the civil rights movement at its most influential with the emergence of affirmative action and other redistributive programs. It was the decade in which a vocal feminist movement promised vast social change. The era also witnessed the birth of the personal computing age and other major technological advances. And, yes, in 1978 an African-American drag queen from San Francisco reached the top of the charts with the rousing disco tune, “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”.

This course will explore the society, politics, and culture of the 1970s. We will consider the decade in its cliché representations, and we will examine the people and events that might complicate our understanding of that era. Readings are yet to be determined, but expect to be exposed to both primary and secondary historical materials, television and movies, novels and stories, and, of course, music.

101, Section 02 – Age of the City (4 Units) - CC# 02029.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Students who enroll in A.S. 101, section 2 must also enroll, separately, in a one unit A.S. 98 or 198 section. Freshmen and sophomores can choose between A.S. 98, section 1 (CCN: 02108 - Tu 4-5, 101 Wheeler) and A.S. 98, section 2 (CCN: 02021 - W 9-10, 2 Evans). Juniors and Seniors can choose between A.S. 198, section 1 (CCN: 02099 - Tu 4-5, 101 Wheeler) and A.S. 198, section 2 (CCN: 02102 - W 9-10, 2 Evans). This means that for American Studies majors to complete their “Time” requirement with this course, they must also enroll in A.S. 98 or 198.
TTH 12:30-02:00 105 North Gate Instructor: D. Henkin

For most of human history, urban living has been the experience of a distinct minority. Only in the past two hundred years have the physical spaces, social relations, and lifestyles associated with large cities entered the mainstream. This course examines the long century of urban growth between 1825 and 1933, when big cities came into being in the United States. Focusing on large metropolitan centers (especially on New York, Chicago, and San Francisco), we will study the way urban spaces provided sites and sources of new modes of personal interaction, popular entertainment, social conflict, and political expression. By exploring the origins and evolutions of race riots, elevated railroads, boxing matches, department stores, peep shows, parades, strikes, fire companies, boosters, slums, skyscrapers, sensational journalism, amusement parks, gas-lit
promenades, neon billboards, personal ads, nickelodeons, and numerous other artifacts, engines, and symbols of a promiscuous urban life, we can both appreciate a pivotal moment in the history of the city and take stock of a world we have come to take for granted. Requirements include two mid-terms, two short essays (2--3 pp.), and a comprehensive final examination.

C111E - The Progressive Era in the United States, 1890-1917 (4 units) CC# 02054
MWF 02:00-03:00 100 Wheeler Instructor: R. Hutson
Also cross-listed as English c136.

This is an introduction to a number of cultural/political/economic/social issues from a transitional period of the United States between the rise of industrial capitalism (big corporate businesses and huge urban centers) in the late 19th-century and the beginnings of a modernist attempt to bring order to what was often felt to be the chaos of development. In addition to a variety of texts, there will be screenings of a number of films. Two midterms and a final exam.

This course satisfies the pre-1900 requirement for American Studies majors.

102, Section 01 – Indian Reservations as Place (4 Units) – CC# 02033
TTH 09:30-11:00 247 Cory 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).

102, Section 02 – The American City (4 Units) – CC# 02036
TTH 02:00-03:30 141 McCone Instructor: K. Moran/R. Walker
Also listed as Geography 125.

Sec. 201, CC# 02039 M 01:00- 02:00, 135 McCone
Sec. 202, CC# 02042 Tu 10:00-11:00, 135 McCone
Sec. 203, CC# 02045 W 11:00-12:00, 135 McCone
Sec. 204, CC# 02048 Th 11:00-12:00, 135 McCone
The American city, palimpsest of a nation. It all comes together in the modern metropolis: economy, society, politics, culture, and geography. The focus this semester is L.A. and San Francisco.

C112B - American Cultural Landscapes, 1900 – Present (4 units) CC# 02057
Also listed as ED c169B; Geog c160B
TTH 11:00-12:30 112 Wurster Instructor: P. Groth
Sec. 101, CC# 02060 Tu 01:00-02:00, 170 Wurster
Sec. 102, CC# 02063 W 12:00-01:00, 801A Wurster
Sec. 103, CC# 02066 Th 10:00-11:00, 104 Wurster
Sec. 104, CC# 02069 Th 04:00-05:00, 701B Wurster

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.

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# 02087
Tu 10:00-12:00 109 Wheeler Instructor: C. Palmer

191, Section 02 – SENIOR SEMINAR (4 Units) – CC# 02090
Th 10:00-12:00 109 Wheeler Instructor: C. Palmer

191, Section 03 – SENIOR SEMINAR (4 Units) – CC# 02093
Tu 02:00-04:00 31 Evans Instructor: K. Biestman

H195 – SENIOR HONORS SEMINAR (4 Units) – CC#(see below)
Th 02:00-04:00 31 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. Students who have a scheduling conflict must contact the instructor before classes begin.

GRADUATE CLASS

American Studies 250, Section 01 – SEMINAR: Practical Criticism (4 units) – CC# 02114
W 03:00-06:00 203 Wheeler Instructor: G. Marcus

With a firm grounding in classic work (Melville, D.H. Lawrence, Constance Rourke), this seminar focuses on criticism actually practiced by people writing regularly about popular or everyday culture—movies, music, restaurants, books, political speech, the media (including Pauline Kael, Manny Farber, Dave Hickey, Mick LaSalle, Sarah Vowell, Howard Hampton, Edmund Wilson, Lester Bangs)—and moves into imaginative, even fictional criticism, where the limits of what criticism might be are tested (Geoff Dyer, David Thomson).

The course will take up criticism as a vocation—with the premise that intellectual engagement with culture constitutes a form of discourse that leads people to achieve both a sense of history and a sense of the peculiarity of their own time and place. At the same time, practical criticism—most often addressing cultural artifacts or events that people actually care about, but which are presumed even by their enthusiasts to be of transitory significance at best and, much of the time, no significance at all—raises questions of inventing a language, creating a career, identifying an audience, and discovering the possibilities and limits of a shared sensibility as intensely as anything else in the domain of contemporary writing. “Criticism is exciting just because there is no formula to apply—just because you must use everything you are and everything you know,” Pauline Kael wrote in 1963. That is a manifesto about democratic speech, and it can contain both Melville’s 1850 call for a national literature in “Hawthorne and His Mosses” and serial killer Patrick Bateman’s schizophrenic but pitch-perfect critical monologues on the most banal varieties of 1980s rock in the 2000 film version of American Psycho.

With class visits by writers whose work is part of the course.
This course is by application only.

American Studies 110 –Schooling America: Education in the United States in Historical Perspective (4 Units) – CC# 02051
M 03:00-06:00 122 Latimer Instructor: M. Brilliant

Most Americans have a long history of being schooled but a lean understanding of the history of schooling. They possess extensive personal experience in schools, but limited historical knowledge about schools. Yet, few (if any) institutions occupy a more formative and fraught place in American public life. This course - a discussion seminar - will explore major topics and themes in the history of education in the United States, focusing on public schooling at the K-12 level. Topics to be tackled include: 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. These historical topics, in turn, raise broader, philosophical themes, which this course will also address, including: the conflicting aims of public education in a socially diverse, politically liberal, and economically capitalistic society; the competing educational rights claims of students, their parents, and the state; and the appropriateness (and ability) of schools to serve as vehicles for social change and equal opportunity.

American Studies C172 – Business in Its Historical Environment (3 Units) – CC# 02075
MW 11:00-12:30 C230 Cheit Instructor: C. Rosen
This course is cross-listed with UGBA c172.

This is an undergraduate elective in the history of American business. Its purpose is to enable you to put into historical perspective the various organizational, economic, social, and environmental challenges U.S. businesses face today. How has American business gotten to where it is today? What can we learn from the past that can help us better understand the structure of business at the dawn of the 21st century and the problems and opportunities corporate that managers face? Topics covered will include: the problems of technological innovation during the industrial revolution; the government’s role in the industrial revolution; the cultural crisis stimulated by industrialization; the market forces, entrepreneurship, and management strategies behind the rise of the modern industrial corporation; advertising and the rise of the twentieth century’s economy and culture of mass consumption; the 1929 stock market crash; business in the Great Depression; unionization and the management of labor after World War II; the government’s role in business growth and economic, social, and environmental regulation; the postwar golden age of American business and the rise and impact of bureaucratic forms of corporate organization; the structural and managerial factors behind the loss of American competitiveness in the 1970s and 80s and the revival of competitiveness in the 90s; the globalization of American business; and the evolving dynamic of management’s attempt to cope with internal growth and the imperatives of international competition.

COURSES OFFERED BY A.S. AFFILIATED FACULTY

Upper Division courses can be used for Areas of Concentration, when appropriate.

History 135 - American Indian History: Precontact to the Present (4 Units) – CC# 39573
TTH 11:00-12:30 182 Dwinelle Instructor: J. Spear

The purpose of this course is to provide an introductory interpretation of the varied historical experiences of many nations native to North America from the first migrations of peoples into the continent until the present. Among the specific topics that will be covered are: origins and cultural development; the impact of European contact and conquest; assimilation, acculturation, and adaptation; the development and implementation of U.S. federal policies towards Indian peoples; native resistance and activism; definitions and practices of sovereignty; and cultural attitudes towards Indians in American society. We will seek to assess both the impact of colonialism and its consequences upon Indian peoples as well as their responses. That is, we will treat Native Americans not as victims but as historical, political, economic, and cultural actors who resourcefully adjusted, resisted, and accommodated to the changing realities of life in North America during the last five hundred years.

English 130A – American Literature Before 1800 (4 Units) – CC# 28318
TTH 03:30-05:00 110 Barrows Instructor: S. Otter

This course will offer a survey of the literature produced in North America before 1800: European accounts of "discovery" and exploration; competing British versions of settlement; Puritan history, sermons, and poetry; conversion, captivity, and slave narratives; diaries and journals; eighteenth-century poetry by women; Native American oratory; autobiography; letters, essays, and political debate; and novels. Two midterms and one final examination will be required.

This course satisfies the pre-1900 requirement for American Studies majors.