Handbook 1996 : Faculty of Arts (Volume 3 page 107)
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131-416 American Modern: Mass Society and Its Anxieties

Year 4 History.

Credit points: 16.7 4th year

Coordinator: Dr D Goodman.

Contact: One 2-hr seminar per week.

Timetable: Second semester

Objectives:

Students who complete this subject should be able to demonstrate: a broad contextual understanding of the emergence of mass society and the debates it provoked in the United States in the twentieth century; an ability to critically read particular texts in this context; some knowledge of US social and cultural history from 1920 to 1970

Content:

The subject will examine the transformation of American society from 1920 to 1970, in particular the theme of the emergence of mass society and responses to it. Readings will examine issues including the response of the American social sciences to mass society, the emergence of broadcasting and its history, changes in government and political ideas, popular culture.

Assessment:

Written work totalling not more than 6,000 words

Prescribed texts:

• James Gilbert, Another Chance: Post-war America 1945-1985, Chicago: Dorsey Press, 1986
• Barry Karl, The Uneasy State: The United States from 1915-1945, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983
• Lary May (ed. ), Recasting America - Culture and Politics in the Age of Cold War, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989
• Susan Smulyan, Selling Radio - The Commercialisation of American Broadcasting 1920-1934 Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994

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Handbook 1996 : Faculty of Arts (Volume 3 page 107)

Status:          Official 1996
Date created:    Oct  9 1995
Last modified:   Oct  9 1995
Authorised by:   Academic Registrar
Email enquiries: Course_Information@registrar.unimelb.edu.au

Copyright © University of Melbourne 1995,1996.