131-080 American Modern: The United States 1890-1965

Availability

Credit Points

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Usually 25 points of first year History, see Prerequisites.

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

The subject examines visions of and debates about the emergence of mass society and culture in the United States in the twentieth century. It tries to view 'mass society' and 'mass culture' as terms with particular histories, and to examine some of the most influential visions of what those things were and what was to be feared in them. One of the themes of the course is the tension between fears or hopes of a more homogenised and conformist future, and actual social outcomes. Key individuals examined will include: Henry Ford, Frederick W. Taylor, Frank Capra, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Thorsten Veblen. Events and issues covered will include Prohibition, the New Deal, the women's movement, mass culture and broadcasting, the South and its relationship to modernity, civil rights and black nationalism. Readings will examine issues including the response of the American social sciences to mass society, political culture and mass society, popular culture. Assessment will include one research essay which will allow students to work with primary sources from the period.

Assessment

Written work totalling 4000 words.

Prescribed Texts

• G B Nash et al (eds), The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society. (3rd ed) Harper Collins 1994.