131-080 American Modern: USA 1890-1990

Note

Credit Points

HECS Band

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 modern society and culture in the United States in the 20th century. We will cover events and issues such as Prohibition, the New Deal, the women's movement, mass culture and broadcasting, the South and its relationship to modernity, civil rights and black nationalism. The readings will incorporate issues including responses to mass society, political culture and social change. Students should complete the subject with a knowledge of some major issues in 20th century American history and an enhanced sense of the ways in which the emergence of modern society and understandings of it structured much of 20th century American society and culture.

Assessment

Class participation and 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.