This course explores significant themes in 20th-century intellectual and cultural life by engaging a series of conversations about the place of the individual in a modern, mass society. We will begin by asking some basic questions. At the beginning of the course, we will consider why race and nation matter in contemporary culture and strive to understand the history of today s conversation about diversity, multiculturalism, and the enduring challenge of forging a common culture in a multiethnic, multiracial society. Never straying very far from the social environments that nurtured these ideals, we will consider them from the vantage points of Progressive-era reform, the dramatic expansion of the welfare state from the New Deal through the 1960s, and the dramatically changing international role of the United States during world wars and Cold War. This course will combine lectures with frequent discussions and occasional films.
Active participation is the most important part of the course.
Graduate students will meet separately with the professor, at a time to be arranged. Additional reading and writing will be required. The choice of which book to write about will be left up to students, but the expectation is that the paper will take the form of a book review attentive to the historical context of the author s ideas. The choice of who to write about will again depend upon student interest, but you are required consult with the professor early on in the term for help in selecting a figure and identifying appropriate material about him or her. The final week of the course will be devoted to group presentations of these intellectual biographies.