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This lecture will give an overview over American history from a cultural studies point of view. Guiding concerns will be main currents of thought, the successive media revolutions, American myths and ideologies, changing ideas about the nation and the individual, the transformation of gender roles, the crucial role of race/ethnicity, the influence of science and technology. The lecture will keep to the time-honored period markers in order to give students some orientation. Headings will be: 1492—the conquest of America; City upon a Hill—the Puritan experiment; The Age of Reason/Age of Revolutions; Sentimentalism and the Reform Age; American Renaissance and Westward Expansion; Slavery and Emancipation; The Age of Realism and Science; The Gilded Age, Naturalism and the Frontier Thesis; American Modernism; The Harlem Renaissance; Radical Visions—The Great Depression; Counterculture and Postmodernism; Postcolonialism/Transnationalism and post-9/11 America. You do not need to sign up or register for this lecture! Reading and Preparation: - Brinkley, Alan. The Unfinished Nation. A Concise History of the American People. New York: McGraw-Hill, 72013.
- The powerpoint presentations used in the lecture will be available for viewing and downloading on the e-learning platform Moodle (link in Agnes) before each lecture. The key is Culhi. You will also find the syllabus and a bibliography in Moodle.
Course Requirements: Definitions of terms, notions, concepts, events (Klausur) as part of the Module-examination |
