History 579 –
Topics in American Cultural History
Syllabus and
Survival Guide
Spring 2011
Thursday 7:00 pm
– 9:45 pm, Sierra Hall 184
Instructor
Dr.
Thomas W. Devine
Phone:
(818) 677-3550 Email: tom.devine@csun.edu
Office
Hours:
Sierra Tower 624, TuTh 1:00-2:00 and by appointment gladly given.
The following
books – listed in the order in which we will read them – are available at the
Matador Bookstore. All other readings
will be provided in class or made available on the web syllabus. To subvert the
system and to save yourself some money, you should consider buying used copies
of the books. You are likely to find
used or discounted copies at significantly lower prices at the following
websites: www.bookfinder.com; www.half.com; www.amazon.com.
John Kasson, Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century
Lewis Erenberg, Steppin' Out: New York Nightlife and the
Transformation of American Culture, 1890-1930
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes
Gaylyn Studlar, This Mad Masquerade: Stardom and Masculinity
in the Jazz Age
David E. Kyvig, Daily Life in the United States,
1920-1940
Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon
Kenneth D. Rose, Myth and the Greatest Generation
James B. Gilbert, Redeeming Culture: American Religion in an
Age of Science
Alan Petigny, The Permissive Society: America, 1941-1965
Steven Watts, The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life
Michael T. Bertrand, Race, Rock, and Elvis
Suzanne Smith, Dancing in the Street: Motown and the
Cultural Politics of Detroit
Natasha Zaretsky, No Direction Home: The American Family and the
Fear of National Decline
Jefferson Cowie, Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days
of the Working Class
Spirit of the Course
This course will examine the ways
in which different individuals and groups have exercised cultural influence in
American life and have contributed to what we call, perhaps somewhat awkwardly,
“American culture.” Through readings and
class discussion, we will be exploring how twentieth century Americans
understood, shaped, and participated in their worlds. Though the topics covered are quite eclectic
– in fact, they are intentionally so – there are certain themes that we will be
revisiting during the course of the semester:
This course takes as its premise that popular culture
deserves historians’ serious consideration.
Though dismissed by many self-appointed critics as frivolous or
ephemeral, popular art forms often reveal much about the priorities,
assumptions, mores, and values of the culture that produced and consumed them.
Throughout the semester we will be examining twentieth
century U.S. history through the lens of the popular arts. In the process, we will consider the power of
the popular arts to influence politics, social movements, and international
relations – the “stuff” more traditionally associated with the study of U. S.
history. We will also read historians’
analyses of popular art forms and critique and evaluate their
interpretations.
In this course, then, you will be learning not simply more
history, but a different way of understanding history and, in tandem,
sharpening your own skills as a “cultural critic” – skills that will allow you
to become both a more sophisticated student of history and a better informed
observer of and participant in American culture. In short, this course seeks to increase not
only your knowledge but also your critical and interpretive abilities – to help
you learn not only answers but better ways of asking questions.
Requirements & Grading
Class
Participation --30%
Oral
Presentation --10%
Analytical
Essay 1 [Due March 5th] --15%
Analytical
Essay 2 [Due May 19th]* --15%
CLICK FOR 2ND ESSAY
PROMPTS
Semester
Project [Due April 10th] --30%
*
– but gladly accepted earlier
Explanation of Requirements
Participation in Discussion
This is a
seminar-style course in which active participation in the weekly discussions is
crucial to the class’s success. Our meetings will be conversations – free,
open, and informal exchanges of ideas based on the assigned readings – and I
expect everyone to take part. I will do my best to insure each student has
ample opportunity to contribute, but, ultimately, it will be up to you
to make certain that you remain an active participant rather than a passive
observer.
Leading
Discussion
One
person will be responsible for leading the discussion each week. That
person will compose a list of 8 questions that address the major themes and
issues raised in the reading. The discussion leader will meet with me
briefly ahead of time to go over his or her questions. (This exchange can
also be done via email.) Optimally, the discussion leader will have finished
writing the questions at least 24 hours before the seminar so I can distribute
them to everyone via email attachment. Your leading of discussion
will not receive a grade per se, but will be taken into account in the
calculation of your participation grade.
Précis
One
person will be responsible for producing a single-spaced 2-page précis of the
reading each week. This assignment is meant to be a summary
rather than a review. The first paragraph should give an overview of the book’s
central argument or arguments and each succeeding paragraph should recount
concisely the content of each chapter. The person who writes the précis will
provide each member of the class with a copy at the beginning of the seminar.
This assignment, too, will not receive a grade per se, though I will
edit your work and in calculating your participation grade, I will take into
account the quality of and amount of effort you appear to have put in to your
précis. Please send me your précis as an
email attachment so I can post it on the web syllabus.
Oral Presentation
One
person will be responsible for giving a 15
minute oral presentation each week. I will not allow you to go beyond 20
minutes, so be sure you know ahead of time how long your presentation will
run. The presentation should elaborate on or critique the week's readings. You
may want to focus exclusively on a particular theme or argument, the book or
articles' take on a specific historiographical controversy, or
compare/contrast the author’s work to others who have written on the
topic. Alternatively, you might want to look at some primary sources and
see if they lead you to the same kinds of interpretations that the author
offers. If your topic lends itself to doing so, your oral presentation can
feature a short audio-visual component that might allow us to sample in some
way the cultural forms we have read about. (This could entail showing a clip
from documentary footage or from a movie discussed in the reading; showing
power point slides of contemporary illustrations; playing an excerpt from
a radio program, song, or musical performance; displaying illustrations,
etc.) At some point during class, usually right after the break, you will
have the floor to give your oral presentation and to field questions from
the class. At the end of class, please provide me with a copy of your
presentation notes.
Analytical Essays
These
two 1500-word assignments will give you the opportunity to respond to a
specific question in a concise, tightly argued essay. You will have several
topics from which to choose. I will distribute the topics ten days before the
paper is due.
Semester Project
Select a topic
from the period covered in the course that you find to be of interest and do
some outside reading on it. I recommend
drawing on a variety of books, book chapters, and journal articles. Your choice of focus need not be directly
related to the material covered in the course.
Indeed, this is your opportunity to investigate a subject area that the
course may neglect. After your reading
has made you an “expert” on your topic, compose a 10-12 page essay assessing the various sources you have consulted
and offer and defend your own thesis pertaining to your topic. You will hand in
a final draft and one revised draft.
Bringing
Food
On
one occasion during the semester, each person will bring a snack for the entire
class to enjoy at the break. Optimally, your culinary contribution will be
related in some clever way to the week’s discussion topic. I can refrigerate or
store the food for you if you need me to -- just give me advance notice. Creativity and imagination in the selection
of what to bring will be duly noted.
Surviving
History 579…
Attendance
Since class
meets only once a week, it is important, and it is expected, that you will be
at every session. Inevitably, an
occasion may arise when you are unable to attend. Out of fairness to your classmates who do
attend every week, however, each absence past the first two will adversely
affect your final grade. Also, given the
heavy weight placed on in-class discussion, any absence is likely to detract
from your participation grade. To make
up for a missed class, you may turn in a 2-page, single-spaced précis
summarizing the reading for the class you missed.
Completing the
Reading
There’s no
getting around it – this class requires a lot of reading. But, as a Masters level seminar, it is
supposed to. To succeed in this course,
you will need to complete the reading, but you will also need to have given it
some thought. Read with a pencil in hand
– take notes in the margins. Record terms
that are unfamiliar to you or that you don’t understand, points that you find
interesting or surprising, arguments with which you strongly agree or disagree,
methods of research or analysis that seem especially creative or insightful (or
misguided and silly), or ideas that connect to things we’ve talked about in
previous classes. Also, read smart –
don’t read every single word of the first 4 chapters and nothing thereafter
because you ran out of time. If you catch the argument the author is making,
don’t sweat all the details or supporting examples – skim over them and get on
to the next major point. It is more
important to have gotten the gist of an entire book than to master every aspect
of the first one-third of it.
Problems
I appreciate
that most CSUN graduate students are stretching themselves quite thin, often
working full time while taking classes at night. If you are feeling overwhelmed, find yourself
falling behind, or are having any problems outside of class that are adversely
affecting your performance in class, be sure to let me know. Do not wait until the end of the semester
when it will
be too late. I am more than willing to
work with you to insure you “survive,” but I need to know you are having
difficulties. You will find that as long
as you keep me up to speed, I will be very sympathetic.
Discussion Topics and Assignments
Schedule
Jan.
27 “Seeing the Elephant”: The Emergence of
Mass Culture on Coney Island
Reading:
John Kasson, Amusing the Million
Feb.
3 Assault on Victorianism: The “New Amusements”
Reading: Lewis Erenberg, Steppin’ Out
Feb.
10 “Gone
Primitive” – Tarzan and the Crisis of American Masculinity
Reading: Edgar
Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes
Optional
Reading:
Theodore Roosevelt, “The Strenuous
Life”
Harry
Stecopoulos, “The World According to Normal Bean: Edgar Rice Burroughs’s
Popular Culture”
READING TARZAN WITH A CRITICAL EYE
Feb. 17 “The New
Man” – Movies and Masculinity in the 1920s
Reading: Gaylyn Studlar, This
Mad Masquerade
PRECIS
Feb.
24 Social
and Cultural Change During the Interwar Years
Reading: David Kyvig, Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1940
Mar.
3 “Tough Guys in a World of Chance”:
Hard-Boiled Detectives and the Great Depression
Reading:
Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese
Falcon
Leonard Cassuto, “Hammett and the
Hard-Boiled Sentimental”
FIRST ANALYTICAL ESSAY DUE MARCH 5TH
Mar.
10 “Romancing the War”: Problematizing the
“Good War”
Reading: Kenneth Rose, Myth and the Greatest Generation
Mar.
17 “The Profane and the Sacred” – The Clash of Science
and Religion
Reading: James Gilbert, Redeeming
Culture
Mar.
24 “The Nifty Fifties”: Revising
Conventional Wisdom on the Postwar Era
Reading: Alan Petigny, The
Permissive Society
Mar.
31 NO CLASS
Apr.
7 SPRING BREAK
SEMESTER PROJECTS DUE APRIL 10TH
Apr.
14 “The Mouse that Roared”:
Walt Disney and American Culture
Reading: Steven Watts, Walt
Disney and the American Way of Life
Apr. 21 “Blurring
the Lines:” Rock’n’Roll’s Challenge to Cultural Hierarchies
Reading: Michael T. Bertrand, Race,
Rock, and Elvis
Recommended Films:
Elvis
1956, That Rhythm, Those Blues
Apr.
28 “The Civil Rights Dance”: Motown
and the 1960s Freedom Struggle
Reading: Suzanne Smith, Dancing
in the Street
May
5 “Fear of Falling”: The American
Family in an Age of Limits
Reading: Natasha Zaretsky, No Direction Home
May
12 “Born in the USA”: The Decline of
the Working Class in Postindustrial America
Reading: Jeff Cowie, Stayin’ Alive
SECOND ANALYTICAL ESSAY DUE MAY 15TH