Summer 2005

HIS f356N • Amer Cul/Socl Life Since 1945

Course Description

This is a lecture course on postwar American culture and society with special emphasis on the 1950s and 1 960s. Issues to be discussed include the domestic impact of the Cold War, the effects of McCarthyism on politics and the entertainment world, the problems of affluence in the 1950s, the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s, as well as conflicts between blacks and whites, the middle class and blue-collar workers, men and women, parents and children. The lectures will deal primarily with cultural and intellectual history, while the reading draws heavily on novels, journalism and social criticism. Partially fulfills the legislative requirement for history.

Texts

Texts (partial list): Norman Mailer, THE ARMIES OF THE NIGHT William Whyte, THE ORGANIZATION MAN Ralph Ellison, INVISIBLE MAN Joan Didion, SLOUCHING TOWARDS BETHLEHEM Betty Friedan, THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE

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