American Studies Courses for Fall Semester 2009-2010

All of these courses carry Humanities Credit

Introduction to American Studies (AMST 215/ HIST 278A), 11:00-12:15, TR, Nicely 107. Instructor: Dr. Noel Ignatiev. “What then is the American, this new man?” asked a visitor to the U.S. iin 1782. Almost two hundred years later a great American writer wrote, “The ‘American’ himself has not (fortunately for the United States, its minorities, and perhaps for the world) been finally defined.” Is there such a thing as national character? If so, how does the “American” differ from the Englishman, the Frenchman, or the Lebanese? In this class we will examine the forces that shaped Americans, by focusing on the country’s most beloved and widely read work of fiction, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which presents an inventory of American types, and other critical works.

Sp. Tp. In American Humanities: Race in America (AMST 275I/ HIST 278E), 12:30-13:45, TR, Nicely 107. Instructor: Dr. Noel Ignatiev. How did "race," apart from religion, language, ethnicity and social class, come to be so important in American life? How did various peoples from America, Africa, and Europe, speaking different languages and possessing different cultures, come to be defined as "red," "black," and "white," and how did later immigrants or conquered peoples from Asia and the western hemisphere get fitted into this scheme? This class will examine how race categories were formed in the colonial period and have been repeatedly remade up to the present.

Sp. Tp. In American Humanities: The American Civil War: A Study in Revolution (AMST 275K / HIST 279B), 15:30-16:45, TR, Nicely 107. Instructor: Dr. Noel Ignatiev. This course will trace the conflict in the U.S. between two social systems, from the Missouri Crisis of 1819 to the Bargain of 1877, examining the Civil War/Reconstruction period as a social upheaval comparable to the revolutions in England and France that preceded it and Russia and China that came after.