American Society 4219-AW109
The lecture presents basic issues important for understanding the specificity of American society. Starting from Alexis de Tocqueville's accounts of life in 19th century America, we will try to understand how history has influenced the contemporary shape of the American society. The issues discussed include role of slavery based on racial criteria and immigration in shaping American racial and social relations; social classes - from 'one percenters', the wealthiest, through American mythical middle class to the urban underclass - in times of growing inequality; attitudes toward poverty and public assistance to the poor; sexuality; traditional and new forms of family life; housing ideals and attitudes toward cities and suburbs; work and consumption, and religion. We will also consider what makes the American society, with its values and norms, different from other societies of advanced capitalism.
Type of course
Learning outcomes
Students who successfully pass this course will acquire basic understanding of the American values and ideology, social class, race and ethnicity, sexuality and family, housing and lifestyle ideals, attitude toward work and consumption, religiosity as well as how these social institutions in the US have been different from coresponding ones in European societies.
Assessment criteria
Students will be graded on the basis of the mid-term written in-class test (50% of the final grade) and end-of-semester written in-class test (50% of the final grade). Both mid-term test and end-of-semester test last for 45 minutes. Both mid-term test and end-of-semester test consist of total number of 30 multichoice and true/false questions. Correct answer is given 1 point, incorrect answer is given zero points and no answer is given zero points. OGUN students also get 1 point for each correct answer and 0 points for incorrect or no answer. Grading of both midterm quiz and final exam is the following: 0-55% of maximum score of 30 results in grade 2, 56-70% results in 3, 71-85% results in 4, 86-100% results in 5. Both tests are obligatory. A minimum total score required to receive a passing grade of 3 is 34. All questions will concern the problems discussed in the assigned readings and during the lectures. To prepare for the exam, the assigned fragments of the textbook (J.J. Macionis, Sociology, Prentice Hall, 2005) and other assigned readings are essential. Attending the lecture is optional. Additional readings are optional. Their purpose is to provide broader background to a given issue and help students to decide about the MA thesis topic.
Bibliography
The course handbook: J.J. Macionis, Sociology, Prentice Hall, 2005.
Abramowitz A., R. Teixeira, The Decline of the White Working Class and the Rise of a Mass Upper-Middle Class, Political Science Quarterly. New York: Fall 2009. Vol. 124, Iss. 3; pg. 391, 32 pgs
American Social and Political Thought. A Reader, edited by Andreas Hess, New York University Press 2003, fragments
Anderson E., Code of the Street. Violence and Moral Life of the Inner City. 1999
Baltzel D., The Protestant Establishment Revisited, 1990
Coleman M. et al., Family Life in 20th century America. 2005
Ehrenreich B., Nickel and Dimed. On (Not) Getting by in America, Henry Holt and Co., 2001
D’Emilio J. and E. B. Freedman, Intimate Matters. A History of Sexuality in America. 1988
Featherstone M., Consumer Culture and Postmodernism, London, 1996, pp. 13-27.
Gabaccia D., Immigration and American Diversity. A Social and Cultural History. 2002
Genovese E., Roll, Jordan, Roll. The World that Slaves Made. 1973
Gilbert D., American Social Structure in an Age of Growing Inequality, 2008
Giddens A., The Transformation of Intimacy. Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in Modern Societies. 1992.
Heclo H., Is America a Christian Nation?, Political Science Quarterly, vol. 122, nr 1, 2007, pp. 59-87
Jackson Kenneth, Crabgrass Frontier. The Suburbanization of the United States, Oxford Univeristy Press 1985
Kasinitz Ph. et al., Inheriting the City. Children of Immigrants Come of Age, 2008
Lee, The Diversity Paradox, New York: Russel Sage Foundation. 2010
Lipset M.S., American Exceptionalism. A Double-Edged Sword, W. W. Norton & Company 1996
The New York Times 2005: “Class Matters”, a series of articles
Rumbaut R. & A. Portes, Immigrant America. A Portrait. Third edition revisited, expanded and updated. 2006
Sawhill I.V. ‘Overview’ (pp. 1-13) in Julia B. Isaacs, Isabel V. Sawhil, and Ron Haskins, Getting Ahead or Losing Ground: Economic Mobility in America, Economic Mobility Project, Washington, D.C. February 2008, full report available at http://economicmobility.org./assets/pdfs/Economic_Mobility_in_America_Full.pdf
Schor J. B., The Overspent American. Upscaling, Downshifting, and the New Consumer, New York, 1998
Schor J.B., The Overworked American, Basic Books, 1993
Sombart W., Why is There no Socialism in the United States? 1976
Thernstrom S., A. Thernstrom, America in Black and White. One Nation, Indivisible. 1999
Tocqueville A. de, Democracy in America, AA. Knopf, 1987
Weber M., The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Routledge 2001, Introduction by Giddens A., pp. vii-xxvi, ch. 1 Religioius Affiliation and Social Stratification, pp. 35-46 and ch. 2 The Spirit of Capitalism.
Wilson J., The Political and Economic Forces Shaping Concentrated Poverty, Political Science Quarterly. New York: Winter 2008/2009. Vol. 123, Iss. 4
Wood G., The Radicalism of the American Revolution. 1993: ch. The Middle-Class Order
The assigned literature will include also articles from mainstream magazines and newspapers that comment on up-to-date social phenomena, processes and statistical data.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: