Monographic lecture: MADE IN AMERICA. A National Imaginary 3301-2ST-WM-KA002
The lecture examines central and persistent themes in U.S. culture that inform Americans’ collective identities and contribute to the shaping of the national imaginary. Its goals are twofold: first, to consolidate students’ knowledge about American culture though theme-based engagement with official historical narratives; and second, to explore the social dimensions of ordinary individual existence. The latter approach aligns with the study of social history, which draws on oral histories, autobiographies, and memoirs, rather than relying solely on official documents.
Bringing insights from sociology, anthropology, and cultural studies the lecture integrates established scholarship with its contemporary revisions.
List of topics
1. Sweet Land of Liberty
2. In God We Trust
3. The Land Is Our Destiny
4. City on a Hill and Home on the Range
5. Nature’s Nation
6. The Moloch vs Small-town America
7. On the Road
8. American Crucible
9. Rugged Individualism
10. Separate but Equal/Separate and Unequal
11. Civil Disobedience
12. Better Babies, Fitter Families
13. America First
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Term 2025L:
None |
Type of course
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
Knowledge: the graduate has in-depth familiarity with
K_W01 advanced terminology, theory and research methods corresponding to the state of the art in the disciplines
of literary studies and culture and region studies, with particular attention to the theme-based cultural and social history of the United States, in accordance with their chosen specialization (and educational path)
Abilities: The graduate is able to
K_U01 apply the advanced terminology, theories and research methods of literary studies and culture and religion studies, in particular those related to the theme-based study of culture and history of the United States, to solve complex and original research problems, in accordance with their chosen specialization (and educational path)
Assessment criteria
Presentation of an individual theme-based project and the project portfolio completed during the semester (verification of outcomes: W, U)
Oral exam: Presentation
Bibliography
Foner, Eric. Voices of Freedom: A Documentary History, vol. 1 & 2. W.W. Norton and Company, 2017.
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History, vol. 1&2. Seagull 5th ed. W.W. Norton, 2017.
Merchant, Carolyn. The Columbia Guide to American Environmental History. Columbia UP, 2002. http://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/52751/1/122.pdf
Fischer, Claude S. Made in America: A Social History of American Culture and Character. Chicago University Press, 2010.
Bakken, Gordon Morris. The World of the American West. Routledge, 2011.
Blackhawk, Ned. The Rediscovery of America. Native Peoples and the Unmaking of US History. Yale UP, 2023.
Veracini, Lorenzo. “Introducing.” Settler Colonial Studies, 1:1 (2011): 1-12, DOI: 10.1080/2201473X.2011.10648799
Hofstadter, Richard. Anti-intellectualism in American life. Vintage Boos, 1962.
Boorstin, Daniel. 1973. The Americans: The Democratic Experience. RosettaBooks, LLC, 2002.
Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of the United States. Longman, 1980.
Hughes, Richard. Myths Americans Live By. White Supremacy and Stories that Give Us Meaning. 2nd ed. University of Illinois Press, 2018.
Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. Racial Formation in the United States. 3rd ed. Routledge, 2015.
Murphy, Andrew R. The Prodigal Nation. Moral Decline and Divine Punishment from New England to 9/11. Oxford UP, 2009.
Lepore, Jill. These Truths. A History of the United States. W.W. Norton & Company, 2018.
Strauss, Anselm L. The American City: A Sourcebook of Urban Imagery. 1968. Routledge, 2017.
Barrett, James R. “Americanization from the Bottom Up: Immigration and the Remaking of the Working Class in the United States, 1880-1930.” The Journal of American History, vol. 79, no. 3, Discovering America: A Special Issue (Dec., 1992), pp. 996-1020.
Fraser, Steve and Gary Gerstle. Ruling America: A History of Wealth and Power in a Democracy. Harvard University Press, 2005.
Online resources:
Digital Public Library of America: https://dp.la/primary-source-sets
Digital Panorama: An Atlas of United States History, https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/
Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States: https://dsl.richmond.edu/historicalatlas/
Oral history projects related to the Dust Bowl, Great Depression, WWII, the Great Migration, the Vietnam war, small-town community life, industrial growth and decline, women’s experience, Black and Indigenous experience, epidemics, etc.
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Term 2025L:
None |
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: