American Studies 340 - SYMPOSIUM IN AMERICAN STUDIES

Topics course. Limited to senior majors. "One of the central themes of American historiography is that there is no American Empire." At the end of the 20th century this statement, made by historian William Appleton Williams in 1955, inspired a generation of American studies scholars to prove Williams wrong and show that Empire is a structure of the American project. In this course, we study how the forces of empire guided and undergirded both the development of the U.S. and of American studies as a field. We examine the linked projects of settler colonialism, territorial expansion, slavery and capitalism, and consider the structures of banalized violence that define some lives and desires as more important than others. Readings range across all periods of American history to provide us with a broad and complex understanding of empire, and of the way it often hides in plain sight. Permission of instructor required.

Topic: Empire and American Studies. Instructor permission. Limited to AMS majors Limited to seniors