American Studies 555 - SEM:AMERICAN SOCIETY & CULTURE

"Freedom" has long been a defining ideal of U.S. life, passionately desired and intensely contested. This course investigates freedom in its cultural and social aspects. How did the ideals of freedom become so intimately associated with "America," and specifically with the United States of America? How have various dispossessed peoples-slaves, immigrants, women, racial and ethnic minorities, colonized populations-looked to the ideals and practices of U.S. freedom to sustain their hopes and inform their actions? How have progressive and conservative reform movements fashioned myths of freedom to support their aspirations? How have ideals of freedom shaped the various roles the United States plays in the world? How should we assess the institutional framework that underlies the implementation of freedom as a "way of life" in the United States-that is, democratic politics, representative governance, and market capitalism? This course is restricted to students in the Diploma Program in American Studies.

Instructor permission. Limited to AMS majors, Limited to graduate students