Social Thought & Polic. Econ 492H - STPEC Focus Seminar II
Spring
2019
01
4.00
Toussaint Losier
W 4:00PM 6:30PM
UMass Amherst
20550
New Africa House room 311
tlosier@umass.edu
A four credit honors seminar for STPEC students who have completed STPEC 391H. Focus seminar topic changes each semester. Fulfills the STPEC Focus seminar requirement.
Open to Senior and Junior STPEC majors only. STPEC 391H Topic Title: A People's History of the War on Drugs.
This course explores the decades-long drug prohibition campaign popularly known as the ?War on
Drugs.? Currently, the U.S. federal government appropriates more than $50 billion a year to combat the
sale and use of illegal drugs, while the country?s residents spends more than $50 billion annually
consuming them. Engaging historical, biographical, journalistic and filmic texts, this course examines
how this contradiction arose. Drawing on the social history framework best associated with Howard Zinn,
this course offers a ?People?s History? approach to examining the elaboration of this campaign?s military,
institutional, legal and policy frameworks from a bottom-up perspective.
This course explores the decades-long drug prohibition campaign popularly known as the ?War on
Drugs.? Currently, the U.S. federal government appropriates more than $50 billion a year to combat the
sale and use of illegal drugs, while the country?s residents spends more than $50 billion annually
consuming them. Engaging historical, biographical, journalistic and filmic texts, this course examines
how this contradiction arose. Drawing on the social history framework best associated with Howard Zinn,
this course offers a ?People?s History? approach to examining the elaboration of this campaign?s military,
institutional, legal and policy frameworks from a bottom-up perspective.