Week 8 Outlines

Week 8

From Prosperity to Collapse

Week of February 28

Monday: The Ambivalent Decade
Wednesday: From Prosperity to Depression
Friday: Video: Sit-Down Strikes

DISCUSSION SESSIONS: Cultural Heros and Cultural History.

READINGS:

1.Warren Susman, "Cultural Heroes: Ford, Barton and Ruth;" and "Personality and the Making of 20th Century Culture."
2.John William Ward, "The Meaning of Lindbergh's Flight" (1958).
3.McElvaine, Down and Out in the Great Depression, 1-32.

***Remember you need the class username and passord to access
the password protected readings on the web site. (User Name= hst203)***

ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES:

1.Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/harlem/

WEEKLY ASSIGNMENT:

Write a short 1-2 page essay on one of the following questions:

1. Susman and Ward explore the cultural significance of twenties heroes. Pick a contemporary American hero. Explore what the fame and reputation of this person can tell us about American culture at the end of the twentieth century.

2. Susman and Ward believe that we can learn much about American culture by exploring those people that the culture idolizes. Do heroes really provide a useful window on our culture?

3. Apply Susman's distinction between personality and character to contemporary American culture. Have Americans really abandoned their belief in "character?"

created: February 10, 2000
last updated: February 23, 2000