New Course in United States History
Spring 2013
Interdisciplinary in scope and method, this course examines some of the major scholarly debates in the fields of African American history, Black Studies, and public policy. Students will review classic and recent literature on a wide range of topics, including African Americans' quest for political autonomy during the Civil War and Reconstruction, the triumph of racial accommodationism in the Age of Booker T. Washington, the cultural politics of the New Negro era, the intellectual doings of the "Black Left" during the New Deal and World War II periods, the global influence of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, and the impact of “underclass” discourse on public policy decisions at the local and national level. The last two weeks of class will engage the problem of mass incarceration as well as explore the strengths and weaknesses of the new field of “carceral studies.”
