AJ27052 A Decade in U.S. History: The 1960s

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2009
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 2 credit(s) (plus 3 credits for an exam). Recommended Type of Completion: zk (examination). Other types of completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
doc. PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Timetable
Tue 16:40–18:15 G31
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/20, only registered: 0/20
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 12 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
This cultural studies course focuses on the variety of developments (cultural, political, intel-lectual) of one of the most turbulent decades in U.S. history: the 1960s. Together we will trace the origin of discontent with American middle-class values on the part of the baby-boom generation, we will concentrate on the rise and highlights of the civil-rights movement in the American South and we will examine the importance of the Vietnam war (and particularly the resistance to it) for the mood of the decade. We will look at the intellectual debates of the day and attempt to locate them in a broader historical context; naturally, a discussion of the decade would be incomplete without an attempt at a somewhat more detached assessment of the era's legacy.
Syllabus
  • Session 1: Introduction the Course, U.S. Life in the 1950s I
  • Session 2: U.S. Life in the 1950s II, The Beat Generation; JFK; the Cuban Missile Crisis; “Rebel without a Cause, Part I”
  • Session 3: The Intellectual Opposition Paul Goodman; Herbert Marcuse; Norman O’Brown, and others. “Rebel without a Cause, Part II”
  • Session 4: Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and early 60s Fight for Desegregation; M.L. King; (guest lecture by Cathy Baker)
  • Session 5: Civil Rights Movement in the mid & late1960s The Freedom Summer of 1964; Lyndon Johnson & the Civil Rights Act of 1965; The Rise of African American Radicalism (Black Power);
  • Session 6: The New Left & the Campus Struggles I Video: Berkeley in the 1960s, Individual reading of materials in the ELF Morris Dickstein: Gates of Eden (extracts)
  • Session 7: The New Left & the Campus Struggles II Columbia University; the End of Student Radicalism
  • Session 8: Films as an expression of the decade: The Graduate; Bonnie & Clyde; Easy Rider (extracts)
  • Session 9: The Vietnam War Causes of the conflict; the Situation in Vietnam
  • Session 10:The Vietnam War II the Situation in the United States
  • Session 11: Nov. 24, 2008: The Counterculture, the Hippie Movement Timothy Leary; Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters; Woodstock;
  • Session 12: Experimentation in Arts The importance of Rock Music; Andy Warhol; (optional: Theater; Poetry; Fiction)
  • Session 13: The Turbulences of 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago; Nixon; the US in the Early Seventies
  • Session 14: Summing up: The Legacy of the Decade,
Literature
  • King, M.L., Jr. (1963) Why We Can't Wait, New York and Scarborough, Ontario: A Mentor Book.
  • Baritz, Loren (1985) Backfire, Vietnam - The Myths that Made us Fight, The Illusions that Helped Us Lose, The Legacy that Haunts Us Today, New York: Ballantine Books
  • Howard, Gerald, ed. (1995) The Sixties, Art, Politics and Media of our Most Exlosive Decade. New York: Marlowe & Company.
  • Roszak, Theodore(1969) The Making of a Counterculture, USA: Anchor Books
  • Dickstein, Morris (1989) Gates of Eden, American Culture in the Sixties, New York: Penguin Books.
  • Gitlin, Todd (1989). The Sixties. Years of hope, days of rage. USA: Bantam Books.
Teaching methods
This course lasts one term, and ends with an essay. There will be one seminar per week. Students missing more than two seminars per semester automatically fail the course. Please come to the seminars having read the assigned reading. The standard of your preparation will be occasionally tested by means of short in-class quizzes. You may also be asked to write brief responses to the reading and submit them in ELF prior to the lesson. Please note that this schedule is subject to change dependent on the specific needs of the group.
Assessment methods
Assessment: an essay, a presentation, in-class quizes, and active participation.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
Teacher's information
http://www.phil.muni.cz/elf/course/category.php?id=3
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2002, Spring 2003, Autumn 2003, Autumn 2004, Autumn 2005, Autumn 2006, Autumn 2007, Autumn 2008, Spring 2014.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2009, recent)
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