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Academic Year 2001/2002

American Radicalism: The Interwar Years
HIST 333 FA
Crosslistings:
AMST 255

To get a better understanding of the nature of political radicalism in the United States and its impact on the political system, this seminar will focus on the era between the First and Second World Wars, an extremely volatile period. We will begin by studying the main trends in the political center to provide a context and then will switch to the radical movements and organizations themselves. We will cover the entire spectrum of politics including right to left movement and both the secular and the religiously-inspired. Thus we will be studying, inter alia, the Ku Klux Klan, Gerald L.K. Smith, Father Coughlin, Gov. Huey Long, the Socialist and Communist parties, the American brigade in Spain, and Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement. We will conclude by considering the general political trends in the United States just before the war, federal policies, and the way in which radicals of both the left and right were imprisoned, shoved aside or incorporated.

MAJOR READINGS

(partial list): Alan Brinkley, HUEY LONG, FATHER COUGHLIN & THE GREAT DEPRESSION (1982) William Ivy Hair, THE KINGFISH AND HIS REALM: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HUEY LONG Robin Kelley, HAMMER AND HOE: ALABAMA COMMUNISTS DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION Kathleen M. Blee, WOMEN OF THE KLAN: RACISM AND GENDER IN THE 1920s. Judith Stein, THE WORLD OF MARCUS GARVEY: RACE AND CLASS IN MODERN SOCIETY Barry D. Karl, THE UNEASY STATE: THE UNITED STATES FROM 1915 TO 1945 (1983)

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Five five-page essays based on assignments for the weekly reading and due at time of class meeting, plus brief reading notes for the other sessions.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

Students required to have had at least one and preferably two previous courses in modern American history, classes in modern European history, political science, 20th-century literature, or other relevant work. Admission by interview. Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS HIST    Grading Mode: Student Option   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-19-2002

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