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Crosslistings: AFAM 299 |
Reform or revolution? In America, it has been argued, the preference has been for the former over the latter. This class will explore the American reform tradition as it developed in the nineteenth century. We will test the idea that an American exceptionalism embraced incremental change within the framework of capitalism and individualism. We will read selectively in the historiography of some of the major reform movements of the nineteenth and early twentieth-century; Abolition, feminism, temperance, prisons, the settlement-house movement, and labor rights. We will also read the social protest novels that help set the reform agenda in America. Throughout we will consider the tension between sympathy and solidarity, liberalism and radicalism, democracy and the market, and consider the limits of reformism.
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/Discussion
Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS HIST Grading Mode: Graded
Prerequisites: NONE
Last Updated on MAR-18-2003
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459