HIST333

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HIST333

American Radicalism: The Interwar Years HIST333 FA

Crosslistings: AMST255

Next Offered in 9900 FA

In order 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 in order to provide a context and then 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: Seminar

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UG Credit: 1.00 Gen Ed Area & Dept: SBS HIST

Prerequisites: None

Last Updated on MAR-03-1998

About the Photo:

Reference:

Commager, Henry Steele, ed. in chief. THE AMERICAN DESTINY, VOLUME 13: THE TWENTIES. U.S.A.: Danbury Press, 1976

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