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Born Rich: Wealth in America
AMST206 SP
This course is a study of the amassing and dispersal of great wealth in America, primarily in the 19th and 20th centuries: industrial money, money money, and other forms of fortune. What we will study is some of the
cultural results of this money,
rather than its sources; mansion-building, yacht-buying, eccentricity, collecting, fashion, causes, and other forms of expenditure: charity and tax evasion as investments in the future (of the hospital, the nation, the
fortune). Misbehavior of the
descendents, curmudgeons, myth of founding mothers and fathers, and sudden loss are also matters for occasional examination.
MAJOR READINGS
William Faulkner, ABSALOM, ABSALOM!
F. Scott Fitzgerald, THE GREAT GATSBY, "Rich Boy," "Diamond as Big as the Ritz"
Thomas P. Hughes, AMERICAN GENESIS: A CENTURY OF INVENTION AND TECHNOLOGICAL ENTHUSIASM
Ortega y Gasset, THE REVOLT OF
THE MASSES
Edith Wharton, THE AGE OF INNOCENCE
Other readings on Vanderbilts, Morgans, Fords, Astors, Hearsts.
EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Group projects, presentations, term paper, field trips.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS
Class time 1:10-2:30 p.m., MW; film showing M 4:30-6:30. Course fee $40.00. 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
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level:
UGRD
Credit:
1
Gen Ed Area Dept:
NONE
Grading Mode:
Graded
Prerequisites:
AMST154
Last Updated on MAR-24-2000
Contact
wesmaps@wesleyan.edu
to submit comments or suggestions.
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459