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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.
COURSE FORMAT: Lecture
Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS HIST Grading Mode: Student Option
Prerequisites: NONE
Last Updated on MAR-24-2000
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459