Courses

This course will examine the evolution of American Jewish life and Judaism from seventeenth century origins to 1945. Topics will include waves of Jewish immigration; institution and community building; emergence of new forms of Judaism and of Jewish identity; Jewish/non-Jewish interactions; American Jewish culture; Jews in politics and society.

The history of work, workers, and the union movement from the early twentieth century to the present. Topics include scientific management, mass production, the rise of the AFL and challenges to it, labor radicalism, New Deal labor reforms, racial and sexual discrimination, union politics, the changing working-class standard of living, and the decline of unionism during the 1980s and 1990s.

The development of the labor movement, its ideology and its relation to social movements and to the economic structure of society, from Jeffersonian America to the first World War.

A historical study of the diversity of American literature from the beginnings to the Civil War, encompassing a range of writing by women and men from various cultural, ethnic, and popular traditions.

A historical study of the diversity of American literature from the Civil War to the twentieth century, encompassing a range of writing by women and men from various cultural, ethnic, and popular traditions.

A study of how different Americans describe their own lives in autobiographies and other kinds of personal documents. The course will explore how "the American character" expressed itself at different times in different places and how various writers - both famous and obscure - tried to present themselves as unique individuals and as representative Americans.

The development of American military institutions from Jamestown to the present.

Discussion of the political concepts that have influenced the development of an American democratic tradition; concepts will be related to specific political institutions and processes.

This course will focus on selected American films, from the 1920s to the present, to examine the social and cultural ideas and attitudes that underlie American political and economic structures. It will also examine the influence of the media on the American political world.

An analytical study of American national government with special attention to its structure and operation functions of the President, Congress, the Judiciary; activities of the federal government in promoting the welfare of the people.