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SoSe 21: 20th Century U.S. History

Jessica Gienow-Hecht

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This introductory course (Seminar) constitutes the first part of Module C (North American History Since 1865). While the first part (Seminar) is designed as a broad introduction to the period by looking at a general theme, the second part (Hauptseminar) zooms in on a specific topic, offering students the opportunity to do primary source research and write a paper. Both parts are scheduled back to back (Wed., 8:30-10, 10-12pm), and students required to cover the entire module are encouraged to enrol in both courses simultaneously. Students wishing to compose a full research paper (Hausarbeit) at the end of the term are strongly encouraged to do so in the second part (Hauptseminar) of Module C, titled “Music and Human Rights in the United States” (10-12pm). The twentieth century has been turbulent and contradictory. Declared as the “Century of the Child” and alternately labelled “short” (Hobsbawm), “American” (Luce), or “genocidal” (Levene), it has produced tremendous technological progress, great human tragedy, socio-political upheaval, and conflicting cultural trajectories in North America and elsewhere. Industrialization, nationalism, anticolonialism, democracy, socialism, nuclear weapons, and globalization profoundly influence nations’ experiences and historical memory. This course will evaluate some of the more recent historical writings on U.S. twentieth century history in order to provide an in-depth foundation of knowledge for the period and explore its legacy for the contemporary world. Course: The seminar seeks to fulfill two premises: first, we will spend a significant amount of time considering some of the more recent literature dedicated to major problems in U.S. twentieth-century history. Historians have identified peculiar factors informing the nation’s experience and the historical memory contemporaries hold of that era. These include socialism, industrialization, nuclear development, the cold war, globalization, civil and human rights. But none of these was generic to the United States. We will ask, ‘What made the twentieth century a peculiar American experience?’ Second, we will try to understand the century’s legacies for today and discuss whether there are particular lessons for the impending future. For general reading, I recommend A Global History of the Twentieth Century: Legacies and Lessons from Six National Perspectives, ed. Michael J. Green and Nicholas Szecheniy (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017). Sessions: Each session consists of a brief lecture followed by a discussion, and a student team-led presentation and discussion. Presentations: In one of the first sessions, students will choose which topic they would like to present on; all those who choose the same topic (from the syllabus) will work together in a team. Two weeks prior to the session they will be presenting in, student teams meet with the instructor during her office hours to discuss at least one source (preferably two or more) complementing the lecture and relating directly to the topic of the assigned week. During this meeting, teams will explain their choice, summarize their selection, and make a recommendation which source(s) should be used in what fashion in class. Requirements: Active class participation; engagement with the weekly readings and uploading of a weekly “précis” to Blackboard (for exact time, see below); team leadership, research and discussion of a primary source(s) (visual, text, sound) in class, as well as a synopsis of the session in which your team presented. close