Schedule of Readings and Assignments
I reserve the right to make changes to this syllabus during the semester
It is the student’s responsibility to stay apprised of all assignments, deadlines, and modifications to the syllabus
Unless specifically designated “optional,” all readings noted below
are required
WEEK ONE:
TUES 2/2
INTRODUCTIONS to one another and to course; review of syllabus and course site
Brief walk-through of OWL Purdue site — please bookmark it on your computer!
In-class writing (to submit): What ideas, images, and sounds come to mind when you hear the term, “1960s?”
Annotation techniques for active reading (Levittown piece from Thurs. 2/4 reading list)
Subject-verb agreement (begin with Levittown piece)
THURS. 2/4
POST-WAR AMERICA, THE COLD WAR, and “I LIKE IKE”
Levittown and the Model for a New America:
“Return to Levittown: A Suburban Dream Turns 60”: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-15598511
“McCarthyism, Korea, and the Cold War”: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/tp-039/?action=more_essay
The Eisenhower Years: https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/presidents/dwightdeisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower–“Farewell to the Nation,” January 17, 1961 (“military-industrial complex”) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWiIYW_fBfY
The Civil Rights Movement: overview via NYPL’s Schomburg Center for Research
in Black Culture: http://exhibitions.nypl.org/africanaage/essay-civil-rights.html
“Baby Boomer Generation Fast Facts” (handout and BB)
Assignment #1 distributed and reviewed (rhetorical analysis)
WEEK TWO:
TUES. 2/9 Classes follow a Friday Schedule
THURS. 2/11
JOHN F. KENNEDY and THE NEW FRONTIER
Nomination acceptance speech, Democratic National Convention, July 15, 1960
Text of speech: BB
Video of speech: http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/AS08q5oYz0SFUZg9uOi4iw.aspx
JFK and Richard Nixon – First televised presidential debate, September 26, 1960
Text of debate: http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/JFK-Speeches/1st-Nixon-Kennedy-Debate_19600926.aspx
(On JFK Presidential Library and Museum website)
Video: http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/TNC-172.aspx
“The Kennedy–Nixon debates: The Launch of Television’s Transformation of US Politics and Popular Culture,” Mary Ann Watson (BB)
Election victory speech, November 9, 1960
Text of speech: BB
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DvBSM99eKQ (4:23-8:14) (weblink on BB)
Inaugural address, January 20, 1961
Text of address: BB
Video of address: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEC1C4p0k3E (weblink on BB)
Rhetorical Modes of Persuasion (Handout and BB)
WEEK THREE:
TUES. 2/16
THE KENNEDY PRESIDENCY
Bay of Pigs
“The Untold Story of the Bay of Pigs,” Robert Dallek, Newsweek (BB)
Cuban Missile Crisis
“JFK vs. the Military,” Robert Dallek, Newsweek (BB)
“Domestic Politics and the Cuban Missile Crisis: The Traditional and Revisionist Interpretations Reevaluated,”
Richard Ned Lebow (optional) (BB)
The Cold War and the Escalation in Vietnam
“Kennedy, The Cold War, and The National Security State,” Andrew Preston (BB)
The Administration’s Domestic Initiatives
“JFK and The Civil Rights Movement,” Douglas Field (BB)
1963 Equal Pay Act: http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/epa.cfm
Jacqueline Kennedy and the White House Restoration
A Tour of the White House: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUP9gY_5MzI
“Jacqueline Kennedy’s White House Tour: The Political Dimensions of a First Lady,” Lena Ringleb (BB)
please try to skim this article and annotate it
The First Lady, Fashion, and “The New Frontier” (images and text on BB)
White House State Dinners
“Jacqueline Kennedy Entertains: The Art of the White House Dinner” (BB)
The Kennedys at Home
Photographs, 1961-1963 (BB)
THURS. 2/18
FOUR DAYS
Friday, November 22, 1963–Dallas, TX – Monday, November 25, 1963–Arlington, VA
Excerpts from four days of around-the-clock television coverage (links on BB)
“An Eternal Flame: The Kennedy Assassination, National Grief, and National Nostalgia, D. Connor (BB)
Assignment #1 due in class
WEEK FOUR:
TUES. 2/23
CAMELOT: REALITY, LEGACY, MYTHOLOGY
“For President Kennedy: An Epilogue,” Theodore H. White LIFE, December 6, 1963 (required) (BB)
“The Kennedy Legacy: From Hagiography to Exposé and Back Again,” Loren Glass (required) (BB)
Warren Commission Report: https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/ (optional; The report is 888 pages; if you choose to read it, please know that only a few key sections will suffice)
“The CIA Keeps (Accidentally) Legitimizing JKF Conspiracy Theorists,” Charles P. Pierce (optional) (BB)
“Meet the Respectable JFK Conspiracy Theorists,” Philip Shenon (optional) (BB)
“The Legacy of John F. Kennedy,” Alan Brinkley (optional) (BB)
THURS. 2/25
CIVIL RIGHTS
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King Jr. (BB)
“I Have a Dream” (text of speech) Martin Luther King, Jr. (BB)
“I Have a Dream” (video of speech) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs
“Restoring King,” Thomas Sugrue, Jacobin magazine (BB)
Malcolm X, “Message to the Grass Roots” and “The Black Revolution” speeches (BB)
Malcolm X speeches (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9AmuYqjRyg Watch video from 18:23-25:14
Assignment #2 distributed and reviewed (intertextual analysis)
WEEK FIVE:
TUES. 3/1
CIVIL RIGHTS AND BLACK POWER
1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act (texts of) (BB)
“Black Power” speech delivered by Stokely Carmichael, Berkeley, CA (BB)
THURS. 3/3
WOMEN’S RIGHTS
The Feminine Mystique (Chapter One), Betty Friedan (BB)
Makers: Women Who Make America, Part 1–PBS documentary (please try to watch the entire program; if you cannot,
please watch the first 15 minutes, and then pick watch 40:00-47:30)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcH2ppft2Gw (weblink on BB)
“The Pill and the Women’s Liberation Movement,” PBS http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pill/peopleevents/e_lib.html
Women’s Rights Movement (timeline): http://www.annenbergclassroom.org/Files/Documents/Timelines/WomensRightstimeline.pdf
WEEK SIX:
TUES. 3/8
SECOND WAVE FEMINISM, GLBTQ RIGHTS and RIGHTS FOR ALL WOMEN
“The Lavender Scare: Persecution of Lesbianism during the Cold War,” Jessica Toops (BB)
“Transgender History in the United States,” Genny Beemyn (BB)
“Participatory Democracy: The Bridge from Civil Rights to Women’s Liberation,” Julia E. Clements (BB)
THURS. 3/10
CONSUMERISM
“The Structure of Hip Consumerism,” Joseph Heath (BB)
“Civil Rights and the Advertising Industry,” Jason Chambers (BB)
Print and Television Advertisements (selections on BB)
WEEK SEVEN:
TUES. 3/15
THE TURN TO ENVIRONMENTALISM
Silent Spring, Rachel Carson (Chapter One) (BB)
History of Earth Day (weblink on BB)
THURS. 3/17
REVIEW DAY and WORKSHOP to Fine-tune Your Research Paper Topic
By this point in the semester, we will have covered considerable material—both in terms of range and of quantity. Today’s Review and Workshop will be devoted to reviewing and discussing these texts, these ideas, these images, these ideologies, in order to make sense of them discretely and as a constellation that signifies a decade. We shall then segue to your research paper topic and work towards fine-tuning your topic and drawing up ideas on how to proceed in your research and your writing.
WEEK EIGHT:
TUES. 3/22
FASHION
Images (BB)
“Writing for an Audience,” Linda Flower (BB)
WED. 3/24
FASHION AND YOUTHQUAKE
Mod style (images on BB)
Designer Ready-to-Wear (in class images)
“Women Who Wear Pants: Still Somehow Controversial,” Nora Caplan-Bricker (BB)
Yves Saint Laurent Tribute (weblink on BB)
WEEK NINE:
TUES. 3/29
BABY BOOMERS, COUNTERCULTURE, and FLOWER POWER
“1968 Lessons Learned” (handout)
In-class overview of “Writing for an Audience” (BB)
Check-in on Paper #2 (review drafts, plan ahead)
THURS. 3/31
COUNTERCULTURE
“The Hippies: An American Moment,” Stuart Hall (BB)
Biographical sketch of Stuart Hall (BB)
WRITING WORKSHOP—Research Paper—Topic Development and Proposal
ROUGH DRAFT OF RESEARCH PROPOSAL DUE IN CLASS
Please bring a one-paragraph draft to class that identifies the topic you plan to work on. Try to come up with at least one reason why this topic warrants research. What might your audience (and you as the researcher) learn from delving into this topic? Imagine a claim that you could make about this topic. Please include your responses to these prompts in your draft. We will spend at least half of the class period developing these ideas. We shall also make forays into identifying at least one text (primary source or secondary source) with which to begin your research. Your proposal should does not need a full-formulated thesis. However, it should include the initial contours of a thesis claim.
WEEK TEN:
TUES. 4/5
1968
Martin Luther King, Jr.
“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” Martin Luther King, Jr. – speech delivered April 3, 1968 concerning the Memphis Sanitation Strike (text of speech) (BB)
“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” (video of speech) https://vimeo.com/3816635
“Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike” (BB)
Robert F. Kennedy
Speech delivered to the Cleveland City Club, April 5, 1968 (BB)
Speech delivered in Los Angeles following California Presidential Primary Victory, June 5, 1968 (BB)
THURS. 4/7
1968: Vietnam War and Election Year
“A Vietnam War Timeline” (BB)
“Tet 1968: The Turning Point” (BB)
“The Anti-War Movement in the United States,” Mark Barringer (BB)
1968 Democratic Convention and the Convention Riots
“The 1968 Democratic Convention: The Bosses Strike Back,” Haynes Johnson (BB)
William F. Buckley, Jr. and Gore Vidal RNC and DNC Debates
“The Dazzling Polemics of the Buckley-Vidal Debates,” John Powers (BB)
Highlights from Buckley-Vidal Debates debates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1hd929CIeg
Best of Enemies (documentary about Buckley-Vidal debate) (optional, link on BB)
WEEK ELEVEN:
TUES. 4/12
VIETNAM: HEART OF DARKNESS
The Killing Zone, Frederick Downs (memoir excerpts) (BB)
“Heart of Darkness,” Joseph Conrad (chapters 2 and 3) (BB) (Apocalypse Now is loosely based on Conrad’s 1899 novella)
THURS. 4/14
VIETNAM: APOCALYPSE NOW
Apocalypse Now (1979) (Francis Ford Coppola)
My DVD will be available for you to borrow. Let’s keep this film in circulation.
Please also check Netflix and online movie sites.
Apocalypse Now film review, Roger Ebert (BB)
WEEK TWELVE:
TUES. 4/19
TECHNOLOGY and THE SPACE RACE
Space Race Timeline: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/astrospies/time-nf.html (optional BB)
“1960s: From Dream to Reality in 10 Years,” Cheryl L. Mansfield NASA; link to article on NASA’s website: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/about/history/timeline/60s-decade.html (optional BB)
“Apollo 11: The Computers that Put Man on the Moon,” Cliff Saran (required BB)
“When the Space Age Blasted Off, Pop Culture Followed,” Randy Kennedy (required BB)
“Space: The Final Frontier of the New Frontier,” Derek W. Elliott (required BB)
“‘The Industrial Revolution’ in the Home: Household Technology and Social Change in the 20th Century,” Ruth Schwartz Cowan (required BB)
ROUGH DRAFT OF RESEARCH PAPER DUE IN CLASS
(HARD COPY, minimum 3 pages)
THURS. 4/21
(Find an artifact and write a 1-2 page piece about it—a prose description, a poem about or to the object, a nonfiction piece about “a day in the life of” this object—you decide)
IN-CLASS WRITING WORKSHOP ON RESEARCH PAPER
You will receive your rough drafts with my comments and suggestions and we will use these drafts in class for our workshop.
WEEK THIRTEEN: SPRING RECESS (Fri. 4/22—Sat. 4/30)
WEEK FOURTEEN:
TUES. 5/3
Review of Research Project Progress ~ Questions and In-Class Writing (the “So What? element of an argument-driven project)
Begin Discussion of Music and its Personal, Political, and Artistic Aspects
THURS. 5/5
RESEARCH PAPER WORKSHOP ~ Please bring a copy of your work-in-progress to class (either as a hard copy or an electronic copy). Please come to class with specific questions you have about your project. We will work in pairs and small groups and focus on bringing the final version to fruition. If you would like to present your work to the class as a whole, and ask for feedback from the class, we will do this as well.
MUSIC
Please choose a couple of two songs to listen to, from the list below. Please also bring in a song of your choice for Thursday 5/5. The song you choose can be from any period or genre. Please be prepared to share your song in class, via YouTube. You may also bring in a handout with the lyrics or call up the lyrics at the podium. Be prepared to share ideas about how we connect to music on a personal level, as well as how music connects with political and social issues.
“Star Spangled Banner” (traditional; José Feliciano; Jimi Hendrix) (video link on BB)
“White Rabbit,” Jefferson Airplane (video link BB)
“New York, New York,” The Last Poets (video link on BB)
“Ohio,” Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young (video link on BB)
WEEK FIFTEEN:
TUES. 5/10
WOODSTOCK NATION
Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music (documentary)
The complete film is available on this website:
http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/185693/Woodstock1970_Full_Length_Documentary/
Please watch the opening 20 minutes, Jimi Hendrix’s version of “Star-Spangled Banner,”
and at least one other song/performance of your choice. Of course, please go ahead and watch the entire film if you would like to do so.
“Music, Politics, and Protest,” Dard Neuman (BB)
“Forty Years After Woodstock, A Gentler Generation Gap,” (BB)
by Paul Taylor and Rich Morin (BB)
“Forty Years After Woodstock, What Happened to the Couple in the Photograph That Defined a Generation?” by Barry Wigmore (BB)
“Rethinking Issues of Gender and Sexuality in Led Zeppelin: A Woman’s View of Pleasure and Power in Hard Rock,” Susan Fast (optional on BB ~ this is a very long article, which you don’t have to read for class, but which you may find informative if ideas about gender and rock ‘n roll are of interest to you)
RESEARCH PAPER DUE IN CLASS AS A HARD COPY
THURS. 5/12
ATTICA and THE MODERN PRISON SYSTEM
“Attica Prisoners’ Demands” (BB)
“New Attica Documents Reveal Inmate Accounts of Torture after 1971 Prison Riot,” The Guardian. Alan Yuhas
WEEK SIXTEEN:
TUES. 5/17
“Why Mass Incarceration Matters: Rethinking Crisis, Decline, and Transformation in Postwar American History,” Heather Ann Thompson (BB)
LAST CLASS
Assignment #4 Due May 22nd (Creative Remix of Research Paper – please see handout or page listed above on this site)