Suburbs
The American Dream was redefined in the aftermath of World War II, thanks in large part to builders such as the Levitt family, who first developed six square miles of farmland in Long Island, New York into a new kind of planned community called Levittown. Suburbs like Levittown sprang up all over America, giving white working class families their first chance at homeownership while effectively excluding nonwhites from the same opportunity. This unit begins with the architecture of the 1950s suburbs and moves outward to the economic and sociological aspects of “white flight,” while also looking at how film and popular culture reflected contrasting images of cities and small towns in ways that propelled this “suburban revolution.”
The Sixties
Few decades were as turbulent or eventful as the 1960s. The struggle for African-American civil rights in the South led to the Black Power movement and served as the catalyst for rights movements by Latina/o, Asian, and Native Americans as well as women and LGBT Americans. Students demonstrated against the Vietnam War and the limits of free speech at American colleges and sought alternative forms of spirituality and community. All the while, musicians like Bob Dylan and Aretha Franklin turned popular culture into a mode of social commentary. In Amcon 202, we examine the 1960s from all these angles and more.
Citizenblog Project
Among the many ways the internet has transformed American 
culture in our own time is by turning ordinary citizens into journalists who use Twitter, youtube, and political blogs to disseminate information. In this project, students examine how information has been democratized by citizens who serve as witnesses to events and interpreters of issues. Students then become citizen journalists themselves, contributing regular posts throughout the term to a class-run “Citizenblog” site. They report on civic or political events happening on campus, in Northfield, or in their home towns, and contribute their voices to ongoing conversations on national and global issues.
American Empire?
The United States came into existence by liberating itself from the British empire and steering clear of many of the struggles among the warring empires of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Yet many people abroad describe America’s economic, military and cultural power — exercised against Mexico and Native Americans in the 19th Century or in the Americas in the first decades of the 20th Century and throughout the globe after World War II — as “imperial” in its own right. In this unit, we study the origin and development of American global power and ask whether it is fitting to consider the United States a modern-day empire. We look at America’s overt and covert military activities of the 20th and 21st centuries, consider the reach of American corporations and popular culture, and ask what sort of world power the United States should be.
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