The United States since 1945
Tolentine 317 MWF 2-2:50
Spring 2004
Dr. Eugene McCarraher
Office: 475 SAC
Office Hours: MWF 11:30-12:30 or by appointment
Office Phone: 9-4796
E-mail: Eugene.mccarraher@villanova.edu
Course Description
This course will cover some of the significant developments in American politics, economics, culture, and society since the end of the Second World War. We will examine, among other topics, the transformation of capitalism from an industrial to a “post-industrial” economy; the metamorphosis of sexual mores, gender conventions, and understandings of family life; the recasting of racial politics; the creation and expansion of a new mass, popular culture; the redefinition and decline of liberalism; the emergence and cooptation of a new radicalism; the redefinition and ascendancy of conservatism; and the relationship of the United States to developments in the post-colonial world, whether in the form of “Cold War,” “globalization,” or “war on terrorism.”
Texts
The following books are required and can be purchased either in the university bookstore or on-line at amazon.com.
James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
Graham Greene, The Quiet American
Thomas Frank, ed., Boob Jubilee
Germaine Greer, The Female Eunuch
Doug Henwood, After the New Economy
James Miller, Flowers in the Dustbin
William H. Whyte, The Organization Man
You will also be receiving a few photcopied excerpts from other books.
Grading
You will be assigned two take-home essay questions, one due on February 27 and the other due on May 5. Each of these essays will be worth 25% of your grade. You must also write a 2-3 page reaction paper on each of the books assigned for the course. These will be due on the days when we discuss these books (see the Course Schedule below). Each of these short reflections, plus the contributions to class discussion for which they serve as bases, will be worth 7% of your grade. (You’ll notice – I hope -- that all this adds up to 99%. The remaining 1% is free of charge.)
Course Schedule
January 12 – Introduction
January 14 – The United States in 1945 (I):
The New Deal Order, Corporate Liberalism,
and American Political Culture
January 16 – The United States in 1945 (II):
Liberal Internationalism, the Crisis of Colonialism,
and Counter-revolutionary
Containment
January 19 – Martin Luther King Day -- No Classes
January 21 – The Culture of Containment (I):
Migration, “Suburbanization,”
and the Re-invention of the Nuclear Family
January 23 – The Culture of Containment (II):
The Red Scare, the Meanings of Anti-Communism,
and the Origins of Post-War Conservatism
January 26 – The Culture of Containment (III):
Post-Fordist Capitalism, the White-Collar Workplace,
and the Military-Industrial-Educational Complex
January 28 – The Culture of Containment (IV):
Organization Men, Organization Women,
And the Sexual Revolution in the Suburbs
January 30 – Whyte, The Organization Man
February 2 – The Not-So-Cold War (I):
Counter-Revolution, The Truman Doctrine,
and the Creation of the National Security State, 1947-1954
February 4 – The Not-So-Cold War (II):
The United States and Post-Colonial Nationalism, 1945-1963
February 6 – The Not-So-Cold War (III):
The United States and the Vietnamese Revolution, 1945-1963
February 9 – Greene, The Quiet American
February 11 – The New Left and the Politics of Authenticity (I):
Critics of Postwar Culture and the Problem of “Conformity”
February 13 – The New Left and the Politics of Authenticity (II):
Martin Luther King, “Beloved Community,”
and the New Politics of Race
February 16 – The New Left and the Politics of Authenticity (III):
The Postwar Youth Culture and the Student Movement
February 18 – No Class
February 20 – Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
*Tom Hayden, “The Port Huron Statement”
February 23 – Liberalism at War (I):
The New Frontier, The Great Society, and the War on Poverty and Racism
February 25 – Liberalism at War (II):
Kennedy, Johnson, and the War in Vietnam
February 27 – Mid-Term Exam due
March 1 – March 5 – Spring Break
March 8 – Liberalism at War (III):
Nixon, Vietnam, and Watergate
March 10 – The Crisis of Radicalism (II):
The Anti-War Movement, Student Uprisings, and the Legacies of 1968
March 12 – The Crisis of Radicalism (III):
Integration, Black Power, and the New Politics of Race
March 15 – Sexual Politics (I):
Women’s Liberation and the Varieties of Feminism
March 17 – Sexual Politics (II):
Stonewall and the Origins of the Gay and Lesbian Movements
March 19 – Greer, The Female Eunuch
*Norman Mailer, The Prisoner of Sex
March 22 – The Conservative Resurgence (I):
Goldwater, Nixon, and the New Republican Party
March 24 – The Conservative Resurgence (II):
Free-Market Economics and the Rehabilitation of Capitalism
March 26 – The Conservative Resurgence (III):
Cultural Warfare and the Rebirth of Evangelical Protestantism
March 29 – The Fall of the New Deal (I):
The Reagan Revolution
March 31 – The Fall of the New Deal (II):
Clintonomics and “The New Economy”
April 2 – Henwood, After the New Economy
April 5 – After the Cold War (I):
Détente, the Contras, and the Fall of Communism
April 7 – No Class
April 9 – Good Friday – No Classes
April 12 – Easter Monday – No Classes
April 14 – After the Cold War (II):
The Middle East and the First Gulf War, 1967-1991
April 16 – The New Business Culture:
The Conquest of Cool and the Triumph of
Market Populism
April 19 – Miller, Flowers in the Dustbin
April 21 – Network
April 23 – Network
April 26 – Network
April 27 – Friday Class Day
Frank, Boob Jubilee
April 28 – Monday Class Day
The Market Empire:
The Bush Adminstration and the “War on Terrorism”
May 4 – Final Exam Due