HISTORY 341

Making Sense of the Sixties: USA 1954-73


Please note: this is archived course information from 2017 for HISTORY 341.

Description

"The Sixties will probably be spirited, articulate, inventive, incoherent, turbulent, with energy shooting off wildly in all directions. Above all, there will be a sense of motion, of leadership and of hope." -- Historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., 1960

Organised thematically and chronologically, this course examines the history of the 1960s in the United States. Several ideas shape the way we approach this historical topic.

  1. The decade of the 1960s was "pivotal"’ for the United States, a decade when some fundamental changes occurred which marked the end of one era and the beginning of another.
  2. The idea of the "long sixties" is used, dating from the Civil Rights Movement’s victory with the 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education to the end of US military involvement in Vietnam and the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon after the Watergate scandal by 1974.
  3. The era was not only as an important period for political liberalism and radicalism but also for conservatism.
  4. The 1960s cannot be seen simply as a decade of decline, with the early "good" sixties devolving into the late "bad" sixties; this "declension model"’ only fits some developments during the era and misses many others.
  5. All of the key conflicts in American history re-emerge in the 1960s—individual vs community, state’s rights vs federal power, ideals of equality vs reality of inequalities by race, class, gender and sexuality, and the US as a peace-seeking vs war-mongering nation—thus making this era one of the most significant in US history.

Overall, the course aims to shed light on why the 1960s were so important in the USA and on the today’s polarised scholarly—and political—debates about the larger meaning and legacy of "the sixties". 

This course is taught concurrently with HISTORY 241, and students share a lecture time.  However, HISTORY 341 differs from HISTORY 241 in that students have additional readings and different assessment.

Availability 2017

Not taught in 2017

Lecturer(s)

Coordinator(s) Dr Paul Taillon
Lecturer(s) Associate Professor Jennifer Frost

Reading/Texts


Recommended Reading

Terry H. Anderson, The Sixties

Assessment

(1) Tutorial assignments, approx. 1,200 words, worth 20%

(2) Review essay of 2,400 words, worth 40%

(3) Final essay of 2,400 words, worth 40%

Points

HISTORY 341: 15 points

Prerequisites

15 points at Stage II in History and 60 points passed

Restrictions

HISTORY 241