HIS 537SEM - Rdgs Amer Intel & Cult

The idea behind this class is a simple one: read some of the best work in 19th-century American cultural history written in the last few years along with some of the most revealing sources from the time period under study, roughly 1800-1860. The reading list is by no means exhaustive. It focuses on a few broad topics: the cultural and social dimensions of nineteenth-century economic transformations, including Americans as both producers and consumers; the values and practices of the northern, white middle class, often described as ¿Victorian culture¿; some of the discordant notes¿anxieties, tensions, counterpoints–in that dominant culture; working-class culture in the industrial North; and and contemporary dialogs about race and slavery among both Black and white Americans.

Credits: 3