Look at Essays on American Studies pedagogy
A good research source on population statistics from Princeton
Historical Text Archive at Mississippi State University.
January 18
February 8Writing About America. Read A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An Ex-Slave
February 15
Class will not meet tonight. Project postponed until February 22.
February 22
First Major Project Due: Essay on America. You will submit a four-five page printed essay on American values, American character,
what it means to be an American,or a similar topic gathered through your research and observation on both American history and
contemporary American life. You will specifically gather quotations from various media (textbooks,newspapers, magazines, television, radio,
popular culture) in which speakers or performers attempt to define what it is to be an American. Good sources
for research are op-ed pages of national newspapers, weekly news magazines and the like.
Transition to a New Order: An Analysis of the Gettysburg Address Introductory Material on Rhetoric and Action. Speech-making.
March 1
Campus Closed. Exam and Alger assignment moved to March 15
March 8 No Class Spring Break
March 15
American Success Stories: Horatio Alger. Read Horatio Alger, Ragged Dick.
Midterm Examination: includes all material up to and including tonight's reading assignment. This exam will take most of the class period and will have three major sections: a series of specific identifications
based on the lectures, presentations, readings and discussions; an analysis of a selected piece of text or an image from the first part of the course; and an extended essay question which will explore a major theme from the first part
of the course.
March 22 Jazz: History & Place in American Life. Music of the Nation.
Read F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby selected critical commentary on The Great Gatsby.
Looking at the Brooklyn Bridge: Slides, Poetry, Commentary, History, Mathematics. Notes in MS Word Format to download.
March 29
The Great Depression in Fact and in Memory. Readings (from Hoover, FDR, et al.)
Powerpoint Presentation
April 5
The Story of the Color Line: Twentieth Century America and the Question of Race. Readings TBA.
April 12
Wars and Cold Wars. The Atomic Cafe. Background material available for those who wish: Commentary by Jayne Loader, one of the producers.Notes and Reviews of The Atomic Cafe
April 19
Read Jihad vs. McWorld: How Globalism and Tribalism Are Reshaping the World by Benjamin R. Barber, Andrea Schulz. Tonight's class will be a
discussion of this book and its implications for defining American character in the twenty-first century.
Required Reading: Introduction (pp. 3 - 22) ; Part I. The New World of McWorld (pp. 23 - 154, paperback edition); Part II. The Old World of Jihad,
ch. 10 "Jihad vs. McWorld or Jihad via McWorld." (pp. 155-168); Part III. Jihad vs. McWorld. ch. 15, "Jihad and McWorld in the New
World Disorder," (pp. 219-235). ch. 19, "Securing Global Democracy in the World of McWorld," (pp. 268-293).
You are strongly encouraged to read the entire book.
April 26
Reports on American National Character and America Today. Reports from Students. Multi-Media Presentations with written commentary
This evening you will present a five minute multi-media presentation (tape, audio, powerpoint) in which you will explain some striking visual
images of contemporary American society. Along with the presentation, you will submit a two or three page printed commentary on your
images.
Assignment: Think about the themes encountered in this course. Then think about the America of the 1990's and the 2000's.
Which images and/or sounds are crucial/significant/intriguing in defining your idea of American Culture today? Choose about
three minutes worth of sight or sound (i.e., a three-minute video from TV/film, or a three-minute spliced set of video
images from TV/film, or a dozen or so still images from the media of your choice (magazines, newspapers, internet,
CD covers, etc.). You can even take the pictures or record the sounds yourself. If you were to explain these images
to people from outside American society, what would they need to understand in order to make sense of the images?
What do the images represent? How can you classify the images? Your mode of presentation can be slides projected
on a screen; a powerpoint display; a videotape; an audiotape, or combinations of the preceding. In addition to the visuals or
sounds, write a two or three page commentary on the material you present. Your grade for this assignment will based
upon your choice of images, your presentation (clarity, focus, substance), and the written explanation. In order to
receive credit for this assignment, you must present the assignment in class on the night of April 27. No substitute
assignments will be accepted.
University Date TBA
Final Examination: includes all material since the first exam This exam will take two hours and will have three major sections: a series of specific identifications
based on the lectures, presentations, readings and discussions; an analysis of a selected piece of text or an image from the second part of the course; and an extended essay question which will explore a major theme from the first part
of the course.
American Studies 100W, "Introduction to American Studies," provides an opportunity not only for gaining an overview of a diverse academic field, but also for discovering the rich texture that makes up American Culture. While many of the materials in this course are texts, there are also a good number of artifacts of American culture in the form of films, paintings, oral testimonies and musical recordings that will be used to display the wealth of this civilization. The written analysis of the artifacts of American Civilization, both print and non-print, is central to the analytic skills in this course. We will also be concerned with texts and other materials relating to the American tradition that are increasingly residing on the internet. This syllabus and accompanying materials will also be posted on the internet. You are also encouraged to contact me at anytime via my Penn State e-mail: mao1@psu.edu (that's the number "1" in my e-mail)
You will take periodic quizzes on the assigned readings, take two examinations, complete two major projects, one of which is a presentation for the last class, and, importantly, participate in the ongoing work of the class. The exams will be a mixture of specific content recall and analytic writing. The Final Presentation, your American Report, is an interpretation of some aspect of very contemporary (1990+) American Civilization. The final presentation can a number of forms: lecture, PowerPoint presentation, video, music, etc. and will include a written commentary. Presentation time should not exceed five minutes. We will talk more specifically about the presentation as we move along in the course.
As a "W" course, this is a writing intensive course. Written work, both in class and outside of class, is expected to complete, on time, the work of the writer, with all sources cited (use the MLA internal citation format).
The first major project is an analytic essay, 4-5 printed pages, due on February 24, in printed form in class (That means no e-mail submission, by the way). This essay requires you to do some interesting research. Read a national newspaper, read a national newsmagazine, watch television and take notes, listen to the radio and take notes. You are listening for references by Americans about Americans, by Americans about American values, by Americans about American culture. So the research findings for the essay will consist of a large number of short quotations. Keep track of your quotations from the beginning of the course. Keep track of the sources of the quotation. A good place to start are any of the speeches (print, radio, tv, magazines) by the candidates running for President. Other good places to stop, look, and listen are radio talk shows, especially those with a political bent. As people in class come up with good sources, we can share them. I'll be looking, too.
The second major project is a multi-media presentation with a two-page (printed) commentary, due on April 27. You will present and explain a series of images on contemporary America (scan them in, copy from television, film, etc.) that you deem to represent the American Character.
Now, on to more technical and administrative matters. At a minimum, you are required to complete all assignments in the course, both readings and writings as they are due. Late assignments are subject to my discretion in terms of acceptance and grading. All written work must be your own and must be an original submission for this course: plagiarism on a minor part of an assignment will result in a failing grade for that assignment. Plagiarism on a major part of a given assignment will result in a grade of "0" for that assignment. Two instances of plagiarism in this course will result in course failure. Cite your sources. Do your own work.
Attendance and participation are vital parts of this course. You are also expected to attend all classes and to participate. For those who think of such things, absences in excess of one full class could affect your grade; absences in excess of two full classes may result in course failure. Your grade for the course will be determined as follows:
Participation (includes attendance)
and Quizzes: 15%
First Examination and Second Examination
(Combined ) 40%
Projects (Combined): 35 %
Quizzes & Minor In-Class Assignments 10%
Comments to: mao1@psu.edu