American Studies 2003: The Sixties

Instructor:

 

Carl Brucker

Phone:

 

(479) 968-0484

Office Hours:

 

Witherspoon 142
MWF: 8-10, 12-3
TR: 8-3

E-mail Address:
   cbrucker@atu.edu
 
Scroll down to read assignments or click below to jump to specific weeks:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Required Texts

Isserman, Maurice and Michael Kazin. America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s. 6th Edition. Oxford, 2020. ISBN: 9780190077846

Brautigan, Richard. Trout Fishing in America, The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster, and In Watermelon Sugar. Houghton Mifflin. 1989. ISBN: 9780395500767

Vonnegut, Kurt. Cat's Cradle. Random House. 1963. 9780385333481

Note: Some required readings are not in the Isserman text. They can be accessed with the links on the syllabus.



Learning Objectives

  • Improved oral and written communication skills
  • Introduction to the nature and purpose of interdisciplinary study
  • Understanding of basic research and documentation methods
  • Understanding of an important era in the cultural, politcal, and social history of the United States
Hybrid Learning

  • This course will be taught as a hybrid of face-to-face and online components.
  • The class will be divided into two groups. Each group will meet face-to-face one time a week.
  • The entire class will meet virtually one time a week using Webex.
  • Additional assignments will be completed through Blackboard.

Weekly Assignment Schedule

Week One
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Wed
Aug 19

Group A meets
Introduction--Why study the Sixties? What is interdisciplinary study?
How to use the course’s online Discussion Board.
Presentation: Presidents and Vice Presidents of the 1960s
Music: Beach Boys–"Fun, Fun, Fun" and "Get Around"

Fri
Aug 21 		Group B meets
Introduction--Why study the Sixties? What is interdisciplinary study?
How to use the course’s online Discussion Board.
Presentation: Presidents and Vice Presidents of the 1960s
Music: Beach Boys–"Fun, Fun, Fun" and "Get Around"
WeekTwo
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Mon
Aug 24 		Read: Isserman and Kazin, Ch. 1 "Gathering of the Forces" pp. 6-20.

Video: “Seeds of the Sixties”

Wed
Aug 26

Read: Isserman and Kazin, Ch. 3 "The New Frontier of American Liberalism" pp. 44-62; ch. 5 "Fall: Saigan and Dallas" pp. 94-99.
Read Online: John Fitzgerald Kennedy's Inaugural Address
Video: Excerpt from John Kennedy's Inaugural Address
Presentation: Seeds of the Sixties
Login: to Blackboard and review the Forum One questions on the Class Discussion Board. Post a 150+ word response to one of the questions by Monday, January 30. Click here for suggestions on how to write a better response.
Fri
Aug 28

Webex meeting
Read: Isserman and Kazin, from Ch. 8, pp. 141-144.
Presentation: The Beat Movement
Music: Bob Dylan, "Talking World War III Blues"
Presentation: Dr. Strangelove and the Nuclear Arms Race

Week Three
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Mon
Aug 31

Video: Dr. Strangelove, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Discussion Board Response 1 due
Wed
Sep 2

Read: Isserman and Kazin, Ch. 2 "Black Ordeal, Black Freedom" pp. 21-43.
Read Online: Martin Luther King Jr. "The Power of Nonviolence" ; Anne Moody, "The Jackson Sit-In"
Video: "We Can Change the World"
Fri
Sep 4

Read: Isserman and Kazin from Ch. 5 "Spring: Alabama" pp. 83-89.
Read Online:Martin Luther King Jr. "I Have A Dream"
Listen: Joyce Carol Oates reads Eudora Welty's story "Where Is the Voice Coming From?"
Video: Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech
Presentation: The Civil Rights Movement
Week Four
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Mon
Sep 7

No Class:Labor Day
Wed
Sep 9 		Read: Isserman and Kazin Ch. 9 pp. 163-184.
Read Online:Students for a Democratic Society "The Port Huron Statement" (1962) Young American for Freedom "The Sharon Statement" (1960) Mario Savio's "An End to History" (1964).
Presentation: Port Huron and Sharon Statements
Presentation: Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, and “Protest” Music
Login: to Blackboard and review the Forum Two questions on the Class Discussion Board. Post a 150+ word response to one of the questions by Monday, February 13. Click here for suggestions on how to write a better response.
Fri
Sep 11

Video: "Breaking Boundaries, Testing Limits"

Week Five
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Mon
Sep 14

Read: Isserman and Kazin Ch. 8 pp. 144-162.
Read Online: Joyce Carol Oates's "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been (1966); John Sinclair "Rock and Roll Is a Weapon of Cultural Revolution"
Presentation: Hair: CSNY, the Barbarians and "My Generation"
Discussion Board Response 2 due

Wed
Sep 16

Read Online: Rock Sculley from Living with the Dead; Richard Goldstein "San Francisco Bray" ; Janis Joplin "Love, Janis"
Presentation: Psychedelic Rock Posters
Presentation: The British Invasion and the San Francisco Sound
Videos: Janis Joplin; 1966 Grateful Dead Interview
Fri
Sep 18		 Read Online: Donovan Bess, "LSD: The Acid Test"; Guy Strait "What is a Hippie?"; Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin "Yippie Manifesto" ; Jerry Rubin "Do It" ; Newsweek, "Unstructured Relations" (1966) ; Timothy Leary "Turning On the World"
Week Six
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Mon
Sep 21

Presentation: Sex and the Supreme Court
Wed
Sep 23
Music Presentation: Janis Joplin “Me and Bobby McGee”
Video: Timothy Leary: The Man Who Turned on America
Review for Examination # 1.
Login: to Blackboard and review the Forum Three questions on the Class Discussion Board. Post a 150+ word response to one of the questions by Wednesday, February 25. Click here for suggestions on how to write a better response.
Fri
Sep 25

Video: Star Trek "This Side of Paradise"
Week Seven
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Mon
Sep 28

Examination # 1
Discussion Board Response 3 due
Wed
Sep 30

Read: Isserman and Kazin Ch. 13 "Many Faiths: the 60's Reformation" pp. 237-254.
Read Online: Gary Snyder, "Buddhism and the Coming Revolution"; Malcolm Boyd, "Are You Running With Me Jesus?"; Life magazine "Evolution Revolution in Arkansas"
Presentation: Lonnie Frisbee and the Jesus Movement.
Fri
Oct 2

Presentation: Television in the Sixties
Presentation: The Space Race
Video: "O Dem Watermelons"

Week Eight
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Mon
Oct 5


Read: Isserman and Kazin Ch. 7 "1965" pp. 123-140.
Read Online:Harry Edwards "The Revolt of the Black Athlete" ; Jeremy Larner and David Wolf "Amid Gold Medals"Malcolm X "The Ballot or the Bullet"; Nikki Giovanni "My Poem"; Eldridge Cleaver from Soul on Ice. Eldridge Cleaver "Requiem for Nonviolence"; Amy Ulyematsu "The Emergence of Yellow Power"
Presentation: Race and Ethnicity
Topics and Guidelines for Research Report
Wed
Oct 7

Read Online: Amiri Baraka's Dutchman; Larry Neal "The Black Arts Movement"
Presentation: Imiri Baraka
Video: Amiri Baraka's Dutchman
Login: to Blackboard and review the Forum Four questions on the Class Discussion Board. Post a 150+ word response to one of the questions by Monday, March 9. Click here for suggestions on how to write a better response.
Fri
Oct 9		 Presentation: The Graduate and the New American Cinema
Video: The Graduate (1967)
Week Nine
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Mon
Oct 12

Presentation: Immigration Policy
Presentation: Sports in the Sixties
Discussion Board Response 4 due

Wed
Oct 14		 Read: Isserman and Kazin Ch. 4 "Why Did the United States Fight in Vietnam?" pp. 63-79 and from Ch. 5 "Winter: Ap Bac" pp. 80-831.
Video: “In a Dark Time.”

Fri
Oct 16

 Read Online: Lyndon Johnson "WhyWe Fight in Vietnam" ; Martin Luther King, Jr. "Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam"; Michael Herr from Dispatches; Tim O'Brien "The Man I Killed"
Music Presentation: Buffalo Springfield “For What It’s Worth” Crosby Stills Nash Young “Teach Your Children Well.”
March 20-24
  No Class -- Spring Break
Week Ten
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Mon
Oct 19 

Presentation: Vietnam
Music Presentation: Barry Sadler, “The Ballad of the Green Berets,” Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Fortunate Son,” “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” “Run Through the Jungle.”
Wed
Oct 21		 Read Online: Daniel Berrigan, "Berrigan at Cornell" ; Student-Body Presidents "Vietnam and the Draft" ; New York Times interview of Paul Meadlo "My Lai".
Presentation: Media and Vietnam.
Login: to Blackboard and review the Forum Five questions on the Class Discussion Board. Post a 150+ word response to one of the questions by Monday, March 30. Click here for suggestions on how to write a better response.
Fri
Oct 23

Read Online:Kate Wilhelm "The Village" ; Yusef Komunyakaa poems; Ron Kovic from Born on the Fourth of July.
Music Presentation: Jimi Hendrix, “Star-Spangled Banner”; Country Joe McDonald, “Fixin’ to Die Rag.”
Review for Examination # 2.
Research Guidelines and topics
Week Eleven
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Mon
Oct 26

Examination # 2
Discussion Board Response 5 due
Wed
Oct 28		 Read: Isserman and Kazin Ch. 12 "1968" pp. 218-236.
Read Online: Ronald Fraser "Voices"
Presentation: 1968
Fri
Oct 30		 Read: Isserman and Kazin from Ch. 5 "Summer: You Really Got a Hold on Me" pp. 89-94.
Video: “Picking Up the Pieces.”
Week Twelve
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Mon
Nov 2

Presentation: Music Business and Technology in the 1960s; Richard Brautigan.

Wed
Nov 4

Read Online: Richard Brautigan poems; "The Kool-Aid Wino" ; "Trout Fishing on the Bevel" ; "The Cleveland Wrecking Yard".
Login: to Blackboard and review the Forum Six questions on the Class Discussion Board. Post a 150+ word response to one of the questions by Monday, April 13. Click here for suggestions on how to write a better response.
Fri
Nov 6

Read Online: James Michener "What Did They Expect, Spitballs?" ; Ronald Reagan "Freedom Vs. Anarchy on Campus"
Presentation: Campus Shootings–South Carolina State, Jackson State, and Kent State
Music: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, “Ohio.”

Week Thirteen
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Mon
Nov 9

Read: Isserman and Kazin Ch. 6 "The Rise of the Great Society" pp. 100-122.
Presentation:Feminism in the 1960s
Discussion Board Response 6 due
Wed
Nov 11 		Read Online: Robin Morgan, "Goodbye to All That" ; Radical Women "No More Miss America" ; Betty Friedan from The Feminine Mystique; Gloria Steinem : "A New Egalitarian Life Style" Barbara Susan "An Abortion Testimonial"; Kate Millet from Sexual Politics; Denise Levertov "The Mutes"; Valerie Solanas from SCUM Manifesto
Presentation: 1960s Advertisements
Music: Aretha Franklin, “Respect.”
Fri
Nov 13

Read: Isserman and Kazin Ch. 10 "The Fall of the Great Society" and Ch. 11 "The Conservative Revival" pp. 185-217.
Read Online: Matthew Daller, "Liberalism Overthrown"
Presentation: Art in 1960s
Login: to Blackboard and review the Forum Seven questions on the Class Discussion Board. Post a 150+ word response to one of the questions by Wednesday, April 22. Click here for suggestions on how to write a better response.
Week Fourteen
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Mon
Nov 16 		Read Online: Rachel Carson from Silent Spring; Gary Snyder "Smokey the Bear Sutra"; Edward Abbey "The Serpents of Paradise"; Richard Bruatigan "All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace"
Presentation: Regulations and Environmentalism
Research paper due.
Research Guidelines and topics
Wed
Nov 18		 Read: Isserman and Kazin Ch. 14 "No Cease-Fire:1969-1974" pp. 255-289.
Read online: Lucian Truscott "Gay Power Comes to Sheridan Square" ; John D'Emilio "Placing Gay in the Sixties"
Presentation: Gay Liberation
Login: to Blackboard and review the Forum Six questions on the Class Discussion Board. Post a 150+ word response to one of the questions by Monday, April 30 . Click here for suggestions on how to write a better response.
Discussion Board Response 7 due
Fri
Nov 20		 Read: Isserman and Kazin "Conclusion" pp. 291-300.
Read Online:Michael Lydon "The Rolling Stones–At Play in the Apocalypse"
Video: Easy Rider (1969)
Week Fifteen
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Mon
Nov 23 
 Video: “Legacies of the Sixties”
Review for final
Mon
May 2 		Review for fin
Finals Week

Fri
Dec 4

Final Examination
10-30-12-30

Grade Computation

   
each
total
  
Reading Quizzes (unannounced)
5 pts. @
50 points.
  

Discussion Board Responses
10 points @
50 points

Examinations # 1 and # 2
100 points @
200 points

Research report (500-750 words)

100 points

Final Examination

100 points

500 points

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updated: July 24, 2020