Undergraduate Course: The United States in the 1960s (HIST10103)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The course examines major aspects of politics and society in the United States during the 1960s. As a unifying theme, it investigates the nature of political liberalism in the United States, analyzing the goals and achievements of liberal politicians. The course also examines a series of liberal and radical challenges to 'consensus liberalism'. |
| Course description |
In examining major aspects of the 1960s in the United States, the course concentrates on the nature of American political liberalism during this period. It analyses the goals and achievements of liberalism politicians, together with a series of liberal and radical challenges to consensus liberalism. In seeking to understand the change that the United States experienced during this period and its consequences, the course's coverage sometimes includes developments that both precede and follow the decade itself. The topics discussed in the course include: the concept of 'consensus liberalism' and the decline of the liberal consensus; John F. Kennedy and the New Frontier; Lyndon B. Johnson and the Great Society; the civil rights movement; Black Power; student movements and the New Left; the counterculture; second-wave feminism; the emergence of the Vietnam-era antiwar movement.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | Students MUST NOT also be taking
The American Civil Rights Movement (HIST10155)
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Other requirements | A pass or passes in 40 credits of first level historical courses or equivalent and a pass or passes in 40 credits of second level historical courses or equivalent.
Before enrolling students on this course, Personal Tutors are asked to contact the History Honours Admission Secretary to ensure that a place is available (Tel: 503780). |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should usually have at least 3 History courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this) for entry to this course. We will only consider University/College level courses. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, command of the body of knowledge considered in the course;
- Demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, an ability to read, analyse and reflect critically upon relevant scholarship;
- Demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, an ability to understand, evaluate and utilise a variety of primary source material;
- Demonstrate, by way of coursework and examination as required, the ability to develop and sustain scholarly arguments in oral and written form, by formulating appropriate questions and utilising relevant evidence;
- Demonstrate independence of mind and initiative; intellectual integrity and maturity; an ability to evaluate the work of others, including peers.
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Reading List
John Morton Blum, Years of Discord: American Politics and Society, 1961-1974 (New York: Norton, 1991)
David Burner, Making Peace with the 60s (1996; Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998)
David M. Chalmers, And the Crooked Places Made Straight: The Struggle for Social Change in the 1960s, 2nd ed. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996)
David R. Farber, The Age of Great Dreams: America in the 1960s (New York: Hill and Wang, 1994)
Klaus P. Fischer, America in White, Black, and Gray: The Stormy 1960s (New York: Continuum, 2006)
Maurice Isserman and Michael Kazin, America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000)
Mark H. Lytle, America¿s Uncivil Wars: The Sixties Era from Elvis to the Fall of Richard Nixon (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006)
Allen J. Matusow, The Unraveling of America: A History of Liberalism in the 1960s (New York: Harper & Row, 1984)
William L. O¿Neill, Coming Apart: An Informal History of America in the 1960¿s (Chicago: Quadrangle, 1971)
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | US in 1960s |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Robert Mason
Tel: (0131 6)50 3770
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Alexandra Adam
Tel: (0131 6)50 3767
Email: |
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