History 693G: American Beauty: Music, Culture, and Society, 1945-95

Rob Weir

Fall 2007, Weds. 4:00 - 6:30

Synopsis:

This course is a readings seminar that will examine the intersection of American culture, society, and politics from 1950 to 1995. It is designed to help students construct a model for teaching and/or researching the period through the use of popular culture as expressed and consumed by various audiences, theorists, and scholars. The popular rock band The Grateful Dead will be used frequently as a microcosmic example through which broader patterns can be illumined.

This course will pay special attention to those individuals and movements that, at least initially, were viewed as outside the cultural mainstream. It will explore the essential tensions within ideals that challenged—even altered--the status quo yet did so within a capitalist ethos that paradoxically reinforced hegemonic structures which cultural rebels sought to overthrow.

Enrollees should plan to attend a special tie-in symposium The Grateful Dead and American Culture which takes place the weekend of November 16-17, 2007.

Syllabus: Not available

Course Website: Not available