Popular Culture in the US

This course will explore US history since 1915 through the lens of music, film, and television. The course will examine how our culture both reflect and challenge ideas about race, class, gender, sexual morality, and US politics. Students will explore the role of culture in shaping social movements and public opinion, how technology has shaped how Americans consume culture, and the effects of mass culture and subculture on American society and politics. Units include: rise of mass culture through film and radio in the 1920s, cultural responses to the Great Depression, the rise of television and post-World War II mass culture, the Cold War in American culture, the rise of subcultures in the 1960s and 1970s, and how the development of new technology is shaping how Americans consume culture today. Assessments include source analyses, critical reading of cultural sources as primary sources, and an essay on a topic of each student’s choosing that synthesizes multiple cultural sources to foster a deeper understanding of the impact of popular culture in the United States.