Module Identifier AS30120  
Module Title AMERICA IN THE SIXTIES  
Academic Year 2003/2004  
Co-ordinator Dr Helena Grice  
Semester Semester 1  
Other staff Mrs Carol M Marshall  
Pre-Requisite AS10120 , AS10220  
Co-Requisite AS30020 , AS30220  
Course delivery Seminars / Tutorials   20 Hours 10 x 2 hr  
Assessment
Assessment TypeAssessment Length/DetailsProportion
Semester Exam2 Hours  50%
Semester Assessment Essay: 1 x 2,500 word essay50%

Learning outcomes

At the end of the module, students will be able to:

- Articulate an informed understanding of the key events of this period and their influence on the contemporary USA
- Write about the period and culture in a well-structured and well-argued way
- Illustrate their knowledge and views using a variety of examples from the range of disciplines covered during the course
- Demonstrate assured skill in critical analysis
- Demonstrate developing skills in oral presentation

Brief description

This module focuses on black protest, the contra-culture and the youth revolt of the 1960s. However, it starts by examining the figure of John F Kennedy, whose presidency in some ways set the tone for the decade, but whose style of politics became a focus for many of the protest movements of the next few years.

Content

Seminar Content

1. Introduction and Overview
2. The ?New Frontier?
3. Lyndon Johnson?s ?Great Society?
4. The New Left and Student Protest
5. From ?Brown vs. Board of Education? to Selma: The Civil Rights Movement
6. From Civil Rights
7. Origins of Modern Feminism
8. The Counterculture I
9. The Counterculture II
10. The Anti-War Movement, Crises in the Left, and the Conservative Backlash

Required Reading
James Baldwin, Blues for Mister Charlie
Alexander Bloom and Wini Breines, eds., Takin? It to the Streets: A Sixties Reader
Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo?s Nest
David Steigerwald, The Sixties and the End of Modern America

Required Viewing
Easy Rider (Dir. Denis Hopper, 1969)

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6