Carl Guarneri
History 138: The Emergence of Modern American Culture, 1870-Present
1. Teaching Narrative for American Diversity
History 138 uses “culture,” among the broadest and most inclusive concepts in the
historical and social-science vocabulary, as a way to encompass three tasks: 1) Analyze the
cultural values, behaviors, and expressions of diverse social groups historically in the U.S., 2)
Consider how these values and behaviors have shaped individual and group identity and how
they relate to dominant or mainstream ways, both by reflecting social norms and contesting or
changing them, and 3) Examine the changing overall configuration of national culture as
Americans moved from Victorian, hierarchical, and assimilationist norms toward more open,
egalitarian and diverse ways of framing social identities. The entire course thus hinges upon the
exploration of the nature and dynamics of American diversity.
Learning Outcome #1 of the American Diversity learning goal is to “analyze aspects
of social diversity (e.g., ethnicity, race, socio-economic status, gender, sexual orientation,
religion, age, ability, and political identity) and how they affect society in the United States of
America.” This course uses a large selection of historical essays and documentary sources to
examine themes integrally related to social identity, such as race, class, region, ethnicity, gender,
and religion. Students examine how such cultural categories were formed, how they related to
concurrent political, social, and economic developments, and how they influenced and changed
(or failed to change) ordinary Americans’ attitudes and behavior over time. As the course
syllabus indicates, individual topics are selected from a sequence of periods that covers the regional,
racial, ethnic, religious, and class configuration of American society prior to World War I and the
impact of immigration, technology, mass culture, religious trends, and global connections as they
disrupted and diversified traditional American culture.
Learning Outcome #2 of the American Diversity learning goal is to “explain how
social categories and structures of power may affect the human person.” Built into the syllabus,
and a frequent topic for class discussion, is the fundamental dialectic between culture as a
reflection of (and often a means of reproducing) existing society and as an agent of social
change. We explore the workings of social categories such as race, ethnicity, region, religion,
and class upon individuals by intensively examining rich autobiographical sources (e.g., Booker
T. Washington’s autobiography, oral histories by second-generation immigrants, “motion-picture
autobiographies” by teen moviegoers of the 1920s, ordinary Americans’ reminiscences of the
Great Depression, interviews with youth activists of the 1960s). These sources, supplemented by
historical works of social analysis and criticism, invite students to assess the ways that such
social categories affect individuals, the ways such categories intersect to form complex situations
and identities, and the possibilities of changing the content of such categories or reaching across
them to others. Cultural analysis can illuminate “how structures of power affect the human
person” through concepts of social class and individual mobility, the workings of political
culture, racial and ethnic hierarchies, patriarchy, gender “normativity,” and ideological
hegemony. These concepts channel political and economic power and social authority into norms
and values that influence individuals’ lives in profound ways, and by wrestling with them or
nestling inside them people shape the meaning of their lives. All of these concepts, and others
like them, are central to our course readings and discussions.
2. Learning Narrative for American Diversity
In History 138, the readings, class discussions, and writing assignments are directed
toward interrogating primary and secondary sources in order to learn some of the fundamentals
of historical method: discussing the value of the concept of “culture” in doing history, examining
ideas and behavior within their historical context, identifying the origins and impact of cultural
and social change, generating and evaluating historical arguments, and analyzing the influence of
such socio-cultural categories as race, class, region, religion, and gender on the past. Topics and
readings are selected to sample a range of methodological skills, such as decoding visual sources
(suburban house designs, advertisements, modernist paintings), finding connections between
ideas and society (How did Booker T. Washington’s racial philosophy stem from his experience
under Jim Crow laws?), assessing conflicting interpretations (Does the American “success ethic”
reflect fantasy or reality? Did the Great Depression turn Americans radical or conservative?), and
analyzing the origins and impact of cultural change (Where did the Religious Right come from?
How have ideas about women’s “proper role” affected Americans’ behavior?)
Student learning in each of the core outcomes of American Diversity will be assessed
through a variety of tools in History 138. The course’s two exams consist of two parts. The first
part asks students to identify, describe, and relate the significance of key events, concepts, or
people in U.S. cultural history. These identification terms are chosen to reflect the social
diversity of the narratives we listen attentively to in the course, whether those narratives come
from African-American leaders, immigrant children, feminist writers, religious fundamentalists,
or writers of self-help books. By relating each term to its period and discussing its significance
for a major cultural issue or question of that era, these questions are designed to assess the shared
cultural and social dimension that is stressed in Learning Outcome #1 of the American Diversity
learning goal. The second part of each exam is an essay question that asks students to construct
a coherent and persuasive historical interpretation of a cultural product, event or trend. Examples
have included examining the shifting definitions of Americans regions over time, especially the
South and West, and their place in various narratives of American identity; assessing immigrant life
stories in light of various theories of ethnic identity and intergenerational dynamics; analyzing the
influence of nature or nurture in the feminist view of Charlotte Perkins Gilman; using the Scopes
Trial to illuminate cultural conflicts of the 1920s, and explaining the emergence and the nature of
the 1960s youth movement. Essays like these are addressed to Learning Outcomes #1 and 2 of
the American Diversity learning goal.
The three papers required in History 138 (see syllabus) ask students to use document sets
(and in Paper #3, historical writings) to develop and/or evaluate historical interpretations of
important concepts and trends in U.S. social and cultural history such as the influence of the
work ethic, racial divisions in the American South, the impact of the Great Depression, and the
rise of the Religious Right. By linking the broader analysis of cultural history with the
experiences of a wide range of individuals these assignments are intended to assess Learning
Outcomes #1 and #2 of the American Diversity learning goal.
Requirements for participation are stringent (see syllabus) and student participation is
carefully monitored. The class discussion component of the course grade, which includes
quizzes, encompasses all four learning objectives, alternating among them according to the topic
of the day.