1. Sept 13: Culture, values, stereotypes. Definitions and the American context
2. Sept 20-27, Oct 4 : Definitions and the American context
• Readings
1. Captain John Smith, A Description of New England, 1616
2. John Hammond on the British colonies of Virginia and Maryland, 1656
3. J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur. Letters From An American Farmer, 1782
4. FJ Turner, The Significance of the Frontier in American History, 1893
• Documents shown in class: quotes on ppt.
3. Oct 11: American exceptionalism, Americanism
• Readings
1. Two encyclopedia articles about exceptionalism. I and II
2. Michael Kammen, People of Paradox (1972). Introduction and last chapter.
3. James Monroe, “The Monroe Doctrine” (1823)
4. John L. O'Sullivan, “The Great Nation of Futurity” (1839)
5. Henry David Thoreau, “Walking” (1862)
6. Francis Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925), end of the novel.
7. Paintings celebrating “Manifest Destiny” : Thomas Cole, View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm or The Oxbow (1836), Emanuel Leutze, Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way (1861), Frances Palmer, Across the Continent, Westward the Course of Empire takes its way (1868), John Gast, American Progress (1872).
• Documents shown in class: quotes on ppt.
4. Oct 18: Freedoms
• Readings
1. Daniel T. Rodgers, Contested Truths. Keywords in American Politics Since Independence, Harvard UP, 1987. Prologue and Epilogue.
2. Reference work: Alexis de Tocqueville, De la démocratie en Amérique. Vol. 1 (1835) et vol. 2 (1840).
• Documents shown in class: quotes on ppt.
5. Nov 8: Freedoms.
• Readings
1. on Immigration
2. on Tocqueville
3. Emma Lazarus' poem on the Statue of Liberty.
4. Andrew Carnegie, “Wealth”, North American Review, June 1889.
5. William Graham Sumner, “The Rich are good-natured”, 1883, The Forgotten Man, ca. 1916, and Survival of the fittest, 1914.
6. Norman Rockwell, The Four Freedoms, 1941.
6. Nov 15: Freeedoms.
• Readings
1. Randolph Bourne, “Trans-National America,” The Atlantic Monthly, July 1916.
2. Meyer v. Nebraska, 1923 (“The desire of the legislature to foster a homogeneous people with American ideals prepared readily to understand current discussions of civic matters is easy to appreciate. Unfortunate experiences during the late war and aversion toward every characteristic of truculent adversaries were certainly enough to quicken that aspiration. But the means adopted, we think, exceed the limitations upon the power of the State and conflict with rights assured to plaintiff in error. The interference is plain enough, and no adequate reason therefore in time of peace and domestic tranquility has been shown.”)  One of the first cases where the SC stated that people had liberty rights not specifically listed in the Constitution (see Amendment IX for basis). See also Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), Lawrence v. Texas (2003), and other privacy decisions.
3. A present-day First Amendement issue: A Kansas Baptist Church pickets dead soldiers funerals.
4. Eric Foner, “We the People” (excerpt from The Story of American Freedom, 1998).
5. The Sharon Statement, September 11, 1960 (Young Americans For Freedom).
6. Barry Goldwater's Acceptance Speech, 1964.
7. Nov 22 & 29 : Memory, commemorations and civil religion.
• Readings
1. David Thelen, “Memory and American History”, 1989.
2. Barry Schwartz and Howard Schuman, “History, Commemoration, and Belief: Abraham Lincoln in American Memory, 1945-2001”, 2005.
3. John Bodnar, “Generational Memory in an American Town”, 1996.
4. Powerpoint “monuments”
8. Nov 29 & Dec 6 : Culture and the State.
• Michael Kammen, “Monuments, Memorials, and Americanism,” from Visual Schock (Knopf, 2006). Part 1 & part 2.
• Michael Kammen, “Culture and the State in America,” from In the Past Lane (OUP, 1997)
9. Dec 13:  Final Exam (written, 2h)