Race, Culture and the Cold War
HIST 355
Spring 2007 not offered
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| Crosslisting:
AFAM 355 |
This course explores culture as an instrument of global diplomacy and its dramatic transformation of superpower relations in the Cold War era. During the Cold War, the dual problems of race and culture in America had to be addressed in an international context as culture helped reshape the image of American democracy worldwide. Students will examine the intersection of these dynamics in American relations with the Soviet Union and other regions of the world from 1945 to the 1990s. This approach to diplomacy underscores the centrality of Western intellectual forces in diminishing the credibility and appeal of Soviet communism in the Eastern bloc. Accordingly, students will look at how the appropriation of American cultural products dramatically eased U.S.-Soviet political tensions in the midst of such critical Cold War events as the Little Rock crisis, the dispute over the Berlin Wall, the Cuban missile crisis, American intervention in Vietnam, decolonization in Africa, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and the fall of the Soviet Union. Students will become familiar with these issues by examining primary sources that will include not only critical documents of U.S. Cold War diplomacy but also major cultural products like musical theater, movies, and jazz that emanated from the United States, the former Soviet Union, and other regions of the world. |
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Essential Capabilities:
Writing |
| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS HIST |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: None |
Major Readings:
Borstelmann, Thomas. THE COLD WAR AND THE COLOR LINE: AMERICAN ACE RELATIONS IN THE GLOBAL ARENA (Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England: Harvard University Press, 2001).
Caute, David. THE DANCER DEFECTS: THE STRUGGLE FOR CULTURAL SUPREMACY DURING THE COLE WAR (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).
Dudziak, Mary L. COLD WAR CIVIL RIGHTS: RACE AND THE IMAGE OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2000.
Hixson, Walter L. PARTING THE CURTAIN: PROPAGANDA, CULTURE, AND THE COLD WAR, 1945-1961 (New York: St. Martin¿s Press, 1997.
Iriye, Akira. CULTURAL INTERNATIONALISM AND WORLD ORDER (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997)
LaFeber, Walter. AMERICA, RUSSIA, AND THE COLD WAR, 1945-2002. New York: McGraw Hill, Inc., 2003.
Nye, Jr. Joseph S. SOFT POWER: THE MEANS TO SUCCESS IN WORLD POLITICS (New York: Public Affairs, 2004).
Plummer, Brenda Gayle, ed. WINDOW ON FREEDOM (Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 2003).
Wagnleitner, Reinhold, and Elaine Tyler May, eds., HERE, THERE, AND EVERYWHERE: THE FOREIGN POLITICS OF AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 2000).
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Examinations and Assignments:
2 five page papers, final research paper, 10-15 pgs, presentation, class participation. |
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