The 20th century has been labeled as "the American century," while the beginning of the 21st is identified as a time of decline for the United States. Is American governance still functioning within and what weight does the United States carry on a global level? The course provides an analysis of the emergence of the country as a world power throughout the 20th century, up to the presidency of Obama, within the framework of the new methodological approach of transnational history. The exceptionalist model no longer applies and American history is in need of revision. Students will therefore deal with the major issues of domestic policy while analyzing the new role the United States has come to play in the past few decades globally. The goal of the course is to provide students both with a general methodology for the study of the United States in a global sphere and an understanding of American politics and society in the past century.
scheda docente materiale didattico
Course Objectives: The course aims at providing students with a critical thinking on the United States in the last hundred years and of the contemporary world as seen from the American perspective. International studies today entail a good understanding of American culture and history: both because of the nation’s role worldwide and because the new methodologies in cultural and transnational studies developed in the United States, especially in the second half of the 20th century. Therefore, by the end of the course, students will be knowledgeable about the major aspects of U.S. history in the last 150 years both at the domestic and international level. Moreover, they will acquire an understanding of the major methodologies used by American scholars to study their country in transnational and international perspective.
Robert W. Rydell and Rob Kroes, Buffalo Bill in Bologna: The Americanization of the World, 1869-1922, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005). Available online in the University Discovery Web pages.
Salim Yaqub, Winds of Hope, Storms of Discord. The United States since 1945, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2022.
Daniel Rogers, "Improvising the New Deal" in Franklin D. Roosevelt: Road to the New Deal, 1882-1939, University of Illinois Press, 2015, pp. 131-157. Available online in the University Discovery Web pages.
Wendy Wall, The New Deal, Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of American History, 2016. Open access in the Web
The Constitution of the United States of America.
Programma
This course intends to offer students an insight into American history and culture both from the international and transnational perspectives. The role played by the United States in international affairs in the 20th century is such that scholars have come to label the intervening period between the Spanish-American War and the end of the Cold War, the American Century. Actually, the US still plays a major role in international relations, despite the crisis started in the 1970s, while its position and interaction with the rest of the world was already prominent in the 19th century. US history, like the history of other countries, was forged by the country’s interaction with other parts of the world and by the inevitable transnational connections with other nations. The course therefore offers an interpretation of American history in a transnational perspective while familiarizing the students with some of the major historians of the past century and with the more recent historiography, methodology and critical analyses of American history. At the same time, it provides critical readings of the current socio-political framework of the country while tackling some of the most debated issues of the day.Course Objectives: The course aims at providing students with a critical thinking on the United States in the last hundred years and of the contemporary world as seen from the American perspective. International studies today entail a good understanding of American culture and history: both because of the nation’s role worldwide and because the new methodologies in cultural and transnational studies developed in the United States, especially in the second half of the 20th century. Therefore, by the end of the course, students will be knowledgeable about the major aspects of U.S. history in the last 150 years both at the domestic and international level. Moreover, they will acquire an understanding of the major methodologies used by American scholars to study their country in transnational and international perspective.
Testi Adottati
Preliminary and Introductory reading : David Leonhardt, “Democracy Challenged. ‘A Crisis Coming’: The Twin Threats to American Democracy,” The New York Times, Published Sept. 17, 2022 – Updated June 21, 2023. Students can access the article through the University account at this link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/17/us/american-democracy-threats.htmlRobert W. Rydell and Rob Kroes, Buffalo Bill in Bologna: The Americanization of the World, 1869-1922, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005). Available online in the University Discovery Web pages.
Salim Yaqub, Winds of Hope, Storms of Discord. The United States since 1945, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2022.
Daniel Rogers, "Improvising the New Deal" in Franklin D. Roosevelt: Road to the New Deal, 1882-1939, University of Illinois Press, 2015, pp. 131-157. Available online in the University Discovery Web pages.
Wendy Wall, The New Deal, Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of American History, 2016. Open access in the Web
The Constitution of the United States of America.
Bibliografia Di Riferimento
For the in class discussion and presentations, students can choose one among the following seven essays or pairs: Daniel Bessner and Fredrick Logeval, “Recentering the United States in the Historiography of American Foreign Relations,” Texas National Security Review: Volume 3, Issue 2 (Spring 2020): 39-55. Open access; + “A Roundtable on Daniel Bessner and Fredrik Logevall, “Recentering the United States in the Historiography of American Foreign Relations.” Passport: The SHAFR Review, Sept. 2020, 39. Open access. Jamille Bigio and Rachel Vogelstein, Understanding Gender Equality in Foreign Policy: What the United States Can Do. A Policy Paper of the Council on Foreign Relations. 2020. https://www.cfr.org/report/understanding-gender-equality-foreign-policy Ian Bremmer, “The Technopolar Moment. How Digital Powers Will Reshape the Global Order,” Foreign Affairs, (November/December 2021). Available in the university Discovery Digital Library. Parag Khanna, “Great Protocol Politics. The 21st century doesn’t belong to China, the United States, or Silicon Valley. It belongs to the internet.” Foreign Policy (December 2021). https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/12/11/bitcoin-ethereum-cryptocurrency-web3-great-protocol-politics/# Petra Goedde, “Power, Culture, and the Rise of Transnational History in the United States,” The International History Review (2017) https://doi.org/10.1080/07075332.2017.1284142 + Matthew Connelly, “The Next Thirty Years of International Relations Research New Topics, New Methods, and the Challenge of Big Data,” IRICE | « Les cahiers Irice » 2015/2 n° 14: 85-97. Open access Joseph R. Nye Jr., “What is a Moral Foreign Policy?” Texas National Security Review: Volume 3, Issue 1 (Winter 2019/2020). Open access + “A Roundtable on Joseph S. Nye, Jr. Do Morals Matter?: Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump”, Passport: The SHAFR Review, Sept. 2020, 13. Open access Richard Slotkin, "Thinking Mythologically: Black Hawk Down, the “Platoon Movie,” and the War of Choice in Iraq," in European Journal of American Studies, 12, 2 (2017). Available online at: https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/11873 Graeme A. Thompson, “Applying Global History: Globalization, Geopolitics, and the U.S.–China Rivalry after Covid-19,” Journal of Applied History (2021): 1–23. Open accessModalità Erogazione
Lectures, projections, library work, research hands on, critical in class discussion of the assigned readings. Periodically, class discussion is held on newly puslished articles or short essays that the professor will indicate. The presentations and ensuing class discussion concentrate on the essays indicated in the required readings section. Access to this material can be either obtained through the online subscriptions of our university or through the electronic resources offered by the Centro Studi Americani. In the second week of class, the professor will explain how to prepare for the presentations, which will take place toward the end of the course. The final research paper is a take home exam based on original documents relating to American history and politics. The professor will provide information and material after the mid-term. Papers will be due two weeks after the end of classes.Modalità Frequenza
frequenza obbligatoriaModalità Valutazione
Attendance and participation (20%); mid-term written test (25%); in class oral presentation (25%); final research paper (30%). The mid-term consists of IDs and short essays based on the lectures, the first assigned essay, and the articles indicated in the required readings section. The presentations and ensuing class discussion concentrate on the essays indicated in the required readings section. ATTENDANCE POLICY : Attendance is mandatory for all classes. If a student misses more than three classes during the semester, 2 percentage points will be deducted from the final grade for every additional absence. Any exams, tests, presentations, or other work missed due to student absences can only be rescheduled in cases of documented medical or personal emergencies.