Course Description
Using fiction and film as well as traditional texts, the history of working-class women and men in the United States. The emphasis will be on the everyday lives of the laborers--what they did at work and at home, in the union hall, and on the picket line.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Additional research and or paper(s) are normally required for graduate level coursework.
Athena Title
WORKING CLASS AMER
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
The goal of the class is to convey a sense of the diversity of experience of American laborers: what it meant to be a worker or a member of a working-class family at different times and in different places. At the same time, we will also examine the "production" of history; in other words, we want to look at how what we see and hear about American workers is constructed by film-makers, artists, musicians, and writers. The principal objective of the course is to teach students to think critically for themselves about the relationships between the past and the present, to learn to ask questions of the past that enable them to understand the present and mold the future, and to become attuned to both the limitations and possibilities of change. The course seeks to acquaint students with the ways in which past societies and peoples have defined the relationships between community and individual needs and goals, and between ethical norms and decision-making. In general students will be expected to: 1. read a wide range of primary and secondary sources critically. 2. polish skills in critical thinking, including the ability to recognize the difference between opinion and evidence, and the ability to evaluate--and support or refute--arguments effectively. 3. write stylistically appropriate and mature papers and essays using processes that include discovering ideas and evidence, organizing that material, and revising, editing, and polishing the finished papers.
Topical Outline
Here are the assigned books and a course outline from a previous installation of this class. The readings and films will change every semester, but the information below still provides a glimpse of what we will do in Working Class America. Bryant Simon Course Schedule: Week One: -- Introduction to Film and Labor History 9/15 -- Course Introduction -- Go Over the Syllabus 9/16 -- What is History? 9/17 -- Reading Day -- Read Sinclair, The Jungle 9/18 -- Film and History Reading: Rosenstone, "Like Writing History Like Lightening" (CP) 9/19 -- Film Workshop -- Watch Paterson in Class Week Two: -- Industrialization and the American Working Class 9/22 -- Film and History Workshop -- Watch 1877: Grand Army of Starvation 9/23 -- Overview of American Industrialization 9/24 -- Immigration and the Formation of the American Working-Class 9/25 -- Reading Day 9/26 -- Reading Day -- Finish Sinclair, The Jungle Week Three: -- Shop Floor Lives (View Modern Times) 9/29 -- Discuss The Jungle *MEMO IDEA* Imagine that you are making a film of the Jungle? How would you film the opening scene? Literally what would be the first thing that the viewer sees or hears? Remember film is a multi-dimensional medium. (Note opening scenes are crucial. They often set the tone for the whole film.) 9/30 -- Set up Modern Times: Scientific Management Reading: B & L, 318-23. 10/1 -- Set up Modern Times: Fordism Reading: B & L, 333-44. 10/2 -- Film Lab -- Begin reading BELL!!!! 10/3 -- Film Lab Week Four: Union Building -- A Difficult Task (View Matewan) 10/6 -- Discuss Modern Times *MEMO IDEA* Think about how the film portrays the relationships between science and labor, and workers and management? Is this a pro-labor film? If so, how? What are the politics of this film? 10/7 -- What is a Union? What does it do? Reading: B & L, 231-32, 234-35, 236-39. 10/8 -- Why Strike? 10/9 -- Film Lab -- Read BELL!!!! 10/10 -- Discussion of Matewan -- Why the Union Failed? Readings: Brier, "A History Film Without Much History" (CP) Sayles, "Thinking in Pictures" (CP) Week Five: -- There is Power in the Union: The Growth American Unions -- (View Salt of the Earth) 10/13 -- Unions, 1919-1935 Reading: B & L, 236-39 10/14 -- Unions, 1935-1950 Reading: Wehrle, "Labor Comes Into is Own" (CP) B & L, 362-69, 415-23, 428-49 10/15 -- Discuss Bell No memo, but think about what roles that work, family, and the union play in the lives of each generation in Out of This Furnace. How is the book structured? Do you think the generational approach is a useful one to understanding the past? If so, why? If not, why not? 10/16 -- Film Lab 10/17 -- Discuss Salt of the Earth Readings: NYT 15 March 1954; 1 February 1980 (CP) Miller, "Salt of the Earth Revisited" (CP) *MEMO IDEA* Compare the results of the strike in Matewan with the one portrayed in Salt of the Earth. How do the trade unionists in Salt of the Earth win their strike? What makes a strike successful? What role do the family members of strikers play in strikes? Can you have a successful strike without community involvement? Also how do these films deal with gender and race. Week Six: -- The Union and Power: Postwar Labor History (On the Waterfront) 10/20 -- The American Standard of Living: Postwar Working-Class History Readings: B & L, 423-28 10/21 -- Union Corruption? Much to do About What? Readings: Raskin, "Why they Cheer for Hoffa?" (CP) PROPOSAL FOR FINAL PROJECT DUE 10/22 -- Film Lab -- START READING HAMPER, RIVETHEAD 10/23 -- Film Lab 10/24 -- Discuss On the Waterfront *MEMO IDEA* Read Biskind. Is On the Waterfront about labor or McCartyism or both? Explain. What does it say about the relationship between workers and their unions? What is the relationship between corruption and unions? Why is this an attractive subject to film-makers? Readings: Biskind, "The Politics of Power in On the Waterfront" (CP) B & L, 497-99, 506-10 Week Seven -- The Southern Story (Norma Rae) 10/27 -- Is the South different from the rest of the country? Reading: Simon, "Why Are There So Few Unions in the South?" (CP) 10/28 --"Uprising of ‘34" Reading: Hall, Korstad, and Leloudis, "Cotton Mill People" (CP) 10/29 -- Film Lab -- Read Hamper, Rivethead 10/30 -- Film Lab 10/31 -- Discuss Norma Rae Readings: Goldfarb and Iiyashov, "Working-Class Hero" (CP) *MEMO IDEA* How is the South portrayed in the film? How are southern attitudes towards unions depicted? Why does the union succeed in Norma Rae? How does this film relate to your own experiences? If you are southern were you raised to be suspicious of unions? If you grew up outside the South were you raised to be suspicious of the South? Week Eight -- Representations of Race and Class in Postwar America (View Blue Collar) -- Note -- This week we will watch the film on Tuesday night at the screening room on the seventh floor of the library. 11/3 -- The American Dream? 11/4 -- Blue Collar Blues -- Discuss Rivethead 11/5 -- Discuss Blue Collar *MEMO IDEA* How does class shape the relationships in the film? How does race shape the relationships in the film? Which one is more important? Race or class? Can these two things be separated? 11/6 -- Film Lab 11/7 -- Film Lab Week Eight: -- Women at Work (View 9 to 5) 11/10 -- A History of Women at Work 11/11 -- Gender Issue at Work: Women’s Work Culture Reading: B & L, 258-73, 546-53, 567-78, 11/12 -- Pink Collar and Homework 11/13 -- Film Lab 11/14 -- Discuss 9 to 5 Reading: NYT, 12/19/80 (CP) *MEMO IDEA* Think about the ending of the film. What does this say about the issues of gender and work raised by the story? Does this cut against the grain of the rest of the film? Week Ten: -- De-Industrialization (American Dream) 11/17 -- Archie Bunker and Working-Class Conservatism 11/18 -- Bruce Springsteen and Rust Belt America Reading: Lyrics to "My Hometown" and "Youngstown" (CP) B & L, 587-90, 594-96, 648-51 11/19 -- Roger and Me 11/20 -- Film Lab 11/21 -- Discuss American Dream Reading: Gary Crowdus and Richard Porton, "American Dream: An Interview with Barbara Kopple" (CP) Roger Horowitz, Review of American Dream, AHR, (CP) *MEMO IDEA* -- What is the American Dream? Which way for organized labor? What is the future of organized labor in America? Should it have a future? Have unions outlived their usefulness? Why? Why not?
Syllabus