Course Description
Economic, social, cultural, and political developments in the South since Reconstruction.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Research paper.
Athena Title
SOUTH SINCE 1877
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This course introduces students to the major themes and issues that have shaped the American South from the late nineteenth century through the twentieth century. Emphasis is placed on race relations -- from segregation and racial violence through the civil rights movement -- and on economic and cultural developments -- from regional stagnation to post-World War II diversification and expansion. A 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
"Lost Cause" Ideology and Civil War Legacy Segregation and Disfranchisement Populist Movement Lynching and Race Riots Southern Progressivism Jim Crow South The Mind of the South: Southern Renaissance Impact of World War II on the South Emergence of the Sunbelt Civil Rights Movement The Carter Presidency and the Southernization of American Politics