| In this course we will examine
the beginnings and early trajectory of what was seen as an extraordinary
experiment in 1789: the United States of America. While its high-minded
rhetoric and ideals have left a legacy well beyond that year and even its
own national borders, it has also proven to be a nation vexed by contradictions.
A country which proudly recalls its Puritan predecessors’ determination
to root the society in religious and moral principles has also been criticized
as lauding the headlong pursuit of materialism above all else. A
nation which has prided itself on being a multiethnic melting pot has also
been bedeviled with racism throughout its history. America is also
peculiar in its newness. Lacking a lengthy cultural heritage, Americans
were faced with the fascinating task of discovering who they were.
Germans had a mythical Teutonic past which they heralded, the French harkened
to their Gaulic ancestry, and so on. Besides covering the above topics,
then, we will also review how Americans had to create their own identity
in the land that all but the American Indians came to fill. |