This is a non-lecture course I teach for the American Studies Program, and consequently it has an AMS prefix. This course operates as a discussion course in which we discuss a book (usually heavily abridged) once a week. There are no lectures and no exams. It is primarily an undergraduate course, but with all of the benefits of a graduate seminar. Its focus is on how and why the American studies movement developed, and what intellectual crises it has faced. We read a sampling of the classic American studies texts (myth-symbol and American character) and then survey the newer approaches to American studies. This course provides an example of the intellectual journey that most fields in the humanities have made in the 20th century.

Syllabus for Evolution of the American Studies Movement