| Eötvös Loránd University | Prof. Tibor Frank |
| Spring 2003 | Office: Ajtósi Dürer sor #201 |
| American Studies AM-605 | Hours: Tu 12:30-1:30 p.m. |
| F 2:00-3:30 p.m. | F 3:30-4:00 p.m. |
| Ajtósi Dürer sor #238 | Phone: 460-4416 |
A Comparative Approach - Transatlantic Studies II
Course Syllabus
The seminar surveys the growth of the U.S. as a nation and the development of a multicultural society. Assessing the changes in the social composition of the United States, the course studies "races," immigrants, hyphenated Americans, religious groups, considered in sociological, psychological, economic, and cultural terms, demonstrating their contribution to American success and failure. Theories of the composition of American society such as the 'melting pot,' the 'mosaic,' the 'salad bowl' will be reconsidered on the basis of contemporary sociological investigations. The rise of a single national consciousness will be contrasted to the maintenance of ethnic pluralism. The course will focus on the symptoms and patterns of a new American nationalism developing since "9/11."
| Week I | Introduction: The Cultural Landscape--Ethnicity, Religion and Language in Europe and the U.S. |
| Week II | The Human Geography of Ethnic Interactions: Borders, Frontiers, Conflict Resolution |
| Week III | The Nature of Ethnicity in the United States |
| Week IV | The Social and Cultural Anthropology of the United States. |
| Week V | Ethnocentrism, Nationalism, Patriotism: Ethnicity as Ideology |
| Week VI | Assimilation: Voluntary and Imposed |
| Week VII | Making European Nations -- Making the American Nation |
| Week VIII | *Mid-Term Examination |
| Week IX | Patterns of Inter-Ethnic Conflict in Contemporary America |
| Week X | Megalopolis: The Rise of the American City and its Global Impact |
| Week XI | English: An Official Language? |
| Week XII | Racial Issues in the U.S. Today |
| Week XIII | Toward Imperial Overstretch? |
| Week XIV | ***Final Examination **Take-Home Essay due |
Note: Both the mid-term and the final will consist of an essay of 60 minutes, a series of important terms, names, and dates to be identified, and some significant places to be located on a blank map.
General
Stephan Thernstrom, ed., Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups (Belknap Press/Harvard University Press, 1981)
Thomas F. Gossett, Race: The History of an Idea in America (New ed. Oxford University Press, 1997)
Robert Kelley, The Shaping of the American Past (Prentice Hall, 5th ed. 1990)
Alan Brinkley, The Unfinished Nation (McGraw-Hill, 1993)
Gary B. Nash, Julie Roy Jeffrey et al., The American People (HarperCollins, 3rd ed., 1994)
Tibor Frank--Tamás Magyarics, Handouts for U.S. History (2nd ed. Panem, 1999)
Select Chapters
Werner Sollors, ed., Theories of Ethnicity. A Classical Reader (Macmillan, 1996) (Chapters 3, 7, 8, 11-24)
Clive J. Christie, Race and Nation: A Reader (Tauris, 1998) (Chapters 1, 2, 3, 10)
Montserrat Guibernau and John Rex, eds., The Ethnicity Reader. Nationalism, Multiculturalism and Emigration (Polity Press, 1997) (Chapters 1, 4-7)
Gopal Balakrishnan, ed., Mapping a Nation (Verso, 1996) (Chapters 1, 4-10, 13-14)
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (Verso, 1983, 7th impr. 1996)
Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (Blackwell 1983, repr. --1997)
Eric Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism Since 1780 Programme, Myth, Reality (Cambridge UP, 1990, repr.--1997)
Peter Ratcliffe, ed., "Race", Ethnicity and Nation. International Perspectives on Social Conflict (UCL Press, 1994, paperback 1996)
Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Ethnicity and Nationalism. Anthropological Perspectives (Pluto Press, 1993)
Tibor Frank, Ethnicity, Propaganda, Myth-Making (Akadémiai Kiadó, 1999) (Part I)
Attendance 10%, oral presentation 40%, and final paper 50%
Compulsory