The Sixties in the United States (P02481)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : HCA-P-SIUS

The course aims to encourage students to explore the historiography of the 1960s in the United States and to engage with key debates within this literature. It seeks to help students to identify research topics for further investigation within an MSc dissertation or PhD thesis. In examining major aspects of the 1960s in the United States, the course intends to concentrate on the nature of American political liberalism during this period. It aims to analyse the goals and achievements of liberalism politicians, together with a series of liberal and radical challenges to consensus liberalism. In seeking to understand the change that the United States experienced during this period and its consequences, the course’s coverage sometimes includes developments that both precede and follow the decade itself. The topics discussed in the course will include: the concept of ‘consensus liberalism’ and the decline of the liberal consensus; John F. Kennedy and the New Frontier; Lyndon B. Johnson and the Great Society; the civil rights movement; Black Power; student movements and the New Left; the counterculture; second-wave feminism; the emergence of the Vietnam-era antiwar movement.

Entry Requirements

none

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Postgraduate (School of History and Classics), (School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Schedule E)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Semester 2 (Blocks 3-4)

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 11 weeks

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

Students who successfully complete the course will have acquired an advanced knowledge and understanding of key aspects of the study of the 1960s in the United States. In particular, they will:

• be able to analyse independently historical evidence concerning this topic;
• engage in historical arguments in relation to the 1960s in the United States;
• develop an appreciation of how the study of a key topic in historiography can widen their historical horizon and research agenda;
• set their own historical research agenda in relation to the historiography of the United States during the 1960s;
• prepare and present their own work for seminars and workshops;
• actively participate in group discussion;
• and be able to make efficient use of library and IT resources.