AMST 7230:Public History and Culture

3 Credit Hours
Prerequisite: Admission to the graduate program in American Studies or permission of the program director.
Public History and Culture examines the popular uses and presentations of the American past. Exploring historical memory’s role in American culture, the course draws on a range of methods (e.g., site visits, research in popular publications, study of historical documentaries) to critique ways that the past is recorded and transmitted. Course content may include a rationale and debate about defining the parameters of the historical division, as well as an emphasis upon the significance of artifacts, lore, written and oral commentary of the period, and the language that both constructs and vivifies the meanings of past. Course may be repeated for credit provided the content differs entirely from the previous offering.