Sylabus
UNITS:
1. Introduction, Postwar economic and demographic boom (October )
2. Conformism of the 1950s, McCarthyism (October )
3. The Civil Rights Struggle (October )
4. The Vietnam War and students´ protests (October )
5. L.B. Johnson and the Great Society (November)
6. Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal (November)
7. The Reagan presidency: Reaganomics, conservatism, policy vis a vis the Soviet Empire (November
20)
8. The Clinton presidency: after the Cold War (November
22)
9. Trudeau's dream: Multicultural and Bilingual Canada (December
29) Testing the Bounds of Liberal Multiculturalism?,Will Kymlicka, For distribution to the 2006 Trudeau Foundation?s Conference on Public Policy,?Muslims in Western Societies?, November 16-18,
2006)
10. PRI one-party rule in Mexico (December
6) Aguilar Camín and Lorenzo Meyer, In the Shadow of the Mexican Revolution, University of Texas, Austin, 2002, Mexican miracle (p.158-178). (scan available in the SIS system) Questions: What is the Mexican miracle? Why did it happen? What was the Mexican economic system at that time? What were its advantages? What were its disadvantages If we compare Mexico with U.S. in the same time period, what are the most obvious differences? Are there any similarities? What was Mexico's prevalent attitude to the outside world? How did politics look like in Mexico?
11. Political and economic transition in Mexico since 1988 (December
13) (text: Sam Dillon, Julia Preston: Opening Mexico, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux,
1994) Questions: What major events happened in Mexico in 1994? How were they related to the process of transition? What were the dangers Mexico faced throughout the year? What were the risks inherent in the transition process? How was the transition in Mexico different from transition processes in Central and Eastern Europe? Recommended short readings: Golden, Tim, In Mexico, Nafta Isn?t Just About Trade, The New York Times, August 22,
1993. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE7DD103CF931A1575BC0A965958260 DePalma, Anthony, A Year to Forget: 1994 Leaves Mexico Reeling, The New York Times, December 29,
1994. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A00E6DA153BF93AA15751C1A962958260 Dillon, Sam, Mexico, Voting In New Leader, Begins Political Sea Change, The New York Times, July 4, 2000 http://partners.nytimes.com/library/world/americas/070400mexico-election.html?scp=4&sq=Vicente%20Fox%20Victory&st=cse
12. Political and economic transition in Mexico since 1988 (January
20) (text: Sam Dillon, Julia Preston ? Opening Mexico) Please note that Units 1 to 8 will be taught by Petr Andel, Units 9 and 10 by Magdalena Firtova, and Units 11 and 12 by Krystof Kozak.
Anotace
The course will offer insights into social history of the Unites States in the post-WW2 period. Emphasis will be placed on domestic developments.
The period covered will range from the immediately postwar period to the presidency of Clinton and beyond. In addition, attention will be devoted to the key historical developments in Canada and Mexico since 1945, providing a comparative framework and wider North American perspective for the issues under discussion.