Syllabus
Dissent in America
Dr. Ralph F. Young, Temple University ralph.young@temple.edu
The course is a block course, the class will meet in the following times in 2017:
FRI 5.5. 12.30-16.50 (3h) J3093
TUE 9.5. 9.30-13.50 (3h) J1035
WED 10.5. 14.00-15.20 (1h) J2066
THU 11.5. 17.00-19.50 (2h) J1037
FRI 5.5. 12.30-16.50 (3h) J3093
Research Project: Using a combination of primary and secondary sources write a 5-8 page paper on the nature of dissent. What impact has dissent had on the course of American history? And what influence, if any, have voices of dissent in the United States had on other protest movements around the world. What is dissent? Is it an effective force for change? Or merely a safety valve for letting off steam? Should dissent consist solely of peaceful non-violent demonstrations? Under what circumstances should it ever become violent? Or should it never become violent? What is the difference between legitimate grievances and injustices and perceived grievances and injustices? Also be sure to discuss various forms of dissent. There are many documents in Dissent in America: Voices That Shaped a Nation that can be a starting point for your research. The paper is to be submitted to me digitally by 17 May 2017.
Topics: 1) The European Origins and Dissent in the Colonies
Luther, Calvin, Puritanism, Roger Williams, John Peter Zenger, Thomas Paine, Abigail Adams, Thomas Hutchinson
Readings: Dissent in America, 1-85 2) Questioning the New Republic
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, John Brown, Civil War dissenters
Readings: DiA, 87-182 3) Dissent in the Gilded Age
Chief Joseph, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Carl Schurz, Mother Jones
Readings: DiA, 183-232 4) Progressivism and War: The Early 20th Century
The Socialist Party, IWW, Emma Goldman, Joe Hill, Eugene V. Debs, Randolph Bourne, Marcus Garvey, Margaret Sanger, H.L. Mencken, Huey Long, Father Coughlin
Readings: DiA, 233-310 5) Dissent in the 1950s
Margaret Chase Smith, Paul Robeson, the Beats
Readings: DiA, 311-338 6) Civil Rights
Martin Luther King, Songs of the Civil Rights Movement, Stokely Carmichael, Black Panther Party
Readings: DiA, 339-362 7) Vietnam and the Counterculture
SDS, The Weather Underground, Abbie Hoffman, Timothy Leary, Make Love Not War, Protest Music: Phil Ochs, Bob Dylan, The Fugs, Creedence Clearwater Revival, From Columbia to the Sorbonne to the Prague Spring.
Readings: DiA, 363-403 8) Feminism, Sexuality and the Globalization of Dissent Redstockings, Stonewall, Ani DiFranco, Immortal Technique, Veterans Against the Iraq War, The Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, Arab Spring, Brexit, Trumpianism.
Readings: DiA, 403-478