Question for Discussion: What is American Studies? Why should we study American culture and society?

Reading: None

American Studies Internet Resources
for Sewall American Studies classes:

• American Studies Resources on the Internet

• U.S History Sources on the Web

• American Studies Web: Subject Map of Web Sites

• American Studies Crossroads Site

• WWW-Virtual Library: History Catalog

• WWW Links for History Teachers

How to Set Up and Use a Computer
Account at CU-Boulder

• Getting Started with Computing at CU
  
  
• Getting an CU e-mail account
  
  
• Where to Go When You Need Help
  with your Computer
  
  
• CU Boulder Home Page

How to subscribe to the Sewall e-mail list

• Join Sewall E-mail List

Conversations on America Series and one-credit course

• Sewall Conversation on America Series
  

Using the Computer to Find Open Classes

• Personal Lookup Services (PLUS):  allows
  students to create e-mail accounts as well as
  check grades, course schedules, billing 
  information, and correct addresses on file with
  the University.

• Registering for CU Courses Online

• Fall 2002 Course Availability

Resources for Teaching Students
to Use the Web

• Finding Information on the World Wide
  Web: Online Tutorial

• Crossroads Workshop I: Using the World
  Wide Web

• A Modular Approach to Teaching the
  World Wide Web

• MLA-Style Citations of Electronic Sources

• Yale Web Style Guide for Web Pages

1. Why should we study American culture and
    society?

2. What are the major problems facing America in
the 21st Century?

• Major Problems Facing the U.S. in the 2000s
  
  
• Fall 1999  AmSt. 2010 students' list of America's major problems

3. How can we use the past to help us            
    understand our present and future society?

4. What is democracy? and What are the
    responsibilities of citizens of a democracy?

5. How can understanding the history of
    American culture and society help Americans
    better exercise their responsibilities as citizens
     in our democratic society?

Definitions:

Irony: Irony occurs where there is a disjunction
between what we were trying to do and
what we, in fact, achieve. Irony often involves our unintended creation of the very event or situation
we were trying not to create, for example, during
the Cold War we tried to prevent war by being
prepared to "fight and win" the very war we
were trying to prevent.

Tragedy: a dramatic or literary work depicting a
protagonist--hero--who struggles for a moral
cause only to face ruin or profound unhappiness
in the end.

Satire: the use of irony, derision, or wit to attack,
challenge, and ridicule a perspective or idea..

In his book, The Irony of American History,
Reinhold Niebuhr defined the irony of American history
in this way:

"Pure tragedy elicits tears of admiration and
pity for the hero who is willing to brave
death or incur guilt for the sake of some
great good. Irony however prompts some
laughter and a nod of comprehension
beyond the laughter; for irony involves
comic absurdities which cease to be altogether absurd when fully understood.
Our age is involved in irony because so
many dreams of our nation have been
so cruelly refuted by history. Our dreams
of a pure virtue are dissolved in a
situation in which it is possible to
exercise the virtue of responsibility toward
a community of nations only by courting the
prospective guilt of the atomic bomb.   
(That is, by threatening to blow up to world
in order to save the community of nations)"(p.2)