AMS 2440 - AMERICAN IDEAS

credits: 3.0
Crosslisted/Same As: HIS 2440 AMERICAN IDEAS
Crosslisted/Same As (2): PSC 2440 AMERICAN IDEAS
AMS-HIS-PSC 2440 American Ideas is a survey of American political, social, and cultural thought from the Puritans through the Cold War. It is organized as an exploration of key ideas and ongoing debates about those ideas: How should society be organized? How should government be structured? What is citizenship and who is a citizen? What do freedom, equality, and democracy mean? What is America’s role in the world? Embedded within each of those questions is a consideration of race and ethnicity, gender, class, and geography (urban/rural, West/East, North/South). Objectives: A) Identify and explain significant ideas about American’s politics and society; B) Analyze the evolution of those ideas over time; C) Compare different arguments about those ideas; D) Evaluate the demographic context of those ideas. Method of Instruction: Lecture/discussion. Meets *WEP Distribution Requirement.