This course will concentrate on the USA. We will look at the history of the country, from the first settlements in the 1600s to the end of the War of Independence in the 1780s. We are going to read various texts that illustrate this period in American history and decipher three different representations of the Boston Massacre.
We will work with the American national symbols, look at slavery and the anti-slavery movement, and investigate what is behind the concept of the American Dream.
We will also look at the flip-side of the US, and read texts about lynchings and the Ku Klux Klan in the 1900s.
The film that will be included in this course has not yet been decided on, but 'Mississippi Burning', '12 Years a Slave', or 'Django Unchained' are possible choices.