Unit 1: Jazz and American Life: Race and Rebellion
Raul d’Gama Rose, From Be-bop to Hip Hop, All About Jazz, October 21, 2004 (click here).
Andrew Lehren, “Jazz and the FBI: Guilty Until Proven Innocent,” Jazz Times, April 2009 (click here)
John R. Murnane,
“Paris Blues: Expatriate American Jazz Musicians and the City of Lights,” Jazz Times, July 2009 (click here).
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Sonny’s Blues, James Baldwin in The Columbia Companion to the Twentieth-Century American Short Story By Blanche H. Gelfant, Lawrence Grave |
Unit 2: The 1950s, Were They an Era of Conformity?
We will compare popular perceptions of the 1950s–Leave it to Beaver etc to the Film New York in the Fifties (shown in class). You guessed it. The question above on conformity is the assigned essay question for you take-home essays this term. Due TBA. Here is a sample of Charlie Parker and Be Bop Jazz–this, too, was part of the “scene” in New York during the 1950s (click here).
Unit 3: Foreign Policy and Presidential Decision Making
How does the decision making process effect the outcome of U.S. foreign policy?
Obama’s “team of rivals” and American Foreign Policy. Read this article for homework on Obama and the “team of rivals” idea (click here). Watch film on Vietnam “Path to War,” this will take a full week (click here) and the Fog of War (an interview with Robert McNamara). See two handouts.
Test on the Vietnam War
Part I. T/F Questions from the two reading packets (5 questions total–30 pts)
Part II. Essay question( 70pts):
Explain why the U.S. was unable to win the Vietnam War.
We will then be comparing the War in Vietnam to the current war in Afghanistan (click here for an article comparing the two). This will prepare you for the final exam–a letter to President Obama re: U.S. policy in Afghanistan.
Unit 4: Outside Reading books and reports begin . . .
See Resources page for the list of books (tab above or click here). I will be using the following oral presentation rubric to grade your reports (click here).
Work on Letter to President Obama–this is your final exam.
