U.S.: INTELLECTUAL HISTORY

Anno accademico
2018/2019 Programmi anni precedenti
Titolo corso in inglese
U.S.: INTELLECTUAL HISTORY
Codice insegnamento
LMJ210 (AF:262795 AR:157184)
Modalità
In presenza
Crediti formativi universitari
6
Livello laurea
Laurea magistrale (DM270)
Settore scientifico disciplinare
SPS/05
Periodo
I Semestre
Anno corso
2
Sede
VENEZIA
Spazio Moodle
Link allo spazio del corso
The course is conceived for students of both the LLEAP and RIC programs. It provides students with specific elements of advanced historical knowledge about US culture. As a course taught entirely in English, it provides students with the possibility to consolidate their language and communication skills. The course, whose readings are based on a selected bibliography from various sources, will allow students to learn to prepare a reasoned bibliography, in general and on topics US history in particular. By putting an emphasis on the historical method of inquiry, the course will provide students with the capacity to analyze, and to develop original and well-founded interpretations about, historical events and processes beyond the specific topic of the course itself. All the above combined will provide students with historical consciousness about US culture and with enhanced ability to deal with intercultural issues.
At the end of the course, students will have acquired a confident knowledge of the contribution by different US intellectuals to the making of US foreign policy in the 20th and early 21st century, as well as of the basic concepts adopted by the different schools of thought ("realism", "exceptionalism", "cold war", "open door imperialism", etc.).

Besides the emphasis on the specific subject, the course will provide critical insight into the making of historiographical research. In particular, through the readings, the lectures, and the class discussions, the students will acquire:
a) a good capacity to treat various kinds of primary and secondary sources;
b) the basic methodological tools for the elaboration of autonomous research work in the field of intellectual history;
c) a good degree of knowledge of the lexicon of the intellectual history of US foreign policy, finalized at the communication of historical and political contents also beyond the scope of the course itself.
As an advanced course in US history, the course requires a basic knowledge of US history, and particularly of US history in the 20th century, as from the following textbooks:

Arnaldo Testi, Il secolo degli Stati Uniti, Il Mulino, 2006 (or later editions)
Mario Del Pero, Libertà e impero, Laterza, 2008 (or later editions)
Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty! An American History, vol 2, Norton, 2004 (or later editions)

The course provides students with a deep and critical knowledge of US intellectual elaborations about US foreign policy from 1945 to the present, with an emphasis on how selected intellectuals have helped shape policy (George Kennan, Paul Nitze, "the best and brightest", Henry Kissinger, Paul Wolfowitz) or have criticized it (Arthur Miller, W.E.B. Du Bois, William Appleman Williams, Joseph Heller, Bob Dylan, Joan Hoff). The basic concepts adopted by the different schools of thought ("realism", "exceptionalism", "cold war", "open door imperialism", etc.) will be analyzed in detail and their emergence will be placed in context. Please note: a detailed program including indications of what readings should be prepared for each class will be provided by the professor at the beginning of the courses and will be uploaded in the online materials of the course (https://moodle.unive.it/course/view.php?id=2086 ).
Students who regularly attend the class can prepare the exam on the class notes and slides from the classes, plus the selected study material listed below. Please note: the study material is either available online or at Ca' Foscari's libraries. A class reader containing the study material will be uploaded before at the beginning of the course in the moodle page of the class ( https://moodle.unive.it/course/view.php?id=2086 ).

B. Kuklick, "Blind Oracles", Princeton, 2006 (Chapp. 1, 2, 7, and 10)
M. Cox and D. Stokes (eds.), "US Foreign Policy", Oxford, 2012 (Chapp. 4, 5 and 21)
J.F. Drolet and J. Dunkerley (eds.), "American Foreign Policy", Manchester, 2017 (Chapp. 5 and 7)
K. Young, "Revisiting NSC 68", Journal of Cold War Studies, vol. 15, n. 1, 2013, pp. 1-33
T. Borstelmann, "The Cold War and the Color Line", Cambridge MA, 2001 (Chap. 2)
L. Ribuffo, "What is still living...", Diplomatic History, vol. 25, n. 2, 2001, pp. 309-316
G. Marcus and W. Sollors (eds.), "A new literary history of America", 2009, pp. 895-899 and 904-908
M. Del Pero, "The eccentric realist", Ithaca, 2011 (chap. 3)
H-Diplo Roundtable, "Joan Hoff", Vol. IX, n. 23, 2008,, pp. 1-25
Joan Hoff, A Faustian foreign policy, Cambridge, 2008, (Epilogue)
X [G. Kennan], “The sources of Soviet conduct”, Foreign Affairs, 1947 (excerpts)
US Government, "NSC-68", 1950 (excerpts)
Arthur Miller, “The crucible”, 1953 (excerpts)
W.E.B. Du Bois, "An Appeal to the world", 1947
US State Department, "Foreign Relations of the United States 1961-63", vol. VIII, doc. 62
J. Kennedy "Inaugural speech", 1961
W.A. Williams, "The tragedy of American Diplomacy", 1972 (Introduction)
J. Heller, "Catch 22", 1961 (Chap. 5)
B. Dylan, "With god on our side", 1964
US State Department, "Foreign Relations of the United States 1969-74", vol. I, doc. 3
Ronald Reagan, “Evil empire speech”, 1983
Project for a New American Century, "Statement of Principles", 1997

Students who do not attend the class regularly can add the following readings (all available at Ca' Foscari's libraries):

J.F. Drolet and J. Dunkerley (eds.), "American Foreign Policy", Manchester, 2017 (Introduction and chap. 4)
B. Kuklick, "Blind oracles", Princeton, 2006 (Chapp. 3 and 4)
Perry Anderson, "American Foreign Policy and Its Thinkers", London, 2014 (Chapp. 3, 4, 5 and 10)
The exam is written and oral. The grade is an average of the two parts.

The written exam is a short essay on a question provided by the teacher, asking students to use various parts of the program in the construction of their answers. The written exam is "open notes, open books", that is students may consult their study material and refer to it (provided that they cite it appropriately). It has a duration of three hours. It aims at verifying the preparation of the students on the topics of the course (facts, dates, names, definitions, concepts), their capacity to organize and communicate their knowledge (completeness, synthesis, consistency, clarity, precision) and their ability to link, where pertinent, different themes among those raised by the analysis of the intellectual history of US foreign policy-thinking in the US. In the written exam the students will have to display their:
a) ability in rendering a coherent picture concerning the evolution of US foreign-policy thinking during the 20th century;
b) ability in linking the changing interpretations of US foreign policy in the years 1945-63 with the changing intellectual and political contexts in the US;
c) ability to make use of the different types of sources available to the historian for the development of an original interpretation of historical facts;
d) ability to make use of the historical categories adopted in the readings and in class;
e) ability to discuss critically the different interpretations of specific events and processes as they result from the program readings;
f) ability to develop their own reflections on the topics of the course.

The oral exam has an average duration of 20 minutes and aims at discussing any critical point emerging from the written exam. If needed, the oral exam can also be the occasion to verify the student's knowledge of the basic facts and concepts of US history.

Please note #1: the inability to locate the specific events discussed in the course in the broader context of US 20th century history (as from the Requirements section above) constitutes a reason for not passing the exam.

Please note #2: Around the 10th week of the course, during the regular class time the teaching activity foresees a non-mandatory written test of the duration of 90 minutes, open to all students, in order to enable students to familiarize with the type of work that will be demanded at the final written exam (same kind of question, same rules). The date of the test will be communicated in advance on the teacher's announcements page. The test will receive a score between 0 and 3 and the score will be added, in case, to the grade obtained in the final exam.
Frontal lectures, with slides and use of multimedia material. The slides will be made available by the teacher in the moodle page of the course (https://moodle.unive.it/course/view.php?id=2086 ), before the end of the course. Questions and debates in class are extremely welcome.
Inglese
1) The teacher is easily available for questions concerning the course at his office hours and by email at duccio.basosi@unive.it. Emails have to be written in a formal style (not "Hi prof." or "Salve prof.", but "Good morning", "Buongiorno", and the likes) and should not ask questions whose answer can be found in the information contained in this syllabus.
2) Ca’ Foscari abides by Italian Law (Law 17/1999; Law 170/2010) regarding support services and accommodation available to students with disabilities. This includes students with mobility, visual, hearing and other disabilities (Law 17/1999), and specific learning impairments (Law 170/2010). If you have a disability or impairment that requires accommodations (i.e., alternate testing, readers, note takers or interpreters) please contact the Disability and Accessibility Offices in Student Services: disabilita@unive.it.
scritto e orale

Questo insegnamento tratta argomenti connessi alla macroarea "Cooperazione internazionale" e concorre alla realizzazione dei relativi obiettivi ONU dell'Agenda 2030 per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile

Programma definitivo.
Data ultima modifica programma: 24/07/2018