American Studies

Course outline and syllabus

1. Home assignment

– online quiz (Scorm)

Course introduction

2. Colonial America and its Puritan legacy

Online video lecture (Jakub Ženíšek) + discussion topics

3. War of Independence and its contemporary reflections

Thomas Paine: Common Sense (excerpts)

Charles Johnson: A Soldier for the Crown

4. The Founding Fathers and their mythologies

Robert Hughes – American Visions

Howard Zinn – an excerpt (.pdf + audio)

5. American Slavery and its Abolition - intro

Online video lecture (Jakub Ženíšek)

6. American Slavery and its Abolition – close reading

Charles Johnson: Soulcatcher (documentary fiction)

H.B. Stowe: Uncle Tom´s Cabin (excerpts)

7. Uniting American Mythologies

Manifest Destiny and beyond

R. Hughes: American Visions + Scorm quiz

8. Anti-War Manifestos

Introductory lecture

Reading: Mark Twain, “The War Prayer”; Ambrose Bierce: Chicamauga (optional)

9. US Civil Rights Movement

Reading and listening

M.L. King: I Have a Dream

Malcolm X: The Ballot or the Bullet

10. Competing ideologies

Religious Right vs Secular Left

Home assignment: A debate between Jon Stewart and Michael Huckabee

11. US Foreign policies

Home assignment: The World Policeman Debate

Pros and cons debate

12. The use of euphemism in US public discourse

13. Course recap