Social Change in U.S. History

Catalog description

This course will examine different models for social change in U.S. history. Over the course of two semesters, we will study the country?s most significant movements for progressive social change, including abolition, civil rights, Black Power, feminism, LGBTQ+ rights, labor, and environmental justice. We will analyze each movement in order to ask broader questions about the theory and practice of social change work. Why do people join social movements and social justice organizations? How effective are different organizational models, strategies, and methods of social change work (e.g., organizing, mobilizing, advocacy, uprising, violence, and solidarity work)? How do different social movement actors understand power ? and how does this shape their methods and strategies? When do social movements succeed? When do they fail? And why? As part of this work, we will pay close attention to the historical context in which each movement arose to give us insight into why some strategies work in certain historical moments but fail in others. Finally, we will consider the impact of changing technologies, from the printing press to the internet, on social movements. Our attention will be on the U.S., but we will also consider the international context in which some activists operated and the transnational coalitions that they formed. In addition, while we will primarily look at progressive or left-wing movements, toward the end of the course, we will also study some right-wing movements to assess the effectiveness of their strategies, methods, and organizational models.