History - Aviation in American Culture

Catalog description

This course examines the complex relationship between powered flight and American society from the invention of the airplane to the rise of drone warfare. Through a mixture of scholarly works, personal accounts, and primary sources, we will investigate how use of and access to the airplane became a focal point for the construction and deconstruction of race, gender, and class distinctions and an important site in the struggle for equality and social justice. Using the airplane as a lens, we will recognize and challenge key assumptions within American technoculture such as technological messianism, technological neutrality, and the role of government in technological development. (Same as HUM 373.) Satisfies: Goal 4 Outcome 1 (AE41) , US Culture (USC)