Overall objectives:

1 - Expand and consolidate the student's knowledge of the role of America in the World;
2 - Promote the student's ability to identify and analyse cross-cultural influences between America and other nations;
3 - Foster the student's ability to write, and comment on topics related to American Culture and act as intercultural speakers;
4 - Improve the student's analytical/critical thought, proficiency in English, and research and self-learning skills.

Syllabus:

1 - INTRODUCTION
1.1 - American Identity/Identities
1.2 - US Cultural Regions
2 - IMMIGRATION MOVEMENTS (end of 19th ? 20th century)
2.1 - THIRD WAVE (1890s-1920s): Southern and Eastern Europeans and Asians
2.1.1 - A Complex Population¸ Significance of Race
2.1.2 - Foreign Immigration; New Immigration
2.1.3 - Geographic and Social Mobility
2.1.4 - Newcomers from Mexico and Puerto Rico
2.1.5 - Immigration Quotas
2.1.6 - Eugenics
2.2 - FOURTH WAVE (since the 1960s): Asians and Hispanics
2.2.1 - New Immigrants from Asia
2.2.2 - The Growing Latino Population
3 - U. S. ECONOMIC HISTORY
3.1 - Industrialisation, Economic Expansion, and Corporate Consolidation (the 1870s-1920s)
3.1.1 - Technology and the Triumph of Industrialism
3.1.2 - Consequences of Technology
3.1.3 - Mechanisation and the Changing Status of Labour
3.1.4 - The Corporate Consolidation Movement
3.1.5 - The Gospel of Wealth and its Critics
3.1.6 - The Social Gospel and Eugenics
3.1.7 - Big Business Triumphant (the 1920s)
3.2 - Effects of 19th-Century Economic Growth
3.2.1 - Economic Effects of Industrialisation
3.2.2 - City Life and Growth of the Modern City
3.2.3 - Growth of Suburbs
3.2.4 - The Roaring 1920s: Emergence of Mass-Consumer Society
3.2.4.1 - Materialism Unbound
3.2.4.2 - The Age of Play
3.3 - American Economy in the 20th Century
3.3.1. - US Economy during World War I & II
3.3.2 - Post-WW II US Economic Growth
3.3.2.1 - Economic Recovery and Baby Boom
3.3.2.2 - Creating a Middle-Class Nation
3.3.2.3 - Marriage, Families & Gender Roles in the 1950s
3.3.2.4 - Women in the Work Force (1920-the 1950s)
3.3.2.5 - The 60s Youth Culture and Counterculture
3.3.2.6 - Poverty in an Age of Abundance
3.3.2.7 - US Economic Globalisation
4 - AMERICA AND THE WORLD ? QUEST FOR EMPIRE
4.1 - Roots and Growth of Expansionism
4.1.1 - Manifest Destiny and Expansionism
4.2 - Regional and Overseas Expansion
4.2.1 - Wars of Conquest: with Mexico, British and French
4.2.2 - Imperial Dreams
4.2.3 - Ambitions and Strategies
4.3 - Economic, Political and Cultural Imperialism (1865-1920)
4.3.1 - Hawai'i, Venezuela and Cuba
4.3.2 - The Spanish-American War and the Debate over Empire
4.3.3 - The Anti- and Pro-Imperialist Argument
4.3.4 - War in the Philippines, Diplomacy in China
4.3.5 - Theodore Roosevelt's Foreign Policy
4.3.6 - Anglo-American Rapprochement
4.3.7 - US Dominance in Latin America
5 - 21st-CENTURY AMERICA
5.1 - Social Strains, (Gun) Violence and Hate Crimes
5.2 - Multiethnic, Multiracial, Multicultural America
5.3 - Challenges to Gender
5.4 - Foreign Policy: Tensions/Conflicts
5.5 - Globalisation Challenges

Literature/Sources:

BERCOVITCH, Sacvan , 1993 , The Rites of Assent: Transformation in the Symbolic Construction of America , Routledge
BRADBURY, Malcolm, and Howard Temperley , 1981 , Introduction to American Studies , Longman
BREIDLID, Anders et al. (eds). , 2004 , American Culture: An Anthology , Routledge
CAMPBELL, Neil and Alasdair Kean , 1997 , American Cultural Studies: An Introduction to American , Routledge
CHOMSKY, Noam , 2003 , Hegemony or Survival: America?s Quest for Global Dominance , Penguin Books
CLOSE, Ellis , 1993 , The Rage of a Privileged Class: Why are Middle-Class Blacks Angry? Why Should America Care? , Harper Collins
CRUNDEN, Robert M , 2000 , Body and Soul: The Making of American Modernism: Art, Music and Letters in the Jazz Age, 1912-1926 , Perseus Basic Books
DROWNE, Kathleen and Patrick Huber , 2004 , The 20s , Greenwood Press
GLAZER, Natan and Daniel Patrick Moynihan , 1995 , Beyond the Melting Pot , The Mit Press
HARPER, John Lamberton , 1994 , American Visions of Europe: Franklin D. Roosevelt, George F. Kennan, and Dean G. Acheson , Cambridge
HEALE, M. J. , 2004 , Twentieth-Century America: Politics and Power in the United States 1900-2000 , Arnold
KEENE, Jenifer D. et al , 2013 , Visions of America: A History of the United States , Pearson
LEUCHENBURG, William Edward , 1963 , A Trouble Feast: American Society since 1945 , University of Wisconsin
MAUK, David, and John Oakland , 2003 , American Civilization: An Introduction , Routledge
MURRAY, David , 1995 , American Cultural Critics , University of Exeter
NORTON, Mary et al , 2022 , A People a Nation: A History of the United States: Brief 11th Edition , Wadsworth
PAULSON, Ross Evans , 1997 , Liberty, Equality, and Justice: Civil Rights, Women?s Rights, and the Regulation of Business, 1865-1932 , Duke University Press
PIRES, Mª Laura. , Sociedade e Cultura Norte-Americana , Universidade Aberta
PIRES, Mª Laura. , Sociedade e Cultura Norte-Americanas - Textos Complementares , Universidade Aberta
PERRY, Lewis , 1989 , Intellectual Life in America: A History , University Chicago Press
RORTY, Richard , 1999 , Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-century America , Harvard University Press
TALLACK, Douglas , 1991 , Twentieth-Century America: The Intellectual and Cultural Context , Longman
WOODARD, Komozi , 1999 , A Nation within a Nation: Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) & Black Power Politics , The University of North Carolina Press

Assesssment methods and criteria:

Classification Type: Quantitativa (0-20)

Evaluation Methodology:
Classes, in English, are of the expositive, theoretical-practical type. The topics of the syllabus are discussed with regular lecturer-student-lecturer interaction. The student's work will be entirely in English, based on the bibliography (selection of texts, handouts...) provided by the lecturer at the start and/or along the term, as well as on the suggested bibliography and the self-research carried out by the students. Students are encouraged to improve their language proficiency through writing, and oral readings/presentations and debate during class meetings, in English. The assessment of the students will follow the Type A Format/Model defined in the Evaluation Regulations of the University of Madeira. Hence, students are assessed during the semester through a written/oral component (40%) based on individual/group (depending on the number of students enrolled) research project work on a topic from the course programme, online class/home Assignments 10% and a written exam 50%.