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Fall 2004 Required readings (order online or at any bookstore) Larson, Eric, Devil in the White City Grading Review essay, 10% There is a discussion site--click on
the image below Description This course explores two simultaneous tendencies in American life at the turn of the last century. On the one hand, the rise of industrialization made Americans fascinated with personal transformation--with self making, with economic mobility, and with the possibility of changing your place in life. This new, modern world highlighted the difference between the real and the fake. In an age of mass copies and new identities, how could you tell the genuine, honest man from the con man? As much as they loved magic and personal transformation, Americans of this era loved detection, and the wide range of new techniques--like fingerprints, mug shots, and criminology generally--designed to pin identity down. The course will also focus on this simultaneous, contradictory fascination with fascination with both self transformation and with stabilizing identity. The course makes extensive use of this game-like website, which is designed to reproduce some of the ambiguities of historical research itself Schedule Wed. Aug. 30 introduction: The pace of change. (Begin Larsen, Devil in the White City) Wed. Sept. 8 (Review Essay due) Making modern individuals: Character and self making Wed. Sept. 15 The World of Strangers (discuss Larsen, Devil in the White City) Wed. Sept. 22 Mass production and Commodities/ Money and Value Wed. Sept. 29 Detecting (discuss Coles, Suspect Identities ) Wed. Oct. 6 Art and Authenticity Discuss Levine, "William Shakespeare and the American People" (available online) Wed. Oct. 13 Making Race/The Immigrant menace Discuss Alger, Ragged Dick Wed. Oct. 20 Midterm exam Wed. Oct. 27 The New Woman (discuss Johnson, Autobiography) Wed. Nov. 3 Criminal and Racial types Wed. Nov. 10 Discuss Nick Carter, Detective Wed. Nov. 17 short paper assignment Classifying the Body: Read Sekula, "The Body and the Archive". The link will work if you're on campus. If you are off campus you can get access by going here, clicking on "jstor" and entering your G number. If you can't get the link to work, you can dowload a .pdf file here. (Caution: the .pdf file is more than 9 megabytes .) Wed. Dec. 1 Magic and spiritualism: The movies Wed. Dec. 8 Discuss Kasson, Houdini, Tarzan and the Perfect Man
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