Students

MHIS270 – American History through Film

2018 – S1 Day

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff
Credit points Credit points
3
Prerequisites Prerequisites
12cp at 100 level or above or (3cp in HIST or MHIS or POL units)
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description
Focusing upon the ways in which Hollywood has presented issues such as race, war, social and cultural change, liberty, and patriotism, this unit will introduce students to major themes that have shaped the political, cultural, and social history of the United States. Topics to be considered include the American Revolution, westward expansion and Manifest Destiny, race and slavery, the Civil War, immigration, the Depression and New Deal, the United States and World War Two, the civil rights movement, and the legacies of the Vietnam War. Consideration will also be given to the tensions arising from American foreign policy, and the global impact of American popular culture. The unit will enable students to consider how the history of the United States is mediated through popular culture.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • Appreciate and understand the major themes and issues in American history.
  • Critically analyse important themes and events in American history.
  • Reflect critically upon a variety of historical sources, including film.
  • Use a range of historical sources to construct a historical arguments.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the ways in which film functions as an important source of historical “knowledge" in the United States.
  • The course will offer students a comprehensive and well founded knowledge in the field of study furthering their ability to collect analyse and organise information and ideas to convey those ideas clearly and fluently, in both written and spoken forms; to select and use the appropriate level style and means of communication; to work and learn independently; to define and analyse problems; to apply critical reasoning to issues through independent thought an informed judgement; to evaluate opinions, make decisions and to reflect critically on the justification for decisions; to appreciate of the philosophical and social contexts of history.
  • Further students’ knowledge and respect of ethics and ethical standards in relation to the study of history
  • Further students’ knowledge of other cultures and times and an appreciation of cultural diversity.

General Assessment Information

Late Submission Penalty

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, (a) a penalty for lateness will apply – two (2) marks out of 100 will be deducted per day for assignments submitted after the due date – and (b) no assignment will be accepted more than seven (7) days (incl. weekends) after the original submission deadline. No late submissions will be accepted for timed assessments – e.g. quizzes, online tests. 

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Hurdle Due
Tutorial Presentation 25% No as agreed
Journal Entry 1 5% No March 29, 2018
Journal Entry 2 5% No April 16, 2018
Major research essay 45% No May 21, 2018
Journal Entry 3 5% No May 23, 2018
Journal Entry 4 5% No June 12, 2018
Tutorial attendance 10% No weekly

Tutorial Presentation

Due: as agreed
Weighting: 25%

Each week, students watch a film out of class and discuss them in tutorials (for links to film see ilearn pages Week 1-13)

Students will form groups of two and three people and chose one film to analyse (groups and films to be organised in Week 2 tutorial). Each week, a different group with lead the tutorial with a class presentation.

Student are also required to individually submit (ie not as a group) a 800 word tutorial paper summarizing key themes of their presentation. (For Turnitin link see Assessment Tasks on iLearn)

The presentation should consider:

— Overview of screen representations of the historical moment under review.   Have other films documented this historical moment. Does any particular genre focus on this historical period and themes?  Can you discern any identifiable trends? Any recurring tropes?

— Any relevant circumstances surrounding production of film under review? Evaluate the source material of the film (was the film adapted from a popular history, a scholarly history, a period publication, an original screenplay etc)?

— A critique of the film. Who is speaking? Who is telling the story and why? Whose voices are not heard? Consider narrative conventions and style. Representations of race, class and gender? 

— Assess the debates surrounding the historical accuracy of the film (if you prefer, you can select one or two specific moments depicted in the film). What did the film include? What did the film exclude?

— Lead discussion among tutorial group.

— Presentations should be at least 30-45 minutes in length (approx 15 minutes per person)

Where relevant, refer to the readings and primary sources, but you do not need to limit yourself to set readings.

Powerpoint presentations are encouraged but not compulsory.

Include short clips or stills from the weekly film to support your argument.

Submit an 800 word overview of your presentation a via Turnitin due 11:59 on the Friday of the week following your presentation.

This assignment represents 25% of your final mark


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Appreciate and understand the major themes and issues in American history.
  • Critically analyse important themes and events in American history.
  • Reflect critically upon a variety of historical sources, including film.
  • Use a range of historical sources to construct a historical arguments.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the ways in which film functions as an important source of historical “knowledge" in the United States.
  • The course will offer students a comprehensive and well founded knowledge in the field of study furthering their ability to collect analyse and organise information and ideas to convey those ideas clearly and fluently, in both written and spoken forms; to select and use the appropriate level style and means of communication; to work and learn independently; to define and analyse problems; to apply critical reasoning to issues through independent thought an informed judgement; to evaluate opinions, make decisions and to reflect critically on the justification for decisions; to appreciate of the philosophical and social contexts of history.
  • Further students’ knowledge and respect of ethics and ethical standards in relation to the study of history
  • Further students’ knowledge of other cultures and times and an appreciation of cultural diversity.

Journal Entry 1

Due: March 29, 2018
Weighting: 5%

Students are to submit four (4) weekly journal entries throughout the semester.

The first journal entry should be approximately 200 words per entry (i.e. a substantial paragraph) and chosen from ONE of the films in weeks 2,3 or 4.

The journal entry CANNOT be the same as your tutorial group presentation.

Your journal entry should:

  1. Summarise the key themes and conclusions of the readings set each week;
  2. Offer your reflections on the reading and the weekly film;
  3. Draw upon lecture and tutorial discussions

Each of the four Journal entries will be given a mark out of 5.

To do well in these exercises you should offer some critical analysis of the material you have read, as well as discuss your understanding of the relevant film as informed by lecture and tutorial discussions. (you cannot expect a respectable grade for your journal entries if you're not watching films, undertaking the readings, for attending class)


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Appreciate and understand the major themes and issues in American history.
  • Critically analyse important themes and events in American history.
  • Reflect critically upon a variety of historical sources, including film.
  • Use a range of historical sources to construct a historical arguments.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the ways in which film functions as an important source of historical “knowledge" in the United States.
  • The course will offer students a comprehensive and well founded knowledge in the field of study furthering their ability to collect analyse and organise information and ideas to convey those ideas clearly and fluently, in both written and spoken forms; to select and use the appropriate level style and means of communication; to work and learn independently; to define and analyse problems; to apply critical reasoning to issues through independent thought an informed judgement; to evaluate opinions, make decisions and to reflect critically on the justification for decisions; to appreciate of the philosophical and social contexts of history.
  • Further students’ knowledge and respect of ethics and ethical standards in relation to the study of history
  • Further students’ knowledge of other cultures and times and an appreciation of cultural diversity.

Journal Entry 2

Due: April 16, 2018
Weighting: 5%

The second journal entry should be approximately 200 words per entry (i.e. a substantial paragraph) and chosen from ONE of the films in weeks 6 or 7.

The journal entry CANNOT be the same as your tutorial group presentation.

Your journal entry should:

  1. Summarise the key themes and conclusions of the readings set each week;
  2. Offer your reflections on the reading and the weekly film;
  3. Draw upon lecture and tutorial discussions

On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Appreciate and understand the major themes and issues in American history.
  • Critically analyse important themes and events in American history.
  • Reflect critically upon a variety of historical sources, including film.
  • Use a range of historical sources to construct a historical arguments.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the ways in which film functions as an important source of historical “knowledge" in the United States.
  • The course will offer students a comprehensive and well founded knowledge in the field of study furthering their ability to collect analyse and organise information and ideas to convey those ideas clearly and fluently, in both written and spoken forms; to select and use the appropriate level style and means of communication; to work and learn independently; to define and analyse problems; to apply critical reasoning to issues through independent thought an informed judgement; to evaluate opinions, make decisions and to reflect critically on the justification for decisions; to appreciate of the philosophical and social contexts of history.
  • Further students’ knowledge and respect of ethics and ethical standards in relation to the study of history
  • Further students’ knowledge of other cultures and times and an appreciation of cultural diversity.

Major research essay

Due: May 21, 2018
Weighting: 45%

In 2500 words, you are required to research one of the topics listed below and communicate your findings and analysis.

Please select ONE of the following research tasks:

 

Evaluate the modes of representation of two specific themes or events in American history by comparing and contrasting scholarly accounts with cinematic depictions of the same events. Consider how each issues is framed. Who is telling the story and why?

OR

Compare and contrast two films that deal with the same theme or event in American history. Consider how each issues is framed. Who is telling the story and why?

OR

With reference to a specific theme or event, critically examine the ways in which a film or group of films has functioned as a form of propaganda in the United States. Consider how each issue is framed. Who is telling the story and why?

OR

With reference to a specific theme or event, critically examine the ways in which a film or group of films have fostered or constructed a form of sub-cultural identification in the United States. Consider how each issues is framed. Who is telling the story and why?

 

References should be cited in accordance with the Chicago manual of style 16 A.

Footnotes and source list ar not included in word limits for essays and written assignments, unless they are discursive in character.

The project is to be submitted via Turnitin by 11:59 PM on May 14, 2018 (beginning of week 12). For those of you I'm able to submit your project via Turnitin please email me well before the final due date to work out a viable mode for submission.

Criteria and marking:

Your essay will project will be assessed according to the following criteria:

  1. Ability to identify a suitable topic for project
  2. Depth and breadth of understanding of central issues
  3. Ability to construct a well reasoned argument
  4. Engagement with primary source of evidence and academic sources
  5. Capacity to produce the well written project
  6. Appropriately referenced as required

On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Appreciate and understand the major themes and issues in American history.
  • Critically analyse important themes and events in American history.
  • Reflect critically upon a variety of historical sources, including film.
  • Use a range of historical sources to construct a historical arguments.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the ways in which film functions as an important source of historical “knowledge" in the United States.
  • The course will offer students a comprehensive and well founded knowledge in the field of study furthering their ability to collect analyse and organise information and ideas to convey those ideas clearly and fluently, in both written and spoken forms; to select and use the appropriate level style and means of communication; to work and learn independently; to define and analyse problems; to apply critical reasoning to issues through independent thought an informed judgement; to evaluate opinions, make decisions and to reflect critically on the justification for decisions; to appreciate of the philosophical and social contexts of history.
  • Further students’ knowledge and respect of ethics and ethical standards in relation to the study of history
  • Further students’ knowledge of other cultures and times and an appreciation of cultural diversity.

Journal Entry 3

Due: May 23, 2018
Weighting: 5%

The third journal entry should be approximately 200 words per entry (i.e. a substantial paragraph) and chosen from ONE of the films in week 8,9, or 10.

The journal entry CANNOT be the same as your tutorial group presentation.

Your journal entry should:

  1. Summarise the key themes and conclusions of the readings set each week;
  2. Offer your reflections on the reading and the weekly film;
  3. Draw upon lecture and tutorial discussions

On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Appreciate and understand the major themes and issues in American history.
  • Critically analyse important themes and events in American history.
  • Reflect critically upon a variety of historical sources, including film.
  • Use a range of historical sources to construct a historical arguments.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the ways in which film functions as an important source of historical “knowledge" in the United States.
  • The course will offer students a comprehensive and well founded knowledge in the field of study furthering their ability to collect analyse and organise information and ideas to convey those ideas clearly and fluently, in both written and spoken forms; to select and use the appropriate level style and means of communication; to work and learn independently; to define and analyse problems; to apply critical reasoning to issues through independent thought an informed judgement; to evaluate opinions, make decisions and to reflect critically on the justification for decisions; to appreciate of the philosophical and social contexts of history.
  • Further students’ knowledge and respect of ethics and ethical standards in relation to the study of history
  • Further students’ knowledge of other cultures and times and an appreciation of cultural diversity.

Journal Entry 4

Due: June 12, 2018
Weighting: 5%

The forth journal entry should be approximately 200 words per entry (i.e. a substantial paragraph) and chosen from ONE of the films in weeks 11,12,or 13

The journal entry CANNOT be the same as your tutorial group presentation.

Your journal entry should:

  1. Summarise the key themes and conclusions of the readings set each week;
  2. Offer your reflections on the reading and the weekly film;
  3. Draw upon lecture and tutorial discussions

On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Appreciate and understand the major themes and issues in American history.
  • Critically analyse important themes and events in American history.
  • Reflect critically upon a variety of historical sources, including film.
  • Use a range of historical sources to construct a historical arguments.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the ways in which film functions as an important source of historical “knowledge" in the United States.
  • The course will offer students a comprehensive and well founded knowledge in the field of study furthering their ability to collect analyse and organise information and ideas to convey those ideas clearly and fluently, in both written and spoken forms; to select and use the appropriate level style and means of communication; to work and learn independently; to define and analyse problems; to apply critical reasoning to issues through independent thought an informed judgement; to evaluate opinions, make decisions and to reflect critically on the justification for decisions; to appreciate of the philosophical and social contexts of history.
  • Further students’ knowledge and respect of ethics and ethical standards in relation to the study of history
  • Further students’ knowledge of other cultures and times and an appreciation of cultural diversity.

Tutorial attendance

Due: weekly
Weighting: 10%

Students should come prepared to participate in weekly class and discussions. Your contribution to tutorials is expected to be an informed one, based on a careful reading of the documents and texts, rather than on general knowledge.

Tutorials be worth up to ten (10) per cent your final grade.

Unexplained absences will result in one (1) Mark deduction per tutorial missed.

Students who attend less than 50% of tutorials without documented explanation will FAIL the entire course.

Tutorials are meant to be inclusive, interactive meetings.

You are expected to be on time for tutorials, and to stay for the entire class.


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Appreciate and understand the major themes and issues in American history.
  • Critically analyse important themes and events in American history.
  • Reflect critically upon a variety of historical sources, including film.
  • Use a range of historical sources to construct a historical arguments.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the ways in which film functions as an important source of historical “knowledge" in the United States.
  • The course will offer students a comprehensive and well founded knowledge in the field of study furthering their ability to collect analyse and organise information and ideas to convey those ideas clearly and fluently, in both written and spoken forms; to select and use the appropriate level style and means of communication; to work and learn independently; to define and analyse problems; to apply critical reasoning to issues through independent thought an informed judgement; to evaluate opinions, make decisions and to reflect critically on the justification for decisions; to appreciate of the philosophical and social contexts of history.
  • Further students’ knowledge and respect of ethics and ethical standards in relation to the study of history
  • Further students’ knowledge of other cultures and times and an appreciation of cultural diversity.

Delivery and Resources

There is no set textbook for this unit. Recommended resources include:

Alan Brinkley, The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People, (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2008)

Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty! An American History, (New York: WW Norton, 2008)

Pauline Maeir, et al, Inventing America: A History of the United States, (New York: WW Norton, 2006)

 

Studies of the relationship between film and history in the US include:

Robert Brent Toplin, History by Hollywood: The Use and Abuse of the American Past, (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996)

Robert Brent Toplin, History by Hollywood: The Use and Abuse of the American Past, Second edition, (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2010)

Robert Burgoyne, Film Nation: Hollywood  Looks at US history, Revised Edition (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota press, 2010)

Robert Burgoyne, The Hollywood Historical Film, (Malden, Mass: Blackwell, 2008)

Unit Schedule

 

Week

Film

Lecture 

Tutorial and Readings

1. March 2 2018

 

Introduction: History, the Real and the Represented.

The World of Christopher Columbus: comparing the "Big Man" of Hollywood’s version of history with a transnational view of empire and trade in the 1490's

No Tutorial

2. March 9 2018

The New World

(Terrence Malick, 2006)

and (if you’re really keen)

Pocahontas 

(Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg, 1995)

 

 

Establishing the New World Colonies

Part 1 : Virginia: Jamestown, the Powhatan Federation, Tobacco and Constructions of race.

Part 2 New England: Providence, Theocracy and Witchcraft

Two very different experiences of Colonial America; one founded on mercantile interests, the other was a refuge for religious freedom — as evidenced by their filmic representations  Yet despite their differences, the two colonies were united by a desire for land and construction of race. 

 

Tutorial: Historical, cinematic and popular representations of Pocahontas

Readings:

Chapter 3 "First Contact”  in Camilla Townsend, Pocahontas and the Powhatan dilemma , New York : Hill and Wang, 2005. pp44-65 (pdf on ilearn)

Excerpt from “The True Travels, Adventures and Observations of Captaine John Smith" from Captain John Smith, A selected Edition of his Writings (Chapell Hill, 1988) (pdf on ilearn)

Chapter 2, "Native America, Thunderheart, and the National Imaginary”, in Robert Burgoyne, Film Nation: Hollywood Looks at US. History (Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1997), pp. 38-56.

Additional Reading 

Burgoyne, Robert. “The Columbian Exchange: Pocahontas and The New World.” Film Nation: Hollywood Looks at U.S. History, Revised Edition, NED - New edition, Revised ed., University of Minnesota Press, 2010, pp. 120–142, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctttsrts.11.

Jill Lepore, Four centuries on, the battles over John Smith and Jamestown still rage, The New Yorker, April 2, 2007 https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/04/02/our-town

Michael Trainer, Translating Values: Mercantilism and the Many “Biographies” of Pocahontas, Biography, 1 January 2009, Vol.32(1), pp.128-136

Historical realism and imperialist nostalgia in Terrence Malick's The New World, The Mississippi Quarterly, Wntr, 2012, Vol.65(1), p.139(17)

3. March 16 2018

 

access to via the EduTv

John Adams: Join Or Die - Ep 1 of 7(Tom Hooper, 2009) 

 

 

Revolutionary America

Part 1: The politics of remembering and forgetting a popular uprising and revolutionary war.

Part 2: Creating the Republic: the Founding Father on film

Hollywood has presented the American Revolution according to the generic conventions of a war film or a courtroom-styled drama. Historians understand the American Revolution  as a decades long transition from colony to republic.  This lecture unpacks the mythology by considering the forgotten stories of the Revolutionary War and the creation of the founding documents.

 

 

 

 

 

Group 1 presentation: John Adams: Join or Die, Ep 1 of 7

Readings:

John Adams. Dir. by Tom HooperJournal of American History, 12/01/2008, Vol.95(3), pp.937-940

Jeremy A. Stern, What's Inaccurate About the New HBO Series on John Adams, History News Network,

Jack Rakove Sorry, HBO. John Adams Wasn't That Much of a Hero, Washington Post, April 20, 2008

Jean Edward Smith, "John Adams by David McCullough” in  Political Science Quarterly, vol. 117, no. 1, 2002, pp. 130–132, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/798099.

How Long Have Facts Been Stubborn Things? http://boston1775.blogspot.com.au/2017/12/how-long-have-facts-been-stubborn-things.html

Primary Sources

Dunsmore Proclamation http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h42.html

Declaration of Independence http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.html

Comparison between rough reported and engrossed versions of DoI http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/compare.html

Jefferson’s “Rough Draft” https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/ruffdrft.html

The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript

Federalist Papers https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1404/1404-h/1404-h.htm

FEDERALIST No. 45. The Alleged Danger From the Powers of the Union to the State Governments

4. March 23 2018

access to via the EduTv

12 Years A Slave 12 Years A Slave (Steve McQueen, 2014)

and (if you’re really keen)

How the West was Won, (John Ford et al, 1962)

 

The Jacksonian Era: Along the Western and Southern Frontier

Part 1: How the West was Won, Part 1: Indian removal, canal building and the spirit of Davy Crockett.  

Part 2: Planting King Cotton. Cherokee expulsion, Georgia land lotteries and Virginia slaves.

Films such as How the West was Won have imagined the frontier as a western phenomena, and imbued pioneers with a particular set of individual virtues. This lecture compares cinematic representations with the implementation of Federal government policies to clear and resettle the land.

Group 2 presentation: 12 Years a Slave

Readings:

12 Years a Slave Review,  Journal of American History, Volume 101, Issue 1, 1 June 2014, Pages 357–360, https://doi-org.simsrad.net.ocs.mq.edu.au/10.1093/jahist/jau268

Film Roundtable: 12 Years a SlaveCivil War History, 2014, Vol.60(3), pp.310-336

Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New York, Electronic Edition. http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/northup/northup.html

Michael Roy, Cheap Editions, Little Books, and Handsome Duodecimos: A Book History Approach to Antebellum Slave NarrativesMELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, 2015, 40(3), pp.69-93

Slavery on screen Dissent, 2017, Vol.64(2), p.16(5)

Primary Sources 

Text of Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/fugitive.asp

April 24, 1851 poster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugitive_Slave_Act_of_1850#/media/File:Slave_kidnap_post_1851_boston.jpg

Frederick Douglass - ‎1852 What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? www.masshumanities.org/files/programs/douglass/speech_abridged_med.pdf

5. March 30 2018

RECESS WEEK

No lecture

No Tutorial

6. April 06, 2018

Gone with the wind (Victor Fleming, 1939)

and (if you’re really keen)

Birth of A Nation (DW Griffiths, 1915)

The Plantation, Confederate and (un)Reconstructed South

Part 1: Southern Belles, the Minstrel Show and Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Georgia before, during and after the Sherman’s March.

Part 2: Tales of the Reconstruction: black male enfranchisement, the Lost Cause and the Dunning School of History.

The South and the Civil War have been a richly imagined place in cinema, characterised by exaggerations, omissions and silences. This lecture considers the relationship between Hollywood and the revisionist histories of the Dunning School with particular reference to Gone With the Wind, Birth of a Nation and representations of Uncle Tom.

 

 

 

 

Group 3 Presentation: Gone With The Wind

Readings:

Intro: "Growth of A Mythology", pp. 3-32 and "The South As National Epic 1939-1941: Gone With the Wind”, pp.118-140 in Edward D.C. Campbell, Jr.The Celluloid South : Hollywood and the Southern Myth,  (Knoxville : University of Tennessee Press, c1981). (pdfs on iLearn)

History lessons from Gone with the Wind, The Mississippi Quarterly, 2014, Vol.67(1), p.99(27)

L Leff, J Leonard, Gone with the Wind and Hollywood's Racial PoliticsThe Atlantic Monthly, 1999, Vol.284(6), pp.106-10

Kyle Smith, Gone with the Wind, Soon to Be Gone with the Wind?, The Nation, August 30, 2017 http://www.nationalreview.com/article/450942/gone-wind-slavery-theme-may-doom-its-future-shouldnt

Ed Kilgore, Yes, Gone With the Wind Is Another Neo-Confederate Monument, New York Magazine, August 30, 2017 http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/08/yes-gone-with-the-wind-is-another-neo-confederate-monument.html

W. Todd Groce , Disunion: Rethinking Sherman’s March, New York Times, November 17, 2014 https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/17/rethinking-shermans-march/

Primary Documents

Emancipation Declaration https://www.loc.gov/resource/lprbscsm.scsm1016/

13th Amendment https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/amendments-11-27

Elizabeth Otto Daniell,  The Ashburn Murder Case In Georgia Reconstruction, 1868 The Georgia Historical Quarterly, 1 October 1975, Vol.59(3), pp.296-312 http://www.jstor.org.simsrad.net.ocs.mq.edu.au/stable/40580188?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents  [This is a scholarly article from 1975 but I would like you to consider it as a primary source within the context of the Lost Cause. Compare with Wikipedia entry for George W. Ashburn]

Radical Rule; Military Outrage in Georgia: Arrest of Columbus Prisoners, 1868, pp 3-14 https://archive.org/details/radicalrulemili00unkngoog

7. March 13, 2018

Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992)

and (if you’re really keen)

access to via the EduTv

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007) 

 

How the West was Spun: The Classic and Revisionist Western

 

The Western is one of Hollywood’s most enduring genres, characterised by a heroic classical period followed by a morally ambiguous revisionist period. Both dwell on the relationship between landscape, the preservation of order in the face of lawlessness and masculinity. This lecture will compare the policies, rhetoric and events propelling Western expansion after the Civil War and its depiction in popular culture and motion pictures with a focus on the Indian Wars, Wild West Shows, dime novels, manifest destiny and the life and representation of Jesse James.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Group 4 Presentation: Unforgiven

Readings

Philip J. Deloris, Review: Unforgiven, The American Historical Review Vol. 100, No. 4 (Oct., 1995), pp. 1194-1198, www.jstor.org/stable/2168208.

Cloutier, Jean-Christophe, “A Country for Old Men: ‘Unforgiven’, ‘The Shootist’, and the Post-Heyday Western.” Cinema Journal, vol. 51, no. 4, 2012, pp. 110–129. www.jstor.org/stable/23253579.

Jennifer Vanasco, "Dime Westerns", The University of Chicago Chronicle, April 17, 1997,16:15 http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/970417/westerns.shtml

Jill Lepore, "WESTWARD HO!" The New Yorker, 9 Oct. 2006, p.76.  http://link.galegroup.com.simsrad.net.ocs.mq.edu.au/apps/doc/A152533114/EAIM?u=macquarie&sid=EAIM&xid=7e6735ef.

Primary Sources:

Ch 1 The Significance of the Frontier in American History; Ch 11 The West and American Ideals in Frederick Jackson Turner,  The Frontier in American History, 1893, Electronic Edition http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/TURNER/home.html

Adventures of Buffalo Bill from Boyhood to Manhood in Dime Novels and Story Paper Collection, Stanford University. http://web.stanford.edu/dept/SUL/library/prod/depts/dp/pennies/texts/ingraham1_toc.html and http://web.stanford.edu/dept/SUL/library/prod/depts/dp/pennies/time.html

W. B. Lawson, Jesse James, the Outlaw: A Narrative of the James Boys,  (New York: Street and Smith, 1901) http://web.stanford.edu/dept/SUL/library/prod/depts/dp/pennies/texts/lawson_toc.html

8. April 20, 2018

Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) 

 

Visions of the Progressive Era

Part 1: Imperial Ambitions, Eugenic Anxieties, Fake News and the Spanish American War

Part 2: The rise of commodified leisure: cheap entertainments for the working class.

The Progressive Era was a time of soaring national confidence coupled with anxieties about white racial degeneration. The period marked both the emergence of African American music as the defining national sound and the institutionalisation of racial segregation. This lecture unpacks cinematic representations of the Progressive Era to explore how the rise of yellow journalism, the cult of frontier primitivism and the pseudo-science of eugenics, and the emergence of the mass media gave shape to American imperial ambitions.

 

Group 5 Presentation: Citizen Kane

Readings:

Sarah Street, "Citizen Kane", History Today, 46:3 March 1996, http://www.historytoday.com/sarah-street/citizen-kane

Peter Bradshaw, "Citizen Kane and the meaning of Rosebud”, The Guardian, April 25 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/apr/25/citizen-kane-rosebud

SECTION 2 i.e. pp 378 —385  of Robert L. Carringer, "The Scripts of Citizen Kane", Critical Inquiry, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Winter, 1978), pp. 369-400 http://www.jstor.org/stable/1343018.  [note: The first scripts of Citizen Kane were titled America.]

Robin Bates and Scott Bates, Fiery Speech in a World of Shadows: Rosebud's Impact on Early Audiences, Cinema Journal, Vol. 26, No. 2 (Winter, 1987), pp. 3-26, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1225336

The Battle Over Citizen Kane, 1996 Documentary [Excerpt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQI1s8LE9_E

Sharon Gravett, "Will the "Real" William Randolph Hearst Please Stand Up? Jo Stoyte Versus Charles Foster Kane”Studies in Popular Culture, 1 April 1999, Vol.21(3), pp.23-36

CHAPTER 5 Theodore Roosevelt: Manhood, Nation, and "Civilization" in Gail Lederman, Manliness & civilization: a cultural history of gender and race in the United States, 1880-1917, pp170-218 https://quod-lib-umich-edu.simsrad.net.ocs.mq.edu.au/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=acls;idno=heb02528.0001.001

Primary Sources:

William Randolph Heart’s New York Journal front pages 1898

“How long will the Republic last?” in David Starr Jordan, Human Harvest: A Study of the Decay of Races Through the Survival of the Unfit, 1907, pp 115- 122, https://archive.org/details/humanharvestast01jordgoog

9. April 27, 2018

The Godfather: Part II (Francis Ford Copolla, 1974)

and (if you’re really keen)

The Grapes of Wrath, (John Ford, 1940)

Working class interwar USA

Part 1: American dreaming: melting pot of the world.

Immigrants powered America’s economic powerhouse and created vast urban melting pots that transformed northern cities and roused anxieties about organised crime, the white slave trade and opium addiction. By drawing on cinematic depictions, this lecture examine a range of migrant experience, from China to Russia and Mexico, as well as chronicle anti-immigration efforts that led to the restrictive Immigration Act of 1924.

Part 2: Social Realism, the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression

Hollywood films have been ambivalent about the white rural poor, sometimes ennobling their struggle, other times denouncing them as “white trash”. John Ford’s 1940 film The Grapes of Wrath provides an entry point an examination of competing class critiques and the aesthetics of social realism.

 

 

Group 6 Presentation: The Godfather, Part II

Quart, Leonard, and Albert Auster. Reviewed Work: the godfather part II by Francis Ford Coppola.” Cinéaste, vol. 6, no. 4, 1975, pp. 38–39. , www.jstor.org/stable/41685753.

Manhole Dargis, “Dark Side of the Dream” Sight and Sound, Aug 01,1995 http://simsrad.net.ocs.mq.edu.au/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.simsrad.net.ocs.mq.edu.au/docview/1305520253?accountid=12219.

Silvia Dibeltulo, Family, Gang and Ethnicity in Italian-themed Hollywood Gangster Films, Film International, 12:4, 1 December 2014, pp. 25-43

Ch 6: "Nostalgia and Renewal in the Post-Classical Gangster Film" in Fran Mason, American Gangster Cinema, (New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), pp.120-140. pdf on iLearn

Hasian, Marouf A., Jr. (2000). Conserving the nation's "germplasm": Nativist discourse and the passage of the 1924 Immigration Restriction Act. The Legal Studies Forum, 24(1), 157-174.http://heinonline.org.simsrad.net.ocs.mq.edu.au/HOL/Page?public=false&handle=hein.journals/lstf24&page=157&collection=journals

Primary Documents

Ch 5: Migrations and Their Eugenic Significance pp 204- 224 in Charles B. Davenport, Heredity in Relation to Eugenics (New York: Henry Holt and Co, 1911), pp. 204-263 https://archive.org/details/heredityinrelati00dave

Prescott Hall, Immigration Restriction and World Eugenics, Journal of Heredity, 10, 3, 1919

Gangsters & Grifters, Nov. 17, 2014, Chicago Tribune http://galleries.apps.chicagotribune.com/chi-gangsters-grifters-chicago-crime-photos-20141112/

Meet 10 Depression-Era Photographers Who Captured the Struggle of Rural America, Smithsonian.com, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/meet-photographers-charged-documenting-depression-era-america-farm-security-administration-180964123/

10. May 4 2018 

Imitation of life (Douglas Sirk, 1959)

Constructing Femininity on Screen

Hollywood films have captured the shifting constructs of femininity. The lecture surveys the representation of women from the advent of motion pictures to mid 20th century, with particular reference to chaste Victorian maiden, the 1920s vamp, and the domestic goddess of the 1950s. The session will also consider the impact of class and race on characterisations, the social geography of gender and Hollywood’s reliance on female audiences. 

 

Group 7 Presentation: Imitation of Life

Readings:

Tag Gallagher, "White: Douglas Sirk”, Film Comment, 34:6 (NOV./DEC. 1998), pp.16-27, www.jstor.org.simsrad.net.ocs.mq.edu.au/stable/43454621

Heung, Marina, "What's the Matter with Sara Jane?": Daughters and Mothers in Douglas Sirk's "Imitation of Life" Cinema Journal, vol. 26, no. 3, 1987, pp. 21–43.

Bowdre, Karen M. “Passing Films and the Illusion of Racial Equality.” Black Camera, vol. 5, no. 2, 2014, pp. 21–43.  www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/blackcamera.5.2.21.

Chapter 2, "Mulattas, Tragedy, and Myth” in: Lisa M. Anderson, Mammies no more: the changing image of Black women on stage and screen, (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, c1997)  pdf on iLearn

Primary Documents

Excerpts from Chapter One, Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, 1957, https://www.lsrhs.net/departments/history/shenm/site/20th_classwork,_handouts_files/the%20feminine%20mystique%20(abridged).pdf

“American Women Today” pp 57 - 71 in American Women, the Report from the President's Commission on the Status of Women https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015042014178

Louis Menand, Books As Bombs: Why the women’s movement needed “The Feminine Mystique.”, New Yorker, January 24, 2011, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/01/24/books-as-bombs

bell hooks, 4 Big Problems With The Feminine Mystique

https://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/02/4-big-problems-with-the-feminine-mystique/273069/

Ch 1 Black Women: Shaping Feminist Theory, Feminist theory : from margin to center / Bell Hooks. 2nd ed., Cambridge, MA : South End Press, c2000, pp1-17

11. May 11, 2018

West Side Story (Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins, 1961)

Hot War, Cold War, Generation War

Part 1: Hot War, Cold War

This lecture will trace the shifting mood of the United States by comparing the heroic narratives of WW2 films with insidious and ludicrous tone of Cold War stories. The session will also examine the Red Scare in Hollywood, to reveal competing tensions between conservatism and liberalism.

Part 2: Generation War

This lecture will chronicle the emergence of the Cinematic Teenager, a figure both sanitised and demonised and an articulation of a series of wider hopes and anxieties. The session will also consider power of cinema to mobilise youth subcultures into social movements and a consumer demographic.

 

 

Tutorial: West Side Story

Readings:

Y. Zhu & D. Belgrad, "“This Cockeyed City Is THEIRS”: Youth at Play in the Dances of West Side Story", Journal of American Studies, 51(1), 67-91

 Julia L. Foulkes, “Seeing the City.” Journal of Urban History, vol. 41, no. 6, 2015, pp. 1032–1051.

Megan Woller, "This is Our Turf!: Puerto Rican youths in the 1961 film adaptation of West Side Story", Studies in Musical Theatre, 03/01/2014, Vol.8(1), pp.27-41

Lafontaine, David. “Inside West Side Story,” The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, vol. 24, no. 6, 2017, p. 22.

Preface to Second Edition xi — xxix in Anthony M. Platt, The Child Savers: The Invention of Delinquency, (1969; 1977)

Primary Documents

"Luckiest Generation" LIFE January 1954 pp27-29 https://books.google.com.au/books?id=i0gEAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=" (scroll through to article noting mix of topics and imagery)

Juvenile Delinquency in North America, The Lancet, 262:6787, 26 September 1953, Pages 672-673 https://www-sciencedirect-com.simsrad.net.ocs.mq.edu.au/science/article/pii/S0140673653903924

Comic Books and Juvenile Deliquency, Interim Report of the Committee on the judiciary pursuant to S. Res. 89 and S. Res. 190 (83d Cong. 1st Sess.) - (83d Cong. 2d Sess., A Part of the Investigation of Juvenile Delinquency in the United States https://web.archive.org/web/20091027160127/http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8580/kefauver.html

Fredric Wertham, Seduction of the innocent, (Rinehart New York, 1954)

12. May 25, 2018

access to via the EduTv

L.A. Confidential,(Curtis Hansen, 1997)

Screening the Criminal Justice System

America’s murder rate has been exceptional. So too the layers of jurisdiction that constitute the criminal justice system has created a uniquely complex system marked by gaps and boundaries. From county police to private detectives to the FBI, crime investigation, police procedurals and courtroom dramas have been a Hollywood staple. This lecture examines the relationship between the police and the cultural institutions that report and represent them, with particular reference to constructions of “the city" and tabloid newspaper “crime of the century” melodramas.

 

 

Group 8 Presentation: LA Confidential

Elana Shefrin, “Le Noir Et Le Blanc: Hybrid Myths in Devil in a Blue Dress and L.A. Confidential.” Literature-Film Quarterly, vol. 33, no. 3, 2005, pp. 172–181.

Will Straw, “Urban confidential: The lurid city of the 1950s in David Clarke (ed) The Cinematic City, (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp.113-130 pdf on iLearn

Edward Sankowski, , Film, Crime, and State Legitimacy: Political Education or Mis-Education? Journal of Aesthetic Education, vol. 36, no. 1, 2002, pp. 1–15.

JL Gustafson, A descriptive analysis of police corruption in filmJournal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 14(2), 2007. 161 -175

Professor Douglas O. Linder, Famous Trials: The Confidential Magazine Trial: An Account, http://famous-trials.com/confidentialmagazine/2332-home

Primary Documents

Hush Hush Magazine 1 https://archive.org/details/hush-hush-v7n36-1961-09-hhmaginc

Dragnet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7pn5V_b064&list=PL5q8VRGX_yLIDj-WwthUSxp4KO02E08zz

13. June 1, 2018

Malcolm X (Spike Lee, 2000)

and (if you’re really keen)

access to via the EduTv

Selma  (Ava DuVernay, 2014)

Televising the Civil Rights and Black Power movement

Network Television and the Civil Rights Movement both gained traction in the 1950s and reconfigured American social in the 1960s, often working in close tandem. Georgia Congressman John Lewis,  a former civil rights leader and Freedom Rider, is quoted as saying "If it hadn't been for the media--the print media and television--the civil rights movement would have been like a bird without wings, a choir without a song.” This lecture compares the network media’s broad sympathy for the civil rights movement in the south with their alarmist coverage of the urban riots and black power movement in the North. The session will also survey a range of cinematic depictions of the black urban experience.

 

Group 9 Presentation: Malcolm X

Thomas Doherty, Malcolm X: In Print, on Screen, Biography, 2000, Vol.23(1), pp.29-48

D. Quentin Miller, Lost and…Found?: James Baldwin’s Script and Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, African American Review, 2013, Vol.46(4), pp.671-685

Kristen Hoerl, Cinematic Jujitsu: Resisting White Hegemony through the American Dream in Spike Lee's Malcolm XCommunication Studies, 21 November 2008, Vol.59(4), p.355-370 

Brian Norman, Ch3 "Bringing Malcolm X to Hollywood”, pp. 39-50 & Ch 14 William W. Sales, Jr., "The legacy of Malcolm X”, pp 171-184  in R. Terrill (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Malcolm X, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2010)

David Redneck, "The making and remaking of Malcolm X", The New Yorker, April 25, 2011 https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/04/25/this-american-life

Primary Documents

"How Mike Wallace introduced Malcolm X to America”, Washington Post featuring an interview with Malcolm X from The Hate That Hate Produced (Newsbeat/PBS 1959) https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/how-mike-wallace-introduced-malcolm-x-to-america/2015/02/19/4905e478-b88d-11e4-bc30-a4e75503948a_video.html?utm_term=.c79a30d0b110

The Hate That Hate Produced, Part 1 (Newsbeat/PBS 1959) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdrE5LC9NtY

March on Washington - 1963, Universal News, Today in History, AP Archive, 28 Aug 2016  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlMQ4Sa8iYU

1966 CBS News Special Report: “Black Power/White Backlash" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlrRFqWah00

Cointelpro — Overview https://vault.fbi.gov/cointel-pro

Cointelpro — Black Extremists https://vault.fbi.gov/cointel-pro/cointel-pro-black-extremists

14. June 8, 2018

Platoon (Oliver Stone, 1987)

and (if your really keen)

Tropic Thunder (Ben Stiller, 2008)

OR 

All the President's Men  (Alan J. Pakula 1976)

Projecting Paranoia and the Catharsis of Comedy 

Part 1: Conspiratorial Visions: the cinema of paranoia in postwar America

Commentators hail Watergate as a milestone in the history of conspiracy theories. A once largely left wing obsession about the reach of the CIA have, more recently, informed right wing anxieties about the Deep State. Conspiracies make for gripping cinema and this lecture will plum the murky depths of American paranoia about the abuse of power and the surveillance state.

Part 2: Comic Visions: political commentary or relief therapy? 

A survey of comedic cinematic moments that offer a commentary on the political process or grapple with the paradoxes of American society and the double vision of the post-modern experience.

 

 

 

 

 

Group 10 Presentation: Platoon

Oliver Gruner, "Vietnam and beyond: rethinking Oliver Stone's Platoon", Rethinking History, 16:3, 2012

James M. Carter (ed),  Inventing Vietnam : the United States and State Building, 1954-1968, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), pp153-165 and 251-267 pdf on ilearn

Linda Dittmar and Gene Michaud (eds), From Hanoi to Hollywood : the Vietnam War in American film, (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990), pp171-174 and 226-235 pdf on ilearn

Richard Corliss, "Platoon: Viet Nam, the way it really was, on film", Time Magazine, Jan 26, 1987 pdf on iLearn

Cindy Fuchs, "Reviewed Work: How the War Was Remembered: Hollywood and Vietnam by Albert Auster, Leonard Quart", Cinéaste, 17: 2 (1989), pp. 58-59

Additional Reading

Dana Healy, "From Triumph to Tragedy: Visualizing War in Vietnamese Film and Fiction", South East Asia Research, 2010, 18:2, pp.325-347

Milton J. Bates, "Oliver Stone's "Platoon" and the Politics of Romance", Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature, 1 March 1994, 27:1, pp.101-121

Paul Williams, ‘What A Bummer for the Gooks’: representations of white American masculinity and the Vietnamese in the Vietnam War film genre 1977–87 , European Journal of American Culture, 10/01/2003, 22(3), pp.215-234

Primary Documents

Interview with Carl Bernstein -- Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr.: The Limits of Journalistic Investigation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX3qOQ9ldek

JFK Assassination Records: Warren Commission Report: Table of Contents https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report

“The Warren Commission Report” (1964 NBC-TV SPECIAL) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK33PPc8P5Q

Research Our Records > Pentagon Papers, National Archives https://www.archives.gov/research/pentagon-papers

Background to Pentagon Papers

Norah Chokshi, Behind the Race to Publish the Top-Secret Pentagon Papers, New York Time, Dec 20, 2017 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/us/pentagon-papers-post.html

Dana Priest, “Did the Pentagon Papers matter?”, Columbia Journalism ReviewSpring 2016 https://www.cjr.org/the_feature/did_the_pentagon_papers_matter.php

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policy-central). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Undergraduate students seeking more policy resources can visit the Student Policy Gateway (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/student-policy-gateway). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.

If you would like to see all the policies relevant to Learning and Teaching visit Policy Central (https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policy-central).

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/study/getting-started/student-conduct​

Results

Results shown in iLearn, or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au.

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

Learning Skills

Learning Skills (mq.edu.au/learningskills) provides academic writing resources and study strategies to improve your marks and take control of your study.

Student Services and Support

Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.

Student Enquiries

For all student enquiries, visit Student Connect at ask.mq.edu.au

IT Help

For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/

When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.

Graduate Capabilities

Creative and Innovative

Our graduates will also be capable of creative thinking and of creating knowledge. They will be imaginative and open to experience and capable of innovation at work and in the community. We want them to be engaged in applying their critical, creative thinking.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Appreciate and understand the major themes and issues in American history.
  • Critically analyse important themes and events in American history.
  • Reflect critically upon a variety of historical sources, including film.
  • Use a range of historical sources to construct a historical arguments.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the ways in which film functions as an important source of historical “knowledge" in the United States.
  • The course will offer students a comprehensive and well founded knowledge in the field of study furthering their ability to collect analyse and organise information and ideas to convey those ideas clearly and fluently, in both written and spoken forms; to select and use the appropriate level style and means of communication; to work and learn independently; to define and analyse problems; to apply critical reasoning to issues through independent thought an informed judgement; to evaluate opinions, make decisions and to reflect critically on the justification for decisions; to appreciate of the philosophical and social contexts of history.
  • Further students’ knowledge of other cultures and times and an appreciation of cultural diversity.

Assessment tasks

  • Tutorial Presentation
  • Journal Entry 1
  • Journal Entry 2
  • Major research essay
  • Journal Entry 3
  • Journal Entry 4
  • Tutorial attendance

Capable of Professional and Personal Judgement and Initiative

We want our graduates to have emotional intelligence and sound interpersonal skills and to demonstrate discernment and common sense in their professional and personal judgement. They will exercise initiative as needed. They will be capable of risk assessment, and be able to handle ambiguity and complexity, enabling them to be adaptable in diverse and changing environments.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcome

  • The course will offer students a comprehensive and well founded knowledge in the field of study furthering their ability to collect analyse and organise information and ideas to convey those ideas clearly and fluently, in both written and spoken forms; to select and use the appropriate level style and means of communication; to work and learn independently; to define and analyse problems; to apply critical reasoning to issues through independent thought an informed judgement; to evaluate opinions, make decisions and to reflect critically on the justification for decisions; to appreciate of the philosophical and social contexts of history.

Assessment tasks

  • Journal Entry 1
  • Journal Entry 2
  • Major research essay
  • Journal Entry 3
  • Journal Entry 4
  • Tutorial attendance

Commitment to Continuous Learning

Our graduates will have enquiring minds and a literate curiosity which will lead them to pursue knowledge for its own sake. They will continue to pursue learning in their careers and as they participate in the world. They will be capable of reflecting on their experiences and relationships with others and the environment, learning from them, and growing - personally, professionally and socially.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Appreciate and understand the major themes and issues in American history.
  • Critically analyse important themes and events in American history.
  • Reflect critically upon a variety of historical sources, including film.
  • The course will offer students a comprehensive and well founded knowledge in the field of study furthering their ability to collect analyse and organise information and ideas to convey those ideas clearly and fluently, in both written and spoken forms; to select and use the appropriate level style and means of communication; to work and learn independently; to define and analyse problems; to apply critical reasoning to issues through independent thought an informed judgement; to evaluate opinions, make decisions and to reflect critically on the justification for decisions; to appreciate of the philosophical and social contexts of history.

Assessment tasks

  • Tutorial Presentation
  • Journal Entry 1
  • Journal Entry 2
  • Major research essay
  • Journal Entry 3
  • Journal Entry 4
  • Tutorial attendance

Discipline Specific Knowledge and Skills

Our graduates will take with them the intellectual development, depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content in their chosen fields to make them competent and confident in their subject or profession. They will be able to demonstrate, where relevant, professional technical competence and meet professional standards. They will be able to articulate the structure of knowledge of their discipline, be able to adapt discipline-specific knowledge to novel situations, and be able to contribute from their discipline to inter-disciplinary solutions to problems.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Appreciate and understand the major themes and issues in American history.
  • Critically analyse important themes and events in American history.
  • Reflect critically upon a variety of historical sources, including film.
  • Use a range of historical sources to construct a historical arguments.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the ways in which film functions as an important source of historical “knowledge" in the United States.
  • The course will offer students a comprehensive and well founded knowledge in the field of study furthering their ability to collect analyse and organise information and ideas to convey those ideas clearly and fluently, in both written and spoken forms; to select and use the appropriate level style and means of communication; to work and learn independently; to define and analyse problems; to apply critical reasoning to issues through independent thought an informed judgement; to evaluate opinions, make decisions and to reflect critically on the justification for decisions; to appreciate of the philosophical and social contexts of history.
  • Further students’ knowledge of other cultures and times and an appreciation of cultural diversity.

Assessment tasks

  • Tutorial Presentation
  • Journal Entry 1
  • Journal Entry 2
  • Major research essay
  • Journal Entry 3
  • Journal Entry 4
  • Tutorial attendance

Critical, Analytical and Integrative Thinking

We want our graduates to be capable of reasoning, questioning and analysing, and to integrate and synthesise learning and knowledge from a range of sources and environments; to be able to critique constraints, assumptions and limitations; to be able to think independently and systemically in relation to scholarly activity, in the workplace, and in the world. We want them to have a level of scientific and information technology literacy.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Appreciate and understand the major themes and issues in American history.
  • Critically analyse important themes and events in American history.
  • Reflect critically upon a variety of historical sources, including film.
  • Use a range of historical sources to construct a historical arguments.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the ways in which film functions as an important source of historical “knowledge" in the United States.
  • The course will offer students a comprehensive and well founded knowledge in the field of study furthering their ability to collect analyse and organise information and ideas to convey those ideas clearly and fluently, in both written and spoken forms; to select and use the appropriate level style and means of communication; to work and learn independently; to define and analyse problems; to apply critical reasoning to issues through independent thought an informed judgement; to evaluate opinions, make decisions and to reflect critically on the justification for decisions; to appreciate of the philosophical and social contexts of history.
  • Further students’ knowledge of other cultures and times and an appreciation of cultural diversity.

Assessment tasks

  • Tutorial Presentation
  • Journal Entry 1
  • Journal Entry 2
  • Major research essay
  • Journal Entry 3
  • Journal Entry 4
  • Tutorial attendance

Problem Solving and Research Capability

Our graduates should be capable of researching; of analysing, and interpreting and assessing data and information in various forms; of drawing connections across fields of knowledge; and they should be able to relate their knowledge to complex situations at work or in the world, in order to diagnose and solve problems. We want them to have the confidence to take the initiative in doing so, within an awareness of their own limitations.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Appreciate and understand the major themes and issues in American history.
  • Critically analyse important themes and events in American history.
  • Reflect critically upon a variety of historical sources, including film.
  • Use a range of historical sources to construct a historical arguments.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the ways in which film functions as an important source of historical “knowledge" in the United States.
  • The course will offer students a comprehensive and well founded knowledge in the field of study furthering their ability to collect analyse and organise information and ideas to convey those ideas clearly and fluently, in both written and spoken forms; to select and use the appropriate level style and means of communication; to work and learn independently; to define and analyse problems; to apply critical reasoning to issues through independent thought an informed judgement; to evaluate opinions, make decisions and to reflect critically on the justification for decisions; to appreciate of the philosophical and social contexts of history.
  • Further students’ knowledge of other cultures and times and an appreciation of cultural diversity.

Assessment tasks

  • Tutorial Presentation
  • Journal Entry 1
  • Journal Entry 2
  • Major research essay
  • Journal Entry 3
  • Journal Entry 4
  • Tutorial attendance

Effective Communication

We want to develop in our students the ability to communicate and convey their views in forms effective with different audiences. We want our graduates to take with them the capability to read, listen, question, gather and evaluate information resources in a variety of formats, assess, write clearly, speak effectively, and to use visual communication and communication technologies as appropriate.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Appreciate and understand the major themes and issues in American history.
  • Critically analyse important themes and events in American history.
  • Reflect critically upon a variety of historical sources, including film.
  • Use a range of historical sources to construct a historical arguments.
  • The course will offer students a comprehensive and well founded knowledge in the field of study furthering their ability to collect analyse and organise information and ideas to convey those ideas clearly and fluently, in both written and spoken forms; to select and use the appropriate level style and means of communication; to work and learn independently; to define and analyse problems; to apply critical reasoning to issues through independent thought an informed judgement; to evaluate opinions, make decisions and to reflect critically on the justification for decisions; to appreciate of the philosophical and social contexts of history.

Assessment tasks

  • Tutorial Presentation
  • Journal Entry 1
  • Journal Entry 2
  • Major research essay
  • Journal Entry 3
  • Journal Entry 4
  • Tutorial attendance

Engaged and Ethical Local and Global citizens

As local citizens our graduates will be aware of indigenous perspectives and of the nation's historical context. They will be engaged with the challenges of contemporary society and with knowledge and ideas. We want our graduates to have respect for diversity, to be open-minded, sensitive to others and inclusive, and to be open to other cultures and perspectives: they should have a level of cultural literacy. Our graduates should be aware of disadvantage and social justice, and be willing to participate to help create a wiser and better society.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcome

  • Further students’ knowledge and respect of ethics and ethical standards in relation to the study of history

Socially and Environmentally Active and Responsible

We want our graduates to be aware of and have respect for self and others; to be able to work with others as a leader and a team player; to have a sense of connectedness with others and country; and to have a sense of mutual obligation. Our graduates should be informed and active participants in moving society towards sustainability.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcome

  • Further students’ knowledge of other cultures and times and an appreciation of cultural diversity.

Changes from Previous Offering

This is a new unit.

Changes since First Published

Date Description
19/02/2018 corrected typo
12/02/2018 Edits were required. Beth Saunders