3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

This course will examine twentieth century American history through the lens of the Harlem Renaissance, probing the music, literature, theatre, film, and other visual arts of that era for the key themes and messages that would profoundly influence the twentieth century civil rights movement and radically transform the cultural, social, and political landscape of post-slavery America. This course intends to "humanize" American history by exposing students to a uniquely powerful artistic movement through which ordinary people gave expression to their personal experience of key historical events as witnesses, participants, and agents of change. It is anticipated that the integration of cultural material into the analysis of historical facts will awaken students to dimensions of America's racial past not previously explored and provide a platform from which they may engage in critical and constructive analysis of the sociopolitical landscape of twenty-first America.