300-400 level courses are on special topics and are more advanced. They often presuppose some basic knowledge in the field and should be more difficult courses than courses at the 1-199 levels. The department is trying to insure that some 400 level courses, although substantially more difficult, are also small in size; they thus may be suitable for graduate students.
HIST 443 American National Character
Taught as schedule allows (consult the Course Directory)
Who ARE the Americans, anyway? And are they still what they once were? The course will consider some classic and modern theories of American identity. It will address some allegedly quintessential expressions of this elusive, perhaps essential idea, in Puritanism, Jefferson, Franklin, and Whitman. And it will examine contemporary West Philadelphia to see if the old characterizations still apply in a new day (or ever did apply outside small-town American among affluent white males). Work in, and observation of, a local school will be an integral part of the course.
Course Syllabus (PDF)
