The FBI: A Legal & Cultural History

3 credits

Fulfills US History requirement for History Majors.This course will examine the history of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, from its creation out of the Secret Service in 1908 to the present. It will tell the story of the Bureau by combining the foci of significant legal cases with the cultural indicators that either pushed FBI expansion or civil rights restriction.Legal cases under review include the Mann Act, the Dyer Act, the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, the Smith Act, the Rosenberg case, the PATRIOT Act and Operation Crossfire-Hurricane. The course will situate Bureau cases within pop culture, religion, media, and the movies.