21H.225
History of American Capitalism
Discussion-based seminar offering an introduction to the history of capitalism and a broad overview of debates concerning its impacts on social life, with a particular focus on the modern American experience. Examines the central position that the United States occupies in today's capitalist global system and the key role it has played in shaping both the development of capitalism and critical responses to its advance. Drawing on primary historical documents and secondary literature from multiple disciplines, students examine capitalism's historical relationship to race, class, gender, government, finance, technology, and the natural environment. Limited to 15.
Spring 2004 · Gender and the Law in U.S. History
Topics
- Introduction
- Women in the Early American Legal System
- Marriage, Consent, and Coercion
- From Sentiment to Suffrage
- Dangerous Women at the Turn of the Century
- Women and Prison
- Protecting Women, Regulating Men
- Race, Religion, and Adoption: One Story from Arizona
- Challenging “Jane Crow”
- Gender, Sexuality, and Disability
- Guest Lecture: Ellen Messer-Davidow
- Feminism and the Legal System, 1970s to the Present
- Conclusion
Readings
- Kerber, Linda K. No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1999, pp. xix-xxiv and 1-46. ISBN: 9780809073849.
- Dayton, Cornelia Hughes. “From Godly Rules to Lawerly Habits: Scenes from the New Haven Courtroom,” in Women Before the Bar: Gender, Law, and Society in Connecticut, 1639-1789. Chapel Hill, NY: University of North Carolina Press, 1995, pp. 15-68. ISBN: 9780807845615.
- Hoff, Joan. Law, Gender, and Injustice: A Legal History of U.S. Women. New York, NY: New York University Press, 1994, pp. 1-37. ISBN: 9780814735091.
- Flexner, Eleanor. Century of Struggle: The Woman’s Rights Movement in The United States, rev. ed. Cambridge, UK: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1975, pp. 71-77. ISBN: 9780674106512.
- Lerner, Gerda. “The Meanings of Seneca Falls: 1848-1998.” Dissent 45 (Fall 1998): 35-41.
- Dayton, Cornelia Hughes. “Taking the Trade: Abortion and Gender Relations in an Eighteenth-Century New England Village.” William and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser., 48 (January 1991): 19-49.
- DuBois, Ellen Carol. “Outgrowing the Compact of the Fathers: Equal Rights, Woman Suffrage, and the United States Constitution.” Journal of American History 74 (December 1987): 836-862.
- Limerick, Patricia Nelson. The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1987, pp. 280-289. ISBN: 9780393304978.
- Gordon, Sarah Barringer. The Mormon Question: Polygamy and Constitutional Change in Nineteenth-Century America. Chapel Hill, NY: University of North Carolina Press, 2001, pp. 1-15 and 119-238. ISBN: 9780807849873.
- Iverson, Joan. “Feminist Implications of Mormon Polygymy.” Feminist Studies 10 (Fall 1984): 505-522.
- Block, Sharon. “Lines of Color, Sex, and Service: Sexual Coercion in the Early Republic.” In Women’s America: Refocusing the Past . 5th ed., ed. Linda K. Kerber, and Jane Sherron DeHart. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 128-138. ISBN: 9780195121803.
- Cott, Nancy F. Public Vows: A History of Marriage and The Nation. Cambridge, UK: Harvard University Press, 2001, pp. 77-104. ISBN: 9780674003200.
- Kerber, Linda K. and Jane Sherron DeHart. “The Many Frontiers of Industrializing America, 1820-1880.” In Women’s America: Refocusing the Past . 5th ed., ed. Linda K. Kerber and Jane Sherron DeHart. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 121-124. ISBN: 9780195121803.
- Clark, Elizabeth B. “‘The Sacred Rights of the Weak’: Pain, Sympathy, and the Culture of Individual Rights in Antebellum America.” The Journal of American History 82 (September 1995): 463-493.
- DuBois, Ellen Carol. Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent Women’s Movement in America, 1848-1869 . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1978, pp. 53-78 and 162-202. ISBN: 9780801410437.
- Basch, Norma. “Reconstructing Female Citizenship: Minor v. Happersett. " In The Constitution, Law, and American Life: Critical Aspects of the Nineteenth-Century Experience . Edited by Donald G. Nieman. Athens, Greece: University of Georgia Press, 1992, pp. 52-66. ISBN: 9780820314037.
- Thürner, Manuela. “‘Better Citizens without the Ballot’: American Antisuffrage Women and Their Rationale during the Progressive Era.” Journal of Women’s History 5 (Spring 1993): 33-60.
- Kerber, Linda K. and Jane Sherron DeHart. “The Many Frontiers of Industrializing America, 1820-1880.” In Women’s America: Refocusing the Past . 5th ed., ed. Linda K. Kerber and Jane Sherron DeHart. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 263-266. ISBN: 9780195121803.
- Far, Sui Sin. Mrs. Spring Fragrance and Other Writings , ed. Amy Ling and Annette White-Parks. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1995, selected stories. ISBN: 9780252021336.
- Mohr, James C. “Abortion in America.” In Women’s America: Refocusing the Past . 5th ed., ed. Linda K. Kerber and Jane Sherron DeHart. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 183-192. ISBN: 9780195121803.
- Ross, Loretta J. “African-American Women and Abortion, 1800-1970.” In Theorizing Black Feminisms: The Visionary Pragmatism of Black Women. Edited by Stanlie M. James and Abena P. A. Busa. New York, NY: Routledge, 1993, pp. 141-159. ISBN: 9780415073363.
- Leuchtenburg, William E. “Mr. Justice Holmes and Three Generations of Imbeciles.” In The Supreme Court Reborn: The Constitutional Revolution in the Age of Roosevelt . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1995, pp. 3-25. ISBN: 9780195086133.
- Gould, Stephen J. “Carrie Buck’s Daughter.” In The Flamingo’s Smile: Reflections in Natural History. New York, NY: W. W. Norton, 1985, pp. 306-318. ISBN: 9780393022285.
- Lamb, Wally, et al. Couldn’t Keep It to Myself: Testimonies from Our Imprisoned Sisters. New York, NY: Harper, 2004, pp. xi-xiii, 1-63, 95-141, 185-209, and 267-349. ISBN: 9780060595371.
- Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Trans. Alan Sheridan. New York, NY: Pantheon, 1977, pp. 195-228. ISBN: 9780394499420.
- Davis, Angela Y. “Racialized Punishment and Prison Abolition.” In The Angela Y. Davis Reader. Edited by Joy James. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1998, pp. 96-107. ISBN: 9780631203605.
- Coyne, Amanda. “The Long Good-bye: Mother’s Day in Federal Prison.” Harper’s 294 (May 1997): 70-74.
- Woloch, Nancy. Muller v. Oregon: A Brief History with Documents (1996). Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press, 1996, pp. 1-150 and 185-189. ISBN: 9780312085865.
- Gordon, Linda. “What Is ‘Welfare’?” In Pitied but not Entitled: Single Mothers and the History of Welfare, 1890-1935. New York, NY: Free Press, 1994, pp. 1-13. ISBN: 9780029124857.
- Willrich, Michael. “Home Slackers: Men, the State, and Welfare in Modern America.” Journal of American History 72 (September 2000): 460-489.
- Gordon, Linda. The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction. Cambridge, UK: Harvard University Press, 2001, pp. tba. ISBN: 9780674005358.
- Pascoe, Peggy. “Ophelia Paquet, a Tillamook Indian Wife: Miscegenation Laws and the Privileges of Property.” In Women’s America: Refocusing the Past . 5th ed. Edited by Linda K. Kerber and Jane Sherron DeHart. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 278-283. ISBN: 9780195121803.
- Kennedy, Randall. “Race, Children, and Custody Battles: The Special Status of Native Americans.” In Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity, and Adoption . New York, NY: Pantheon, 2003, pp. 480-518. ISBN: 9780375402555.
- Kerber, Linda K., and Jane Sherron DeHart. “Modern America, 1920-2000.” In Women’s America: Refocusing the Past . 5th ed. Edited by Linda K. Kerber and Jane Sherron DeHart. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 373-376. ISBN: 9780195121803.
- Kerber, Linda K. No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1999, pp. 124-220 and 303-310. ISBN: 9780809073849.
- Glaspell, Susan. “A Jury of Her Peers.” In Lifted Masks and Other Works. Edited by Eric S. Rabkin. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1993, pp. 279-306. ISBN: 9780472095094.
- Gilmore, Glenda Elizabeth. “Admitting Pauli Murray.” Journal of Women’s History 14 (Summer 2002): 62-67.
- Rosenberg, Rosalind. “The Conjunction of Race and Gender.” Journal of Women’s History 14 (Summer 2002): 68-73.
- Hartmann, Susan M. “Pauli Murray and the ‘Juncture of Women’s Liberation and Black Liberation.’” Journal of Women’s History 14 (Summer 2002): 74-77.
- Bailey, Beth. “Sexual Revolution(s).” In The Sixties: From Memory to History . Edited by David Farber. Chapel Hill, NY: University of North Carolina Press, 1994, pp. 235-262. ISBN: 9780807821534.
- Allyn, David. “In Loco Parentis.” In Make Love, Not War: The Sexual Revolution, An Unfettered History. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 2000, pp. 93-107. ISBN: 9780316039307.
- SES #: 10 · TOPICS: Gender, Sexuality, and Disability · READINGS: Viewing
- Additional Readings
- Messer-Davidow, Ellen. “Rosenberger v. Rectors and Visitors of the University of Virginia: From Discourse and Dollars to Domination.” South Atlantic Quarterly 100 (Fall 2001): 869-895.
- Williams, Patricia. The Alchemy of Race and Rights: Diary of a Mad Law Professor. Cambridge, UK: Harvard University Press, 1992, pp. 1-51, 98-130, and 216-236. ISBN: 9780674014718.
- Faludi, Susan. “The Naked Citadel.” The New Yorker, September 5, 1994, 62-81.
- Mackinnon, Catharine A. “Sexual Harassment of Working Women: A Case of Sex Discrimination.” In Sexual Harassment: Issues and Answers. Edited by Linda LeMoncheck and James P. Sterba. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 42-49. ISBN: 9780195142990.
- Schultz, Vicki. “Sex Is the Least of It: Let’s Focus Harassment Law on Work, Not Sex.” In Sexual Harassment: Issues and Answers . Edited by Linda LeMoncheck and James P. Sterba. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 269-273. ISBN: 9780195142990.
- Talbot, Margaret. “Men Behaving Badly.” New York Times Magazine, October 13, 2002, 52ff.
- Gavora, Jessica. “Girl Power: Will Feminist Mau-Mauing Kill Title IX Reform?” National Review Online, January 31, 2003.
Prerequisites & course information
Same subject as 11.035[J] Prereq: None U (Spring) 2-0-10 units. HASS-H
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Spring 2004
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.