America's Culture Wars

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Why are Americans so divided today? What explains the fracture? Why do Americans seem to live in different worlds? Why do we see reality in such divergent ways? This course suggests we can find answers to these pressing questions in the so-called Culture Wars of the late twentieth century. In the wake of the social movements of the 1960s, Americans attempted to push culture in very different directions. Some wanted to continue a cultural revolution, whereas others sought to check the brakes on this project. As a result of the push and pull, a range of intense disputes took place in political, legal, and cultural realms. This course considers a wide range of cultural flashpoints: the rise of the religious right, the advent of queer theory, the growth of radical feminism, and the birth of critical race theory. It looks at debates over censorship and art, public mores and sexuality, gender and race, academic curriculum and decolonization. We study some of the period’s most provocative films, pieces of art, music videos, and public demonstrations. It studies events such as the AIDS crisis, the Rodney King Riots, Bill Clinton’s impeachment, and the Anita Hill hearings. It attempts to bring together a wide range of voices – conservative, liberal, secular, religious, radical, and mainstream. In the end, we will speculate if the Culture War is still raging, and how we as Americans might find commonalities in our differences, in the name of reviving our own democratic traditions.