Football and American History

Course explores the popularity of football in American history and asks, "Why has the game mattered so much in this country?" We will also use the story of football to explore many of the larger storylines and controversies in this nation's past. We will focus on the class origins of college and professional football; racial prejudice, exclusion, and integration in the game; football and the evolving ideas about masculinity and womanhood; the role of the game in the promotion of a vigorous national identity; and the use of football stadiums as spaces to both legitimize and protest the political order.