Pandemics, Power, & Propaganda in American Culture

3 units

The features of our crisis moment - multiple global conflicts, a raging pandemic, contested elections, foreign and domestic influence campaigns, protests for justice reform, political tribalism, and the platforms which foster and augment the potency and reach of mis- and dis-information - are current iterations of historical moments when definitions of what is true and real were sites of bitter political and cultural contestation. We will look at historical moments of national crises to understand how information and the act of informing a citizenry are the crucible, lever, and bludgeon for propagating control of master narratives that define cultural imaginations then and now. By engaging with periods of uncertainty and fear in the American experience, we will seek parallels with those who struggled to differentiate truth from propaganda when maintaining order and control was a central governmental priority. Disciplinary texts will draw from history, communication studies, sociology, American studies, technology studies, and political science. Using online archives, students will read widely from primary materials that, together with disciplinary readings, offers insight on how people wrestled with and resisted the mediations of state (and non-state) power to define enemies, allies, criminals, and those worthy of justice.