Martin Luther King, Jr. (Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.)
Instructor(s)
Prof. Christopher Capozzola
Louise Harrison Lepera
(Writing Tutor)
MIT Course Number
21H.105
As Taught In
Fall 2002
Level
Undergraduate
Course Description
Course Description
"What then is the American, this new man?" asked J. Hector St-John de Crèvecoeur in his Letters from an American Farmer in 1782. This subject takes Crèvecoeur's question as the starting point for an examination of the changing meanings of national identity in the American past. We will consider a diverse collection of classic texts in American history to see how Americans have defined themselves and their nation in politics, literature, art, and popular culture. As a communications-intensive subject, students will be expected to engage intensively with the material through frequent oral and written exercises.