HIST 217 Resistance and the Politics of Style: U.S. Counter-Culture of the 1960s
The 1960s marks a watershed moment in American history, leading to a reexamination of everything from U.S. Foreign Policy (Vietnam and the Global South), to race (the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power), to gender ("second wave" Feminism) and sexuality ("Free Love"). Culture was central to this transformative moment, contributing to a "counter-culture" that made distinct claims on our politics and even our most private modes of social interaction. If the "personal is political"--as the 60s mantra would have it--then something as seemingly ephemeral as "style" becomes a mode of resistance. Style as resistance was expressed in everything from slang of the time (summed up in the ubiquitous epithet of "cool"), to the theater of protest (and its ubiquitous musical soundtrack), even to something as seemingly ephemeral as dress and hair. In the process, the counter-culture of the 60s sought to rethink the nature of desire, the boundaries between public and private, the "multiversity" and the objectives of higher education, the participation of women and "minorities" in society--and most especially, what it meant to be young. The focus of the course will be on the 1960s, but we will explore the ways in which culture, politics and history interact. In particular we will examine the nature of cultural politics--its confusions and limitations as well as its liberatory potential--as an arena to address the era's most pressing social concerns. Readings will include the seminal texts of the 1960s: "The Port Huron Statement, "The Feminine Mystique, The Autobiography of Malcolm X; along the cultural implications of some of its notable events such as the March on Washington, Woodstock and the violence at Altamont.