This seminar is an introduction to some dimension of the history of a nation, region, people, culture, institution, or historical phenomenon selected by the respective instructor. Students will come to understand, and develop an appreciation for: the origins and evolution of the people, cultures, and/or political, economic, and/or social institutions of a particular region(s) of the world. They may explore how human encounters shaped individual and collective identities and the political, economic, and social orders of the region/nation/communities under study. Instructors prioritize critical reading, engaged participation, and focused writing assignments.

Human beings have rested, relaxed, recreated, and performed for one another throughout history, but the modern experience of leisure as a temporally distinct sphere of activity is a relatively recent phenomenon and the particular forms of commercial entertainment that dominate and define leisure in modern America reflect larger patterns of economic and cultural change and competing ideals of freedom, moral order, and the good life. This reading seminar explores the practices, spaces, and ideologies of both entertainment and leisure time in the history of the United States, focusing on the period between 1815 and 1945. We will pay particular attention to theater, musical performance, spectator sports, broadcast entertainment, and commercial nightlife over the course of that period. The course is designed to cultivate two quite different skills: 1. Close, slow reading at home of modern historical scholarship about the subject of leisure and entertainment. This should help prepare students to write theses relating to the history of labor, consumption, popular entertainment, religion, theater, spectator sports, and similar subjects of inquiry. It should also help students identify and assess the use of documentary evidence to make arguments, a skill that might be more broadly and enduringly useful. 2. Active group discussion, in which one’s own ideas become clarified (and sometimes revised) in relation to those of others. This too, is a valuable skill with applications in other classes, lines of work, aspects of our social and civil life. Requirements include a heavy reading load, active and thoughtful participation in every class session, 3 short written assignments (500 words each), and a longer final essay (2500-3000 words).

This seminar will be taught synchronously, via a combination of in-person and remote instruction. It will meet regularly during the scheduled class times, and students will need to attend those meetings to succeed in the class.

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Requirements class fulfills