American Studies Summer Reading Assignment Read the basic course description of American Studies and use it as a basic philosophy/approach to complete your summer assignment. An interdisciplinary field, American Studies focuses its attention on U.S. culture and its relationship to the world beyond its borders. Established and dynamic, it brings together faculty and students from a wide variety of disciplines to promote an awareness of the complex cultural, political, and economic structures that have guided the history of the US and the Americas, from the first migrations across the “landbridge” of Siberia to the present day. American Studies has increasingly situated the United States in a global context, examining the ways in which the nation has been transformed – and how it has shaped other regions ­­ through the transnational flow of cultures, peoples, and institutional power across its boundaries. Our culture is full of simple and complex narratives that work in concert and in opposition of one another. These narratives (stories) help us understand the American culture. Stories also help us understand each other. You know many narratives (stories) about your closest friends. These stories, when put together, allow you to create an in­depth understanding of your friends. The same hold true for your understanding of American culture. The more narratives (stories) you hear, the more you understand the complexity of American culture. Your task​
is to explain whether or not you believe one of these narratives or stories to be accurate. And you will need to support your assessment by referencing several resources. Assess one of the following “American Narratives.” ●
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America is the land of the free, home of the brave. America is the land of opportunity for all. American is a “melting pot” of cultures. Your own observed narrative Basic Requirements ●
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One major ​
literary source​
(see list provided) One major ​
non­fiction text​
(see list for suggestions) Primary sources Various other secondary sources 2­3​
pieces of art (see list for suggestions) Works Cited (MLA format) Typed 3­4 pages (12 font 1” margins)(MLA Format) No fancy title/cover page necessary. All about the content! Need to include the friend analogy Literary Sources Classics (literary) Walden/Civil Disobedience Goodman Brown A Boy’s Will/North of Boston Narrative of Frederick Douglass, The Red Badge of Courage Occurrence at Owl Creek Billy Budd My Antonia Awakening, The O’ Pioneers Farewell to Arms, A Malcolm X Memories Obasan Brown Stone Brown Girl Catch 22 As I Lay Dying Life on the Mississippi The Jungle New Classics (literary) Joy Luck Club Secret Life of Bees, The Snow Angels The Things They Carried On the Road Drama (literary) Raisin in the Sun The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail Our Town Streetcar Named Desire, A Nonfiction In Cold Blood In the Heart of the Sea The Fifties Dancing in the Dark Silent Spring The Death and Life How the Other Half Lives The Right Stuff Revolutionary Mothers Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years Blood and Thunder Dead Weight Thoreau Hawthorn Frost Douglass Crane Bierce Melville Cather Chopin Cather Hemingway Malcolm X and Alex Haley Red Foxx Kogawa Marshall Joseph Heller William Fulkner Mark Twain Upton Sinclair Amy Tan Kidd O’Nan Tim O’Brien Jack Kerouac Hansberry Lawrence Wilder Williams Truman Capote Nathaniel Philbrick David Halberstam Morris Dickstein Rachel Carson Jane Jacobs Jacob Riis Tom Wolfe Carol Berkan Sarah and Elizabeth Delany Hampton Sides Eric Larson Into Thin Air Close to Shore Johnstown Flood River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey Jon Krakauer Michael Capuzzo McCullough Candice Millard Additional Resources http://www.archives.gov/
http://www.loc.gov/index.html
http://www.census.gov/
http://www.whitehouse.gov/
http://www.house.gov/
http://www.supremecourt.gov/
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/zinnapeopleshistory.html
http://collegeopentextbooks.org/opentextbookcontent/open-textbooks-by-subject/history
http://www.asanet.org/journals/asr/american_sociological_review.cfm#articles​
(need to make sure that the articles pertain to
‘American’ issues only)
http://www.asanet.org/journals/OnlineJournalAccess.cfm​
(online journals related to Sociological trends in the US)
http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/past/​
(exhibits featured at the Smithsonian Institute for American Art past and present)
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/contents.html​
(digital archive of American architectural trends)
http://www.history.com/shows/america-the-story-of-us​
(12 hours of fun documentary time! Also good for visual learning)
http://www.celf.ucla.edu/pages/working_papers2.php
http://www.npr.org/