As part of its ongoing programs in digital scholarship and the cyberinfrastructure to support teaching, learning and research, the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) held a symposium on September 15, 2008 in which a group of some 30 leading scholars was invited to…

A professor who teaches an American Studies course at the University of Idaho contends that she has her work cut out for her. According to the professor, Idaho's conservative political climate has led to her learning to negotiate. This paper first describes the development of an American Studies core course that began in the 1980s and continues…

American stereographs of the late 19th and early 20th centuries are discussed in the context of the Victorian stylized stereotype of women which they so graphically capture. Stereograph cards and early motion pictures from the Library of Congress were the major sources studied. Stereograph cards were as ubiquitous in their time as television is…

In order to explore the nature of the black experience in the United States, this paper discusses the racial myths found in the Bible, science, and sociology, as well as the consequences of these myths. Pro-slavery forces have used ambiguous passages from the Bible to try to demonstrate that slavery is sanctioned by religion. A scientific theory…

The debate over whether the 50 states are meaningful units for macro-sociological research has mostly been conducted on the basis of deductive reasoning. Three sets of analyses that are intended to provide much needed empirical data on this issue were studied. The first set involved all variables in the "County and City Data Book" used…

As literature reveals both the connections of all the humanities and the continuity of Canadian life, it can provide the Canadian child with a means of fitting his private experiences into a broader context. These facts pose a challenge in creating a continuity between new high school introductory courses in Canadian literature and more advanced…

Although the American studies movement has gained widespread popularity within its 50 years of existence, it is still devoid of any controlling assumptions, models, and coherence. The intellectual disarray which has recently characterized the movement has encouraged one group of scholars, the "reflexionists," to examine the causes of that…

An approach to teaching American studies at a Southern institute of engineering technology is described. The curriculum of this school is technically oriented to the professional engineer. Elective humanities courses must attract their own market and justify their places to both the students and the faculty. Two courses entitled "Man and…

Since all American literature has been written or recounted by members of ethnic groups, teachers and scholars of American literature should concern themselves with an ethnic American literature. Although immigrants and their descendants have been culturally assimilated to varying degrees over a period of years, they have nonetheless remained…

The American Studies curriculum in institutions of higher education has traditionally neglected music. Many programs do not include music as a component, and often there is not a single course on U.S. music taught in the music department. The apparent lack of interest on the part of musicologists reflects an attitude that tends to denigrate the…

The value of a college-level interdisciplinary American studies curriculum is examined in this paper. American studies offers the student a chance to fashion a desirable course of study for himself from various disciplines. It can produce the goal of the best traditional liberal-arts curriculum--the educated imagination. In a time when academic…

Intended to engage students in a comparative look at local history in two upper Mississippi river towns (Winona, Minnesota and Dubuque, Iowa), this paper describes the computer-assisted component of an upper-level American Studies course. With emphasis on the 19th century, students examine the transition made by the United States from a…

The paper states that the fragmentary character of knowledge makes unified study of a subject such as American Studies an illusion. Two aspects of the interdisciplinary approach are discussed: (1) the failure of subject fields such as American Studies to accept the predicament in which modern scholarship finds itself; and (2) the homogenizing of…

This position paper explores American under-development in the area of policy formation concerning children and families. Three pressing problems believed to be faced by American children and their parents are presented and discussed. These are: (1) the depopulation of the family, said to be largely attributable to the changes, assumptions, and…

The study of popular music can be an effective method of examining social and cultural life. Popular music emphasizes the variety of human existence, goals, outlooks, and biases. A pervading theme in popular American music between 1959 and 1984 has been the theme of "America." Over 200 songs reflect personal, social, and political concerns about…