This is NOT a course about "naked people," as BC MAGAZINE once described an
earlier version.  Instead, it is a course that combines conventional
historical topics with unconventional themes.  "Gender and Sexuality in
American History" examines how gender (the roles various societies assign to
men and women or what scholars call the "social construction" of masculinity
and femininity), and attitudes toward sexuality (sexual behavior)
influenced selected issues and events in American history. (These will
include the European "discovery" and settlement of America, the American
Revolution, the Civil War and Reconstruction, the rise of big business, the
Cold War, and recent political conservatism).  We'll consider the relevance
of issues that we often think of as "private" to political and economic
history.  We might find out, for example, that concerns about gender and
sexuality had quite a bit to do with the Founding Fathers' ideas about
American politics and government.  We will examine sources such as visual
images, songs, novels, and films in order to understand how Americans
themselves viewed the relationship between gender and sexuality, on one
hand, and political, social, and economic events, on the other.

You will be required to attend twice weekly lectures, to attend and
participate actively in weekly discussion sections, and to complete assigned
reading (and in some cases, viewing). You will complete VERY BRIEF ungraded
weekly writing assignments, and expand two of them into short, 3-5-page
papers.  You will also have a midterm and a final, both of which will be in
essay format.  All assignments will encourage you to connect issues
presented in lecture to readings, illustrations, and films.