AMST 209: The 1990s

This course studies American culture, society, politics, and social thought in the 1990s. From a stirrings of globalization to the fall of the Communist bloc; from the protests in Seattle to the overthrowing of apartheid in South Africa; from the racial uprisings in Los Angeles to the inertia of Generation X's couch-surfing slackers; the 1990s were a decade marked by accelerating social, cultural, and political change, recorded by an increasingly omnipresent media. This course will study the decade in all its chaotic contradictions and inspiring innovation, particularly focusing on global contexts, generational shifts, emerging identities, and social upheaval.