LEAD 320
Leadership and Historical Memory
Last Offered Fall 2015
Division II
Cross-listed HIST 360
This course is not offered in the current catalog

Class Details

Many Americans know Abraham Lincoln as the uncontroversial national icon chiseled in marble on the Washington Mall. But Lincoln has also been depicted as the paragon of the American self-made man, a symbol of northern aggression toward the South, an inveterate white supremacist, America’s first gay president, and even, in our age of absurdist humor, a vampire hunter. Far from being fixed and static, our historical leaders’ images have changed as Americans have deployed those images in new ways to make political and cultural claims, to teach their children, to assert a national identity, and sometimes just to make money. In this course, we will study portrayals of four of the most famous leaders in American history–Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr.–each of whose image has served as an important site for cultural and social contestation. As we explore how portrayals of these leaders have changed over time, we will ask: Why do we remember our leaders the way we do? What do our images of our leaders tell us about American society and culture? Why have these images changed so dramatically over time? In what ways is the concept of “leadership” itself a historical construction? Our sources will include literature, film, public memorials, and journalism as well as biography and history.
The Class: Format: research seminar
Limit: 19
Expected: 19
Class#: 1579
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: several short essays, weekly writing assignments, and a longer research paper with presentation
Enrollment Preferences: Leadership Studies concentrators
Distributions: Division II
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
LEAD 320 Division II HIST 360 Division II
Attributes: HIST Group F Electives - U.S. + Canada
LEAD American Domestic Leadership
LEAD Facets or Domains of Leadership

Class Grid

Updated 7:07 pm

Course Catalog Search


(searches Title and Course Description only)
TERM




SUBJECT
DIVISION



DISTRIBUTION



ENROLLMENT LIMIT
COURSE TYPE
Start Time
End Time
Day(s)