Courses:

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Topics covered in this course are available in the calendar below.

The United States is a society that has historically preferred to think of itself in class-less terms as a land of economic opportunity. Yet, social class remains a central social fault line in the U.S. even if often discussed in other terms. This course will explore the experiences and understandings of class found among Americans positioned in different ways along the U.S. social spectrum. This class relies heavily upon narratives—whether in the form of oral histories, memoirs, novels or "auto-ethnographies"—to explore how class is experienced by people in their day-to-day lives. In addition, this class examines a variety of classic frameworks useful in theorizing social class and considers how class interacts with other forms of social difference such as race and gender. Many of the narratives used in this course point to key moments in U.S. history in which class relations have come to be reconfigured in new ways.

Attendance at class is crucial given that this class meets only once a week. (Please note: If you miss more than 1 class session without permission of the instructor, your grade will be lowered [½ of a letter grade for every two classes]). Course materials must be read for the assigned day in class and participation in class discussion will count for 10% of your grade.

1. A 5-7 page paper due 5 days after Ses #6 and worth 30% of your grade. This paper will be on an assigned topic and will analyze various theoretical frameworks used to understand class.
   
   
2. A second 4-5 page paper due 2 days after Ses #10 and worth 20% of the grade. For the second paper, each student will write about class in one of two ways:
   • by offering an analysis of class dynamics found in 2-3 films or in music lyrics of the students' choosing, or
   • by writing an "auto-ethnography" based on a student's personal observations either at school or home.
     
     
3. The final assignment is a 7-10 page essay on an assigned topic due in Ses #13. The final essay is worth 40% of your grade.

Terkel, Studs. Working [1974]. New York, NY: New Press, 1997. ISBN: 9781565843424.

Alger, Horatio. Ragged Dick and Struggling Upward [1867/8]. Reprint ed. New York, NY: Penguin Classics, 1985. ISBN: 9780140390339.

Hamper, Ben. Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line. Reprint ed. New York, NY: Grand Central Publishing, 1992. ISBN: 9780446394000.

Rodriguez, Richard. Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez: An Autobiography. Boston, MA: D. R. Godine, 1982. ISBN: 9780879234188.

Sittenfeld, Curtis. Prep: A Novel. New York, NY: Random House, 2005. ISBN: 9781400062317.

DeParle, Jason. American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids and a Nation's Drive to End Welfare. Reprint ed. New York, NY: Penguin, 2005. ISBN: 9780143034377.

For any use or distribution of these materials, please cite as follows:

Christine Walley, course materials for 21A.235 American Dream: Exploring Class in the U.S., Spring 2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu/), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].