Making Modern America: Discovering the Great Depression
P SC 3020
Keith Gaddie, Dept. of Political Science
David Wrobel, Dept. of History
The Great Depression of the 1930’s transformed the relationship between the national government and its citizens, and transformed the physical landscape of the nation, through massive public works projects and conservation initiatives. In addition, as a result of the sustained economic hardship and human suffering of the decade, the relationship of artists and intellectuals to the American people also underwent massive change – that public had generally been viewed derisively by the nation’s intellectual class in the 1920’s and was viewed largely heroically during the Depression Decade. Moreover, this was one of the richest periods of creative cultural activity – in the visual arts, literature, and music – the nation has seen. This course introduces students to the historical, political, economic and cultural developments of one of the most remarkable decades in the nation’s history. But more than that, the course moves well beyond the goals of merely understanding the developments and logistics of the 1930’s. We will literally and virtually traveling in search of the physical presence of the 1930’s in the built environment (as well as the archival records) of the University of Oklahoma, City of Norman and State of Oklahoma. We will work with local government and private sector agencies, with the OU Libraries (including the Western History Collections and Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center), to create three interactive websites, each involving scholarly investigation and historical reconstruction: 1) In search of the Great Depression and New Deal in Norman and at OU; 2) The Federal Writer’s Project Guide to 1930’s Oklahoma Revisited*; and 3) Landmarks of Creative Greatness.
The New Deal at The University of Oklahoma
Monday, September 14, 2015
4:30 p.m.
Adams Hall (Room 225)
David Levy
David Ross Boyd Professor of History Emeritus, University of Oklahoma
Professor Levy is David Ross Boyd Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Oklahoma. Levy, a true OU treasure, has authored biographies of Herbert Croly, and Mark Twain; edited the multi-volume letters of Louis Brandeis; published books on FDR’s Fireside Chats, and on the debate over the Vietnam War. The University of Oklahoma Press has just published Volume II of Levy’s History of the University of Oklahoma; the volume provides extensive coverage of the 1930s at OU. Recipient of several major teaching awards, including the Regents Award for Superior Teaching, Levy will lecture and lead a research workshop on the Works Progress Administration at OU.
Bending History’s Arc: FDR & the Shape of the 20th Century
Monday, October 5, 2015
4:30 p.m.
OU Memorial Union, Meacham Auditorium
David Kennedy
McLachlan Professor Emeritus, Stanford University
Professor Kennedy is McLachlan Professor Emeritus, at Stanford University. His Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 won the Pulitzer Prize and the Francis Parkman Prize. Kennedy is also the author of the prize-winning Over Here: The First World War and American Society. A renowned public speaker, Professor Kennedy delivered the luncheon address at the 2013 Teach-In at OU on “The Great Depression and WWII.”
Southern Politics During the Depression Years
Monday, October 26, 2015
4:30 p.m.
OU Memorial Union, Meacham Auditorium
Charles Bullock, III
Richard B. Russell Chair in Political Science and University Professor, University of Georgia
Professor Bullock is a Richard B. Russell Chair in Political Science and University Professor at the University of Georgia. Bullock is a prolific author of numerous books on Southern politics, including the The New Politics of the Old South (1998), David Duke and the Politics of Race in the South (1995), The Triumph of Voting Rights in the South, and The Oxford Encyclopedia of Southern Politics (2011). He is also an award-winning teacher, and consultant to state attorney generals and to state and local governments all across the country.
On Reading The Grapes of Wrath
Monday, November 16, 2015
4:30 p.m.
OU Memorial Union, Meacham Auditorium
Susan Shillinglaw
President’s Scholar and Professor of English and Comparative Literature, San Jose State University
Professor Shillinglaw is President’s Scholar and Professor of English and Comparative Literature at San Jose State University. She was recently honored as the President’s Scholar at SJSU in recognition of her scholarship on Steinbeck, her most recent book, On Reading The Grapes of Wrath is a superb guide to the novel for contemporary readers.
