HIST 371 - Sports in Modern America

This course explores the history of sports in modern American culture and life, beginning in the nineteenth century but focusing predominantly on the twentieth century. From the “sport” and spectacle of waterfall jumping in nineteenth-century New England to the Cold War Olympic doping challenges of the 1950s and ‘60s to the O.J. Simpson trial in the 1990s, students will explore the structures and meaning of individual sports, as well as sports as a broader category of social engagement, as the nature of sports in America has changed over time. Beyond the history of sports themselves, students will also consider how sports have both reflected and influenced the constructed categories and lived experience of race, gender, class, ability, and identity among a variety of American publics, leveraging sports as a lens for approaching other dominant cultural, social, and political themes in American history.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group II
Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Evaluate data and/or sources.
Analyze institutions, formations, languages, structures, or processes, whether social, political, religious, economic, cultural, intellectual or other.
Think in sophisticated ways about causation, social and/or historical change, human cognition, or the relationship between individuals and society, or engage with social, political, religious or economic theory in other areas.