Advanced History: Russian/Soviet-U.S. Relations in Popular Culture One Semester (Offered First Semester) Prerequisites: Completion of advanced elective prerequisites “I guess what I’m trying to say, is that if I can change, and you can change, everybody can change!” In the film, Rocky IV, Rocky Balboa’s address to the Soviet crowd after he defeated Russian boxer Ivan Drago sparks an important question: was it the United States that changed Russia, or the other way around? This course explores the history of Russian/Soviet-U.S. relations in the past 100 years by tracing the ways in which each country has portrayed the other in films and works of popular culture. In doing so, students will critically examine the ways in which our understanding of contemporary Russian-U.S. relations has been shaped by stereotypes we see on screen. Text: Shaw, Tony, and Denise J. Youngblood. Cinematic Cold War: The American and Soviet Struggle for Hearts and Minds. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2014. ISBN 978-0-7006-2020-3 Advanced History: The Sixties One Semester (Offered Second Semester) Prerequisites: Completion of advanced elective prerequisites The 1960s are often seen as a decade of stark change. This course will take a “big picture” look at the decade in order to evaluate the change that took place in American life during the turbulent age from Kennedy to Nixon. We will focus on the complex interconnectedness between the Civil Rights Movement, student radicalism, identity politics, popular culture, and the Vietnam War. We will study both the political and economic developments, along with the importance of media in shaping the culture through the music, film, and literature of the period. At the end of the course, students will be asked to make an assessment on the following question: “Were the 1960’s a decade of unprecedented progress in the United States?” You will not be expected to memorize names and dates. Instead, you will be asked to recognize trends and cause-and-effect between certain events, movements, and media while comparing them to current events to understand what long-standing impact the Sixties has had on American life. Bloom, Alexander, and Wini Breines. “Takin’ It to the Streets” : A Sixties Reader. Oxford University Press, 2015. ISBN: 978-0190250706
Text: Foner, Eric, Kathleen Duval, and Lisa McGirr. Give Me Liberty! Brief 7th High School Edition (New York: WW Norton & Company, 2023) and Thick, Matthew R. (ed.) The Great Water: A Documentary History of Michigan. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2018. Electives As juniors and seniors, students select from a variety of one-semester electives in history and social studies. Enrollment in advanced electives requires students to successfully complete a series of prerequisites. Please see the department chair for more information. Advanced History: Comparative Religion One Semester (Offered Second Semester) Prerequisites: Completion of advanced elective prerequisites Why are we here? What’s the purpose of our existence? How do we make sense of the unknown? These questions have been at the heart of belief systems since humans developed the ability to think in the abstract. Belief systems, in turn, become an important part of religion, which has had an enduring influence on global culture and politics. This course will examine the origins of major belief systems and religions around the world, with special attention to the political and cultural contexts in which they grew, as well as how they have changed over time. Through engaging in a comparative analysis of these belief systems and religions, students will contemplate the impact religion has had on division and unity in the modern world. Texts: Holloway, Richard. A Little History of Religion. Yale University Press, 2017. ISBN: 978-0300228816 Advanced History: The Constitution and Bill of Rights One Semester (Offered First Semester) Prerequisites: Completion of advanced elective prerequisites This course is intended to provide students with an intensive study of the American judicial system, its structures, functions, processes, and especially the role the Supreme Court of the United States plays in government. Through the use of landmark decisions, 21st century court cases, and a consideration of how justices interpret Constitutional law, students will interact in an intense manner with our founding document, The Constitution and its first ten amendments. Specifically, this course will focus on the history of the federal court system, the process of how the Supreme Court reviews cases, and they will display their knowledge by actively engaging in simulations where the students will serve as the judges and the advocates, preparing oral arguments and asking questions to better demonstrate how the Constitution is still alive in our system today.
71 Upper School
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