Trump Syllabus Reader

This week we explored “Sexuality and LGBTQ Rights” by reading The Straight State by Margot Canaday . Canaday examines the role of the federal government in promoting ideas of citizenship and belonging, arguing that when the government expanded during the twentieth century it created new categories such as homosexuality that served to deny many Americans access to full citizenship. Canaday makes her argument by examining an impressive range of federal and LGBT archives that capture the perspective of the government as well as individuals directly impacted by its policies. I was particularly impressed by the range of sources from the National Archives, which allowed her to examine federal policies on immigration, welfare, and military service across the entire twentieth century (for a copy of my notes, see here ). Canaday observes that the federal government rarely took actions to criminalize homosexuality, but instead created tools to identify a new group of Americans who seemed t

This week we examined “Disability and Disability Culture in America” through reading No Pity by Joseph Shapiro . Shapiro approaches the history of disability with the methods of a journalist and the book itself is older than some of the others we’ve read, but it still produced important new insights for me as a reader. Shapiro examines the rise of the disability rights movement and its efforts to counter public perception that disability should be pitied during the second half of the twentieth century. He argues that during these decades disability advocates formed a diverse coalition supporting activist organizations and public protests, attracting broad support for their demands to respect their unique cultures and forge greater inclusion into society (for a copy of my notes, see here ). As a journalist, Shapiro makes his arguments primarily through newspaper and magazine sources that capture the perspectives of political leaders as well as everyday Americans with disabilities.

This week we read Violence Over the Land by Ned Blackhawk to examine the topic “American Fables, Indigenous History.” Blackhawk’s book may be particularly insightful to readers who have taken few history courses beyond middle or high school, as he clearly aims to dispel myths shaping popular perceptions of American Indian communities and poverty. Blackhawk focuses our attention on the role of violence in American Indians’ history, particularly in what is now the American west. He argues that from the mid-eighteenth through the end of the nineteenth century, violence from colonial powers including the Spanish, British, and Americans shaped Indians’ relationship with each other and the wider world, sometimes providing additional power (as in the case of the Utes) and sometimes undermining it (like the Shoshone). By the end of the nineteenth century, tribes such as the Utes had largely renounced violence in favor of diplomacy, but because they had ceded legal authority to an Americ

This week we examined “Racism, Real Estate, and the Strange Career of Trump’s Wealth,” by reading A World More Concrete by N.D.B. Connolly .   Although Professor Connolly co-created our draft syllabus, he left this book off its suggested readings; however, I heard him speak at my campus about a year ago and have wanted to read this book ever since.   I’ve also enjoyed his role co-hosting the popular Backstory podcast (it’s a great listen for academic and novice historians alike), so I was happy to fit it into our reading this fall. Connolly’s research examines real estate as a source of wealth and inequality in American society.   He argues that over the first half of the twentieth century, white liberal landowners forged alliances with upwardly-mobile members of the African-American middle class to frame property rights as the most important venue for civil rights advancement; this minimized overt racial violence but never tackled structural inequalities that forced poor black c