American Studies, CSUF

The Reading List contains 16 articles and 33 books. In consultation with the chair of their examination committee, students may identify up to five books they wish to exclude from consideration in their examination.

Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation
Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (Chps. 1, 2, 4, 6, 15)
Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
*Lucy Maddox, (Ed.), Locating American Studies: The Evolution of a Discipline
Jane Tompkins, Sensational Designs: The Cultural Work of American Fiction, 1790-1860

Linda Kerber, "Diversity and the Transformation of American Studies"
Karen Lystra, "Clifford Geertz and the Concept of Culture
D. W. Meinig, "Symbolic Landscapes"
Richard Slotkin, "Myth and Historical Memory," Chapter 2 in Fatal Environment: The Myth of the Frontier in the Age of Industrialization, 1800-1890
Yi-Fu Tuan, "The Significance of the Artifact"
Gene Wise, "'Paradigm Dramas' in American Studies: A Cultural and Institutional History of the Movement" in Maddox, Locating American Studies

Nancy Cott, The Bonds of Womanhood: "Women's Sphere" in New England, 1780-1835
Karen Halttunen, Murder Most Foul: The Killer and the American Gothic Imagination
*Lawrence Levine, Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom
*Lucy Maddox, (Ed.), Locating American Studies: The Evolution of a Discipline
*Edmund S. Morgan, American Slavery—American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia
Mary Beth Norton, Founding Mothers and Fathers: Gendered Power and the Forming of American Society
*David Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class
David Stannard, The Puritan Way of Death: A Study in Religion, Culture, and Social Change
Alan Taylor, William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic
*Elliott West, The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado

*Herbert Gutman, "Work, Culture, and Society"
Daniel Howe, "American Victorianism as a Culture"
Jan Lewis, "The Republican Wife: Virtue and Seduction in the New Republic"
Richard White, "Middle Ground"

Paul Boyer, By the Bomb's Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age
*George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Makings of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940
Tom Engelhardt, The End of Victory Culture: Cold War America and the Disillusioning of a Generation
*Neil Foley, The White Scourge: Mexicans, Blacks, and Poor Whites in Texas Cotton Culture
*Glenda Gilmore, Gender and Jim Crow
*James Gregory, American Exodus: The Dust Bowl Migration and Okie Culture in California
*Lucy Maddox, (Ed.), Locating American Studies: The Evolution of a Discipline
Roland Marchand, Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for
Modernity, 1920-1940
Lary May, Screening Out the Past: The Birth of Mass Culture and the Motion Picture Industry
*Robert Orsi, Thank You, St. Jude: Women's Devotion to the Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes
Kathy Peiss, Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York
Rosalind Rosenberg, Beyond Separate Spheres: Intellectual Roots of Modern Feminism
*George Sánchez, Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945
Eric Sandeen, Picturing an Exhibition: The Family of Man and 1950s America
John F. Sears, Sacred Places: America's Tourist Attractions in the Nineteenth Century
Richard Slotkin, Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth- Century America
Donald Worster, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s

*Lizabeth Cohen, "Encountering Mass Culture at the Grassroots: The Experience of Chicago Workers in the 1920s"
Michael Steiner, " Frontierland as Tomorrowland: Walt Disney and the Architectural Packaging of the American West"

*George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Makings of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940
*Neil Foley, The White Scourge: Mexicans, Blacks, and Poor Whites in Texas Cotton Culture
*Glenda Gilmore, Gender and Jim Crow
*James Gregory, American Exodus: The Dust Bowl Migration and Okie Culture in California
*Lawrence Levine, Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom
*Lucy Maddox, (Ed.), Locating American Studies: The Evolution of a Discipline
*Edmund S. Morgan, American Slavery—American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia
Barbara Myerhoff, Number Our Days
*Robert Orsi, Thank You, St. Jude: Women's Devotion to the Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes
*David Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class
*George Sánchez, Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945
*Elliott West, The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado
Joel Williamson, A Rage for Order: Black-White Relations in the American South Since Emancipation
Judy Yung, Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco

*Lizabeth Cohen, "Encountering Mass Culture at the Grassroots: The Experience of Chicago Workers in the 1920s"
Philip Gleason, "Minorities (Almost) All: The Minority Concept in American Social Thought"
*Herbert Gutman, "Work, Culture and Society"
David Hollinger, "Postethnic America"
John Ibson, "Virgin Land or Virgin Mary? Studying the Ethnicity of White Americans"
Peter Kolchin, "Reevaluating the Slave Community: A Comparative Perspective"
*Richard White, "Middle Ground"

Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation
Paul Boyer, By the Bomb's Early Light: American Thought and Culture at the Dawn of the Atomic Age
George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Makings of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940
Nancy Cott, The Bonds of Womanhood: "Women's Sphere" in New England, 1780-1835
Tom Engrlhardt, The End of Victory Culture: Cold war America and the Disillusioning of a Generation
Neil Foley, The White Scourge: Mexicans, Blacks, and Poor Whites in Texas Cotton Culture
Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (chps. 1, 2, 4, 6, 15)
Glenda Gilmore, Gender and Jim Crow
James Gregory, American Exodus: The Dust Bowl Migration and Okie Culture in California
Karen Halttunen, Murder Most Foul: The Killer and the American Gothic Imagination
Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Lawrence Levine, Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom
Lucy Maddox, (Ed.), Locating American Studies: The Evolution of a Discipline
Roland Marchand, Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity, 1920-1940
Lary May, Screening Out the Past: The Birth of Mass Culture and the Motion Picture Industry
Edmund S. Morgan, American Slavery—American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia
Barbara Myerhoff, Number Our Days
Mary Beth Norton, Founding Mothers and Fathers: Gendered Power and the Forming of American Society
Robert Orsi, Thank You, St. Jude: Women's Devotion to the Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes
Kathy Peiss, Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York
David Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class
Rosalind Rosenberg, Beyond Separate Spheres: Intellectual Roots of Modern Feminism
George Sánchez, Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1940
Eric Sandeen, Picturing an Exhibition: The Family of Man and 1950s America
John F. Sears, Sacred Places: America's Tourist Attractions in the Nineteenth Century
Richard Slotkin, Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America
David Stannard, The Puritan Way of Death: A Study in Religion, Culture, and Social Change
Alan Taylor, William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic
Jane Tompkins, Sensational Designs: The Cultural Work of American Fiction, 1790-1860
Elliott West, The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado
Joel Williamson, A Rage for Order: Black-White Relations in the American South Since Emancipation
Donald Worster, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s
Judy Yung, Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco

Lizabeth Cohen, "Encountering Mass Culture at the Grassroots: The Experience of Chicago Workers in the 1920s"
Philip Gleason, "Minorities (Almost) All: The Minority Concept in American Social Thought"
Herbert Gutman, "Work, Culture and Society"
David Hollinger, "Post-ethnic America"
Daniel Howe, "American Victorianism as a Culture"
John Ibson, "Virgin Land or Virgin Mary? Studying the Ethnicity of White Americans"
Linda Kerber, "Diversity and the Transformation of American Studies"
Jan Lewis, "The Republican Wife: virtue and Seduction in the New Republic"
Peter Kolchin, "Reevaluating the Slave Community: A Comparative Perspective"
Karen Lystra, "Clifford Geertz and the Concept of Culture"
D. W. Meinig, "Symbolic Landscapes"
Richard Slotkin, "Myth and Historical Memory" Chapter 2 in Fatal Environment: The Myth of the Frontier in the Age of Industrialization, 1800-1890
Michael Steiner, " Frontierland as Tomorrowland: Walt Disney and the Architectural Packaging of the American West"
Yi-Fu Tuan, "The Significance of the Artifact"
Richard White, "Middle Ground"
Gene Wise, "'Paradigm Dramas' in American Studies: A Cultural and Institutional History of the Movement"