Catalog Description:

HIST/HRS 169. Hollywood and America.

Chronological survey of American films and their cultural significance from the 1890s to the present. Focus on films produced in Hollywood, the contexts in which they were created, and the impact of Hollywood as a mythical place in the development of American culture. 3 units.

Course Description:

This course has no formal prerequisites, although it is useful to have taken History 17B (U.S. History Since 1865) and HRS 180 (Introduction to the Film).

The course is intended for Film Studies and Digital Fim/Video Production majors, History majors interested in film and U.S. popular culture; for Humanities majors interested in film studies; and for students from any major in the university interested in film and seeking an upper-division General Education course in the Arts and Humanities area.

The course will give students a chronological survey of American film through about the 1970s. It will stress the technological, business and cultural contexts in which American films have been made. It will devote considerable attention to the patterns of censorship in American film history.

Hist/HRS 169 is not an online class. It is a regular lecture-discussion class with a lot of online materials. You are expected to attend class regularly.

Class time is devoted to discussion of assigned reading material, and to viewing film clips from American movies. Students will consult online materials (see below) and view several abbreviated feature films outside class.

The course requires three blue book exams, two short take-home essays, and a number of online quizzes.

Class Summaries