Required Readings
[A] = Aldrich, Jr., Nelson W. Old Money: The Mythology of Wealth in America. Allworth Press, 1997. ISBN: 9781880559642.
[E] = Eribon, Didier. Returning to Reims. Semiotext(e), 2013. ISBN: 9781584351238.
[H] = Hurston, Zora Neale. Dust Tracks on a Road: An Autobiography. Harper Perennial, 2006. ISBN: 9780060854089. [Preview with Google Books]
[R] = Rodriguez, Richard. Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez: An Autobiography. Dial Press Trade Paperback, 2004. ISBN: 9780553382518. [Preview with Google Books]
[RO] = Rolph-Trouillat, Michel. Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History. Beacon Press, 1997. ISBN: 9780807043110. [Preview with Google Books]
[T] = Terkel, Studs. Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession. The New Press, 2012. ISBN: 9781595588104.
[W] = Walley, Christine J. Exit Zero: Family and Class in Postindustrial Chicago. University of Chicago Press, 2013. ISBN: 9780226871806. [Preview with Google Books]
| SES # | TOPICS | READINGS |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction | ||
| 1 | Introduction – Exploring Storytelling and the American Dream: The Growing Inequalities of the 21st Century | No readings assigned |
| Storytelling, History and Ethnography | ||
| 2 | On Doing Oral History I |
Terkel, Studs. "Onward and Upward." Chapter 1 in American Dreams: Lost and Found. The New Press, 2005. ISBN: 9781565845459. ———. "O Canaan Land." Chapter 2 in American Dreams: Lost and Found. The New Press, 2005. ISBN: 9781565845459. ———. "In the Country." Chapter 3 in American Dreams: Lost and Found. The New Press, 2005. ISBN: 9781565845459. Portelli, Alessandro. “The Peculiarities of Oral History.” History Workshop Journal 12 (1981): 96–107. |
| 3 | On Doing Oral History II |
[T] "Forward." [T] "Prologue." [T] "Introduction." [T] "Part I: Lucy Jefferson's Legacy." [T] "Part 1: Friends." [T] "Part I: Welfare." [T] "Part 1: On the Job." [T] "Part I: Overview I." |
| 4 | On Ethnographic Methods |
[H] Chapter 1: My Birthplace. [H] Chapter 2: My Folks. [H] Chapter 3: I Get Born. GOOGLE [Preview with Google Books] [H] Chapter 4: The Inside Search. GOOGLE [Preview with Google Books] [H] Chapter 8: Back Stage and the Railroad. [H] Chapter 9: School Again. [H] Chapter 12: My People! My People! Gusterson, Hugh. "Ethnographic Research." Chapter 7 in Qualitative Methods in International Relations: A Pluralist Guide. Edited by Audie Klotz and Deepa Prakash, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. ISBN: 9780230241756. [Preview with Google Books] Recommended background reading Pierpont, Claudia Roth. "A Society of One: Zora Neale Hurston, American Contrarian." New Yorker 73 (1997): 80–91. |
| 5 | Storytelling and the Intersection of Identities |
Read Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Chapters 1–17 in Americanah. Anchor, 2014. ISBN: 9780307455925. [Preview with Google Books] or Yang, Kao Kalia. The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir. Coffee House Press, 2017. ISBN: 9781566894784. [Preview with Google Books] |
| 6 | Telling Stories about Post-Industrialism, Working Across Media I |
[W] "Introduction." [Preview with Google Books] [W] Chapter 1: A World of Iron and Steel: A Family Album. [Preview with Google Books] [W] Chapter 2: It All Came Tumbling Down: My Father and the Demise of Chicago's Steel Industry. [W] Chapter 3: Places Beyond. |
| 7 | Telling Stories (and Offering Analysis) Across Media II |
[W] Chapter 4: The Ties That Bind. [W] "Conclusion: From the Grave to the Cradle." Walley, Christine J. "Deindustrializing Chicago: A Daughter's Story." Chapter 6 in The Insecure American: How We Got Here & What We Should Do About It. Edited by Hugh Gusterson and Catherine Besteman. University of California Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780520259713. [Preview with Google Books] |
| 8 | Telling Stories Through and With Objects |
Sewell, Jr., William H. "Preface." In Logics of History: Social Theory and Social Transformation. University of Chicago Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780226749181. ———. "Theory, History, and Social Science." Chapter 1 in Logics of History: Social Theory and Social Transformation. University of Chicago Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780226749181. [Preview with Google Books] [RO] "Preface." [RO] Chapter 1: The Power in the Story [Preview with Google Books] [RO] Chapter 2: The Three Faces of Sans Souci: Glory and Silences in the Haitian Revolution. [Preview with Google Books] |
| 9 | Field Trip to MIT Museum | No readings assigned |
| 10 | Museum Exhibit Presentations to Class | No readings assigned |
| Stories We Tell about Social Class | ||
| 11 | Stories of the Wealthy |
[A] "Forward." [A] "Introduction: Elegy in a City Clothing Store." [A] Chapter 2: The Composition of Old Money. [A] Chapter 3: Class Acts. [A] Chapter 4: The Revenge of Market Man. [A] Chapter 6: Hazards of Old Fortunes. |
| 12 | Stories of Class from Outside the U.S. I |
[E] Read the first half. "On Slavery: The Oral History of Abdallah Mohammed Kimbau, October 1995." The Chole Mjini Trust Fund. "The Story of Kibaraka the Waterseller by Bi Hamisa Farahani, June 1995." The Chole Mjini Trust Fund. Steedman, Carolyn Kay. "Acknowledgements." In Landscape for a Good Woman: A Story of Two Lives. Rutgers University Press, 1987. ISBN: 9780813512587. ———. "Death of a Good Woman." In Landscape for a Good Woman: A Story of Two Lives. Rutgers University Press, 1987. ISBN: 9780813512587. ———. "Stories." In Landscape for a Good Woman: A Story of Two Lives. Rutgers University Press, 1987. ISBN: 9780813512587. ———. "The Weaver's Daughter." In Landscape for a Good Woman: A Story of Two Lives. Rutgers University Press, 1987. ISBN: 9780813512587. [Preview with Google Books] |
| 13 | Stories of Class from Outside the U.S. II | [E] Read the second half. |
| 14 | Meal and Final Discussion | No readings assigned |
Supplemental Readings
Frank, Robert. "Introduction: The Birth of a Nation." In Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich. Crown Business, 2008. ISBN: 9780307341457. [Preview with Google Books]
Reed-Danahay, Deborah. "Appendix I: Remembering Pierre Bourdieu, 1930–2002." In Locating Bourdieu. Indiana University Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780253217325.
Bourdieu, Pierre. "The Aristocracy of Culture." Chapter 1 in Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Translated by Richard Nice. Harvard University Press, 1984. ISBN: 9780674212770.
Alger, Jr., Horatio. Ragged Dick and Struggling Upward. Penguin Classics, 1985, pp. v–xxi, and 1–132. ISBN: 9780140390339. [Preview with Google Books]
Cheever, John. "The Housebreaker of Shady Hill," and "The Worm in the Apple." In The Stories of John Cheever. Vintage, 2000. ISBN: 9780375724428.
Khan, Shamus Rahman. "Introduction: Democratic Inequality," and Chapter 3 in Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School. Princeton University Press, 2012. ISBN: 9780691156231. [Preview with Google Books]
Mills, C. Wright. Chapters 4, and 10–12 in White Collar: The American Middle Classes: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition. Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780195157086.
Ortner, Sherry B. "Reading America: Preliminary Notes on Class and Culture." Chapter 9 in Recapturing Anthropology: Working in the Present. Edited by Richard G. Fox. School of American Research Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780933452787.
Holt, Hamilton, ed. Chapters 2, 3, 9, 11, and 15 in The Life Stories of Undistinguished Americans as Told by Themselves: Expanded Edition. Routledge, 1999. ISBN: 9780415925105.