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This program will investigate four periods of crisis and transformation in the US, focusing on their impact on political economy, social movements, and the media.  While crises are often seen as "rough times" unexpectedly and temporarily interrupting what is taken as a "normal" aspect of progress, we will study them as aspects of fundamental change and restructuring which result in opportunities for some and reversals for others, often setting in motion a new political-economic trajectory.

For many, the economic and political crisis of the past decade was their first experience with a relatively sudden and severe economic downturn in which political priorities are restructured and outcomes uncertain.  Similarly, for many, 2011-12’s Occupy was their first experience of a mass opposition movement.  Yet these were not new phenomena in the US.  We will place our current crisis in historical and theoretical context through the examination of four major periods of political-economic crisis and transformation.  Two periods are well known; our current crisis and the deep depression that bridged the close of World War I to the opening of World War II.  Another largely forgotten period is the "Great Depression" of the late 19th century, out of which emerged a "modern" industrialized United States.  Additionally, we will investigate the first period of crisis, spanning the end of the revolutionary war through the ratification of the Constitution.  Each period was characterized by economic crisis and social upheaval, raising new political-economic possibilities and closing off others, ultimately resulting in a transformation of US capitalism.

We will also address the crisis of US journalism, providing theoretical and historical context by looking at the way critical  junctures in the evolution of the media (involving print journalism, telegraph, radio, and internet) coincided or not with the major crises of capitalism.  We will pay special attention to how and when the media served the interests of the powerful, and how and when the media served the interests of social movements. 

Quarters

Winter Open

Location and Schedule

Campus Location

Olympia

Time Offered

Day

Advertised Schedule