HIST 3414A: The United States in the World – “Many 9/11s?”
Winter 2022
Instructor: Prof. Mark Anderson
Introduction: This course explores the history and some of the mythology surrounding 9/11, including a handful of earlier 9/11-like conflagrations to more contemporary conspiracy theories about the events of September 11, 2001. The former cases include America’s centuries-long assault on Indigenous peoples, war with Mexico, 1846-1848, and the Vietnam War. Like the military response to 9/11, these conflicts were predicated on the swallowing of significant mendacities (as in, the Indians or Mexico or the Vietcong started it by attacking us first…when such assertions were demonstrably untrue). How and why did and could this happen? Why has the pattern repeated itself and what may be learned from it?
Class Format: We meet once each week for three hours. The delivery format is principally lecture style, but ideally will also include space and time for group discussions of course material.
Aims and Goals: Often, to study history is to engage in a search for patterns of behaviour, as suggested above. Then what? Such patterns, as the course explores, may lead to sharply different interpretations. In other words, the so-called “lessons of history” may lead to misinformation as much as they do enlightenment. Or are these two necessarily incompatible?
Assessment: In-class midterm exam, paper, and final take-home exam.
Texts: Noam Chomsky, Was There an Alternative?; Greg Grandin, Empire’s Workshop; The Indian Wars: A Captivating Guide to the American Indian Wars, Battle of Little Bighorn and Wounded Knee Massacre
Questions? Please email me at: mark.anderson@carleton.ca