HIST-497-CE – History of the Future
Schedule: Tuesdays, 6pm-7:45pm
Location: Leatherman Medical Education Complex (LMEC), Room 206
Faculty: Dr. Scott Kaufman | vkaufman@fmarion.edu | 843-661-1550
Credits: 3
How might the 1960s TV show Star Trek have reflected, on the one hand, a futuristic world and, on the other hand, contemporary race and gender relations? What did the 1984 movie The Terminator have to say about the perils of artificial intelligence? How was the 1939 World’s Fair both a reaction to the Great Depression and a vision of an America that relied almost solely on the automobile? How did the fear that communism might spread worldwide permeate the book 1984? This course will address these and many other questions by examining how past visions of the American future since the late 1800s reflected the times in which those visions appeared. We will develop this theme by looking at visions of the future through a wide variety of lenses, including architecture, city planning, health care, domestic and foreign politics, military strategy, race, gender, ethnicity, the internet, and social media. Additionally, we will consider what the future might hold for Americans.
