Citizen Nation

Explores the history of citizenship in the United States. Discusses discrimination, criteria for inclusion/exclusion over time, and changing qualifications to become a citizen. Who counts as an American? How do we decide as a society? What does it mean to be an American citizen? What rights, privilege, and responsibilities are part of that definition? In the founding generation, citizenship was limited to property-owning white men, and since that time, struggles to expand American citizenship have been at the core of the American story. The course will cover relevant state and federal Constitutional amendments, Supreme Court decisions, and collective action by excluded groups.

Why this course?

This course grows out of new historical scholarship about the struggle to expand American citizenship, and the need to focus attention onto two ongoing trends: a growth in ethnic and racial diversity in the United States due to recent immigration, and a decline in political participation as measured by voting statistics. Both students who are citizens and those who currently are not will benefit from learning about the complex history of the categories of American citizenship, and the legacy of discrimination and exclusion experienced by many people in the American past. The course’s goal is to appreciate the meaning of American citizenship in the history of our nation and in students’ own lives.

LASC Categories: Thought Language and Culture, United States and the World, Constitutions, Writing Across the Curriculum, Diversity Across the Curriculum