Public History, Heritage, and Historical Consciousness - focus: Las Vegas (HIST*6590) | College of Arts

Public History, Heritage, and Historical Consciousness - focus: Las Vegas (HIST*6590)

Code and section: HIST*6590*01

Term: Fall 2023

Details

Method of Delivery: 

Teams / online seminar

Course Synopsis:  

This semester, as a case study, in the first half of the course we will examine public history, heritage, and historical consciousness in Las Vegas and southern Nevada, supported by a few relevant works of scholarly literature on the phenomenon in North America more broadly.

In the second half of the semester, using the tools and insights developed earlier in the course, you will research, report in class, and write about public history, heritage, and historical consciousness in a context crucial to your own historical thesis or MRP research.

Methods of Evaluation and Weights:

Class participation: 10%
Class presentations (3 @ 15% + 5% + 10%): 30% 
Short Thematic Essay: 20% 
Research essay: 40% 

Texts and/or Resources Required:

Note: Students may acquire these required books in various ways, including the Internet Archive, interlibrary loan, as inexpensive Kindle books to read on a laptop, through online booksellers, etc. 

  • Boyd Cothran, Remembering the Modoc War: Redemptive Violence and the Making of American Innocence (Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2017).
  • Hal K. Rothman, The Making of Modern Nevada (Univ. of Nevada Press, 2010).
  • Larry D. Gragg, Bright Light City: Las Vegas in Popular Culture (Univ. of Press of Kansas, 2013).
  • Andrew W. Kirk, Doom Towns: The People and Landscapes of Atomic Testing, A Graphic History (Oxford Univ. Press, 2016).
  • Su Kim Chung, Las Vegas: Then and Now, revised 5th ed. (Pavilion Press, 2022).
  • Roberta Sterman Sabbath, ed., Vegas Strong: Bearing Witness 1 October 2017 (Univ. of Nevada Press, 2023)

Remaining course readings will be available on the HIST*6590 Courselink site.

*Please note: This is a preliminary web course description only. The department reserves the right to change without notice any information in this description. The final, binding course outline will be distributed in the first class of the semester.

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