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American Studies

“In the beginning, all the world was America.” John Locke.

As we approach the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, the role played by the United States in global culture and politics is as significant as ever. The election of the first African-American President, Barack Obama, has focused attention on American affairs to an almost unprecedented degree, as the extraordinary media attention lavished on his election and inauguration have amply demonstrated. The rhetoric of Obama has promised that his America will live up to its founding ideals, and seek in some way to undo the damage done to America’s international reputation by its recent conduct under the guidance of President Bush. Whether or not such a goal is achievable, the extraordinary response to Obama throughout the world clearly demonstrates how much people want these promises to be fulfilled – because, like it or not, America matters.

But what, really, is America? What were its founding ideals? Has it ever lived up to them? What is unique or special about this enormous republic, which fascinates us, intrigues us, amuses and appals us in equal measure; which seems at once so familiar and so alien? How did America become the most powerful nation in the world, and at what cost to its people, its environment, and its ideals? And why, exactly, is it so significant that in 2008, some two hundred and twenty five years since it achieved independence from Great Britain, a black man has been elected as its leader?

Students of American Studies at the University of Hertfordshire will gain an insight into some of these complex questions, questions which intersect with our own society in crucial ways, both historically and in the present day. You will learn how America grew from a remote outpost of the British Empire to the position of global dominance it currently occupies; but you will also consider what the future holds for a nation that, in many ways, is in crisis.

Studying America does not require you to love and admire the United States, or wholeheartedly to believe in ‘American values’; you will study American culture with a critical eye, and gain an understanding of some of the darkest moments in a history that includes genocide, slavery, civil war, imperialist conquest and environmental degradation. At the same time, we will study some of the genuine achievements of America: its positive political influence, its diversity, its music, its arts, its literature, its film – above all, the promise that the word “America” has held out to so many people in the centuries since the first contact between Europeans and its native peoples.

American Studies at the University of Hertfordshire is unique in the opportunity it offers students to choose interrelated modules from three different Humanities subjects: Literature, History and Film. It is available as either a Joint Honours or Combined Honours subject, and students have the option of spending an extra year abroad, studying at one of our many partner universities in the United States and Canada.