HST 202A

Intellectual History: Punk

Instructor: Crispin Sartwell

Bunting 435

phone: 410 225 2302

The title of this course is a bit, er, misleading. We will indeed be discussing the history of punk music, from the Ramones in 1976 to the current explosion of punk styles on the pop charts and MTV and the still-vital underground and indie scene. But in fact we will start with the protestant reformation, which represents in my view the beginnings of the sort of anti-institutional attitudes that lead up to our current situation. In addition, we will be reading Thoreau's Walden and some of his other writings, which possess an anarchistic bent and an aesthetic and ethic of the natural that presage the attitude of many punks.

Required Texts:

Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther, by Roland Bainton

Walden and Other Writings, by Henry David Thoreau

Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain

American Hardcore: A Tribal History, by Steve Blush

Required work for the course consist of weekly one-page essays, a take-home mid-term and a take-home final. The essays will account for 40% of the grade, and each of the exams 25%. The other 10% is class participation and improvement through the semester. Plagiarism is grounds for failure.

Readings:

September 16

Bainton, pp. 15-129

September 23

Bainton, pp. 130-237

September 30

Bainton, pp. 238-302

October 7

Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience" and "Life Without Principle"

October 14

Thoreau, pp. 105-233

mid-term due

October 28

Thoreau, pp. 233-351

November 4

Please Kill Me, pp. 3-127

November 11

Please Kill Me, pp. 128-295

November 18

Please Kill Me, pp. 299-401

November 25

Blush, pp. 9-131

December 2

Blush, pp. 132-208

December 9

Blush, pp. 209-302

December 16

review and slam dance

final due