HIST 797 sec. 01  HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE PRESIDENCY: JFK

This senior colloquium will focus on John F. Kennedy, the nation's first "television President," whose election in 1960 ushered in a period characterized by soaring idealism, dangerous Cold War tensions and domestic unrest. We will examine Kennedy's early life and his political rise to the nation's highest office, the critical foreign policy crises of his Presidency, including the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War, and his response to some of the decisive moments in the Civil Rights struggle which unfolded during his term of office. All students will pursue individual research projects based on archival materials available in the digitized collections of the John F. Kennedy Library. The focus of the colloquium is on learning more about the ways in which Kennedy shaped and responded to the political and social history of the early 1960s. We will also weigh the impact of JFK's thousand days in office and his violent death on the history that unfolded after his assassination. Course meets the History requirement for Group I.