American Classics
MIT's course takes J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur's 1782 question, "What then is the American, this new man?", as a starting point for tracing how national identity has been defined across American history. Students work through a range of classic texts spanning politics, literature, art, and popular culture, from founding-era writings through later cultural touchstones, tracking how competing visions of American identity emerge and shift over time. As a communications-intensive subject, the course emphasizes frequent oral presentations and written exercises alongside the reading, so materials include a syllabus, assigned primary texts, and writing assignments rather than lecture videos. Offered through MIT OpenCourseWare, the course is free to access, with all materials available for self-study without a certificate.