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JFK

Module description

In many different ways, the Presidency of John F. Kennedy marked the birth of the contemporary world. Elected in 1960 after the first American presidential debates ever, and the first shown on television, JFK’s thousand days in office inaugurated the modern television age. Several of JFK’s speeches are widely acknowledged as masterpieces of political rhetoric; others were televised and reported globally amidst international crises, while his assassination in Dallas in November 1963 was the first “rolling news” event in American and world history. JFK’s Presidency not only provides a unique opportunity to examine the origins of the modern media, it also coincided with a dramatic and event-filled moment in the history of the Cold War, from the Bay of Pigs and the escalation of the Vietnam War to the Berlin and Cuban Missile Crises, and also saw the reshaping of American political, social and cultural landscape, in particular the struggle over African-American Civil Rights. Through studying speeches, debates, White House tape transcripts, Presidential directives, television broadcasts, films and other sources, the module will introduce students to American and international history at a key moment of change, and familiarise you with the skills required to understand contemporary history.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The aim of the module is to:

• Introduce a rich range of sources available that allows historians to analyse modern and contemporary American and international history, using the Presidency of John F, Kennedy from 1961 to 1963 as a case study
• Analyse contemporary sources such as speeches, debates, television broadcasts, White House tape transcripts of meetings, Presidential directives, films, newspaper articles and songs, students will engage closely with phenomena such as political rhetoric, international diplomacy, modern mass media and popular culture
• Cover many major events in a critical phase of the Cold War and examine a significant moment in American political history, no prior knowledge of Cold War history or US politics is required or assumed
• Emphasise the role of modern mass media
• Explore topics of great seriousness and considerable contemporary relevance, from the Civil Rights movement to the reshaping of the far right
• Give you the opportunity to conduct their own research into the source material and events of the JFK Presidency, to consider its utility and limitations, and use it to explore topics of interest to you

Above all, the module will help you develop skills in source analysis and concise writing that will provide a foundation for future historical work in years 2 and 3.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Assess and evaluate the image and reality of the Presidency of John F. Kennedy
• 2. Work critically with a range of sources relevant to international history and the Cold War, American political history and the history of modern mass media
• 3. Assess the sources in relation to the historical debates surrounding the Presidency of John F. Kennedy, US foreign policy during the Cold War and American society in the early 1960s

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Identify the problems of using historical sources, e.g. utility, limitations, etc, and compare the validity of different types of sources
• 5. Answer a question briefly and concisely
• 6. Present work orally, respond to questions orally, and think quickly of questions to ask other students

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Conduct independent study and group work, including the presentation of material for group discussion, developed through the mode of learning
• 8. Digest, select and organise material to produce, to a deadline, a coherent and cogent argument, developed through the mode of assessment
• 9. Work with others in a team and to interact effectively with the tutor and the wider group
• 10. Write to a very tight word-length

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• The 1960 Presidential Election
• JFK’s Inaugural Address
• The Bay of Pigs
• The Berlin Crisis
• The Cuban Missile Crisis
• The John Birch Society and the Reshaping of the American Right
• The Kennedys and the Civil Rights movement
• JFK and Vietnam
• The Assassination of JFK
• JFK in American Collective Memory

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Benson, Thomas W., Writing JFK: presidential rhetoric and the press in the Bay of Pigs crisis . College Station, TX.: Texas A&M University Press, 2003.
• Bryant, Nick, The bystander: John F. Kennedy and the struggle for Black equality . New York: BasicBooks, 2007.
• Bugliosi, Vincent, Reclaiming history: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy . New York : W.W. Norton & Co., 2007.
• Casey, Shaun, The making of a Catholic president: Kennedy versus Nixon 1960 . Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2009.
• Dallek, Robert, John F. Kennedy : an unfinished life, 1917-1963 . London : Allen Lane, 2003.
• Freedman, Lawrence, Kennedy's wars: Berlin, Cuba, Laos and Vietnam . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
• Giglio, James N., Debating the Kennedy presidency . Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.
• Kaiser, David E., American tragedy: Kennedy, Johnson, and the origins of the Vietnam War . Cambridge, MA.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2000
• The Kennedy tapes: inside the White House during the Cuban missile crisis . New York: W. W. Norton, 2002
• Mulloy, D.J., The World of the John Birch Society: Conspiracy, Conservatism and the Cold War . Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2014
• Thurston, Clarke, Ask not: the inauguration of John F. Kennedy and the speech that changed America . New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2004.
• Watson, Mary Ann, The expanding vista: American television in the Kennedy years . Durham, N.C. ; London : Duke University Press, 1994.
• Zelizer, Barbie, Covering the body: the Kennedy assassination, the media, and the shaping of collective memory . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=11596 
• John F. Kennedy Presidential Library: http://www.jfklibrary.org/
• Cold War International History Project: www.wilsoncenter.org/
• National Security Archive: www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/documents/
• JFK Assassination Documents: http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/JFK_Assassination_Documents
• New York Times (via university electronic library)

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

Recommended films:

• 13 Days (2000)
• Parkland (2013)

Key words search

JFK, Kennedy, America, USA, Cold War, Civil Rights, Politics, Diplomacy, Vietnam War