module specification

This module examines the history of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the career of its most famous director, J Edgar Hoover.  Through the use of FBI documents and other primary sources it offers the student an opportunity to study the workings of the agency in government affairs and US society.

1. to introduce the student to the history and operations of the Federal Bureau of Investigation through an examination of its own files and other relevant primary documentation, including interview tapes.
2. to familiarise students with the comprehension and analysis of primary source material, both through hard copy and access to computer based files.
3. to encourage a critical reading of materials disseminated often as disinformation and to weigh these against other versions of events. 
4. to facilitate small group work and independent study of documents and taped interviews
5. to encourage students to evaluate uses and abuses of information in the context of developing power relations between agencies of the US government and between those agencies and the people.

The campaign against the radical unions (IWW) and pacifists during WWI; the Red Scare of 1919-20
FBI investigations of government officials, senators, congressmen, judges and presidents during the period.
The Bureau and the Roosevelts; crime and public enemies in the 1930s
Files held on major literary and cultural figures; the FBI and Hollywood
The lives of the agents
The Bureau during the Cold War; relations with Joseph McCarthy and anti Communist groups
The FBI and the Civil Rights Movement; the vendetta against Revd. ML King, the Black Panthers
The COINTELPRO Programme against domestic subversion
The role of J Edgar Hoover as Director of the FBI

Students will be working with original papers in workshops, small group discussions. There will be some lectures, and organised debates, for which active seminar preparation and participation is required. Additional material and lecture notes will be available through weblearn. The two hour seminar will offer the student a range of learning opportunities.  There will be short introductory talks on the topic, film extracts, audio tapes, and a dossier of weekly documents with directed questions.  Students will discuss the documents in small groups and contribute to whole class discussion.  Students will also be encouraged to access FBI files on line from the FBI electronic Reading Room.

On successful completion of this module students will be able to:

1. show working knowledge of the activities and operations of the FBI 
2. demonstrate familiarity with the methods of gathering information used by the agency, the internal workings of the Bureau, and its influence in American society and government
3. gather and decode information, critically read a text for accuracy and intent; evaluate the use of information in  its historical and social context
4. judge the needs of security and individual freedoms in society and understand the issues of civil liberties in the modern state
5. demonstrate critical thinking, analytical and expressive skills, in both oral and written context.

The assessment for this unit will consist of one essay, and an in-class test. The essay will demonstrate the learning outcomes 1,2,5.  The in-class test  will demonstrate learning outcomes 3 and 6.  In these assessments the student will be given the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to place the history of the FBI in its wide historical context, evaluate the usefulness and consequences of its actions, and show their ability to understand and explain the significance of selected documents

Blackstock, N. COINTELPRO (1976)
Carson, C. et.al Malcolm X, the FBI file  (1991)
Davis, J  Spying on America, (1999)
Donner, F. The Age of Surveillance, (1980)
Garrow, D. The FBI and Martin Luther King (2001)
Gentry, Curt J Edgar Hoover, the man and the secrets, (2001)
Olmstead, K Challenging the Secret Government, (1996)
Powers, R Not without honour; the history of anti-communism in the United States, (1995)
Robins, N. Alien Ink; the FBI War on Freedom of Expression, (1992)
Summers, A Official and Confidential, (1993)
Theoharis, A The Boss (1988)
Theoharis, A From the Secret Files of J Edgar Hoover, (1993)
Theoharis, A The FBI; a reference guide, (2000)