GE CLST 60A
America in Sixties: Politics, Society, and Culture, 1954 to 1974
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, two hours. Course 60A is enforced requisite to 60B, which is enforced requisite to 60CW. Limited to first-year freshmen. Interdisciplinary exploration of U.S. society from Brown versus Board of Education (1954) to resignation of Nixon. Topics include civil rights, Great Society, anti-Vietnam war movement, political and artistic countercultures, and changes in technology, law, and media. Letter grading.
Units: 6.0
Units: 6.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2025 - I STRONGLY DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS CLASS!!! Back at NSO, many many new student advisors plugged clusters and hyped them up so much-- especially The America in the 60s Cluster. I implore you to ignore their propaganda and to avoid this class at all costs. The class grading can be quite subjective and harsh at times and is heavily dependent on the whims of your TA. Class lectures often feel random in their content and more often than not many students walk out absolutely dumbfounded. It isn't even that the content of the lectures is hard to understand, but it feels like we are learning about completely disparate events that are VAGUELY in the 1950s-1970s. One day you'll go from learning about Bob Dylan and Folk Music and then completely flip the script to the Chicano Movement. Which makes trying to study for the midterms/final incredibly difficult because you have to weave together all of these random events or figures, PLUS there are no materials online you can use to study as the curriculum has no real basis / textbook it follows. AND THE WORKLOAD IS EGREGIOUS --- you are assigned at least an hours worth of reading or videos to complete before each lecture, and more often than not this reading isn't even discussed in your discussions and a complete waste of time. The lectures are insufferably boring and are not recorded either. Lectures are not mandatory, however discussion sections are- you get 1 free skip per quarter but following that every absence is a 10% penalty to your grade. Please heed my warning when I say there isn't a single person I know that enjoys this cluster. DO NOT TAKE IT.
Fall 2025 - I STRONGLY DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS CLASS!!! Back at NSO, many many new student advisors plugged clusters and hyped them up so much-- especially The America in the 60s Cluster. I implore you to ignore their propaganda and to avoid this class at all costs. The class grading can be quite subjective and harsh at times and is heavily dependent on the whims of your TA. Class lectures often feel random in their content and more often than not many students walk out absolutely dumbfounded. It isn't even that the content of the lectures is hard to understand, but it feels like we are learning about completely disparate events that are VAGUELY in the 1950s-1970s. One day you'll go from learning about Bob Dylan and Folk Music and then completely flip the script to the Chicano Movement. Which makes trying to study for the midterms/final incredibly difficult because you have to weave together all of these random events or figures, PLUS there are no materials online you can use to study as the curriculum has no real basis / textbook it follows. AND THE WORKLOAD IS EGREGIOUS --- you are assigned at least an hours worth of reading or videos to complete before each lecture, and more often than not this reading isn't even discussed in your discussions and a complete waste of time. The lectures are insufferably boring and are not recorded either. Lectures are not mandatory, however discussion sections are- you get 1 free skip per quarter but following that every absence is a 10% penalty to your grade. Please heed my warning when I say there isn't a single person I know that enjoys this cluster. DO NOT TAKE IT.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2024 - Fink undoubtedly was the best professor in the 60s cluster and truly made students excited to go to lecture. Because his material is so novel (musicology), it was the only part of this course that didn’t feel like a repeat of APUSH and was incredibly engaging. I actually learned so much from his lectures and often wished he lectured more; he is funny, has participatory activities, and was just plain fun. For his portion of the 60s cluster, start studying early for the midterm and later the cumulative final in 60b. There are plenty of musicology playlists on Spotify to help you start differentiating between versions of songs, artists, and years. I would shuffle those playlists and try to identify the songs by short snippets by paying attention to instruments. This course is also very TA-dependent because TAs grade all assignments, so make sure you pick a good one. From what other students have said, do NOT pick Holland as a TA. Finally, the readings are not all necessary for this course, but it’s still good to at least skim or read the first and last sections. I felt that the musicology readings were often the hardest to digest but were also the most interesting and helpful since they directly provided the context/significance of genres and songs, so if you have the time and want to learn something new I really recommend them. They are also great study materials for the musicology portion of the exams.
Fall 2024 - Fink undoubtedly was the best professor in the 60s cluster and truly made students excited to go to lecture. Because his material is so novel (musicology), it was the only part of this course that didn’t feel like a repeat of APUSH and was incredibly engaging. I actually learned so much from his lectures and often wished he lectured more; he is funny, has participatory activities, and was just plain fun. For his portion of the 60s cluster, start studying early for the midterm and later the cumulative final in 60b. There are plenty of musicology playlists on Spotify to help you start differentiating between versions of songs, artists, and years. I would shuffle those playlists and try to identify the songs by short snippets by paying attention to instruments. This course is also very TA-dependent because TAs grade all assignments, so make sure you pick a good one. From what other students have said, do NOT pick Holland as a TA. Finally, the readings are not all necessary for this course, but it’s still good to at least skim or read the first and last sections. I felt that the musicology readings were often the hardest to digest but were also the most interesting and helpful since they directly provided the context/significance of genres and songs, so if you have the time and want to learn something new I really recommend them. They are also great study materials for the musicology portion of the exams.
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