Learn US Politics with Film

Explore America before the founding of the United States through films like Apocalypto, Contagion, The Last of the Mohicans, and The New World, illustrating early contact and disease impact.

Explore how disease and conquest shaped early North America contact, comparing contagion and signs to European arrival, Native American civilizations like Cahokia, and the myth of civilization.

Explore the 13 colonies and the causes of the American Revolution, from taxation and quartering to the Boston Tea Party, and trace early American identity and legal ethics.

Analyze how films depict the revolution and rights, examining the constitution, the bill of rights, policing, and torture debates across The Patriot, The Wire, L.A. Confidential, and Memories of Murder.

Explore the Articles of Confederation as a pre constitution, a first draft to coordinate the revolutionary war with diplomacy, territorial issues, and Native American relations, yet lacking central taxation.

Examine the principles behind the constitution, including limited government, federalism, popular sovereignty, and republicanism. Trace the Federalist and Anti-Federalist debates, the Bill of Rights, and the separation of powers.

Explore how film portrays slavery, race, and civil liberties in the United States, highlighting 12 Years a Slave, Roots, and Gangs of New York to illuminate American identity.

Explore how slavery underpins the United States, from founding debates and the constitution to a 20-year period where the slave trade could not be banned.

Explore how the three-fifths compromise shaped representation in the House and Senate, revealing why slaves counted as three-fifths of a person and how the Constitution handles amendments.

Explore how the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments, emerged as a concession to antifederalists during Constitution ratification, shaping rights and freedoms from press to peaceable assembly.

Explore civil rights and equal protection in film, tracing the 1950s to the 1960s through The Help, Selma, Mississippi Burning, and To Kill a Mockingbird, with MLK and Malcolm X.

Define the civil rights movement as the ongoing fight for equal protection for all minority groups, not just african-americans, under the law, with the washing machine symbolizing social transformation.

Explore Rosa Parks’s Montgomery bus boycott and the roots of the civil rights movement, and compare Gandhi-inspired nonviolence with the evolving stances of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

Explore how protest has evolved from media-savvy civil rights era to today’s camera-enabled activism, including UC Davis pepper spray incidents, online memes, and mass participation.

Explore how film portrays the media, politicians, and the public, from Wag the Dog to Nightcrawler, Spotlight, and Good Night and Good Luck, highlighting manipulation, access, and quality journalism.

Explore how old and new media shape U.S. politics, from deregulation and cross-ownership by six giants to FCC oversight, and how the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon debates demonstrated media's power in campaigns.

the lecture explains how mass media influences public opinion through agenda setting and framing, and shows the shift from one-way broadcasting to two-way internet conversations.

Explore how new media reshapes political campaigns by highlighting Barack Obama's 2008 fundraising breakthrough through online donations and grassroots mobilization, and how Bernie Sanders leverages digital fundraising and small donors.

Explore net neutrality as a political issue, examining whether internet providers are utilities or services, and how paid prioritization and data-free streaming affect competition and access.

Explore how political parties influence congressional voting via the whip, compare U.S. party power to parliamentary systems, and illustrate lobbying with Iron Man and Thank You for Smoking case studies.

Explore how United States political parties, not in the constitution, facilitate elections and are weaker than in democracies, with the Tea Party's tactics and role of interest groups and lobbying.

Explore how interest groups form around issues, engage in lobbying and education, and influence government policy from state to local levels, illustrated by unions and films like Food Inc.

Explore how films portray campaigns and elections, including endorsements and primary competition. Analyze portrayals of real campaigns, campaign finance reform, and the connections to the legislative, executive, and judicial branches.

Explore how the primary election system shapes presidential races by showing how Democrats and Republicans select delegates for national conventions and how states run closed, open, semi-closed, semi-open primaries.

Explore how the electoral college addresses state-based representation and the management of elections, balancing population concerns with state-led processes, and examine the 1876 controversy and the 1877 compromise.

Explore how congress operates, from the bicameral system to how a bill becomes law, using films like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Distinguished Gentleman to illustrate checks and balances.

Explore how Congress, a bicameral legislature with the Senate and the House of Representatives, shapes laws, budgets, and checks on the executive and judiciary.

Explore how a bill becomes law through introduction, committee consideration, and the need for both houses to pass the same bill.

Examine how the filibuster, committee decisions, floor debate, riders, earmarks, and time constraints shape legislative outcomes in the United States Senate.

Explore how Lyndon Johnson leveraged the Senate to pass civil rights legislation, reshaping the South and the Democratic Party while convincing Southern conservatives and triggering a Republican shift.

Explore how the president commands a federal bureaucracy via cabinet heads and the order of succession, with examples from West Wing, Designated Survivor, Air Force One, and Parks and Recreation.

Explains the presidency and the executive branch, with the vast federal bureaucracy, the commander in chief, veto powers, and the cabinet's advisory role and loyalty dynamics.

Explore how the presidency oversees a vast federal bureaucracy—defense, homeland security, and state—shaping diplomacy, foreign policy, and national security through intelligence like the CIA and NSA.