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Week 1
Readings (readings page link on course website)
- Robert Coates. 1947. The Law. New Yorker Magazine, Nov 29: 41-43.
Read (and be prepared to discuss) at least 2 of 4:
- Anna Mulrine Grobe. 2026. With ceasefire proposal stalled, Trump faces uneasy military options in Iran. March 27, Christian Science Monitor.
- Nate Swanson. 2026. How America’s war on Iran backfired. March 17, Foreign Affairs.
- Erica Green. 2026. Wild ultimatums and ‘bombing our little hearts out’: A portrait of Trump at war. March 28, New York Times.
- Nathan Layne. 2026. At CPAC, republicans close ranks behind Trump on Iran war. March 26, Reuters.
Lecture pages
Week 1 (material specific to week 1–These are to help you tie course material to real social problems)
- What is a social problem?
- More on social problems
- Structural and individual explanations
- Some basic questions to ask
- Outline / summary for the week
Videos
- Secretary of War Hegseth, 2-3 weeks ago, criticizes press coverage of the war
- CNN chronology (from reporter Kaitlin Collins’ perspective), the first month of war
- From the documentary ‘Why we Fight’ (the concept of ‘blowback‘)
Course resources: Thinking about social problems (these are here for your use throughout the course–you’ll understand why as we progress and discuss social problems and the ‘framework of questions’)
- Causes
- Consequences
- Who benefits?
- How are problems framed, and by whom?
- What to do?
