This course is an introduction to the analysis of vice, deviance, and bad behaviour in North America since 1600. HIST 1086 6.0 examines how certain behaviours such as gambling, drug use, alcoholism, abortion, sex trade, same-sex relations, swearing, and smoking (to name a few) came to be defined as a vice. It pays attention to individuals and groups who were responsible for changing definitions of deviance and immorality. It investigates the various instruments of social control created and used to enforce these definitions of morality. The course explores how these definitions changed over time, it also accounts for continuities and the ways in which approaches to vice have remained attached to their historical roots. It pays attention to the role of  religious groups, police forces, courts, and educational institutions in enforcing regulations that have targeted specific behaviours. Finally, the course looks at how men and women have opposed the criminalization of abortion and drugs, the prohibition of alcohol to name a few.

All materials (journal articles, book chapters, videos, cartoons, and podcasts) are available on the eClass website.

*TENTATIVE Grading Scheme*

Written Assignment 1 (a survey about “bad” habits)          20%

Written Assignment 2 (a research paper)                              20%

Quizzes                                                                                           15%

Mid-term Exam                                                                            15%

Final Exam                                                                                    15%

Tutorial participation                                                                  15%

Course Schedule

4 September              Introduction: studying the history of vice

11 September             Smoking: from fashionable behaviour to health risk

18 September            Gambling, addiction and state regulation

25 September            Alcohol use, the Temperance movement, and prohibition (1800-1933)

 2 October                   Alcohol use, state regulation, and drunk drivers (1933 to the present)

  9 October                 Drugs: prohibition and criminalization

16 October                 Reading week

23 October                 Counterculture and the legalization of marijuana

30 October                 Sexuality: birth control

  6 November             Sex work

13 November             Sexually transmitted infections and sex education

20 November            The abortion issue

27 November            Same-sex relationship

  8 January                 Defining marriage and heteronormativity

15 January                 Pornography

22 January                Swearing, appropriate language, and free speech

29 January                Shopping on Sunday

  5 February              Poverty

12 February              Local communities and moral regulation

19 February              Reading week

26 February             Religious institutions and bad behaviours

  5 March                   Schools and the regulation of behaviours

12 March                   Law enforcement officers

19 March                   The court system

26 March                  Social workers and other civil servants

  2 April                     Prison and other forms of confinement

Lecture material will be delivered during the posted lecture slot (listed below) each Wednesday. Every student must be signed up for one tutorial. Tutorials are led by the tutorial assistants and attendance is mandatory; in tutorials students may ask questions about the course material, will have assignments explained, and will discuss the assigned readings /short videos.

All relevant information about this course – including submission links for assignments, links to course readings and links for short videos – will be provided on the course’s eClass website. To access this website, you must be registered in the course. Course announcements will be posted on the eClass site but will also be sent via that site to the email address you use.

1. Learning about behaviours and habits defined as bad and immoral;

2. Improving oral and writing skills;

3. Analyzing primary and secondary sources and understanding the role of moral regulation movements;

4. Engaging in collaborative learning through tutorial discussions and assignments.