Discovering the U.S. on the Rails
[Summary: http://www.jhargis.com/amtraksum.htm] 

What: An interdisciplinary course in Anthropology and Environmental Science with supporting context in Literature, Geography, Media and History.
When:
Cost: $1,100 (covers travel, lodging and food for 9 days)
Where: http://www.jhargis.com/amtrakroute.htm
For more information contact either: Dr. Jace Hargis or Dr. Gordon Rakita

To Apply for Consideration, please complete/read the following forms:
Application - Amtrakform1
Student Agreement - Amtrakform2
Non-refundable Deposit - Amtrakform3
Travel Checklist - Travellist

This course focuses on conceptual, contextual learning through the disciplines of anthropology and (environmental) science.  A broad integration of history,
literature and media will be overtly infused into this course.  The course will be taught aboard Amtrak passenger trains.  Students will share first-class sleeper
cabins for nine days as we cross the continental United States.  The journey will take us from Jacksonville, Florida north to Washington, D.C. then northwest to
Chicago, west through Kansas City, and Albuquerque, NM to Los Angeles, CA, north to Oakland, east through Salt Lake City, UT and Denver, CO to Chicago,
south to New Orleans, LA then east returning to Jacksonville.  This trip will encompass about 7,500 miles and provide students an opportunity to observe, engage
and experience over half of the 50 states.  Students will have met prior to the trip, and complete assigned readings, music and movies to prepare them for the trip. 
Upon departure, “classes” or gatherings will commence in which instructors share material, and activities, although most of the course will involve students
participating in individual or group activities as they travel through particular areas of the country.

Train Schedule Information Link

Books
Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience ($7) Free e-text @ http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/71
Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle ($9) Free e-text @ http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/140 and http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Literature/Sinclair/TheJungle/ 
On the Road by Kerouac ($10)
Powell's Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons ($8)  Free e-text @ http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/8082
Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance ($9) http://www.virtualschool.edu/mon/Quality/PirsigZen/index.html 
Lewis, Clark and Moulton's The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery ($10) Free etext @ http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/8419
Maugham's, The Razor's Edge ($10)

Topics, Readings, Resources and Tentative Schedule

Academic Activities (please refer to the Course Syllabus for complete information):

• Listen to James Taylor while watching the sun set on the Carolinas.
• As we pull into the Nations Capital, view the Pentagon, Potomac River, Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial and The Capitol.  Upon departure,
  walk to the front of Union Station and admire the Roman Bath architecture.
• Discuss Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience, governance ideas as we depart D.C.
• Debate Chicago-based Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle as we pull into the Windy City and compare this meat-packing socialist approach of government to Thoreau's. 
• At Chicago's Union Station, use the Metropolitan Lounge and listen to Jazz artists such as Miles David and John Coltrane, keeping in mind that later in the trip,
  we will be experiencing a different type of southern Jazz. 
• Read excerpts from the diaries of Louis & Clark while along the Missouri River.
• Observe the steep climb to Raton Pass after Trinidad, CO.  Throughout this area watch for antelope and deer. Climbing Raton Pass, look for the historic
  Santa Fe Trail and the Wooten Ranch and first toll road. The tunnel at the crest takes you from Colorado to New Mexico.  The train parallels old Route 66 from
  here to CA. Look for remnants of the 60s culture...old motels, neon signs, roadside tourist traps.
• Enjoy traditional Mexican-American music as we travel along the border.
• Watch Rebel Without a Cause (1955) when entering southern California, chatting with colleagues on the impact this media had on society.
• Read On the Road by Kerouac while traveling through California and explore how the writer describes the life in California in the 1960's.
• Reflect on Sixties Folk music (Dylan, Grateful Dead and Simon & Garfunkel)
• Analyze the Maltese Falcon (1941) film when entering the San Francisco Bay area, identifying the power of this classic media over sixty years later.
• Realize the importance and difficulty of Powell excursion of the Colorado River in reading his diary of the Exploration of the Colorado River.
• View the Donner Pass. We will pass along the shore of the Great Salt Lake and can smell it even in the train.  Then climb Wasatch Mountains in Utah.
• Explore metaphors of the Kansas-based Wizard of Oz.
• Examine Midwestern culture in Hoosiers (1986) while traveling through Indiana
• Listen to bluegrass as we travel in and out of Kentucky
• Riding on the City of New Orleans (Arlo Guthrie). Passenger trains were dying out in the 1960s until Amtrak rescued in 1971. The Mississippi River can be seen at
  Memphis with Arkansas visible across the river.
• Investigate the eclectic sounds of Zydeco and other forms of Jazz as we move through New Orleans.
• Relax as we return to Jacksonville, FL.