This course will explore how journalists, writers, and artists choose to live a literary life in times of tumultuous, and even dangerous, social change. We will critically examine authors' lives and work in order to understand the choices they made in volatile political moments, including: World War I, the rise of fascism in Europe prior to World War II, the Spanish Civil War, post-war journalism, McCarthyism, the Beats, the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, the Prague Spring, and our own world on fire. Questions we will explore include: What is the proper role of journalists and authors in these moments? What tension does this create within literary and political communities about these roles? At what point do we, and must we, become part of the story being created around us? How does it affect our craft? And, most importantly, how can we learn from these historic literary voices about how we, as a class, can reflect upon our roles as writers and citizens in this time of sweeping social change? We will explore authors including: James Baldwin, Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, Martha Gellhorn, Eyal Press, Edward R. Murrow, Rebecca Solnit, Lindsey Hilsum, and others lesser-known writers. Students will be expected to critically engage with texts, films, and guest lectures. The course will place heavy emphasis on class discussion of readings and materials, and students will be expected to combine our studies with personal reflection about how you, too, can live a more publicly-engaged and inspiring life.