The United States in the 'Long Twentieth Century,' 1870-2020

Catalog description

This course is designed to introduce graduate students to some of the key issues and central themes in post-Reconstruction US history and historiography. The readings and discussions will examine new and innovative scholarship as well as some durable classics. The goal of this course is to familiarize students with some long-standing debates in the field as well as new perspectives and approaches to the past, but it will also seek to prepare you for preliminary exams and sharpen your analytical skills and tools. The readings will be wide-ranging with particular focus on the history of capitalism, political history (the relationship between reform and reaction, and equality and difference), and intellectual and cultural history.