US Empire in the Twentieth Century

Catalog description

This class examines the emergence of the U.S. as a world power since 1898, and considers both the international and domestic consequences of U.S. foreign relations. In one respect, the twentieth century was a strange time to become a global empire: it was the period when colonial systems centered in Europe, Russia, Japan, and Turkey collapsed, and new nations emerged throughout Africa and Asia. This class explores the changing strategies of military, economic, and political intervention that the US pursued as colonization lost legitimacy. Within that framework, the class invites students to think about four questions: How did the idea and practice of empire change over the twentieth century? How did the United States and people within the US relate to new visions of independence emerging in Africa, Asia, and Latin America? How did global interactions both inform and reflect racial ideology in the United States? Finally, how did anti-imperialist arguments and movements change over the twentieth century?