United States History, 1877 to Present

Catalog description

Primarily a reading seminar, this course focuses on United States history from 1877 to the present, emphasizing the profound ways the nation changed socially, culturally, economically, and politically since the late nineteenth century. In particular, the course investigates and builds an awareness of the transition from the Gilded Age through the two world wars, and onward through the social protest and civil rights movements of the 1960s. This seminar will address a variety of topics: industrialization; evolving ideas about individual rights; the role of government in social and economic affairs; the emergence of the nation as an economic and military power; as well as social and labor movements. On a methodological level, the seminar will expose graduate students to a variety of interdisciplinary approaches and subfields of history, ranging from political, economic, social, ethnic, religious, cultural, and environmental history.