US Since 1980

Catalog description

This course charts the monumental social, political, economic, and cultural shifts that took place during the closing decades of the twentieth century and the opening decade of the twenty-first. Focusing on the years 1980-2010, we will examine the rise of conservatism and neoliberalism; the development of new technologies such as personal computers and the internet; financialization and the growth of income inequality; the end of the Cold War and the advent of the global “war on terror”; new social movements; and the intensification of battles over national and cultural identity.