Problems & Methods In Amer History

Catalog description

A focused survey of the crises that shaped America from the first settlements to the present. The course examines such problems as the nature of Atlantic slavery, the nature of the American Revolution, the coming of the Civil War, the legacy of Reconstruction, the settlement of the West, finance capitalism and its effects, imperialism and its consequences, the unusual progressivism philosophy, the nature of the Great Depression and the New Deal, the ingredients of the Cold War, the character of the Civil Rights movement, the aims of the women’s movement and the growth of the new conservatism. Throughout, students learn to see history as the result of a clash of forces, as the product of events and deliberations. How the debates over America’s past problems inform our current discussions is an important theme of the course. Prerequisites: GHSN 105 and GHSN 106 or the permission of the department.