HIST 253 Y 2234 (Winter 2024)

HIST 253/Y (Winter 2024): HIST OF US SINCE CIVIL WAR

 

This course is a survey of United States history from the end of the Civil War to roughly 2016. It tracks the country’s development from an agricultural nation to an industrial world power and, finally, a post-industrial nation. We’ll ask how contests for power among different classes and groups animated US political, economic, and cultural development. Thematically, we pay close attention to changing definitions of freedom, the boundaries of citizenship, and expressions of nationalism. Chronologically, we cover watershed moments in US history, from emancipation & Reconstruction, the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, the Great Depression & Two World Wars, the Cold War, to the social movements and political realignments of the post-WWII era. By the course’s end you will be familiar with:

·       How the tension between “negative liberty” & “positive liberty” animates US politics.

·       How citizenship as a racialized and gendered category of belonging and set of rights changes over time.

·       How to read, analyze, and discuss primary sources.