BA History and German

In 1876 Americans celebrated the country’s first century. Within a year, political chicanery would end Reconstruction in the South, and one of the largest strikes, the Great Railroad Strike, would unfold in cities from Baltimore to Chicago. These events mark the start of this module, and help to frame the context of the later nineteenth century, which was characterized by profound economic transformations, new ideas about government and politics, and persistent questions about race and citizenship. In the century or so that followed, and which is surveyed by this module, the US would change in even more dramatic ways, becoming the world’s dominant economy, a global power of considerable military and diplomatic force, and a leading cultural influence. This course is intended to offer students a broad overview of the economic, cultural, political, and intellectual history of the US in the period from the end of Reconstruction to the end of Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Students will encounter this history through both primary and secondary sources, and the course will help to develop skills for interpreting and synthesizing these varied materials.

• To offer students, in broad outline, the major themes that shaped the US between the 1870s and 2020s;
• To encourage students to consider the value of American literature, art, music, film and other forms of culture for studying the history of this period;
• To acquaint students with a variety of secondary and primary sources appropriate for the study of this topic;
• To introduce students to some of the most important historiographical debates in this field.

On completion of the course successful students should be able to demonstrate:

• An understanding of the main developments and themes in American history from 1877-1988;


• An appreciation of the ways in which those developments and themes were expressed in, and shaped by, American cultural productions;


• A capacity to find and use a variety of primary and secondary source materials relating to American history during this period;


• Familiarity with some of the important historiographical debates relating to this topic.

Between the 1870s and 2020, the US changed dramatically as a nation, while also contributing to the dramatic transformation of the international arena. Over the 150 years surveyed by this module, the US became the world’s dominant economy, a global power of considerable military and diplomatic force, and a leading cultural and intellectual influence. But this period has also been marked by growing uncertainty and division about where US power should be concentrated, who should wield it and where, and what the country’s relationship to other nations and global events should be. What role did the US play in the creation of globalization, and how far has US society been transformed by its outcomes? How exceptional—or unique, and disconnected from the ordinary forces of history—was US during this century-and-a-half? How does this period of US history fit with global histories? These were decades characterized by profound economic transformations, new ideas about government and politics, persistent questions about race and citizenship, and ever-changing outlooks on the relationship between the US and the wider world. The module offers students a broad overview of the economic, cultural, political, and intellectual history of the US from the years around the end of the Civil War to those that following in the aftermath of the Cold War and one defined by endless war. Students will encounter this material through primary and secondary sources, and the module intends to develop skills for interpreting and synthesizing such varied sources. 

LECTURE SCHEDULE

1. AF Conflict and Contest in the Late Nineteenth Century

2. AF Rising Racial Consciousness: Jim Crow and Immigration

3. AF ‘The Citizen or the Dollar’: Agrarian Revolt and the New American Economy

4. TTA The Birth of American Empire

5. TTA Progressivism: Ideas, Reformers and Legislation

6. TTA A World Safe for Democracy? Wilson and WW1

7. AF The End of Lincoln’s Republic? America before and after the Crash

8. TTA ‘Relief, Recovery, and Reform’: The New Deal

9. TTA Isolation to Hiroshima: Pearl Harbor and WW2

10. AF ‘The Arsenal of Democracy’: War, Industry, & Race Relations

11. TTA ‘For the Soul of Mankind’: The Early Cold War

12. AF ‘Grasping the Outlines of New Epochs’: Consumption and Critique at Mid-Century

13. AF “The Longest Decade of the Twentieth Century”? The Lives and Legacies of the Sixties

14. TTA Vietnam and American Foreign Policy in the 60s

15. AF America in a Global Age, 1970s-90s

16. AF Feminism, the Family, and the Culture Wars, 1970s-2010s

17. TTA The Reagan Revolution?

18. TTA Tear Down this Wall’: The Second Cold War

19. TTA Bush, Clinton, and the End of History  

20. AF A New Gilded Age? Wealth and Power in Contemporary America  

21. TTA The Forever Wars? US Foreign Policy in the 21st Century 
  

* Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty: An American History (latest edition, 2014)--Purchase
* Jackson Lears, Rebirth of a Nation: The Making of Modern America, 1877-1920 (New York: 2009).
* John Lewis Gaddis, The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1941-1947 (2000)—ebook
* Adam Fairclough, Better Day Coming: Blacks and Equality, 1890-2000 (London: Penguin, 2001)