HIST 233-01, U.S. in the 20th Century, Fall 2012

Abstract

In the first half of the course we will explore the ways that territorial expansion, industrialization, and conflict over slavery shaped American life. We will investigate the changing nature of American national identity, cultural as well as political. The struggles between Native North Americans and EuroAmericans over sovereignty and land, the search for community in a rapidly changing society, and the drift toward sectionalism form crucial parts of this story. In the second half of the course we will study the great conflict that pitted brother against brother, the American Civil War, and its aftermath, Reconstruction. We will investigate changes wrought by industrial expansion, urbanization, and Native American innovations during the late nineteenth century. Throughout the course we will consider how power relations were inscribed in gender, race and class, as Americans questioned, challenged, and redefined the meanings of democracy.