What does it mean to be American? Whatever your answer is to this question, chances are it is deeply connected to the themes and events we will discuss in this class. Here we will track America's rise to global power, the fate of freedom in a post-Emancipation political setting, and the changing boundaries of nation, citizenship, and community. We will use landmark events to sharpen our themes, but we will also take care to analyze the equally important (and shifting) patterns of where and how Americans lived, worked, and played.

This course offers a history of the United States since the Civil War. We will pay particular attention to three, often interrelated, themes that weave throughout these 150+ years and go by the mnemonic “The 3 P’s”: (1) pluralism, (2) political economy, and (3) projection of power. Pluralism refers to the nation’s extraordinary social diversity and the struggles to expand the boundaries of just who is included in the “We” of the Constitution’s “We the People.” Political economy refers to the interaction between politics/policy and economics, in particular, how 19th century populism, early 20th century progressivism, mid-20th century New Deal liberalism, and late 20th century and early 21st century neoliberalism offered different political and policy responses to the nation’s shifting economic base from agriculture to industry to post-industry/service, striking different balances between how much faith and responsibility to vest in the public sector (government) vs. the private sector (the free market). Projection of power refers to the engagement of the United States with the world beyond its boundaries, from “hard power” military force to “soft power” economic and cultural influence. This course will approach the history of the United States since the Civil War from two distinct, but inextricably bound, angles: (1) the “what” and (2) the “so what.” The “what” refers to historical content, which is the historians’ raw material. The “so what” refers to (a) historical interpretations, which are the historians’ ever evolving finished products advanced and defended in their articles and books, and (b) the connection between then and now - or how an understanding of the past can serve as a kind of a lantern to help illuminate our stumbling through the present and into the future. Lectures and discussion sections will be in-person only. Discussion sections are history’s equivalent of labs, where students will cultivate the skills and habits of historical thinking through doing and discussing history and historical scholarship. This includes learning how to read primary and secondary sources, understanding the interpretive nature of historical scholarship (i.e., secondary sources, which are based upon primary sources), and developing the capacity to make historical arguments using historical evidence. Most, if not all, readings will be available for free electronically through the library or as PDFs posted to bCourses.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills