This course examines the transformation of American society since the Civil War. The lectures and readings give special attention to the emergence of city culture and its possibilities for a pluralistic society; the experience and effect of immigration in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; the revolution in communications and industry; changes in family dynamics, the emergence of modern childhood, schooling, and youth culture; changes in gender relations and sexuality; the problematics of race and the changing nature of class relationships in a consumer society; the triumph of psychological and therapeutic concepts of the self.

This class will be taught via ASYNCHRONOUS REMOTE INSTRUCTION. Time conflicts are allowed for this class. History 131B examines the transformation of American social history since the Civil War, ​a deeply complex story highlighted by the changing fabric of our nation’s society and culture via immigration, the interactions of social groups as they migrate, and the cultural expressions they create to make meaning of their experiences in the United States. Two themes will frame our critical thinking about the past: Inclusion/Exclusion and Social Movements. ​The lectures and readings give special attention to urban culture; the construction of racial identities; gender and sexuality; consumer culture; inequality and mobility under industrial capitalism and globalization; and grassroots social movements for reform such as the Black freedom struggle; feminism; and environmentalism. We will pay particular attention to the intersectionality of identities as they have evolved over the past 150 years. In examining the ways that various groups have defined, pursued and defended rights, we also explore the structural, systemic, and social factors that limited or challenged those pursuits. Lectures and readings will highlight the multicultural history particular to the United States as central to the making of modern America. Instructor bio: Sandra Weathers Smith is a faculty member of the History Department at The Spence School and a Lecturer in U.S. History at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research and teaching interests include cultural history, urban history, immigration, civil rights, and political culture. Sandra earned her doctorate in American History from U.C. Berkeley, where she also served as a U.C. Faculty (postdoctoral) Fellow. She worked as Senior Researcher for theater artist, Anna Deavere Smith, and the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue.

Lectures will be delivered synchronously during the designated course window and a recording of the lecture will be made available for asynchronous viewing for 3 days following the lecture date. Time conflicts allowed.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills