The United States Since 1900: Late 20th C. to Present (315-3-20)
Instructors
Michael J. Allen
847/467-3979
Harris Hall - Room 342
Meeting Info
University Hall 121: Tues, Thurs 9:30AM - 10:50AM
Overview of class
This course examines the recent past that most US history courses never get around to discussing. The course surveys the rise and fall of market values--often called neoliberalism--in the United States (and around the world) over the past half-century to explain such pressing problems as rising inequality, mass incarceration, mass immigration, party polarization, political extremism, and social isolation. It focuses on politics and policy but also attends to society and culture. Along the way it considers the specific risks and rewards of studying the recent past, asking what sources we can rely on, where is the line and what is the relationship between history and the present, and how can history help us to understand and respond to present day problems? The course begins with the election of Richard Nixon in 1968 and ends with the election of Donald Trump in 2016, arguing that each of these moments marked the end of one social and political order and the rise of another. No prior collegiate coursework in US history is required.
Learning Objectives
• Read, analyze, and evaluate primary source materials to become familiar with how diverse groups experienced and participated in political, social, and economic developments since 1968, and learn to use variation, repetition, consonance, and disagreement within such source materials to interrogate and explain change and continuity over time. • Read, analyze, and evaluate varied secondary sources that offer scholarly interpretations of key questions in the history of the United States since 1968, thereby developing proficiency in historical argument, documentation, and debate. • Engage in reasoned, respectful, evidence-based discussion and debate with other interpreters of history in verbal and written forms. • Analyze, synthesize, and organize varied source materials into accurate and persuasive verbal and written arguments in answer to historical questions. • Gain foundational knowledge of the political, social, cultural, intellectual, and technological forces that shaped life in the United States after 1968, and learn how they interacted across time and space to shape American and world history.
Evaluation Method
Class Participation (15%); short written papers (20%); section quizzes (10%); two longer papers (55%)
Class Notes
Concentration: Americas
Class Attributes
Historical Studies Foundational Discipline
Historical Studies Distro Area
U.S. Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity