This survey course is designed to give students an overview of American history since 1877. During this period of time, America became a world power by a rapid and efficient process of industrialization, by extending its commercial, military, and diplomatic reach around the world, and by trying to live up to, universalize, and extend its ideals of democracy, liberty, and individual rights. This course will introduce the basic themes, events, and individuals that have helped shape modern America. The course will begin in the wake post-Civil-War Reconstruction and end with Watergate in the mid-1970s.

This course will offer an in-depth look at the issues and events of post-World War II America. What once was routinely described as “the postwar era” is now a period of more than a half century. It is an era in which the United States has probably changed more rapidly and more profoundly than during any other period of its history.