131-143 Current Themes in American History

Credit Points

HECS Band

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Usually admission to the Postgraduate Diploma or Fourth Year Honours in History, Women's Studies or American Studies.

Semester

Subject Description

This subject examines current historiographical issues in American history, with a special focus on gender, class and race in the USA from 1870 to the 1990s. This includes the study of such topics as the Harlem Renaissance, the attempts of American workers to organise during the Great Depression, and post World War Two consumerism. Students will read recent and important older debates in American history. They will have the opportunity to undertake research in the very substantial research collections in American history held in the Baillieu library. By the end of semester students should have a knowledge of some major current debates in American history; have experience of working with primary sources in American history; and have some sense of historians' changing interpretations of American history.