131-080 American Modern: USA 1890-1990

Formerly available as 131-257/357. Students who have completed 131-257 or 131-357 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

Usually 25 points of first-year history, see Prerequisites.

The subject examines visions of and debates about the emergence of modern society and culture in the United States in the 20th century. We will cover events and issues such as Prohibition, the Great Depression, mass culture and broadcasting, the effect of the Cold War on postwar society, and the South and its relationship to modernity. In addition, we explore the changes wrought by the civil rights movement, black nationalism, the Vietnam war and the student protests of the 1960s. The readings will incorporate responses by white Americans, immigrants, African and Native Americans to mass society, political culture and social change. Students should complete the subject with a knowledge of some major issues in 20th century American history and an enhanced sense of the ways in which the emergence of modern society and understandings of it structured American society and culture.

Class participation and written work totalling 4000 words.

A subject reader will be available.