History of the United States 3301-L1HUSW

The lecture is a survey of major themes and events in American history from the colonial times to the present. It examines the origins and development of American institutions and how they continue to shape contemporary politics, economy, and social relations. It covers the following topics: colonial North America - social, economic, and religious life under the British colonial system; settler-indigenous relationships; slavery as an economic and social institution; the American Revolution; American nationalism; territorial expansion and Manifest Destiny; the Civil War and Reconstruction in the South; the struggle for civil rights for African Americans; Jim Crow laws and racial segregation; settlement in the West; political and reform movements at the turn of the 19th and 20th century; immigration and industrial growth of American cities in the Gilded Age; the U.S. as an imperial power; the Great Depression and New Deal program; U.S. political and economic history from the 1950s to the 1990s; U.S. military engagement in the international arena from WWI until the Cold War; the rise of the consumer society; social life from the 1950s until the Clinton era; minority groups’ struggle for civil rights; socio-demographic trends at the end of 20th century; from industrial to post-industrial economies; U.S. before and after 9/11 attacks; mass society and politics in the age of social media.