TimeDaysLocationInstructorGERCreditOPUS Class NumberSyllabus (Tentative)
11:45am-12:35pm
MWF
Rich Building 108
Fraser Harbutt. HSC. 413069 TBA.

January 13, 2010- April 26, 2010

Catalog Description: An examination of modern America as a legacy of the New Deal and World War II. Attention given to political, diplomatic, economic, and sociocultural aspects, with emphasis on reform traditions, national security concerns, and presidential leadership.

Semester Details:

Content:  Our charge here, naturally, is to acquire a grasp both of the main events and issues of the period and of what historians and others have said about it.  The deeper challenge will be to break through the crust of an illusory familiarity and confront some of the tantalizing paradoxes of modern American history: a mass democracy with a nervous elite that is highly resistant to change; a conservative society agitated by a provocative media and a radical popular culture; a military behemoth that has difficulty working its will in a revolutionary world; a muscular economy that is subject to destabilizing convulsions; and a rhetorical commitment to individualism, but a powerful tendency to conformity.

Probable texts will include:  R. Griffiths & P. Baker, ed., Major Problems in American History Since 1945; J. Baughman, The Republic of Mass Culture; D. Burner, Making Peace with the Sixties; K. Phillips, American Theocracy; N. Ferguson, Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire; L. Freedman, The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy; W. Chafe, The Unfinished Journey

Particulars:  Midterm: 30%; Final: 60%; Class: 10%

The schedule of courses on O.P.U.S. is the official listing of courses, including days and times they meet and the General Education Requirements they satisfy. Students should use course descriptions as general guidelines. Course requirements, grading details, book lists, and syllabi are subject to change.