50:512:201 Development of the United States I (R) (3) Introduction to American history, with emphasis on political, economic, and social factors from the colonial period through the Civil War and Reconstruction periods.

50:512:202 Development of the United States II (R) (3) Continuation of 50:512:201, with emphasis on the development of industrial and corporate America, the evolution of politics and reform, and the role of the United States in world affairs.

50:512:203 African-American History I (D) (R) (3) An introduction to the history of black people in America, with a survey of African background, the history of slavery and resistance to slavery, and the evolution of black leadership through the Civil War.

50:512:204 African-American History II (D) (3) Continuation of 50:512:203, tracing black leadership and cultural development through Reconstruction, the period of official segregation, and the civil rights revolution.

50:512:280,281 Introductory Topics in American History (3,3) A theme in American history.

50:512:285:01 World War II (3) World War II never loses its fascination. The greatest catastrophe of the 20th century, it caused the deaths of some 60 million people, the large majority of whom were civilians. To understand the origins of the war, we will begin with World War I, and then trace the collapse of the fragile postwar peace in the 1920s and 1930s. By the time the United States entered World War II, it had been raging for years in Asia and Europe. We will study the famous battles, campaigns, weapons, and leaders familiar from popular accounts of the war. But we will also examine how the combatants mobilized their economies and societies, how they developed the logistical capacity to project combat power across oceans and continents, how everyday people and soldiers experienced the war, how the war and the Holocaust were related, and how the war generated new calls for decolonization and human rights. Last but not least, we will explore how the war changed the international order: vaulting the United States to superpower status, hastening the end of the European empires, leading to the establishment of the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund, and setting the stage for the Cold War. The course is designed to be both accessible to non-history majors and rewarding for history majors.

50:512:302 History of American Popular Culture (3) The goals of this course are to introduce students to a wide range of primary and secondary sources; to teach them about aspects of the past that often have gone unnoticed and unstudied; to provide them with a better understanding of American history in general, putting chronological events into a cultural context; and to have students improve their critical reading and writing skills.

50:512:305 The Age of the American Revolution (3) The American Revolution, with independence from England producing sharp changes in society, economy, and politics, and resulting in the establishment of a unique republican system.

50:512:315 The Early American Republic, 1789-1848 (3) The study of the United States from the start of the presidency of George Washington in 1789 to the end of the War with Mexico in 1848. Key issues the course considers are: the development of American capitalism, the rise of American democracy, social reforms, growing sectional conflict, and westward expansion.

50:512:320 Civil War and Reconstruction (3) The political, social, and economic history of the United States from 1850 to 1877; emphasis on the Civil War, its causes and effects.

50:512:322 U.S. Capitalism - 19th Century (3) American history is populated with narratives focusing on the rich, famous, and powerful: we like success stories. But thriving capitalists comprised only a fraction of the population. This course focuses on capitalism from the bottom up. How did "ordinary" people make do, get by, sometimes succeed, and often fail during the 19th century, a time marked by turbulent social and economic conditions during the transition to capitalism? We will learn about the lives of individuals who are not chronicled in most history textbooks but who in fact created and lived the more common American experience, including criminals and conmen like robbers, pick-pockets, counterfeiters, and drifters. We will also learn about the lives of marginal entrepreneurs such as junk dealers, professional beggars, rag pickers, boardinghouse keepers, and used goods dealers. We will pay special attention to the economic coping strategies of women, children, new immigrants, and African Americans. The class will discuss opportunity and failure in historical context and how people's ways of eking out a living changed over time, whether experienced in the pawnshop, tenement house, city street, orphan asylum, or bankruptcy court.

50:512:325 The U.S. in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (3) This course examines the history of the United States from 1865-1918.

50:512:330 America in the Age of World Wars (3) World War I, the decades of the 1920s and 1930s, the evolution of economic policy during the Hoover and Roosevelt presidencies, and the events of World War II.

50:512:335 U.S. 1945-Present (3) Looks at the transformation of America in the years 1945 to today. From a country devastated by economic crisis and wedded to isolationism prior to World War II, America became an international powerhouse. Massive grassroots resistance forced the United States to abandon racial apartheid, open opportunities to women, and reinvent its very definition as it incorporated immigrants from around the globe. And in the same period, American music and film broke free from their staid moorings and permanently altered global culture. We will explore the political, social, and cultural factors that created recent American history with an emphasis on how popular films reflected that history.

50:512:338 America in the 1960s (3) Explores the 1960s from the perspective of the baby boomers who came of age in the shadow of the bomb, who fought for social justice movements, who fought in and against the war in Vietnam, who experienced hope and rage, and who changed the culture, even as it changed them. Prerequisite: 50:512:202.

50:512:340 The Civil Rights Movement (D) (3) Intensive examination of the civil rights movement, including the legal strategy of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to challenge de jure segregation. Focuses on the period 1954-1968.

50:512:365 Command History (3) This course is designed to acquaint students with, and to help them navigate, the difficulties of decision-making for commanders and for historians. While teaching both history and historical methodology, it is interdisciplinary, drawing on literature, philosophy, and science.

50:512:375 The United States in the Wider World (3) Diplomatic, military, economic, and cultural relations with other countries.

50:512:376 U.S. Naval/Military History (3) Examines how Americans organize, think about, and fight war on land, sea, and in the air from earliest colonial militias to the latest hi-tech weapons systems.

50:512:380,381 Special Topics in American History (3,3) A theme in American history. Open to majors and nonmajors.

50:512:499 Independent Study in American History (BA) Independent reading under the direction of a member of the department. Prerequisite: Permission of a faculty supervisor.