HIST 352 Outline

THE KING'S UNIVERSITY

COURSE NUMBER:

HIST 352

COURSE TITLE:

The United States, 1865-Present

NAME OF INSTRUCTOR:

Dr. Luke Sandle

CREDIT WEIGHT AND WEEKLY TIME DISTRIBUTION:

credits 3(hrs lect 3 - hrs sem 0 - hrs lab 0)

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course offers an introductory survey of the history of the United States from the aftermath of the Civil War to the aftermath of 9/11. Topics include: Reconstruction; race relations and the rise of the Civil Rights movement; women's rights and feminism; immigration; religious and political culture; and pivotal conflicts such as the Spanish-American War, World War I and II, and the Cold War. We will also consider economic, military, cultural, and religious dimensions of the global assertion of American power over the past 150 years.

Prerequisites: HIST 204

REQUIRED TEXTS:

All texts will be available as PDFs on Moodle.

MARK DISTRIBUTION IN PERCENT:


Participation	20%
Student Presentation	20%
Midterm paper	20%
Final Paper	40%

	100%

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

Provide students with a detailed picture and understanding of key events in US history.
Develop students ability to assess, interrogate, and analyze those events in reference to a series of core themes and ideas laid out by the instructor.
Understand how key developments in US history connect and relate to one another.
Consider and approach the challenge of thinking US history both critically and contextually.
Develop student confidence in presentation/public-speaking formats.
Demand an answer to why religion (specifically Christianity) has been so formative in US history, and inquire as to what this means for both contemporary US politics and culture and for the future (legitimacy?) of so-called ‘Christian countries’ in a globalized, pluralized, inter-connected world.

COURSE OUTLINE:

The Story So Far: America before 1865
1860s-1870s: Reconstruction
Manifest Destiny: The American West
1870s-1900: The Gilded Age
American Empire: The Philippines
1900-1920s: Progressive America
Wilsonianism and WWI
1930s-1940s: New Deal America
The “Good War”: America and the Second World War
1950s-1970s: The Cold War at Home
The Rise and Fall of Liberal America
1980s: Reagan’s America
The End of the Cold War
1990s: Peace-Dividend America
9/11 and Beyond: Whither the American Empire?

Required texts, assignments, and grade distributions may vary from one offering of this course to the next. Please consult the course instructor for up to date details.