COURSE DESCRIPTION:
History 202 covers the development of the United States since Reconstruction.
The decades following the Civil War witnessed profound changes in the
nation's economy, its politics, and its ethnic and social make-up. We
will explore this rise of modern America in the late nineteenth century
and examine how the nation built on those premises in the twentieth
century. We will specifically focus on how the common wo/men experienced
these changes. The questions you need to be asking throughout the quarter
include "What does it mean to be American? How has that definition
changed over time, and why? How have power relations changed over time,
and why? What is the meaning of equality and liberty? How have these
terms been redefined over time, and why? What are the defining moments
in the nation's history, and why? What is the relevance of these events
to our lives? " To find some answers to these questions, we will
use a variety of methods: lectures (listening and note taking), group
and class discussions, individual writing, audiovisual materials and--last
but not least--reading (text analysis).
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