The history of modern America, with particular focus on domestic political and social changes. Topics include the Roaring 20s; the Great Depression and the New Deal; the homefront of World War II and the Cold War; the civil rights movement and the Great Society; the Vietnam War; the sexual revolution; the Silent Majority, the Nixon administration, and Watergate.
Americans often assume that the past was a simpler and easier time, free from the complications and crises we face, but in truth every era had its own troubles. For the United States, the middle decades of the twentieth century presented one massive challenge after another — the Great Depression, the Second World War, the anticommunist panic of the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, feminism and gay rights, the Vietnam War, and Watergate just to name a few. Throughout this course, we’ll see how Americans tackled these challenges and changed this country, for better or for worse, in important ways we’re still reckoning with today.