HUAS97033 - Revolutions and Reactions: A History of American Politics from 1776 to the Present

Course Description

This three-quarter course covers the history of American politics, emphasizing the major controversies and crises that have shaped our Republic from its origins to the present. We will focus on continuous themes, such as the meaning of freedom and the struggle of different groups to attain it, and on particular moments in which everything suddenly changed. The first quarter will focus on the American Revolution and the conflicting visions for the new Republic represented by Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. In the second quarter we will consider the origins of the Civil War and its aftermath. And in the third quarter we will see how the global crises of the twentieth century transformed American government, a process that continues to the present day.