2016-2017 Academic Catalog 
    
    Mar 29, 2024  
2016-2017 Academic Catalog [Archived Catalog]

HIST 207H - History of Our Time: 1970-Present


Credits: Four (4)
Prerequisite: Membership in Bascom Honors Program
This honors seminar will look at the recent past, the time period in which people are most interested but often know the least. The course will explore the history and culture of the United States from 1970 to the present. Topics include changing sex roles and values, race relationss, popular culture, the welfare state, the roles of liberalism and conservatism, the growth of the “imperial presidency,” the relationships between foreign and domestic policy, and America’s position in the modern world. We will analyze the post-Civil Rights era, the end of the Vietnam War, what films and music can tell us about recent American history, the Nixon presidency and Watergate, the “Me Decade,” the Ford-Carter presidencies, the Reagan era, the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Empire, the first Persian Gulf War, the Bush administration’s foreign and domestic policies, the Clinton presidency, the “Republican Revolution” of 1995-96, the 1996 presidential campaign, the Clinton impeachment, the disputed election of 2000, the presidency of a second Bush, the effects of September 11, 2001, the Iraq War, the 2004 election, and challenges for the future.