AMERICA II
| Since the latter part of the nineteenth century the U.S. has had to grapple with enormous changes in the economic, political and social spheres: industrialization and the transition to a post-industrial economy, urbanization and then post-war suburbanization and the decline of cities, the growth of the welfare state and the crisis over the legitimacy of social welfare spending, the rise and fall of protest movements against injustice, and the complexities of living in a multicultural and increasingly divided society. In this class we examine the course and the social consequences of these vast changes in American society since the Civil War. We assess the impact of race, class, gender and ethnicity on the lifestyles, expectations, opportunities, and experiences of American citizens and trace how the meaning and consequences of these differences among people have changed over time. |