Age of Fracture: US Since 1974

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

In this course, we will examine the United States in the last quarter of the twentieth century, a period that historians have referred to as an age of fracture and social disaggregation. Using fracture as a conceptual framework to investigate American politics and culture in the last quarter of the twentieth century, we’ll consider how the recent past has informed present-day American society. Themes of study will include the rise of neoliberalism, the culture wars, changing understandings of race, gender, and sexuality, political polarization, the changing nature of work, and evolving notions of self and society. In addition, we’ll investigate the theoretical and methodological challenges of doing recent history.