Culture Wars are Nothing New: U.S. Intellectual History, 1750-1940

3 - 4 credits · Undergraduate credit

Worries about "culture wars" seem to be everywhere in contemporary America. And yet, as we discover in this lecture course, fighting over the nature of the nation, over what values to espouse and how to put them into operation is as old as the republic itself. In order to understand the current wars over what America should stand for, what democracy can and should be, and who should be counted as part of the citizenry, then we need to explore their historical roots and to see the many possibilities that have been advanced and fought over.