Gilded Age and Progressive-Era United States, 1877-1920

Undergraduate catalogue

This course explains a turbulent and transformative era in United States history, from the dismantling of Reconstruction to the aftermath of World War One (c. 1877-1920). Lectures and readings examine the nature of Reconstruction and its destruction; economic inequality in the Gilded Age and the political movements that challenged it; the relationship of financial and industrial capitalism; the making of the American middle class and the contradictions of Progressivism; the politics of white supremacy and the construction of Jim Crow regimes; mobilization for World War 1 and wartime contests over civil liberties; postwar social upheaval.