The Rise and Fall of the American Liberal Order

Undergraduate / Graduate

This course examines the emergence, consolidation, and breakdown of the American liberal order from the Progressive Era through the early twenty-first century. It traces how reform politics gave rise to the New Deal, the expansion of the managerial and welfare state, the construction of the mixed economy, and the ideological consolidation of Cold War liberalism. It then explores the racial realignment, cultural conflict, institutional fragmentation, and economic impasse that undermined this settlement. Animating the course is the question of why the liberal order failed, paving the way for the rise of neoliberalism. This course is an LLSO junior colloquium and will accordingly require a substantial independent research paper.