Contemporary America: the USA and the American People, 1940-1992
Ian Mylchreest and Tony Wood
8 points * 1 lecture and one 2-hour seminar per week * Second semester * Clayton
This subject deals with both the international history and the domestic political, economic, social and cultural history of the United States and the American people from the eve of World War II to the present. The first half is a chronological survey of diplomatic and political developments, including the politics of the cold war at home and abroad, Vietnam and its impact on American society and politics, the arms race and the `military-industrial complex', the `imperial presidency' and Watergate, and post-Watergate politics and foreign relations including the ending of cold war bipolarity with the collapse of the USSR. The second half of the subject deals with two major themes in recent American social history via contrasting studies of women and blacks, then studies affluence and poverty, `culture' versus `counterculture' and `media messages'.
Assessment
Written (4000 words): 60% * Examinations (2 hours): 30% * Seminar participation: 10%
Prescribed texts
Chafe W H The unfinished journey: America since World War II 2nd edn, OUP, 1991
Chafe W H and Sitkoff H (eds) A history of our time: Readings on postwar America 3rd edn, OUP, 1991
Recommended texts
Gatlin R American women since 1945 Macmillan
Goldfield D R Black, white and southern Louisiana UP
Hamby A L Liberalism and its challengers: FDR to Reagan 2nd edn, OUP
Lennan N The promised land: The great black migration and how it changed America Macmillan
Matusow A J The unravelling of America: A history of liberalism in the 1960s Harper Torch
Marable M J Race, reform and rebellion: The second reconstruction in black America, 1945-1990 2nd edn, Mississippi UP
Morgan R The word of a woman: Selected prose 1968-1992 Virago
Young M B The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990 Harper-Collins