HIS-111 Modern United States History

Modern U.S. History explores the social, political, economic, intellectual and cultural development of America after 1865. It covers such topics as Reconstruction, industrialization, Western expansion, the Progressive era, the Great Depression, the New Deal, WWI and WWII, America's rise as a world power, the Cold War, the Civil Rights movement, Vietnam, Watergate, the Reagan Revolution and the post-9/11 War on Terror. This course fulfills the SUNY General Education knowledge and skills area for U.S. History and Civic Engagement.

Credits

Department

Social Science

Course Rotation Schedule

Fall: In Person, Online
Spring: In Person, Online

For more detailed course information view the Course Outline

HIS 111: Modern United States History

Department

Social Science

Course Description

Credit Hours

Contact Hours

Lecture	3
Lab	0
Other	0

Grading Scheme

Letter

SUNY General Education Course

US History and Civic Engagement

Course Learning Outcomes

Students will identify the major issues, events, and themes of post-1865 American history.
Students will trace the historical evolution of key American institutions, traditions and structures (Constitution, Congress, Supreme Court, presidency etc.) after 1865, and will describe the role of individual participation and collective action (in community-based and governmental bodies) in shaping modern American history.
Students will describe America's evolving relationship with the wider world after 1865.
Students will apply reliable historical evidence to draw, support, or verify conclusions about the post-1865 American past.
Students will describe the role of unity and diversity in shaping modern American history.

Topic Outline

1. Reconstruction, 1865–77
a. Restoring the Union and remaking the South
b. Andrew Johnson presidency and impeachment
c. 14th and 15th Amendments
d. Radical Reconstruction and its collapse, 1867–72
2. Westward expansion to 1900
a. Manifest Destiny, the Homestead Act, and cattle
b. The Alaska Purchase and gold rush
c. Subjugation of the Plains Indians: Little Bighorn, the Dawes Act, and
Wounded Knee
d. Chinese immigration
e. Linking the nation by rail
3. Industrialization, the rise of big business, and the "Gilded Age," 1870–1900
a. Technology and industrial growth
b. Tycoons: Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Morgan
c. Urbanization and its problems
d. African American "Great Migration"
e. Immigration and nativism
f. Late 19th-century American culture
g. Religious revival: the "Social Gospel"
h. Labor vs. management
i. Print revolution
4. American imperialism, 1898–1914
a. Hawaiian annexation
b. Spanish-American War
c. "Open Door Policy"
d. Theodore Roosevelt's "Big Stick" policy
e. Panama Canal
f. Wilson and Mexico
5. Progressive Era, 1900–16
a. Muckrakers
b. The "New Feminism" and women's suffrage
c. AFL, IWW, and big labor
d. Civil liberties and progressive democracy
e. Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois
f. Progressive presidents: Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson
6. America in the First World War, 1917–19
a. Neutrality and preparedness
b. Lusitania and the Zimmermann Telegram
c. The A.E.F. in the European war
d. Wilson's wartime presidency
e. Home front
f. Fourteen Points, the Paris Peace Conference, and the League of Nations
7. Roaring Twenties
a. Mass production and mass consumerism: radio and the automobile age
b. Prohibition
c. Social change: flappers, the "Lost Generation," and the Harlem Renaissance
d. Red Scare
e. Scopes "Monkey Trial"
8. Great Depression, 1929–41
a. Stock market crash of 1929
b. Hoover presidency
c. Bonus March
d. Election of 1932
e. 21st Amendment and repeal of Prohibition
f. Banking crisis
g. FDR and the "New Deal"
h. Emergence of the welfare state: N.R.A., W.P.A., A.A.A., and Social Security
i. Roosevelt and the Supreme Court
9. America in World War II, 1941–45
a. Isolation vs. intervention
b. FDR and American preparedness: "Arsenal of Democracy," Lend-Lease, and the
"Four Freedoms"
c. Pearl Harbor
d. Wartime strategy and diplomacy
e. American home front
f. War in Europe to V-E Day
g. Pacific theater and the decision to drop the atomic bomb
10. The Cold War begins, 1945–53
a. United Nations and the Marshall Plan
b. "Iron Curtain," the Truman Doctrine, and containment
c. Berlin Blockade and Airlift
d. NATO and the Warsaw Pact
e. Korean War
11. America in the 1950s and 1960s
a. Eisenhower administration
b. McCarthyism
c. Suburbanization and consumerism
d. Sputnik and the space race
e. Civil rights movement: Montgomery, Birmingham, and MLK
f. 1960 election
g. Kennedy: "New Frontier," the Bay of Pigs, and the Cuban Missile Crisis
h. LBJ's "Great Society"
12. Vietnam War
a. Early involvement to the Gulf of Tonkin
b. Escalation, 1965–68
c. Tet Offensive
d. Public opinion and the "living room war"
e. Counterculture and the antiwar movement
f. American withdrawal
13. America in the seventies
a. Nixon administration: détente, domestic policy, and Watergate
b. Feminism and Roe v. Wade
c. Environmentalism and the energy crisis
d. Ford administration
e. Carter, stagflation, and the Iran hostage crisis
14. Reagan and Bush eras
a. Election of 1980
b. Reagan's domestic policy: Reaganomics, the AIDS crisis, and the War on Drugs
c. Foreign policy: Grenada, Iran-Contra, Reykjavik, and SDI
d. Bush's domestic policy: debt, taxes, the S&L crisis, civil rights,
Exxon Valdez, and the "Thousand Points of Light"
e. Bush's foreign policy: Panama, "Operation Desert Storm," NAFTA, and the end
of the Cold War
15. Post–Cold War America, 1989–2000
a. Collapse of communism and the new world order
b. 1992 election
c. Clinton presidency: healthcare and welfare reform, Somalia, Kosovo, and
impeachment
d. Computer revolution
e. Culture wars
f. Election of 2000
16. Post-9/11 America
a. Bush presidency: taxes and free trade, domestic reforms, and Hurricane Katrina
b. 9/11, the Patriot Act, and the War on Terror
c. Bush Doctrine: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay