America in Depression and War

This course is a selective survey of a watershed era in U. S. history: from 1929, the year of the Crash and the onset of the Great Depression, to 1945, which date marks the dropping of the Atomic Bomb and the end of World War II. During these years "big government" became a fact of life, manners and mores changed forever, the U S. went from being an occasional force internationally to becoming a major player as the politics of isolation gave way domestically.

We will deal with patterns of American development during these years in terms of sectional, economic, racial, and political events at home, as well as with the country's affairs overseas. We will be concerned with key issues such as the decline and rise of American global hegemony, the impact of class and race and gender, the increasing role of government on every level of American life, and cultural change.

One of the most important themes in the history of the United States is the tension between majority rule and minority rights (and the minority can be anyone-- the Okies who came to California, and the Japanese they later repressed, the WASP auto workers in Detroit denied their union rights and the African Americans they rioted against). An exploration of that theme and the concepts of "freedom" and "equality" will be undertaken so that YOU can make your own judgements and definitions.

Remember as George Orwell once said, "whoever controls the present controls the past, and whoever controls the past controls the future. A main purpose of this course is to lay out the very complex, intriguingly often irrational, and all too often devious patterns of political, economic, social, and intellectual developments during one of the most important epochs in

U.S. history. The ramifications are still being felt today and will influence American life tomorrow This epoch even though it ended over a generation ago still has great impact on our lives.

It has been said that "history, among other things, is the study of change, of how and why people change, and what they remain, despite the changes that have taken place. " In dealing with such chance, this course will deal with what the noted American author, William Faulkner, has called "the tragedy and comedy of being alive."

America in Depression and War
History 2362
Fall 1997
Daniel J. Leab