| Next year, I shall deliver a second-year module on US history here at Coventry University.The intended learning outcomes are that on completion of this module the student should be able to:
1. Identify the events and ideas which have shaped the political, economic, and cultural history of the United States. 2. Explain the processes by which the United States went from a small agrarian republic to a global superpower. 3. Assess the nature of the political system and the ideas and issues which dominated American politics between 1776 and 2000. 4. Understand the relations between the United States and its two neighbouring countries, Canada and Mexico. 5. Understand the complex and multicultural nature of the American population. The aim of this module is to provide an outline history of the United States since the Revolution. Whilst the module will be organised along broadly chronological lines, emphasis will be placed on addressing those general themes that have been important in the shaping of modern North America. The major themes of this module are: political change and institutions; key leaders; war and diplomacy; economic and social development. The primary focus of the module is the history of the United States. However, consideration will also be given to the histories of the other two nations of North America, Canada and Mexico. Understanding the history of the United States requires some awareness of the histories of the two nations that lie along its frontiers. The overarching theme of this module is the rise of the United States from a small confederation of agrarian republics into a coherent nation-state capable of projecting military, economic, and cultural power into all corners of the globe. All of the lectures and most of the seminar readings will be connected to this theme in some way or the other. List of Likely Lectures |
| – Introduction; The American Republic- Manifest Destiny
– The Road to Disunion – The Civil War and Reconstruction – The Gilded Age: America Becomes an Industrial Superpower – The nation and its minorities: Blacks in the South, Native American Indians, immigrants. – Populism and Progressivism. – Prosperity and depression, 1919-1939: the age of ‘normalcy’ during the 1920s and Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930s. – The Cold War: McCarthyism and the Garrison State – Politics and Society 1945-1968: the Era of Liberal Supremacy – The Rise of the American Right Since 1968 – The Age of Reagan – Mexico’s Relations With the United States and the Rise of Hispanic America – Canada’s Relations With the United States: Towards Continental Union? |
The Past Speaks 
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