Model boat with American flag-motif sails. (Image courtesy Daniel Bersak.)
Instructor(s)
History Department Faculty
MIT Course Number
21H.102
As Taught In
Spring 2003
Level
Undergraduate
Course Description
Course Highlights
This course features archived syllabi from various semesters.
Course Description
This subject studies the changing structure of American politics, economics, and society from the end of the Civil War to the present. We will consider secondary historical accounts and primary documents to examine some of the key issues in the development of modern America: industrialization and urbanization; U.S. emergence as a global power; ideas about rights and equality; and the changing structures of gender, class, and race. This subject also examines the multiple answers that Americans gave to the question of what it means to be an American in the modern age. As a communications intensive subject, students will be expected to engage intensively with the material through frequent oral and written exercises.