SOCIAL DYNAMICS OF US HISTORY (SLHS)

This course is designed to study key social issues and political crises, and especially concentrating on changes generated in the larger political, social, and economic contexts by popular protests by more-focused movements. This course will also trace deeper roots of such events by placing them in the broader context of U.S. History as a whole, and also by using major reference-points, such as: the history of the working-class majority and workers’ efforts to overcome economic injustice; and African American efforts to overcome racial injustice. The interplay of civil rights (and human rights in general), economic justice, and foreign policy will be given serious attention. A focus of attention will be the role of ideas and social movements in generating historical change.