History

History Short Period: America in the 20th Century

Module code: V1408
Level 5
15 credits in autumn semester
Teaching method: Lecture, Seminar
Assessment modes: Essay

The modern United States emerged in the years after the American Civil War. On this module you will explore the forces that shaped the country in the twentieth century, focusing both on its internal transformation and its powerful influence on the rest of the world in a chronological manner.

You will study the degree to which the rise of the US as a global economic superpower was characterised by social dislocation, racial prejudice and class conflict in the domestic sphere.

You will also be introduced to the tensions that emerged as the US sought to extend its vision of democracy to the world throughout the century, including the degree to which its status as an atomic power raised the stakes in the ideologically polarised world of the Cold War, bringing the world close to the point of nuclear destruction.

The social and cultural challenges brought by ambitions for gender equality, the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement in the 1960s and 70s represent key questions of the module.

Module learning outcomes

• Deploy existing knowledge of topics of broad historical significance to the analysis of the national history of a particular country or region.
• Apply understanding of the historical concept of change over time to varied and contested national and regional chronologies.
• Deploy existing knowledge of historiographical debates to questions specific to particular national histories.
• Communicate information, arguments and analysis relating to national and regional history in written forms suitable for an informed audience.