United States II: Building the U.S.

HIST 202, By Steven Beda

Term: Fall 2021

HIST202-19thCenAmericanHistory-Beda-Fall2021

Creation and development of the United States and its social, economical, political, and cultural consequences. Jacksonian era, expansion, commercial and industrial revolution, slavery, Civil War, Reconstruction.

This course is the second term of a three-term sequence in U.S. history. This term surveys U.S. history from the end of the War of 1812 through the Progressive Era to the eve of World War I. The main theme of our course is the struggle for liberty during a period of nationbuilding. At its inception, as articulated in the Declaration of Independence and fought for in the colonists’ struggle for independence from Great Britain, the United States imagined itself to be a nation unique for its commitment to liberty. Yet, liberty meant many different things to different people. For slaveowners, for example, it meant the freedom to own slaves, while slaves themselves saw their condition as a violation of their liberty. Or, to take another example, the building of America and Americans’ pursuit of liberty within a growing nation depended upon geographical expansion (empire), which in turn deprived Native Americans of their liberty to pursue their lives in their own lands. Throughout the period covered by this course, people advanced different ideas about liberty and fought for their conception of liberty. What did liberty mean for different groups of people that lived in the United States or were incorporated into it? How did people struggle over the meaning of liberty and with what outcomes? As we explore these questions, we will examine the experiences of several different groups of people: the rich and poor, ethnic and racial groups, immigrants from around the world, men and women.

4 credits