FOST1501: The United States in the Post-WW2 Era

This course is designed as a survey of US history since the Second World War, from the prosperous post-war period of the 1950s to the forty years between the election of JFK in 1960 and the election of Barack Obama in 2008, which mark one of the most turbulent periods in American history. Radical changes occurred during these decades in American political, social, and cultural life, changes which still have repercussions on American society today. Through a variety of readings, seminars, discussions, and research papers, as well as screenings of feature films, documentaries, and musical albums, the course aims at evoking the four decades for the purpose of arriving at a deeper understanding of the major events that took place during the period. A complete understanding of the transformational nature of these events is not possible, however, without placing them within the context of political and social history, and most especially within the framework of the larger interpretive principles of the culture which American Studies offers.

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