In this course we will explore one of the most culturally and politically relevant twenty-five year periods in American history. The course begins with the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 and ends with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. It was during this period that the United States that we live in today was born: Our economy moved into its current post-industrial phase. Our society began in earnest to work toward social and cultural equality for all Americans even as the mechanisms that protected economic equality began to collapse. American hegemony abroad broke down in Southeast Asia. Our politics, in many cases driven by cultural divisions, divided into the polarized camps that define our contemporary political culture. The mass media where so many of these battles are seemingly fought was also born in this era. We will of course approach this amazingly contentious and intellectually invigorating era as historians interested in learning about the events, personalities, and social, political, economic, and cultural shifts that defined the time period. More importantly, however, we will also examine how two generations of our fellow scholars have considered the time period. We will be as invested in historical interpretations as we are in historical narratives.
