History 201-206 seminars are open to history majors only during pre-registration. If the course does not reach its enrollment maximum, it will be open to all students beginning with drop/add on a first-come first-serve basis.
HIST 204 New Deal Liberalism
Fraser
Taught as schedule allows (consult the Course Directory)
R | SEM
This course will examine the rise and fall of New Deal liberalism as the dominant political and social order of mid twentieth century America. It will begin with the onset of the Great Depression as the event which sets in motion profound transformations in the economy, in the balance of political power, in the role of the State, and in the relations between social classes and ethnic/racial groups. It will explore the rise of the labor movement and the creation of the welfare state. Classes will analyze the remaking of the Democratic Party and the impact of the Cold War on domestic politics. Discussions will probe the emergence of the civil rights, anti-war, and feminist movements as they developed alongside the expansion of the welfare state under Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. The class will assess the accomplishments as well as the limitations of New Deal reform. It will wrestle with the question of when and why that reform impulse weakened, analyzing both the impact of the New Left and the sixties counter-culture, as well as the growing conservative reaction against the New Deal culminating in the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. Classes will deal with the rise of the "Silent Majority", George Wallace, and the assault on "limousine liberalism." Students will read primary documents as well secondary sources, and will be asked to prepare one research-based term paper along with shorter written assignments.
Course Syllabus (PDF)
