Welcome to History 102

I want formally to welcome you to this class and to encourage you to explore this website thoroughly. Throughout the semester I will post updates, announcements, and new materials for our consideration. This site is a medium through which you are encouraged to interact with me and with your fellow students, and I hope it will be a place where we can all learn together. Again, welcome.

Course Objectives

This course is one of five history surveys that meet the University's general education requirement. Its primary objective is to introduce students to the major themes and events that characterize American history since 1865. Because of the subject's breadth and the semester's brevity, we will move at a vigorous pace through the material. To make the course more manageable and meaningful, a few broad themes will be developed as much as time permits: the growth of the modern state; race and gender relations; the development of the United States as an industrialized, commercial world power; and war, reform, and the relationship between the two. By developing these various themes, the course should also give students a better understanding of history as a discipline or field of study. All too often, students fail to comprehend fully the interpretive nature of history and that it is an ongoing debate of which they are a part. You should be active participants in this historical discussion. Finally, in a general sense, the pursuit of history will help develop the very basic but essential analytical and communications skills that all students, regardless of their disciplines and majors, need to be successful in any profession.