HIUS 3131

Course Description

Analyzes the distinct characteristics of American modernity as they emerge in the period from the end of reconstruction to the Great Depression. Explores the creation of big business and large-scale bureaucratic organizations. Includes the first military-industrial complex of World War I, the invention of R & D, the growth of research universities, and the modern organization of knowledge. Describes the landscape of new large urban hinterlands; analyzes the difficult encounters of class, ethnicity, race, and gender both at home and at work; and studies the changing leisure patterns of a consumer culture.