220046 The Industrializing United States, 1870-1920, in American and Transnational Context (S) (SoSe 2012)

This seminar will provide students with an introduction to the events that marked and the analytical issues raised by United States history between the end of the American Civil War in 1865 and U.S. entry into World War I in 1917. During these decades, which Americans generally call the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, the United States experienced a process of rapid and simultaneous industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and cultural transformation. At the same time, the country solidified control of its portion of the North American continent and exerted ever greater influence beyond its borders, especially in the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Pacific. Political and institutional arrangements took shape in these decades that would underpin American power and cultural influence in the world during the twentieth century. Students will gain a basic understanding of various ways that U.S. and non-U.S. scholars have interpreted this period of tumultuous development, ranging from older analyses rooted in modernization theory and Marxian thought to newer transnational, world systems, and imperial perspectives. Students whose main interests involve Latin America, Europe, or East Asia will also benefit from this overview of how the United States became more intertwined with those regions and vice-versa.

A more specific outline and reading list will follow closer to the time. Students who wish to make a head start might consult the following, which all contain up-to-date references for further reading.

Bibliography

Ian Tyrrell, Transnational Nation: The United States in Global Perspective since 1789 (2007)
Thomas Bender, A Nation among Nations: America’s Place in World History (2006)
Eric Rauchway, Blessed among Nations: How the World Made America (2006)
Daniel T. Rodgers, Atlantic Crossing: Social Politics in a Progressive Age (1998)
Rebecca Edwards, New Spirits: Americans in the Gilded Age, 1865-1905, 2nd ed. (2010)
Maureen A. Flanagan, America Reformed: Progressives and Progressivisms, 1890s-1920s
(2007)