HIST 356 - American Social and Cultural History

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A study of the development of American society from colonial times to the present organized around the themes of power, consumption, material culture, and the social construction of space. Attention will be given to the ways in which new sources, methods, and theoretical frameworks open up new topics and questions in American history, including the changing meaning of the American landscape, the development of suburbia, the rise of consumerism and the mass media, popular religion and the creation of sacred space, and the hidden ways in which power is exercised. Class, gender, and race will be categories of inquiry and analysis. Not offered 2017-2018.