History 1700: American Civilization

Bob Goldberg & Eric Hinderaker

This course will provide an overview of American history from the colonial period to the present. As you explore the specific details of American history you should keep this broad theme in mind: What does it mean to be an American? This seemingly simple question is in fact quite complicated when you place it in historical perspective. Your task for this course is to consider how, historically, have Americans decided who is or isn’t “an American”? How has the definition of “an American” changed over time?

As you think about these questions, consider the following: the United States has always been an unusually diverse society, and diversity has usually encouraged unequal conditions—policies and practices that discriminate against or take advantage of marginal groups. But in the Revolutionary era the United States established an idealistic commitment to make liberty and equality ruling principles for national development. The tension between those two facts—America’s diversity on the one hand and its commitment to liberty and equality on the other—has been the central force shaping American social and political development throughout its history.