History of the USA c.1776-1945) Course Outline

Delhi University
BA (Hon) History Course No V(a)
HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (c.1776-1945)
NOTE : Students shall be expected to answer four questions, Selecting
AT LEAST ONE QUESTION FROM EACH UNIT.
UNIT: I
L The Background:
The land and indigenous people; settlement and colonisation by Europeans; early colonial society and politics: indentured labour — White and Black.
II. Making of the Republic:
[a] Revolution Sources of conflict: Revolutionary groups. Ideology: The War of
Independence and its historical interpretations. [b\ Processes, and Features of Constitution making : Debates : Historical
interpretations.
III. Evolution of American Democracy:
[a] Federalists : Jeffersonianisin : Jaeksonianism. Rise of political parties 1840 to 1860 ; Judiciary — role of the Supreme Court.
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|b| Expansion of Frontier; Turner's Thesis: Marginalization.Displacement and decimation of native Americans: Case histories of: Tecumseh : Shawnee Prophet.
Id Limits of democracy . Blacks and women .
IV. Early Capitalism:
|a| Beginnings of industrialisation .
|b] Immigrants and changing composition of Labour: Early Labour Movements.
UNIT : II
V. The Agrarian South:
[a] Plantation economy, [b] Slave Society and Culture: Slave resistance.
VL Ante Bellum Foreign Policy:
War of 1812: Monroe Doctrine: Manifest Destiny.
VII. Civil War:
[a] Abolitionism and Sectionalism, [b] Issues and interpretations, and [c] Rise of Republicanism. Emancipation and Lincoln.
VIII. Reconstructions: Political changes and agrarian transformation :
[a] Conservative and Radical phases.
[b] The New South: Participants and Reactions - Carpet Baggers:
Scalawags. Blacks. Ku KIux Klan.
UNIT : III
IX. Industrial America:
[a] Growth of Capitalism and Big Business, [bj Business cycles; Depression.
X. Resistance and Reform:
|aj Labour movements and Unionization.
[b| Agrarian crises and populism. Urban corruption and progressivism.
[c] New Deal.
XI. U. S. Imperialism:
(a) Spanish-American War; (b) Expansion in the Far East and Latin America; (c) World War I and Fourteen Points: (d) Isolationism; (e) Americans in World War II. Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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XII. Afro-American Movements: Black Movements: Booker T. Washington,W.E.B. Dubois; NAACP and Marcus Gnrvey.
XIII. Women's Movements:
[a| Rise of [he Lowell Factor) System |b| Abolitionists and Women' s rights movement [c| Suffrage |d| Afro-American women.
XIV. Religious, Cultural and Intellectual Trends.
la] Religious movements; Early Revivalism; Puritans; Quakers; Mormons; Temperance.
[b] Mass culture (circa 1900 - 1945).
[c] Major literary trends (circa 1900-1945).