History of the United States from the Reconstruction

This course traces how the United States transformed from a war-torn republic in 1865 into a global superpower, threading together industrialization, populism and progressivism, two world wars, the Cold War, and the civil rights era as one connected story rather than disjointed episodes. You'll work through classic historiography — Commager, Wiebe, Cronon — and produce written reports and a presentation alongside a midterm and final, so reading critically and arguing in prose matter as much as memorizing dates. It pairs naturally with the pre-1865 survey and gives you the background needed for upper-level seminars on American foreign policy, modern political economy, or twentieth-century intellectual history.