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AUTUMN 2009

GENST 197N - Freshman Seminar - The American City
What forces shaped the development of cities in the United States? What effect do these historical patterns have on urban life today? How have American thinkers, artists, and political leaders imagined and re-imagined the city in different points in our history? What are the contemporary challenges facing the American city? This one-credit freshman seminar will explore these questions and give you an opportunity to join in the debate about the American city's past, present, and future.

WINTER 2010

HIST 494 - Left, Right, and Center: Partisan Politics in Twentieth Century America
This senior seminar explores the evolution of the national Democratic, Republican, and independent political parties over the course of the twentieth century.  We address how shifting demographics, market changes, and social issues changed the composition of the major national parties over time, and examine key political leaders who shaped the identity and future of their political party – from Teddy Roosevelt to Franklin Roosevelt, Strom Thurmond to Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan, to two Bushes and two Clintons.  Readings and discussion cover the major social movements that shifted party allegiances, watershed elections, cultural and social issues shaping party platforms, and the growing influence of the independent voter. Our work in this seminar will consider differing approaches to and definitions of 'political history' over time, and how this subfield relates to the broader sweep of American historical scholarship.

HSTAA 590/PB AF 599 - Welfare States
*CURRENT PAGE LINKS TO 2008 COURSE; CHECK BACK FOR UPDATED SYLLABUS AND SCHEDULE INFORMATION* This graduate readings course focuses on the emergence of the broadly defined American welfare state, including health care, social insurance, employment, and anti-poverty programs , from the Progressive Era to the present.  Our readings and discussions will trace this history from the reform movements of late-19th-century cities, through the establishment of early state-level programs for women and children, to the New Deal, the Great Society, and “the end of welfare as we know it.”  We will consider how and why social welfare provision in the US is different from international counterparts, and more broadly consider the historiography of welfare states here and abroad.

SPRING 2010

HSTAA 303 - Modern American Civilization From 1877
*CURRENT PAGE LINKS TO SPRING 2009 COURSE; CHECK BACK FOR UPDATED SYLLABUS AND SCHEDULE INFORMATION* This is a survey course of the United States from the Reconstruction Era to the present, focusing on the relationship between state and society, economic and technological change, and struggles for civil and economic rights.  The course covers pivotal events, transformative public figures, and social and cultural forces shaping the modern U.S., its relationship with its own citizens, and its changing role in the world.

OTHER REGULARLY OFFERED COURSES

HIST 498C - Suburbia
This undergraduate seminar explores suburban development in the United States and elsewhere around the world from the nineteenth century to present. We explore many different varieties of suburbs across space and time, considering suburbia as a place that both generated and reflected crucial political, social, and economic transformations. Readings and research assignments will also provide a closer examination of Seattle’s suburban landscape and the drivers of regional suburban growth over time.

HSTAA 590 - American Urban History
This graduate readings course explores the historiography of urban America and changing interpretations of the American city and its inhabitants.  We read major works in the field of U.S. history, exploring in particular the history of urban governance and reform, city planning, urban space and neighborhood segregation, urban “crisis” and recovery, and the tension between the urban and the non-urban in American culture and politics.  The course also considers American cities in an international context, identifying major international trends and influences upon American urban policy and planning, and comparing and contrasting the drivers of urbanization in other nations and continents.

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