This course is designed to familiarize students with the tumultuous events which marked the four decades following the Second World War. The exploration of the African American, Latino and Native American racial protests, the Sexual Liberation Movements (Second-Wave feminism and Homosexuality), and other radical and counterrevolutionary brands of activism will allow students to understand the political, economic, social, and cultural roots of contemporary America. By placing these movements in their global historical contexts (WWII, Cold War, Decolonization), the course will contribute to highlighting the international dimensions of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s waves of protest. Analyses of primary sources will illustrate the importance of American democratic discourse, a central weapon in the arsenal of American foreign diplomacy, in the examined ideological struggles. We will also explore the connections which existed between those different movements. For example, African Americans’ reflections on the nature of equality, as well as their methods of protest, nurtured and shaped other social movements. In addition, by exploring white Americans’ resistance to the upheavals they were witnessing, the course will explain the rise of modern conservatism and the realignment of American politics. Finally, our coverage of the era will include an analysis of the cultural expressions of Americans’ anxieties, discontent, and disillusion.
