United States History

Survey from the 16th century to the present, with emphasis on social, political, and economic trends in their historical context.

History of law and order in western North America in the context of the political, economic, environmental, social, and cultural history during the long nineteenth century, from the Land Ordinance of 1785 to the war between capital and labor.

Causes and effects of America's longest war in light of global U.S.-Soviet rivalry and Asian nationalism.

Survey of American wars from colonial times to the present; military institutions, doctrine, application of the principles of war, campaign strategies and tactics, technology, and leadership.

This course will focus on the University of Arizona (UA) since its organization as a land-grant institution in 1885. Students will be introduced to archival materials such as vintage photographs, student newspapers, scrapbooks, yearbooks, maps, plans, oral histories, government papers, minutes and publications of campus organizations, as well as methodological frameworks for the assessment and analysis of these materials. Students will collaborate on specific projects, focusing on aspects of such topics as student life, campus during wartime, town and gown, outreach, museums, research, campus architecture, UA as a public/state institution, making use of both textual and visual source material to explore a particular question about the past. Students will create a final narrative that is digital in format, such as a website, a documentary, an app, or a podcast. At the end of the semester, students will present these stories as part of a symposium, with an audience invited from the larger community. Projects will be archived under the curatorial auspices of the Department of History.

This course will examine how sports and leisure culture reveal popular ‘notions’ or stereotypes and cultural assumptions about race, ethnicity, class, and gender in twentieth and twenty-first century America. In addition to examining how athletic competitions served as a microcosm for social conflicts and change, we will evaluate how team spirit and individual sporting triumphs overcame or ameliorated social divisions and boundaries of exclusion. This course will pursue a thematic approach following a loose chronological order including, but not limited to: Sports and popular culture, Japanese internment and World War II, segregation and integration, Cold War nationalism and race, immigration and Americanization pressures, sexuality, homophobia and HIV/AIDS. Title IX and sexism, the commodification of children, America’s ‘melting pot’ theme and national pride, and Indian mascot controversies.

Survey of diverse groups of women throughout colonial America and United States and their influence upon tribes, race, empire, politics, labor, economies, and society, 1890 to the present.

Survey of U.S. women from early Native-American/European contact through 1890. This course introduces students to a social history of diverse groups of women focusing on their legal, economic, political, sexual, and reproductive lives.

This course explores the development of technology and concepts of nature in the United States, from the eighteenth century to the present. It interprets the historical roots of the relationship between human knowledge and the environment by examining how science and technology have shaped our understanding, use, and control of nature.

This course provides a long-term historical perspective on the origins and development of American capitalism, combining three interrelated thematic fields in U.S. history: economic history, business history, and labor history.