Time and Location

Next taught in Fall 2016

Description

This course traces the history of women in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.  The course is primarily interested in how women’s lives have changed over the past one hundred and fifty years and so adopts a social and cultural approach to the study of women.  We will rely on a textbook, Through Women’s Eyes, to provide historical context about the major public events (Civil War, Reconstruction, Great Depression, World War I and II, Civil Rights and Women’s liberation movements, etc.) that have shaped women’s lives.  We will also read some primary sources (memoirs and autobiography) to gain an appreciation for how individual women grappled with and were affected by major political and cultural developments.

Objectives

• To introduce students to the main narratives in U.S. women’s history so that they are able to appreciate how different groups of women experienced the big events of our nation’s history
• To increase students’ appreciation for history as an ongoing process of investigation and interpretation, rather than as a set body of facts
• To help students ponder the big questions that challenge professional historians: Why is this person or event of historical significance?  Whose perspectives are being represented in this history (and whose perspectives are left out)?  What purpose does this historical knowledge serve?   How do historians account for change and continuity in the past and in people’s lives?

Syllabus

[Most Recent] Syllabus.pdf