Module Identifier HY39720  
Module Title STATE AND SOCIETY IN 20TH CENTURY AMERICA  
Academic Year 2002/2003  
Co-ordinator Dr Robert Harrison  
Semester Semester 1  
Pre-Requisite AS10120 , AS10220  
Mutually Exclusive HY38830  
Course delivery Lecture   18 Hours  
  Seminars / Tutorials   10 Hours  
Assessment Semester Exam   2 Hours   60%  
  Semester Assessment   Essay: 2 x 2,500 word essays   40%  

Learning outcomes

On completion of this module, students should be able to:
a) Demonstrate familiarity with a substantial body of historical knowledge in the field of twentieth-century United States history
b) Demonstrate familiarity with a variety of approaches to the study of political development
c) Gather and sift appropriate items of historical evidence
d) Read, analyse and reflect critically on selected historical texts
e) Develop the ability to evaluate strengths and weaknesses of particular historical arguments and where necessary challenge them.
f) Develop oral (not assessed) and written skills which will have been improved through seminar discussions and essays
g) Work both independently and collaboratively, and to participate in group discussions (not assessed).

Brief description

In this module the growth of the state will be placed against the context of the dramatic changes in American society during the early part of the century and the transition from a Victorian to a characteristically modern culture. Although the module will focus particularly on two principal periods of reform, the Progressive Era and the New Deal, pointing out both the continuities and the differences between them, attention will also be paid to the 1920s, in order both to challenge the conventional image of a period of unmitigated reaction and to point out the ways in which the politics of the decade reflected the conflicts and tensions of a society in change, and to the post-Second World War period, when the New Deal tradition was both challenged and reinvigorated. A number of themes will be kept in the foreground throughout, including the role of women, social policy, labour relations, farm policy, and the problems of a multiracial and multicultural society

Reading Lists

Books
** Recommended Text
Richard Hofstadter. The Age of Reform: From Bryan to FDR.
Alan Dawley. Struggles for Justice: Social Responsibility and the Liberal State.