Revised 9/2025

HIS 276 - United States History Since World War II (3 CR.)

Course Description

Investigates United States history from 1945 to the present, studying both domestic developments and American involvement in international affairs. Lecture 3 hours per week.

General Course Purpose

Provide a course of special interest to students and citizens of all ages. 

Course Prerequisites/Corequisites

Although technically none, it is preferable but not mandatory that the student take a survey course in American history, such as HIS121 or HIS 122, before enrolling in History 276. The ability to read and write the English language effectively at the college level is expected.

Course Objectives

  • Education Objectives in Information Literacy).
  • Establish and analyze key individuals, ideas, and movements that have shaped American history since 1945. (Addresses General Education Objectives in Cultural and Social Understanding and Information Literacy).
  • Analyze how social and cultural constructions, such as race, class, and gender, have transformed American life since 1945. (Addresses General Education Objectives in Cultural and Social Understanding and Information Literacy).
  • Explore and debate the core historical factors that have changed the United States since 1945. (Addresses General Education Objectives in Critical Thinking, Cultural and Social Understanding, and Information Literacy).  
  • Recognize and debate the significant role of the United States in the world since 1945. (Addresses General Education Objectives in Critical Thinking, Cultural and Social Understanding, and Information Literacy).   
  • Analyze how many historical transformations since 1945 continue to shape contemporary American life. (Addresses General Education Objectives in Critical Thinking and Cultural and Social Understanding).
  • Analyze complex historical sources and materials and reach conclusions through based on interpretations of those materials. Students will learn to interpret historical materials through both oral and written exercises. (Addresses General Education Objectives in Communication and Critical Thinking).

Major Topics to Be Included

  • Origins and development of the early Cold War, including the Korean War, the politics of national security, and McCarthyism.
  • Factors for and politics of postwar prosperity, abundance, and middle-class consumerism.
  • The programs and politics of Great Society Liberalism.
  • The social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s, including the civil rights struggle, student revolt, the New Left, feminism, black power, and environmentalism.
  • The Vietnam War, Watergate-Era scandals and their divisive impacts on American society.
  • Economic and post-industrial decline in the 1970s.
  • The emergence and politics of the New Right and Reaganism.
  • The end of the Cold War and triumph of the U.S. as singular superpower.
  • 9/11 and the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
  • The 2008 Financial Crisis, the Great Recession, and the emergence of a new tech-oriented economy.
  • The rise of the internet, social media, reactionary politics, and disorder of 21st Century American life.