HIST 268 - Building a Suburban Nation: Race, Class, and Politics in Postwar America

FDR: HU
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Fall 2011 and alternate years

Together, the overdevelopment of the suburbs and the underdevelopment of urban centers have profoundly shaped American culture, politics and society in the post-WWII period. This course examines the origins and consequences of suburbanization after 1945. Topics include the growth of the national state, the origins and consequences of suburbanization, the making of the white middle class, the War on Poverty, welfare and taxpayers “rights” movements, “black power,” and how popular culture has engaged with questions about race and class. In the process of understanding the historical roots of contemporary racial and class advantage and disadvantage, this course will shed new light on contemporary public policy dilemmas.Michelmore.