Between 1919 and 1960 the United States demobilized after one war, experienced
dramatic but uneven economic growth, suffered the Great Depression, fought a second world war, and emerged as the premier world power in the Cold War that followed. Amid massive economic and international change, the nation underwent significant social and political change, with the growth of activist government, conflict between business and labor, the emergence of a widely based middle class, and the contested growth of civil rights movements. This course explores how and why the United States changed between the end of the First World War and the election of John F. Kennedy, connecting domestic and international contexts and trajectories.
