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In 1865, the inhabitants of the former Confederate States of America surveyed the ruins of their agricultural economy and looked to ideologies of reform to rebuild their ruined towns and states or, in the case of African-American freed people, to begin their lives as citizens. Beginning with debates among white elites which attempted to explain the Confederacy's defeat, this class will pay special attention to the rise of racialism and theories of citizenship in southern Progressive-era society and politics, and will use comparisons to analyze American racial systems in a national, and sometimes transnational, context. Between 1877 and 1918, black and white intellectuals sought to apply universalist epistemologies--such as science, the law, history, and class consciousness--to local problems. Politicians and capitalists variously sought to contain and promote progress, while workers, farmers and a new southern middle class imagined what a distinctively southern democratic social order might look like. Themes will include industrialization, free labor, populism and citizenship; class formation, migration and urbanization; the uses of a mythic plantation past; and war as an engine of change.
COURSE FORMAT: Seminar
Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS HIST Grading Mode: Graded
Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.
Last Updated on MAR-30-2006
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459