Revolutions in American History

elective courses
elective monographs

This course covers the main turning points in American history over the years. Its main objective is to explain and analyse their causes, course and results of events and process affecting and revolutionising the internal and sometimes external situation of the United States. Political, social and cultural proces and phenomena will be discussed.

This course will discuss and analyse revolutions, changes and reforms taking place in American society to find answers to the question of their occurence, and their patterns and mechanisms. The key to the analysis is their replicability, repeatabilty and continuity. Revolutions should also be understood in the wider context of continuity and change in American society. To contextualise the revolutions in the United States we will familiarise with revolutions in other countries. They will be the point of reference to discuss the nature of rreforms in the United States.

Description of the course

The basic objective of the course is to present the evolution of American society and politics through revolutions that happen in the United States in approximately 50 year time periods. We will analyse the reasons and the course of the revolution, putting main stress on their consequences in a comparative perspective. We will try to find answer to questions not only about the the events but mainly about the fields on which they took place and the direction which American society and politics went as a result of them. The analysis of the each revolution will be based on readings presenting their chronology as well as sources enabling students to understand the philosophy of each of them. Since Americans consider their revolutions peaceful and progressive will try to address this problem by comparing them and discussing similarities and differences between them. Will also devote some attention to the widening character of the revolutions, referring to different segments of American society. Essentially, the course will cover different aspects of American social history, but in order to understand them certain elements of political and economic history will be added, as they were a significant, contributive part of the changes that the United States has undergone over the years.

Topics to be discussed:

1. Introduction to the course, overview and some comments of the role of revolution in American history. Philosophy of American revolutions

2. Puritans and a new society - its principles and ideologies

3. The American Revolution and its aftermath, 1763 - 1783/1787

4. The Revolution of Andrew Jackson

5. Social and Economic Revolutions in the mid 19th century

6. The Progressive Revolution and its consequences

7. The Deals - Square, New and Fair

8. The Liberal Revolution of the 1960s

9. The Conservative Revolution of Ronald Reagan

10. The Clinton and Obama Era

11. The Bush and Trump Years

12. Other revolutions - economic and social in the 19th century

13. Attempted Revolutions of the 20th century

14. American revolutions in a comparative perspective - French, Bolshevik,

15. Final test and evaluation

We will read, partially or entirely, documents from here:

http://www.ushistory.org/documents/,

Here:

http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/

and here:

https://teachingamericanhistory.org/collections/50-core-documents/

Some examples of documents we are going to study:

1) The Declaration of Independence

2) The U.S. Constitution

3) The Bill of Rights

4) The Emancipation Proclamation

5) The 19th Amendment to the Constitution

6) The 13th Amendment to the Constitution

7) The Gettysburg Address

8) The Civil Rights Act

After completing this course student

in the field of knowledge

1. has a knowledge of basic social phenomena in the United States

2. understands the role of domestic and international factors influencing social change in the United States

3. explains dependencies between those factors

4. is able to present directions of transition, evolution and character of revolutions in the United States, domestically and in historical and social perspective.

in the field of skills

1. is able to search for and analyse information in order to create a comprehensive picture of revolutions in the United States

2. is able to compare and justify the character of change, phenomena and complexed processes in the United States

3. formulates critical judgements concering social transition in the USA

4. has advanced skills of interdisciplinary analysis and is able to use them to evaluate the change in a specific period and in the problem discussed

5. is able to interdisciplinary analyse various phenomena and processes in the USA

in the field of competence

1. is open for new phenomena and ideas in American society

2.understands and appreciates the role of domestic factors to present developments connected with the US society

3. is aware of the role social factors for the contemporary American

4. understands the importance of cultural differences to understand the various developments in the USA

Attendance and active participation in the class constitutes 40% of the grade.

at least one presentation on a topic relevant to the the course and approved by the instructor - 10%

short written assignment - 5 pages - on a topic relevant to the course and approved by the instructor - 10%

written exam - in-class - 40%