MODULE SPECIFICATION

Code: UPHPGQ-30-2 Title: Problems of Power – US History 1776 – Present

Version: 4

Level: 2 UWE credit rating: 30 ECTS credit rating: 15

Module type: Standard

Owning Faculty: Social Sciences and Humanities Field: History

Faculty Committee approval: QSC, Chair’s Action Date: 16^th September 2009

Approved for Delivery by:

(indicate name of affiliated institution if module will only be delivered by them)

Valid from: September 2009 Discontinued from:

Contributes towards: Awards up to BA(Hons)

Pre-requisites: None

Co-requisites: None

Entry requirements:

(if the module is offered as CPD or stand alone, indicate the entry requirements)

Excluded combinations: None

Learning outcomes:

Upon completing the module the successful student should be able to demonstrate:

1. a detailed knowledge of several of the key themes and events in modern US history (assessed through all components of assessment);

2. an understanding of different perspectives on these major themes and events in US history (assessed through all components of assessment);

3. the ability to synthesise secondary and primary sources and address key problems in interpretation (assessed through all components of assessment);

4. the ability to use appropriate evidence to support conclusions and to communicate thinking on the issues raised during the course in a variety of ways:

(1) orally during assessed seminars (assessment Component B, Element 1)

(2) in writing under controlled conditions (assessment Component A, Element 1)

(3) in writing under uncontrolled conditions (assessment Component B, Element 2).

Syllabus outline:

The course starts with an outline of some of the key aspects of US foreign and domestic policy making from the time of the Civil War. It then examines such significant themes and events as:

- From British Colonies to the United States

- The Diplomacy of the War of Independence and the Founding Era

- The Monroe Doctrine, 'Manifest Destiny' and Westwards Expansion

- Imperialism in the American Context

- Wilsonian Internationalism and the Diplomacy of the Great War

- American Diplomacy During the Interwar Years

- American Wartime Aims, and the Diplomacy of the Grand Alliance

- America and the Diplomacy of the 'High Cold War' Period

- Vietnam and its Aftermath: From Détente to the End of the Cold War

- The Post Cold War Era: Pax Americana, the War Against Terror and the Bush Doctrine

- The American Civil War

- Reconstruction and the New South

- Industrialization and the Rise of Big Business

- Migration, Immigration and Nativism

- Progressivism

- The New Deal

- The Cold War and Anti-Communism

- The Civil Rights Movement

- The Nixon and Reagan eras

Teaching and learning methods:

Lectures: to introduce contextual framework and different interpretations

Assessed seminars: to provide students with an opportunity to take an active part in determining their learning and to share ideas and insights with others

Reading Strategy

Key books will be placed in the short-loan collection and students will be given guidance on what books to buy (if they should choose to do so). Students will be supplied with detailed reading lists for each topic studied via UWEonline. Students will be encouraged to use electronic resources (in particular JSTOR) to access journal articles. Certain important book chapters will be digitised and made available via UWEonline. Students will be expected to read widely and make full use of the library and associated electronic resources. Reading lists will be updated annually.

Indicative Reading List:

Brogan, H.	The Penguin History of the USA, (Harmonsworth: Penguin, 1999).
LaFeber, W	The American Age: American Foreign Policy at Home and Abroad From 1750 to the Present, (W. W. Norton, 1994)
Perkins, B	The Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations: The Creation of a Republican Empire, 1776-1865 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999)
Jones, M.	The Limits of Liberty, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
Leuchtenberg, W.	Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, (London: Harper & Row, 1963).
McPherson, J.	The Battle Cry of Freedom: the Civil war Era, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988).
Polenberg, R.	One Nation Divisible, (Harmonsworth: Penguin, 1980).
Wiebe, R.	The Search for Order, (London: Macmillan, 1967).
Woodward, C.	The Origins of the New South, (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1951).
Iriye, A.,	The Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations: The Globalising of America, 1913-1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000)

Assessment

Weighting between components A and B (standard modules only) A: 60% B: 40%

ATTEMPT 1

First Assessment Opportunity

Component A

Description of each element Element weighting

1. Exam (3 hours) 60%

Component B

Description of each element Element weighting

1. Assessed seminar and written report (2000 words) 20%

2. Essay (2000 words) 20%

Second Assessment Opportunity (further attendance at taught classes/is not required)

Component A

Description of each element Element weighting

1. Exam (3 hours) 60%

Component B

Description of each element Element weighting

1. Essay (2,000 words) 20%

2. Essay (2,000 words) 20%

SECOND (OR SUBSEQUENT) ATTEMPT: Attendance at taught classes is required.

Specification confirmed by …………………………………………………Date ……………………………

(Associate Dean/Programme Director)