Black-and-white photograph of protesters at the March on Washington. Signs read "End Segregated Rules in Public Schools" (left), "We Demand Voting Rights Now!" (center), and "Jobs for All Now!" (right).

America at Midcentury: 1963-1975

Cost
445.00

This course was available in the past and may be presented again as part of the Open Enrollment curriculum.

The optimism of the early 1960s ended with the assassination of President Kennedy in November 1963. Less than a year later, President Johnson launched the Great Society, a series of social reform initiatives—but these policies were soon overshadowed by the escalation of the war in Vietnam, which overheated the American economy and led to the stagflation of the 1970s. This course will focus on the debates over America’s role in the world, closely examining the Vietnam War and its impact on American society between 1963 and 1975. Reading primary sources from the time period—including Bing West's The Village and Philip Caputo's A Rumor of War—students will seek to understand how democracy functioned not only as a form of government, but as a way of life.

Notes

Online registration deadline: Thursday, March 24, 5 pm CT.