HIST 152: The American Ascendancy: A Century of U.S. Foreign Relations

Michael Hunt

The new century finds the United States firmly established as the preeminent world power. Its long reach extends well beyond diplomatic and military affairs to matters economic and cultural. This course explores the historical dimensions of this momentous development in our national history and in the history of the modern global community. We will want to consider the dimensions of this ascendancy. How did the United States achieve its position of preeminence? What were the costs? What did it mean to Americans and to other peoples? Above all, we will consider how to best sum up the U.S. role in the world: uneasy giant, global hegemon, reluctant imperialist, democratic crusader, victorious superpower, world policeman, or the first nation of modernity (to name only some of the possibilities). The unprecedented nature of the U.S. position today makes these questions historically challenging and at the same time practically pressing.

Along with historical understanding of U.S. foreign relations, this course seeks to develop the skills of critical reading, thinking, and writing and a sensitivity to the use of evidence, all essential parts of the historian's craft.