Readings in Twentieth Century U.S. Histo

This is a graduate reading course focusing on twentieth century US historiography. The goal of the course is to introduce students to some of the pressing historiographic questions in the field. The first part of the semester will be spent thinking through periodization and its limits. How useful are periodizations such as “the progressive era” and the “the Cold War”? What are the major historiographic arguments surrounding their use?  In the second part of the semester, we will take a thematic approach. We will read some of the newest (and award-winning) books published in the past few years. Many of these books originated as dissertations and should be useful for students to read as they think about constructing their own research projects.