HIST174 - CAPITALISM, SOCIALISM, & CRISIS IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAS

The United States and Latin America produced a remarkable series of revolutions and reforms during the postwar period. This course examines efforts in the United States, Guatemala, Cuba, and Brazil to define and address problems around land, labor, and property; nation, empire, and autonomy; and racism, democracy, and citizenship. In studying the US and Latin America together, the class invites students to explore central themes of both regions' histories as parts of global processes. We will explore exchanges between social movements in the US, Cuba and Africa, for instance, ask how ideas about poverty traversed national borders, and examine the global rise of human rights consciousness. The class, in other words, not only compares national histories but analyzes the relationships between national upheavals and the global significance of events in the hemisphere.