Course title
Western Civilization IV (US History)Pre-requisite
Western Civilization IIICourse description
Our course will begin with Reconstruction and finish with the terrorist attack on 9/11. The arc of our study this year begins with the vast changes that industrialization wrought in western society. Every element of the human experience from warfare to family life was impacted by the technological and ideological innovations of the late modern period. While many changes, particularly in medicine, engineering, and communication, improved the lives of Americans, others would challenge the very basis of our civilization. Distorted conceptions of the human person, emphasizing economic production and biological determinism, gave rise to totalitarian ideologies and tyrannical regimes. World War I and II saw the introduction of mechanized warfare on a global scale and brought the horrors of the battlefield into countless communities from the deserts of Algeria to the jungle thickets of Guadalcanal.