This SDG will use U.S. foreign relations as the lens through which to tell the story of America's rise from the end of World War II as it became the world's greatest superpower. This course will cover America's interaction with other peoples and nations of the world. This story is one of stunning successes and sometimes tragic failures which illuminates the central importance of foreign relations to the existence and survival of the country and highlights its ongoing impact on the lives of ordinary citizens. It will further show how policymakers defined American interests broadly to include its 50 year struggle with Communism,access to growing markets, and the spread of "the American way of life." Statesmen such as Henry Kissinger, John Foster Dulles and Harry Truman played key roles in America's rise to world power.
The core book for this SDG will be the last part of award-winning From Colony to Superpower by George Herring which is part of the distinguished Oxford History of the United States. Herring argues that United States foreign policy has been "spectacularly successful," but he notes that its claims to being morally superior, a light to all nations, has frequently given way to great-power actions. And, though enjoying all the benefits of a great power, it has been sadly unaware of the limits of that power.
1-Truman and the Cold War
2- Revolution in U.S. Foreign Policy 1945-1953
3-Coexistence 1953-1961
4- Crises 1953-1961
5-Kennedy 1961-1963
6- Johnson 1963-1968
7-Nixon and Kissinger
8- End of the Postwar Era 1969-1974
9-Ford and Kissinger
10- Carter and Brzezinski
11-Gorbachev, Reagan, and Bush
12- End of the Cold War
13- America as Hyperpower 1992-2001
14 -America After 9/11