We invite you to join us to look at the US between 1933 and
1950. The standard narratives, which we
have all read, view the events of the period through a national lens, as if the
country was isolated from all other countries. What these narratives overlook
is that the US was one of many players in a global economy; what happened in
the US affected in the rest of the world, and what happened outside the US
affected the Roosevelt administration.
For the people who lived at the time, there was no pre-ordained outcome, and the entire period is permeated with uncertainty and fear about the future. Studying this period of American history presents us with themes that will thread throughout the SDG: (1) the immense societal changes wrought by the crises in the period; (2) how the United States’ “original sin” continued to shape governance in both the New Deal and WWII legislation; (3) the exchanges between the US and other countries in crafting the New Deal; (4) the change in the US international standing, as by the late 1930s as it became the shining example of preserving and reconciling democracy and capitalism; (5) how the New Deal built the scaffolding for the new world order that emerged from WWII.
By 1950, the US had authored a new world order that
created a stable and prosperous world (in the west). In the process,
Americans had changed radically since 1933, especially with regard of their
relationship to the state and with regard to the country’s role in the new
world.
Join us as we explore familiar territory with fresh eyes.
Core Books:
Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time by Ira Katznelson, 2013.
The New Deal: A Global History by Kirin Klaus Patel, 2016.
Freedom from Fear: The Americans in Depression and War, 1929-1945 by David M. Kennedy, 1998.