[HIST W3651] America since 1945

Professor Carnes, while an interesting lecturer, adeptly erases all controversy from this strife-ridden period of American history. For example, with thinly veiled dismissiveness, he basically deemed the "social movements of the 1960's" (indistinguishable, of course) a failure "because of the backlash they caused." Umm, excuse me? Talk about a privileged, biased position. In fact, he supports nuclear armament, Reagon, you name it...He unfairly seeks opposing viewpoints from the class without first framing both sides of the argument (i.e.--we don't know the opposing pov--why don't you tell us? even a strawman argument would be better than none). After presenting Vietnam as an "inevitable tragedy," he then asked the class for opposing viewpoints, pausing only briefly. No one answered. Take this class if you want the basics of war history and the big names in politics (presented uncritically, of course). Don't if want anything other than the "great man" theory of history--and one that naively portrays the US as a "benign superpower" at that. That seems like Mickey Mouse, high school history to me. I was very disappointed by this class.

Professor Carnes teaches his subject with both style and substance. Carnes injects his wonderful sense of humor and wit into every lecture, making each lecture engaging and interesting despite the rather large class size. The material the class covers a broad swath of the American experience attempting to examine every major political and social movement between 1940 and the present. Carnes is a fabulous lecturer who continually moves about the lecture hall infusing his lectures with excitement. Occasionally he will follow a tangent in depth, spending a fair amount of time detailing the history and devolpment of the atom bomb and Columbia's role in the Mahattan Project. His tangents prove to be fascinating, giving his lectures a style all its own often bringing the material to relate to events at Columbia and Barnard. Carnes is a fabulous lecture who can seamlessly include the most significant of quotes or facts in a lecture then immediate switch modes and probe t! he class investigating various student responses to fundamental foreign policy questions. An excellent class that began with a half lecture devoted to simply reading prior student responses to a survey that kept the entire class roaring with laughter for almost an hour! The course itself engage America's political history since 1940 in depth and covers to a much lesser extent the specific social movements paralleling the political developments of the era.

Great professor. I was sad when the semester ended. He kept the class interesting and fun and applied it to our lives...at Columbia and in general. Whoever wrote the scathingly negative review of his class needs to realize that trying to smoosh 50 years of very intense history into a semester while keeping it interesting is no easy task. If you're looking for a class that dissects feminism into groups, take a Women's studies class. Yes, he could have lectured more on civil rights. But if you did all the readings, you got a pretty clear view of that as well. No class is perfect and perhaps this would be a great class to divide into two semesters-- there's definitely enough material. However, the class as it is was pretty great, and kept me awake and interested despite the fact that it was first thing in the morning. Go Carnes! Take the class.

A teacher who is unable to grasp the immediacy and relevance of history's social movements. In his America since 1945, he devoted one (1) class to the feminist movement, and he didn't even spend the whole class on it. Half was about the sexual revolution. And he drew no difference between mainstream, liberal feminism and the broader movement for women's liberation. He also devoted just one class to the entire civil rights movement; even here, he focused unnecessarily on Martin Luther King's sexual scandals. The labor movement got zip. He did, however, spend a whole class teaching us how to make an atom bomb.