Brett Olmsted, PhD

U.S. History Professor

U.S. History Since 1877


This is a survey of the social, political, economic, cultural, and intellectual history of the United States from the Civil War/Reconstruction era to the present. United States History II examines industrialization, immigration, world wars, the Great Depression, Cold War and post-Cold War eras. Themes that may be addressed in United States History II include: American culture, religion, civil and human rights, technological change, economic change, immigration and migration, urbanization and suburbanization, the expansion of the federal government, and the study of U.S. foreign policy.

Lecture Topics Include:
Link to YouTube Playlist of Lectures
  • The New South
  • Westward Ho!
  • The Gilded Age: Industry vs. Labor
  • The Gilded Age: Immigration and Urbanization
  • Gilded Age Politics: Populism & Imperialism
  • Progressivism
  • World War I
  • The Roaring 20s &Conservative Backlash
  • The Great Depression
  • A New Deal for America
  • World War II Abroad
  • World War II Home Front
  • Origins of the Cold War
  • Cold War Culture
  • Civil Rights in the 1950s
  • The New Frontier of the Cold War
  • The Great Society and Modern Civil Rights Movement
  • The 60s: Vietnam & the Fracturing of America
  • Identity Politics & Counterculture
  • Decade of Disillusionment
  • The Rise of Modern Conservatism
  • The Reagan Revolution
  • Neo-Liberalism & the Militia Movement
  • Neo-Liberalism & New Wars
  • Terrorism & the Great Recession
  • Not So Post-Racial Society