HIST 090X. Divided America: History of the Culture Wars

This course examines the origins of divisive cultural politics in America since the 1970s surrounding race, religion, gender & sexuality, education, and popular culture. Some of the topics addressed in the course include: the origins of the “religious right,” race and the debates over affirmative action, the “culture of poverty,” and mass incarceration, feminist and anti-feminist movements, sexual & queer politics, the HIV/AIDS crisis, public schools, and the history of “political correctness” and multiculturalism.
Concentration: Culture and Identity, Domination and Resistance
Prerequisite: Department pre-req of a previous history course
Social sciences.
1 credit.
Eligible for Concentration: Culture and Identity, Domination and Resistance
Fall 2025. Dorsey.
Catalog chapter: History
Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/history

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