Course Syllabus

Prof. Margaret O’Mara (she/her/hers) - University of Washington - Spring 2021

Welcome! This is an undergraduate seminar considering an extraordinary single year in American history, 1968, and the social, political, and economic transformations it wrought. 

A full syllabus is here. Course policies are here. To contact the professor directly, click here. 

Quick links to readings and assignments, week by week:

Week One - the Tet Offensive and the American war in Vietnam

Week Two - McCarthy, Johnson and the remaking of the Democratic Party

Week Three - Martin Luther King, Jr., urban uprisings, and racial justice & injustice

Week Four - youth movements and the counterculture

Week Five - Nixon's makeover, Wallace's rage, and the changing Republican Party

Week Six - "the whole world is watching"

Week Seven - freeway revolts and technological revolts

Week Eight - the broader fight for liberation: radical feminism, the Chicano movement, and more

Week Nine - Merry Christmas from the Moon

Week Ten - the legacies of 1968

Exam Week - final research paper