Dec 22, 2024  
Graduate School Course Catalog 2018-2019 
    
Graduate School Course Catalog 2018-2019 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

HISG 5270 - Constitutional History of the United States (3)


This course will explore the United States Constitution from its framing to the Regents of the University of California v. Bakke case in 1978.  The course will address selected themes that connect the United States Constitution to the broader political, economic, social, cultural, educational, gender, race and ethnic issues present in American history during the time frame.  A knowledge of United States Supreme Court decisions helps us to understand American history because these decisions reflect the issues and problems present at any given time.  The course examines issues which led to the creation of the constitution in 1787, the ratification process, and the many problems that occurred soon after its ratification.  How did the framers of the Constitution address the institution of slavery in 1787?  Did the constitution allow for the establishment of a National Bank?  How was the Constitution used to support the Alien and Sedition Acts passed by Congress in 1798, and how did Thomas Jefferson and James Madison use it to support their writings of the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions that sought to overturn the Acts?  As the new nation faced issues of interstate commerce and the quest to remove Native Americans from their sacred lands, slavery, Civil War and Reconstruction, civil rights for black Americans, war, the Cold War, and other concerns, they turned to the courts for remedy.


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