Modern Britain and the Empire, 1688-2016

(History 39 is offered for 3 units; History 139 is offered for 5 units.) From American Independence to the latest war in Iraq. Topics include: the rise of the modern British state and economy; imperial expansion and contraction; the formation of class, gender, and national identities; mass culture and politics; the world wars; and contemporary racial politics. Focus is on questions of decline, the fortunes and contradictions of British liberalism in an era of imperialism, and the weight of the past in contemporary Britain.