Course Number:

Credit Hours:

4

Course Title:

History of the Western U.S.

Course Description:

Examines the history of the western areas of North America that eventually became the United States. Topics include the history and culture of the indigenous peoples of the trans-Mississippi and far western United States; the political, economic, social, and cultural expansion of European settlers; cultural and military encounters of European and indigenous peoples; technological innovation and agriculture in the Great Plains, the Intermountain West, and the West Coast; cattle and sheep ranching; water and the West; ecology, conservation, and the politics of the “Sagebrush Rebellion”; Asian Americans in the West; mining; the Civil War in the West; African Americans and the Western experience; the cowboy and the importance of rodeo; and the West and the Native American in American popular culture (film, radio, television, literature, and advertising).