Examination of the United States since 1945. Major topics include: The Cold War and its aftermath, the American war in Vietnam, the collapse of Great Society liberalism, the emergence of the new conservatism, the struggle for minority rights, second-wave feminism, the rise of identity politics, the Reagan presidency, the role of media in the so-called Information Age and the post-9/11 American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Special attention is paid to placing recent events and trends in a larger historical context.