This lecture/discussion course examines and analyzes the development of the United States from 1945 to the present. Attention is given to the political, social, intellectual, cultural, and economic changes in American society. Included as areas of inquiry will be the impact of the Cold War on foreign and domestic policies and society; the effect of social protest movements on society; the interconnected influence of economic, demographic, and cultural changes on policy and society; the expansion and contraction of the social welfare state; the ways that the Vietnam conflict, emergence of multiculturalism, and the new environmentalism have shaped contemporary policy and attitudes, and the pervasive and lasting influence of mass culture, technology and media.