This course introduces you to some of the major events, ideas, and dilemmas that have shaped the United States since Reconstruction. Readings and class discussion will tackle big questions about power (economic, political, and ideological), while at the same time trying to stay focused on ordinary people. Too often, American history is taught as a survey of presidents and congressional policies. These are important topics, and they deserve space in any introductory course. However, it is essential to meet the ordinary people who also made history—freed slaves, industrial workers, immigrants, and soldiers, to name only a few. Together, we will try to understand how they experienced and shaped everyday life in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.