Edin - The Making of the US President: A Short History in Five Elections
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The Making of the US President: A Short History in Five Elections at Coursera Overview
Duration | 20 hours |
Start from | Start Now |
Total fee | Free |
Mode of learning | Online |
Official Website | Explore Free Course  |
Credential | Certificate |
The Making of the US President: A Short History in Five Elections at Coursera Highlights
- Shareable Certificate Earn a Certificate upon completion
- 100% online Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.
- Flexible deadlines Reset deadlines in accordance to your schedule.
- Beginner Level
- Approx. 20 hours to complete
- English Subtitles: English, Greek
The Making of the US President: A Short History in Five Elections at Coursera Course details
- As Donald Trump takes office as the forty-fifth president of the United States, this course explores presidential elections in historical perspective, via five case studies. It tells the story of key campaigns in US history, and by doing so it investigates how politics changed over time?and how understanding the past sheds light on the current campaign. From the arrival of "dirty politics" to the impact of the "digital revolution," the course looks at the historical background to some of the key phenomena that shaped the controversy-laden campaign of 2016.
- The five elections that we'll investigate are among the most significant in American political history. In 1800, Thomas Jefferson won the presidency in a contest that encouraged politicians to reform the electoral college, the system by which presidents are still chosen. The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 prompted the outbreak of the Civil War. It's an election that helps us to understand the development of political parties. In 1968, the Vietnam War was a dominant concern for Americans, and yet foreign policy played a secondary role in Richard Nixon's victory. Twelve years later, in 1980, Ronald Reagan won an election that initiated a new era of conservatism. Finally, we'll turn our attention to the election that took Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, to the White House in 2008. Many saw the Obama's success not only as revealing the impact of the digital revolution on campaign politics, but also as signaling a turn to progressivism.
- Image credits:
- Course logo - "Former President Truman holds a copy of the famous Chicago Daily Tribune paper declaring 'Dewey Defeats Truman'" Harry S. Truman Library & Museum (https://www.trumanlibrary.org/photographs/view.php?id=38592).
- Course banner - "US Flag Backlit" by Joshua Nathanson, CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Flag_Backlit.jpg).
The Making of the US President: A Short History in Five Elections at Coursera Curriculum
The Election of 1800
Setting the Scene 1: Federalists and Republicans
Setting the Scene 2: Issues--Hamilton vs. Jefferson; the French Revolution
Setting the Scene 3: The Election of 1796; the Quasi-War
Adams and Pinckney
Jefferson and Burr
Hamilton
The Electoral College
Voting
The 1800 Campaign 1
The 1800 Campaign 2
The Press and the 1800 Campaign
The Electoral College Meets
Deadlock in Congress
Jefferson's Deal?
The Inauguration
The Revolution of 1800?
Interview: Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter S. Onuf
Interview: Joanne B. Freeman
Interview: Gaye Wilson
The New Nation
Joanne B. Freeman, "The Presidential Election of 1800: A Story of Crisis, Controversy, and Change."
[Optional Reading] Alexander Hamilton's attack on John Adams, October 24, 1800
Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801
Interviews with Historians
Practice Quiz ? The Election of 1800
The Election of 1860
Parties and Voting
Conventions and Platforms
Outcomes and Consequences
Roundtable: The impact of the 1860 election
Round-up discussion: Friday, October 28, Was the 1800 presidential election the 'nastiest' in American history?
The Pre-Civil War Era & the Sectional Crisis
Caleb Bingham (1853-1854)
?Political Parties in the United States, 1820?1860?
Abraham Lincoln and the Election of 1860
1860 Republican Platform
Primary Sources: Secession
?Presidential Election of 1860: A Resource Guide,? Library of Congress.
Practice Quiz ? The Election of 1860
Week 1 Quiz - Nineteenth-Century Elections
The Election of 1968
Introduction
The Impact of Tet
The New Hampshire Primary
Presidential Primaries
Democratic Primaries 1968
Issues I: Law and Order
Issues II: The Impact of Vietnam
The Results
Conclusion
The Sixties, the 'Unraveling', and 1968
Primary Sources ? Responses to Vietnam: Walter Cronkite and the 'Wise Men'
Primary Source ? President Johnson's March 31st Speech
Primaries
Primary Sources about the 1968 Election ? Party Platforms, Humphrey's Campaign, and Riots in Chicago
Primary Sources: Humphrey/Johnson Discuss Vietnam, LeMay/Wallace Press Conference, and LBJ Halts Bombing in Vietnam
Voting Map, Statistics, and Results
Practice Quiz - The Election of 1968
The making of the US president, 1980
The history of presidential debates
The Carter-Reagan presidential debate
Conservative ascendancy and electoral eras
The gender gap
Roundtable Discussion: Week 2
Context
Secondary reading on liberalism's travails and the 1980 election
Primary sources on the 1980 presidential campaign
The development and significance of presidential debates on television
Optional primary source: the Carter-Reagan debate
Turning points and "realignments" in electoral history
Exploring the "gender gap" in voting
Data on the gender gap
Practice Quiz ? The Election of 1980
Week 2 Quiz ? Twentieth-Century Elections
The Election of 2008
Mike Moffo on the making of the US president in 2008
Jon Kelly on the making of the US president in 2008
Nicol Rae on the making of the US president in 2008
Roundtable on 2008 election
Exploring the election of Barack Obama
"Barack Obama: Campaigns and Elections"
Background reading (optional): The American Yawp on recent US history
Primary Sources ? Campaign Commercials
About Mike Moffo
About Jon Kelly
About Nicol Rae
Practice Quiz ? The Election of 2008
Roundtable: Discusssion following the 2016 election
Discussing Donald Trump's inaugural address
Exploring the political battle via campaign commercials
Roundtable discussion after the 2016 election
Exploring Donald Trump's inaugural address in historical perspective
Week 3 Quiz ? The Election of 2016 and Historical Parallels
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