The USA 1918 to 1968 as a field of study: the experience of immigrants and black Americans, the New Deal, and the civil rights movement, with the main historiographical debates on each.

What this field is asking

The USA 1918 to 1968 runs from the aftermath of the First World War to the end of the civil rights era. The examinable issues are the experience of immigrants and black Americans, the New Deal, and the civil rights movement, each with a clear historiographical debate, above all the top-down versus bottom-up debate on how civil rights advanced. This page maps the issues and debates so you can argue them.

The three issues

• Immigrants and black Americans, 1918 onwards. Immigration restriction, the Red Scare, prejudice, segregation and the obstacles to civil rights.
• The New Deal. Relief, recovery and reform; the expansion of federal power; and the limits and opponents of the programme.
• The civil rights movement. Brown v Board, Montgomery, Birmingham, Selma; the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts; and how far rights were gained by 1968.

The historiographical debates

For each issue, know the debate. On civil rights, the top-down emphasis on King, the Court and federal Acts contends with the bottom-up stress on grassroots activism and local leaders. On the New Deal, the transformative-break view contends with the case that it was limited, improvised and conservative, preserving capitalism and excluding many black Americans. Arguing these debates, rather than narrating the marches and the laws, is what reaches the top bands.

Examples in context

Try this

Q1. What is the top-down versus bottom-up debate on civil rights? [3 marks]

• Cue. Whether progress came chiefly from national leaders, the Court and federal Acts (top-down), or from local organising and ordinary activists (bottom-up).

Q2. Name two interpretations of the New Deal. [2 marks]

• Cue. The New Deal as a transformative break, versus the case that it was limited, improvised and conservative.