The following lectures showcase the breadth and depth of what you will learn in the Gettysburg College–Gilder Lehrman MA in American History.
Applications to the MA in American History are always open. Students can start the program during the fall, spring, or summer semesters.
This course investigates the origins, meanings, and contested legacies of one of the most consequential political documents in world history. What does the Declaration of Independence declare? What did the Declaration’s language of equality, liberty, and rights mean to its authors and earliest readers? How and why have understandings of the document changed over time? And what place do the words and ideals of the Declaration hold now, 250 years later?
Starting with its inception in the eighteenth century, the American presidency has faced numerous inflection points that have reshaped the office. Using classic and new scholarship as well as primary sources, this course examines the challenges and responses of presidents when they have faced and sometimes constructed historic crossroads.
This course probes the nature of the life, the work, and the thought of the nineteenth-century abolitionist, orator, and author Frederick Douglass. We will examine in depth the public and private sides of Douglass’s life and his importance as a thinker and political activist in the great dramas of the Civil War and Reconstruction eras.
This course focuses on African American women’s history in the United States with certain aspects of Black women’s activism and leadership covered within the African Diaspora. We will examine ways in which these women engaged in local, national, and international freedom struggles while simultaneously defining their identities as wives, mothers, leaders, citizens, and workers.
The recent growth of the Latino population has transformed the United States. It has led to heightened debates about Latinas’ and Latinos’ political power, cultural influence, citizenship, civil rights, and ethnic and racial categorization. This increased attention may feel new, but Latino communities have played a pivotal role in US history for a long time. In this course, we will explore the history of Latinas and Latinos in the United States—and across the Americas—from the sixteenth century through the early twenty-first century, covering themes such as race, migration, labor, and empire.
This course covers the long struggle for Vietnam, waged between 1940 and 1975, with particular attention to the long period of direct American involvement. It will examine the conflict from various angles to understand why the Vietnam War began and ended as it did and the divisions it caused within American society. The events will be considered in their relationship to Vietnam’s history, to US politics and society, and to the concurrent Cold War.
Take it from the teachers who just graduated from the program: The Gettysburg College–Gilder Lehrman MA in American History is a prestigious, manageable, and affordable path to a master’s degree in American history for educators everywhere.