This course presents a study of major cultural and literary developments since the end of the Civil War. It considers the literature of industrialization and urban growth, the role of the new immigrants, Realism and Naturalism, the world wars, the ethnic revival of the sixties, fragmentation in the nineties and after, and current political, social, and cultural concerns. Authors to be discussed may include Whitman, Twain, Wharton, Anderson, Hurston, Hemingway, Faulkner, Ellison, London, Frost, Ward. (3 billable contact hrs)