America is a place where people of different races, different creeds,and different political beliefs, live, work, and govern together. This course introduces the literature of the United States from mid-nineteenth century to the present in chronological order. Through reading major works of American literature since 1865, we will explore American literary identity through an examination of literary trends, themes, and historical and political contexts, and how Americans have understood, supported, and challenged the diversity in their culture. Topics include the major literary philosophies of the time through writers such as Whitman, Jack London, Robert Frost, T.S. Eliot, Earnest Hemingway, Langston Hughes, Robert Lowell and Thomas Wolfe.