United States History Survey Course: 1942 - Present
This comprehensive course investigates the significant events, individuals, and developments in American history from the pre-contact era to the present. Students will develop skills and practices employed by historians, including analyzing primary and secondary source material. Students enrolled in U.S. History are expected to complete oral and written assignments based on a variety of resources, to become more familiar with the themes explored throughout the course: American identity, migration and expansion, political power, technological advancement, international relations, geography and environment, and American diversity.
Weeks 1 - 2: Conquest & Colliding Worlds, 1492 - 1650
Millions of Indians lived in today’s United States and Canada in 1492, and they had an American history that stretched back for more than ten thousand years. Truly, the American continent is the native land of the American Indians. At first contact, European and Indian needs and expectations varied widely, but ultimately Europeans prevailed throughout the hemisphere. Yet Indians did not merely fade away when Europeans arrived. They adjusted to new conditions of life and, when conditions were favorable, asserted a measure of control in the New World that Indians and Europeans together created. -Major Problems in American Indian History, 2nd Edition
Student Learning Objectives:
Weeks 3 - 4: American Society Takes Shape, 1650 - 1750
If the most important aspect of the first fifty years of European colonization was the meeting of Europeans and Native Americans, the key occurrence of the next century was the importation of more than two hundred thousand Africans into North America. That massive influx of black slaves, and the geographic patterns it took, dramatically influenced the shaping of American society ever since. Many other major events also market the years between 1650 and 1750. New colonies were founded, populating the gap between the New England and Chesapeake settlements. Conflict with Native American tribes and internal colonial rebellions resulted as English settlements spread to the north, west, and south. Yet by the middle of the eighteenth century, stable political and social structures had evolved in all the British colonies -*A People & A Nation: A History of the United States
Student Learning Objectives:
Weeks 5-6: The French and Indian War, 1753 - 1763
The French and Indian War, an epic conflict that secured America's destiny as an independent nation, began in the wilderness of the Pennsylvania frontier, eventually spreading throughout the colonies and into Canada. Students will focus on the critical military importance and strategic diplomacy of Native Americans in the conflict between the English and French. George Washington is introduced as a young colonial officer serving under the British flag. We witness his transformation to commander of the Continental army fighting for independence. -The War That Made America
Student Learning Objectives:
Weeks 7-8: The Road to Revolution, 1750 - 1780
When the French and Indian War concluded, the map of North America was radically redrawn. The empire had expanded, and white Americans thirsted after the opportunities for trade, farming, and land speculation promised by the new acquisitions of land. Thirteen years later, the people of thirteen of the colonies in North America were so upset with their position in the empire that they declared their independence. American leaders differed in their views of the reorganization of the empire. Although colonists looked backwards to a time when the empire was operating properly, they increasingly looked forward to the possibilities of an independent America. How this could have happened is one of the most important questions in American history.*
Student Learning Objectives:
Week 9: The American Revolution, 1750 - 1780
"How does a ragtag volunteer army in need of a shower / Somehow defeat a global superpower? / How do we emerge victorious from the quagmire? / Leave the battlefield waving Betsy Ross' flag higher?" (Hamilton: Original Broadway Cast). When the first shots were fired in 1775, America faced impossible obstacles in their war for independence against the British. Untrained, unfunded, and lacking support, how could the Americans ever hope to defeat the British in a military conflict?
Student Learning Objectives:
Week 10: Quarter 1 Finals Week
Weeks 11-12: Forging a National Republic, 1780 - 1800
When the Founders wrote the Constitution, they didn’t pull their ideas out of thin air. They created a government based on a set of fundamental principles carefully designed to guarantee liberty. This week lets students look at the Constitution from the perspective of its foundational principles. Students make direct connections between these principles, the Founders’ intentions, and the Constitution itself, and they learn why the constitutional principles are critical to a free society. -iCivics.org
Student Learning Objectives:
Week 13: Economic Evolution, 1800 - 1860
The early nineteenth century witnessed vast changes in American society that irrevocably altered the lives of most Americans. These changes were nurtured by specific efforts of leaders in government and business. In the years following the War of 1812, a group of American statesmen envisioned a national economic policy that would foster economic development. Known as the 'American System,' this plan called for a national bank, protective tariffs, and improved transportation and communication. - Major Problems in American History, Volume I: To 1877, 3rd Edition
Student Learning Objectives:
Week 14: Thanksgiving Break, School CLOSED
Weeks 15-16: Nationalism & Expansion, 1820 - 1860
Defeated by John Quincy Adams in 1824, Andrew Jackson vowed revenge in the next presidential election. Following his resounding victory in 1828 as leader of the Democratic Party, he set about creating a federal bureaucracy that would be loyal to him and his party... In this new political environment, politicians addressed issues that would continue to plague the United States in the years to come... One area in which most politicians and voters could agree, however, was the urgency of expanding westward. Westward migration, so the argument went, would not only increase national power but also bring benefits to those who were conquered. By 1845, this impulse was encoded in an ideology known as 'manifest destiny. - Major Problems in American History, Volume I: To 1877, 3rd Edition
Student Learning Objectives:
Weeks 17-18: Reform & The Great Awakening, 1820-1850
In the early 19th century, artists, writers, and reformers of all kinds sought to find or impose harmony on a society in which discord had reached a crescendo. Reformers, prompted by the evangelical ardor of the Second Great Awakening and convinced of the perfectibility of the human race, crusaded for individual improvement. Inevitably the personal impulse to reform oneself led to the creation and reshaping of institutions. Eventually one issue overrode all others: slavery. National expansion in the 1840s and 1850s would make it politically explosive as well. - A People & A Nation: A History of the United States
Student Learning Objectives:
Weeks 19-20: Winter Break, School Closed
Weeks 21-22: Quarter 2 Finals Review and Finals Week
Weeks 23-24: Careening Towards Civil War, 1850-1860
Distrust among Americans multiplied in the 1850s, in part because of the failure of the attempts at compromise. The abolitionist movement grew in the North…In the southern view, northerners were promoting abolitionism and thus endangering the system of plantation slavery, which from their perspective was what created an ordered and stable society. As these divisions grew, the strains on the political party systems became so great that a political crisis developed in the 1850s…Within five weeks of Lincoln’s election, seven legislatures of the Lower South had called for elections to consider secession. - Major Problems in American History, Volume I: To 1877, 3rd Edition
Student Learning Outcomes:
Weeks 25-26: The Civil War, 1860-1865
The most destructive war in America’s history was fought among its own people. The Civil War was a tragedy of unimaginable proportions. For four long and bloody years, Americans were killed at the hands of other Americans. One of every twenty-five American men perished in the war. Over 640,000 soldiers were killed. Many civilians also died – in numbers often unrecorded…The war was fought in American fields, on American roads, and in American cities with a ferocity that could be evoked only in terrible nightmares. Nearly every family in the nation was touched by this war…In 1861, everyone predicted a short war. Most believed that one battle of enormous proportion would settle a dispute at least 90 years in the making. But history dictated a far more destructive course. - US History.org
Student Learning Outcomes:
Weeks 27-28: Reconstruction, 1865-1880
After the Civil War ended in 1865, The United States needed to rebuild, particularly in the devastated southern states. The period following the Civil War in which this rebuilding took place is referred to as Reconstruction. It lasted from 1865 to 1877. It was a time of great pain and endless questions. On what terms would the Confederacy of southern states be allowed back into the Union? Who would establish those terms: Congress or the President? How would freed blacks be treated in the South? Did the end of slavery mean that black men would now enjoy the same status as white men? What was to be done with the Confederate leaders, who were seen as traitors by many in the North? - USHistory.org
Student Learning Outcomes:
Week 29: Industrialization, Workers, and the New Immigration
The Industrial Revolution and the migration of Europeans to the Americas were well under way before the American Civil War, but in the years after the war these phenomena restructured the American landscape in ways that would have made it unrecognizable to previous generations... Industrialists amassed fortunes in a way never before seen in human history, while knowledgeable artisans found their training and judgment less and less called for in an age of mass production... In the midst of this industrial transformation, a second great wave of immigration hit the United States... Across the economic spectrum, Americans struggled to define the meaning of industrial concentration for democracy and social justice. -Major Problems in American History, Volume II: Since 1865, 3rd Edition
Student Learning Outcomes:
Week 30: The Progressive Movement, 1890-1920
From the turn of the century up to the 1920s, Americans of all backgrounds wrestled with the notion of "progress." Giant cities people by impoverished immigrants, new technologies of mass production, political machines controlled by party bosses, and the spectacular concentration of wealth in the hands of the few left many people wondering, "Is this progress?" The nation had more money and technology, but it seemed to have more corruption, disease, and poverty as well. -Major Problems in American History, Volume II: Since 1865, 3rd Edition
Student Learning Outcomes:
Week 31: Quarter 3 Finals Week
Week 32: Spring Break, School CLOSED
Week 33: Imperialism & World Power, 1900-1920
In 1898 the United States embarked on its first war on behalf of the rights of people other than its own. Revolutionaries in Cuba had fought for thirty years (1868-1898) to break Spain's grasp on its last colony in the New World. With U.S. help, they finally did... These first conflicts of the twentieth century contained in full measure the contradictions and danger that were to shape relations between the United States and the rest of the globe for the coming century. Presidents William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson, under whose direction the United States took up a leading role on the world stage, agreed that the time had come to exercise America's tremendous potential for international influence. -Major Problems in American History, Volume II: Since 1865, 3rd Edition
Student Learning Outcomes:
Week 34: America in World War, 1914-1920
In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson broke the precedent of more than one hundred years and sent American soldiers 'over there,' across the Atlantic. George Washington had declared the 'Great Rule' of staying out of Europe's troubles in 1796, and James Monroe had underscored the principle in his famous Monroe Doctrine of 1823...Wilson declared neutrality when the war first broke out on July 28, 1914. But the opportunity to sell food, arms, and other goods to the belligerents gradually led the United States deeper and deeper into the conflict...World War I ultimately provided few lessons about when or how the United States should intervene in conflicts beyond its borders. -Major Problems in American History, Volume II: Since 1865, 3rd Edition
Student Learning Outcomes:
Week 35: Crossing a Cultural Divide - The Twenties, 1919-1930
The 1920s saw the United States reject many of the methods and ideologies of Progressivism in favor of less government intervention and regulation. The result was an economic boom, driven by consumer spending and the might of American industry. This boom eventually led to bust, as the end of the decade saw the birth of the Great Depression. The response to the Great Depression would pave the way for the creation of a stronger federal response to economic crises and the birth of the welfare state in America. -PBS Learning Media California: Crash Course US History
Student Learning Outcomes:
Weeks 36-37: The Great Depression & The New Deal, 1929-1941
In the "Dirty Thirties," as sufferers of the Dust Bowl called the decade, it seemed that everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. The stock market crash of 1929, terrifying as it was to investors who saw their shares fall by 40 percent, was only a harbinger of the international economic collapse and natural calamities to come... Franklin D. Roosevelt came into office prepared to experiment broadly with measures to "fix" some of the most egregious failings of the nation's economic system. The New Deal, as Roosevelt called his programs, aimed at all elements of the crisis, from the stock market on Wall Street to hog markets in Nebraska... The New Deal did not end the Depression, which continued until World War II, nor did it eliminate all the social inequalities; these had existed long before the thirties and continued after them. But the New Deal did dramatically recast the role of Washington by giving it a responsibility for the general social welfare. "Big government," like big business, was here to stay. -Major Problems in American History, Volume II: Since 1865, 3rd Edition
Student Learning Outcomes:
Weeks 38-39: America in World War 2, 1941-1945
"The Japanese bombing of American warships at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, brought the United States into a series of wars that had been underway in Asian and then in Europe for nearly a decade... The war transformed America and the world...The United States, which had entered both world wars late, emerged as the most powerful and wealthy nation on earth following the war, blessed with the opportunity and burdened with the responsibility of restructuring world politics, resurrecting the world economy, and preventing future wars. The Grand Alliance created a new organization called the United Nations designed to mediate all subsequent conflicts. The task was Herculean, but the effort to find rational alternatives to global self-destruction had begun... The war reinforced American liberalism, strengthened the hand of advocates for civil rights, brought women into the workforce in greater numbers than ever before, ended the Great Depression, and heralded the onset of what the publisher of Time and Life magazines called 'the American Century'." - Major Problems in American History, Volume II: Since 1865, 3rd Edition
Student Learning Outcomes:
Week 40: Cold War Politics and the Nuclear Ages, 1945-1980
"[D]iscord between the two most powerful members of the former Grand Alliance created a cold war that lasted more than forty years. With the Truman Doctrine of 1947, the United States adopted the role of 'global policeman.' With the Marshall Plan of 1948, the united States adopted the role of economic caretaker of Europe. Both actions originated as attempts to stop the perceived communist threat to world peace and stability. When the Korean War broke out in 1950, the Truman administration approved a policy...[which] drastically expanded American defense expenditures, placed the nation on a permanent war footing, and create what President Eisenhower later dubbed 'the military industrial complex'...The term cold war is a misnomer. Although the conflict 'froze' borders in Europe, the war burned brightly - indeed raged out of control - for the United States in Vietnam. In Vietnam, the United States experienced what some consider its greatest failure as a nation, as well as the most obvious conflict between its historic 'Spirit of 1776' ideal of self determination and its military practice as a superpower." - Major Problems in American History, Volume II: Since 1865, 3rd Edition
Student Learning Outcomes:
Week 41: End of the Cold War, Terrorism, and Globalization, 1980 - Present
"As we approach the present...we near the point where history meets journalism. It is not yet clear what future scholars will assess as being, in the long run, the most 'major' of the issues that faced the nation at the turn of the century and in the new millennium. Three developments appear to be the most likely candidates: the emergence of the United States at the sole military super=power at the end of the cold war; the involvement of the United States in its attempts to repress terrorism and reshape governments in the Middle East following 9/11; and, an increasing sense of economic vulnerability as the result of intensifying global production and trade... The twenty-first century began with a bang - a terrifying one. Americans showed resiliency in responding to a series of catastrophes, but they struggled to make sense of where the greatest threats to their future security and prosperity lay: in world policing, terrorism, or globalization." - Major Problems in American History, Volume II: Since 1865, 3rd Edition
Student Learning Outcomes:
Week 42: Quarter 4 Finals Week - Happy Summer Break!
Millions of Indians lived in today’s United States and Canada in 1492, and they had an American history that stretched back for more than ten thousand years. Truly, the American continent is the native land of the American Indians. At first contact, European and Indian needs and expectations varied widely, but ultimately Europeans prevailed throughout the hemisphere. Yet Indians did not merely fade away when Europeans arrived. They adjusted to new conditions of life and, when conditions were favorable, asserted a measure of control in the New World that Indians and Europeans together created. -Major Problems in American Indian History, 2nd Edition
Student Learning Objectives:
- Students will analyze primary source documents presenting diverse native traditions about their origins and relationship to the lands they call home.
- Students will identify the four main factors for European exploration in the fifteenth century.
- Students will examine the first contact experiences and expectations between Europeans and American Indians.
Weeks 3 - 4: American Society Takes Shape, 1650 - 1750
If the most important aspect of the first fifty years of European colonization was the meeting of Europeans and Native Americans, the key occurrence of the next century was the importation of more than two hundred thousand Africans into North America. That massive influx of black slaves, and the geographic patterns it took, dramatically influenced the shaping of American society ever since. Many other major events also market the years between 1650 and 1750. New colonies were founded, populating the gap between the New England and Chesapeake settlements. Conflict with Native American tribes and internal colonial rebellions resulted as English settlements spread to the north, west, and south. Yet by the middle of the eighteenth century, stable political and social structures had evolved in all the British colonies -*A People & A Nation: A History of the United States
Student Learning Objectives:
- Students will explore how the increasing complexity of the colonial South changed the relationships between rich and poor; black and white; free and unfree.
- Students will analyze how the population of the northern colonies differed from that of the southern colonies.
- Students will understand the political transformation of the colonies in British American between 1650 and 1750.
Weeks 5-6: The French and Indian War, 1753 - 1763
The French and Indian War, an epic conflict that secured America's destiny as an independent nation, began in the wilderness of the Pennsylvania frontier, eventually spreading throughout the colonies and into Canada. Students will focus on the critical military importance and strategic diplomacy of Native Americans in the conflict between the English and French. George Washington is introduced as a young colonial officer serving under the British flag. We witness his transformation to commander of the Continental army fighting for independence. -The War That Made America
Student Learning Objectives:
- Students will explore the relationships between the French and the Native Americans and the English and the Native Americans prior to the French and Indian War.
- Students will understand the role geography played in the economic and political claims of the French and British in North America.
- Students will understand the motivation of Native Americans joining Pontiac in war against the British.
- Students will consider how colonists' responses to British taxation and heavy-handedness paved the way to Revolution.
Weeks 7-8: The Road to Revolution, 1750 - 1780
When the French and Indian War concluded, the map of North America was radically redrawn. The empire had expanded, and white Americans thirsted after the opportunities for trade, farming, and land speculation promised by the new acquisitions of land. Thirteen years later, the people of thirteen of the colonies in North America were so upset with their position in the empire that they declared their independence. American leaders differed in their views of the reorganization of the empire. Although colonists looked backwards to a time when the empire was operating properly, they increasingly looked forward to the possibilities of an independent America. How this could have happened is one of the most important questions in American history.*
Student Learning Objectives:
- Students will explore how the American Revolution altered the lives of various groups (men and women; Indians and slaves; loyalists and patriots) in different ways.
- Students will decide whether the British measures leading up to the Revolution in retrospect look reasonable. If so, how can one explain the American response to them?
- Students will determine if the Revolution can be characterized as a conflict that looked forward or backward.
Week 9: The American Revolution, 1750 - 1780
"How does a ragtag volunteer army in need of a shower / Somehow defeat a global superpower? / How do we emerge victorious from the quagmire? / Leave the battlefield waving Betsy Ross' flag higher?" (Hamilton: Original Broadway Cast). When the first shots were fired in 1775, America faced impossible obstacles in their war for independence against the British. Untrained, unfunded, and lacking support, how could the Americans ever hope to defeat the British in a military conflict?
Student Learning Objectives:
- Students will identify major battles and turning points of the American Revolution.
- Students will discuss the effects of the 1783 Treaty of Paris on the new American citizens.
- Students will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.
Week 10: Quarter 1 Finals Week
Weeks 11-12: Forging a National Republic, 1780 - 1800
When the Founders wrote the Constitution, they didn’t pull their ideas out of thin air. They created a government based on a set of fundamental principles carefully designed to guarantee liberty. This week lets students look at the Constitution from the perspective of its foundational principles. Students make direct connections between these principles, the Founders’ intentions, and the Constitution itself, and they learn why the constitutional principles are critical to a free society. -iCivics.org
Student Learning Objectives:
- Students will describe how the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation led to the writing of the Constitution.
- Students will compare the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution.
- Students will identify the arguments used by the Federalists and Anti-Federalists during the ratification debate.
- Students will debate the importance of the Bill of Rights in the ratification debate.
- Students will analyze Hamilton's "Report on Public Credit" and subsequent creation of a national bank.
- Students will identify the platforms of the original political parties in the United States.
- Students will understand the causes for division between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson.
Week 13: Economic Evolution, 1800 - 1860
The early nineteenth century witnessed vast changes in American society that irrevocably altered the lives of most Americans. These changes were nurtured by specific efforts of leaders in government and business. In the years following the War of 1812, a group of American statesmen envisioned a national economic policy that would foster economic development. Known as the 'American System,' this plan called for a national bank, protective tariffs, and improved transportation and communication. - Major Problems in American History, Volume I: To 1877, 3rd Edition
Student Learning Objectives:
- Students will discuss American foreign policy in the early national period.
- Students will analyze US policies toward Europe ranging from President Washington's Farewell Address to the Monroe Doctrine.
- Students will consider how the transportation, communication, and market revolutions changed the everyday lives of Americans.
Week 14: Thanksgiving Break, School CLOSED
Weeks 15-16: Nationalism & Expansion, 1820 - 1860
Defeated by John Quincy Adams in 1824, Andrew Jackson vowed revenge in the next presidential election. Following his resounding victory in 1828 as leader of the Democratic Party, he set about creating a federal bureaucracy that would be loyal to him and his party... In this new political environment, politicians addressed issues that would continue to plague the United States in the years to come... One area in which most politicians and voters could agree, however, was the urgency of expanding westward. Westward migration, so the argument went, would not only increase national power but also bring benefits to those who were conquered. By 1845, this impulse was encoded in an ideology known as 'manifest destiny. - Major Problems in American History, Volume I: To 1877, 3rd Edition
Student Learning Objectives:
- Students will debate to what degree this was a period of increasing democracy.
- Students will understand how notions about "the people" or "the common man" were used to celebrate the potential of the United States.
- Students will analyze Native American strategies towards coping with westward migration of white Americans.
- Students will explore how the issue of nullification was ominous for American nationalists.
Weeks 17-18: Reform & The Great Awakening, 1820-1850
In the early 19th century, artists, writers, and reformers of all kinds sought to find or impose harmony on a society in which discord had reached a crescendo. Reformers, prompted by the evangelical ardor of the Second Great Awakening and convinced of the perfectibility of the human race, crusaded for individual improvement. Inevitably the personal impulse to reform oneself led to the creation and reshaping of institutions. Eventually one issue overrode all others: slavery. National expansion in the 1840s and 1850s would make it politically explosive as well. - A People & A Nation: A History of the United States
Student Learning Objectives:
- Students will identify the motivation behind the reformation movement.
- Students will categorize utopian societies of the Second Great Awakening.
- Students will analyze excerpts from primary source documents from Angelina Grimké (1836) and The Seneca Falls Convention Declaration of Rights and Sentiments (1848).
Weeks 19-20: Winter Break, School Closed
Weeks 21-22: Quarter 2 Finals Review and Finals Week
Weeks 23-24: Careening Towards Civil War, 1850-1860
Distrust among Americans multiplied in the 1850s, in part because of the failure of the attempts at compromise. The abolitionist movement grew in the North…In the southern view, northerners were promoting abolitionism and thus endangering the system of plantation slavery, which from their perspective was what created an ordered and stable society. As these divisions grew, the strains on the political party systems became so great that a political crisis developed in the 1850s…Within five weeks of Lincoln’s election, seven legislatures of the Lower South had called for elections to consider secession. - Major Problems in American History, Volume I: To 1877, 3rd Edition
Student Learning Outcomes:
- Students will understand how sectional tensions grew as a result of the Mexican War.
- Students will identify the economic, social, and cultural differences between the North and South during the first half of the 19th century.
- Students will explore ways in which compromise might have forestalled the division between the North and South.
- Students will identify and sequence events leading up to the Civil War.
Weeks 25-26: The Civil War, 1860-1865
The most destructive war in America’s history was fought among its own people. The Civil War was a tragedy of unimaginable proportions. For four long and bloody years, Americans were killed at the hands of other Americans. One of every twenty-five American men perished in the war. Over 640,000 soldiers were killed. Many civilians also died – in numbers often unrecorded…The war was fought in American fields, on American roads, and in American cities with a ferocity that could be evoked only in terrible nightmares. Nearly every family in the nation was touched by this war…In 1861, everyone predicted a short war. Most believed that one battle of enormous proportion would settle a dispute at least 90 years in the making. But history dictated a far more destructive course. - US History.org
Student Learning Outcomes:
- Students will describe the relationship between the southern secession and the Battle of Fort Sumter.
- Students will explain why President Lincoln wanted the South to attack federal troops first.
- Students will evaluate Robert E. Lee's decisions to reject Lincoln's request to command the Union army.
- Students will identify the significance of the First Battle of Bull Run.
- Students will understand how ideas about emancipation evolved as the Civil War entered its second year.
- Students will analyze 19th century articles from the Sacramento Bee and the Sacramento Daily Union regarding public opinion in Sacramento towards emancipation between 1861 and 1863.
Weeks 27-28: Reconstruction, 1865-1880
After the Civil War ended in 1865, The United States needed to rebuild, particularly in the devastated southern states. The period following the Civil War in which this rebuilding took place is referred to as Reconstruction. It lasted from 1865 to 1877. It was a time of great pain and endless questions. On what terms would the Confederacy of southern states be allowed back into the Union? Who would establish those terms: Congress or the President? How would freed blacks be treated in the South? Did the end of slavery mean that black men would now enjoy the same status as white men? What was to be done with the Confederate leaders, who were seen as traitors by many in the North? - USHistory.org
Student Learning Outcomes:
- Students will identify the Reconstruction goals of the Radial Republicans, President Andrew Johnson, and the Southern Democrats
- Students will understand Reconstruction legislation passed by Congress including the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments
- Students will explore the Southern sharecropping system that replaced slavery
- Students will analyze a primary source 1882 sharecropping contract
Week 29: Industrialization, Workers, and the New Immigration
The Industrial Revolution and the migration of Europeans to the Americas were well under way before the American Civil War, but in the years after the war these phenomena restructured the American landscape in ways that would have made it unrecognizable to previous generations... Industrialists amassed fortunes in a way never before seen in human history, while knowledgeable artisans found their training and judgment less and less called for in an age of mass production... In the midst of this industrial transformation, a second great wave of immigration hit the United States... Across the economic spectrum, Americans struggled to define the meaning of industrial concentration for democracy and social justice. -Major Problems in American History, Volume II: Since 1865, 3rd Edition
Student Learning Outcomes:
- Students will explore the paths to wealth taken by the industrial "tycoons" at the turn of the centurty
- Students will examine how immigrants coped with conditions as they found them in America’s brimming cities
- Students will debate whether industry crushed immigrants or provided them with new opportunities
- Students will analyze excerpts from a 1909 Slovenian boy's recollections of "Tales of the golden Country" to gain insight on the attractions of the New World for immigrants during the early 20th century
Week 30: The Progressive Movement, 1890-1920
From the turn of the century up to the 1920s, Americans of all backgrounds wrestled with the notion of "progress." Giant cities people by impoverished immigrants, new technologies of mass production, political machines controlled by party bosses, and the spectacular concentration of wealth in the hands of the few left many people wondering, "Is this progress?" The nation had more money and technology, but it seemed to have more corruption, disease, and poverty as well. -Major Problems in American History, Volume II: Since 1865, 3rd Edition
Student Learning Outcomes:
- Students will understand Progressivism- Was it an inspirational movement to further the nation's democratic ideals, or was it an attempt at social control by self-important, moralistic busybodies?
- Students will explore the contributions of influential Progressivist reformers including Theodore Roosevelt, Susan B. Anthony, and W.E.B. DuBois
- Students will analyze an excerpt from socialist Upton Sinclair's The Jungle to understand immigrant life and how Progressive reformers passed the Pure Food and Drug Act
Week 31: Quarter 3 Finals Week
Week 32: Spring Break, School CLOSED
Week 33: Imperialism & World Power, 1900-1920
In 1898 the United States embarked on its first war on behalf of the rights of people other than its own. Revolutionaries in Cuba had fought for thirty years (1868-1898) to break Spain's grasp on its last colony in the New World. With U.S. help, they finally did... These first conflicts of the twentieth century contained in full measure the contradictions and danger that were to shape relations between the United States and the rest of the globe for the coming century. Presidents William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson, under whose direction the United States took up a leading role on the world stage, agreed that the time had come to exercise America's tremendous potential for international influence. -Major Problems in American History, Volume II: Since 1865, 3rd Edition
Student Learning Outcomes:
- Students will question how a nation with democratic values could fight a colonial war
- Students will explore the rhetoric which made this war possible, and what American insecurities fueled it
- Students will analyze the 1903 Platt Amendment and the 1904 Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine
Week 34: America in World War, 1914-1920
In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson broke the precedent of more than one hundred years and sent American soldiers 'over there,' across the Atlantic. George Washington had declared the 'Great Rule' of staying out of Europe's troubles in 1796, and James Monroe had underscored the principle in his famous Monroe Doctrine of 1823...Wilson declared neutrality when the war first broke out on July 28, 1914. But the opportunity to sell food, arms, and other goods to the belligerents gradually led the United States deeper and deeper into the conflict...World War I ultimately provided few lessons about when or how the United States should intervene in conflicts beyond its borders. -Major Problems in American History, Volume II: Since 1865, 3rd Edition
Student Learning Outcomes:
- Students will understand America's motivation for joining World War I in 1917
- Students will examine why America joined the war on the side of the Allied Powers
- Students will analyze propaganda art and music distributed by the Committee on Public Information
- Students will discuss ways in which the Espionage and Sedition Acts of 1917 quieted wartime opposition in America
Week 35: Crossing a Cultural Divide - The Twenties, 1919-1930
The 1920s saw the United States reject many of the methods and ideologies of Progressivism in favor of less government intervention and regulation. The result was an economic boom, driven by consumer spending and the might of American industry. This boom eventually led to bust, as the end of the decade saw the birth of the Great Depression. The response to the Great Depression would pave the way for the creation of a stronger federal response to economic crises and the birth of the welfare state in America. -PBS Learning Media California: Crash Course US History
Student Learning Outcomes:
- Students will describe political, economic, and cultural developments that took place in the United States during the 1920's and 30s
- Students will evaluate ways in which the period constitutes a distinct era in US history
- Students will understand why this period is viewed as a new era for both women and African Americans
- Students will analyze shifts in the role of the government in the lives of Americans during the period
Weeks 36-37: The Great Depression & The New Deal, 1929-1941
In the "Dirty Thirties," as sufferers of the Dust Bowl called the decade, it seemed that everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. The stock market crash of 1929, terrifying as it was to investors who saw their shares fall by 40 percent, was only a harbinger of the international economic collapse and natural calamities to come... Franklin D. Roosevelt came into office prepared to experiment broadly with measures to "fix" some of the most egregious failings of the nation's economic system. The New Deal, as Roosevelt called his programs, aimed at all elements of the crisis, from the stock market on Wall Street to hog markets in Nebraska... The New Deal did not end the Depression, which continued until World War II, nor did it eliminate all the social inequalities; these had existed long before the thirties and continued after them. But the New Deal did dramatically recast the role of Washington by giving it a responsibility for the general social welfare. "Big government," like big business, was here to stay. -Major Problems in American History, Volume II: Since 1865, 3rd Edition
Student Learning Outcomes:
- Students will identify the primary causes of the Great Depression and the nation's response.
- Students will evaluate the successes and failures of the New Deal government programs.
- Students will examine how the relationship between Americans and their government shifted during this period.
Weeks 38-39: America in World War 2, 1941-1945
"The Japanese bombing of American warships at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, brought the United States into a series of wars that had been underway in Asian and then in Europe for nearly a decade... The war transformed America and the world...The United States, which had entered both world wars late, emerged as the most powerful and wealthy nation on earth following the war, blessed with the opportunity and burdened with the responsibility of restructuring world politics, resurrecting the world economy, and preventing future wars. The Grand Alliance created a new organization called the United Nations designed to mediate all subsequent conflicts. The task was Herculean, but the effort to find rational alternatives to global self-destruction had begun... The war reinforced American liberalism, strengthened the hand of advocates for civil rights, brought women into the workforce in greater numbers than ever before, ended the Great Depression, and heralded the onset of what the publisher of Time and Life magazines called 'the American Century'." - Major Problems in American History, Volume II: Since 1865, 3rd Edition
Student Learning Outcomes:
- Students will understand how mass mobilization and near full employment during the war brought the United States out of the Great Depression.
- Students will evaluate how the war changed American's expectations of their nation's role in the world.
- Students will explore how World War II birth the nuclear arms race, setting the stage for the Cold War.
- Students will analyze the ways in which World War II impacted the world order.
Week 40: Cold War Politics and the Nuclear Ages, 1945-1980
"[D]iscord between the two most powerful members of the former Grand Alliance created a cold war that lasted more than forty years. With the Truman Doctrine of 1947, the United States adopted the role of 'global policeman.' With the Marshall Plan of 1948, the united States adopted the role of economic caretaker of Europe. Both actions originated as attempts to stop the perceived communist threat to world peace and stability. When the Korean War broke out in 1950, the Truman administration approved a policy...[which] drastically expanded American defense expenditures, placed the nation on a permanent war footing, and create what President Eisenhower later dubbed 'the military industrial complex'...The term cold war is a misnomer. Although the conflict 'froze' borders in Europe, the war burned brightly - indeed raged out of control - for the United States in Vietnam. In Vietnam, the United States experienced what some consider its greatest failure as a nation, as well as the most obvious conflict between its historic 'Spirit of 1776' ideal of self determination and its military practice as a superpower." - Major Problems in American History, Volume II: Since 1865, 3rd Edition
Student Learning Outcomes:
- Students will explore the causes of a cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union.
- Students will examine the effect of the cold war on the worldview and psychology of American citizens.
- Students will question whether the Vietnam War was a tragic blunder, a noble cause, or one of the costs of American leadership of the so-called 'Free World' or western alliance.
Week 41: End of the Cold War, Terrorism, and Globalization, 1980 - Present
"As we approach the present...we near the point where history meets journalism. It is not yet clear what future scholars will assess as being, in the long run, the most 'major' of the issues that faced the nation at the turn of the century and in the new millennium. Three developments appear to be the most likely candidates: the emergence of the United States at the sole military super=power at the end of the cold war; the involvement of the United States in its attempts to repress terrorism and reshape governments in the Middle East following 9/11; and, an increasing sense of economic vulnerability as the result of intensifying global production and trade... The twenty-first century began with a bang - a terrifying one. Americans showed resiliency in responding to a series of catastrophes, but they struggled to make sense of where the greatest threats to their future security and prosperity lay: in world policing, terrorism, or globalization." - Major Problems in American History, Volume II: Since 1865, 3rd Edition
Student Learning Outcomes:
- Students will identify the effects of the Persian Gulf War on American perceptions in the Middle East.
- Students will understand the motivations behind the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
- Students will discuss modern-day challenges facing American stability.
Week 42: Quarter 4 Finals Week - Happy Summer Break!