Period 8: 1945-1980

Chapter 27: The Cold War

Chapter 28: The Affluent Society

Chapter 29: Civil Rights, Vietnam, and the Ordeal of Liberalism

Chapter 30: The Crisis of Authority

Chapter 31: From the “Age of Limits” to the Age of Reagan

Key Concepts:

1. The United States responded to an uncertain and unstable postwar world by asserting and working to maintain a position of global leadership, with far-reaching domestic and international consequences.
2. New movements for civil rights and liberal efforts to expand the role of government generated a range of political and cultural responses.
3. Postwar economic and demographic changes had far-reaching consequences for American society, politics, and culture.

Learning Targets:

1. I can analyze the reasons for, and results of, U.S. diplomatic, economic, and military initiatives during the Cold War.
2. I can describe the legal and political successes achieved by civil rights activists and political leaders in the effort to end segregation.
3. I can explain how different group identities, including racial, ethnic, class, and regional identities have emerged and changed over time.
4. I can explain how different beliefs about the federal government’s role in U.S. social and economic life have affected political debates and policies.
5. I can describe how rapid economic and social changes in American society fostered a sense of optimism in the postwar years.

Resources and Assignments:

• Interpretation: NATO Containment
• Interpretation: McCarthyism
• Turning Point: Vietnam
• Civil Rights CCOT
• Society Chart
• Great Society