US History & Gov.

“History is not about dates and quotes and obscure provisos. History is about life, about change, about consequences, cause and effect. It’s about the mystery of human nature, the mystery of time. And it isn’t just about politics and the military and the social issues, which is almost always the way it’s taught. It’s about music and poetry and drama and science and medicine and money and love.”

- David McCullough, Pulitzer Prize Winning Author

Assignments

All assignments for US history students will be posted in the class Google Classroom. They also will appear on the calendar below. If there are any questions about an assignment or a grade, please reach out to me so that we can resolve any issues as quickly as possible.

Our Textbook

"The Americans"

This book will supplement the historical documents that will be used in the majority of our studies

Digital copies of the relevant sections & chapters our book will be provided via our class Google Classroom.

A hard-cover copy will also be made available for students to take home from class (although this may change as a result of the impact of Covid-19)

Why do we study the History of the United States?

The History of the U.S. is the academic study of people, events, groups, movements, and ideologies that have dramatically shaped and impacted the development of the North American continent. Beginning in the Colonial Period and ending in the 21st century, this course will allow students to analyze and understand how and why the United States of America has become one of the most powerful and unique nations in the world. In June, all students will be expected to take and pass the New York States Regents Exam in United States History. This examination will evaluate each student’s ability to identify and analyze the impacts that American policies and citizens have had both domestically as well as on the world at large.

At its core, the telling of the story of US History is the story of how we as a nation got to where we are today. This story includes the positive accomplishments & achievements that allowed us to become successful and prosperous while also acknowledging the inequalities and injustices suffered by many along the way. Additionally, our course serves as a medium through which students will interact with the past in a manner that develops their critical thinking skills. By reading & analyzing historical documents, writing of their findings and opinions about events and people in the past, students will be forced to recognize and consider the underlying motivations and connecting themes of significant events in our nations history.

The United States of America can be a complicated thing to identify and there are many different ideas of what it is & how it should be described. The images below are part of a photo essay by Allen Taylor that offers images to represent each state in the nation. While these images evoke strong connections to many parts of our nations history, they lack the details of how we came to be. At various stages throughout the course, students will be asked to consider the following questions and how they might be answered by different groups or people at different points in US History:

Who is an American? What does it mean to be an American? How have the answers to these questions changed over time?
What is the American Dream? Who has access to this dream at different points in our history?
What events/people have brought significant changes to our democracy as we try to live up to the ideals of our founding documents?

"This Land is Your Land"

To the left is another perspective of how America might/could be described, captured in the words of the famous singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie and performed by Bruce Springsteen in 1985. The diversity of America represented in Allen Taylor's images is echoed in the inclusiveness of Guthrie's vision of our nation.

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