Emergence of Modern America

• • Platt and Teller Amendments

  • Annexation of Hawaii

  • William McKinley’s Benevolent Assimilation Proclamation

  • Theodore Roosevelt’s Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine

  • Harlem Renaissance Art and Literature

  • The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (1906), Dover Publications, 2011 (978-0-486-41923-1)

  • 16^th, 17^th, 18^th and 19^th Amendments

Great Depression & World War II

• • Lend-Lease Act

  • Franklin Roosevelt’s Fireside Chats

  • World War II Recruiting, Bond Drive Posters

  • General Dwight Eisenhower’s Order of the Day for Invasion of Normandy

  • Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (G.I. Bill)

  • The Charter of the United Nations

  • Simulation: Ration Books and Coupons

  • Sequence the events that led the U.S. from a position of neutrality to involvement and to victory.

  • Use visual data to interpret casualties, Home Front activities, industrial output and military strategy.

  • Sequence the events of the Nazi Party that led to the final solution: Ladder of Prejudice.

  • Franklin Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech (1941) and Declaration of War (1941)

  • Simulation: Japanese Internment Camp and reading first person accounts

  • Executive Order 9066 (1942) and U.S. Supreme Court case: Korematsu vs. United States (1944)

  • Mapping European countries’ key battles

  • Schindler’s List, film (1993) (Rated R); Saving Private Ryan, film (1998) (Rated R); One Survivor Remembers, film (1996) (unrated)

  • Debate the dropping of the atomic bomb: White Light, Black Rain

  • Debates: Munich and Appeasement, The Benefits of the Marshall Plan and United Nations

  • Photo analysis of war propaganda posters and creating original works

Postwar United States: 1946 - 1970

• • Brown vs. Board of Education

  • Truman Doctrine

  • Marshall Plan

  • NSC-68

  • Joseph McCarthy’s Wheeling (WV) Speech

  • John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address

  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

  • Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965

  • The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan (1963), W.W. Norton & Co., 2001 (978-0-393-32257-6)

  • Map the Interstate Highway System and Route 66

  • Look at magazine ads and identify gender roles and stereotypes

  • View Dear Abby columns and contrast the advice given with present views; how does the advice further certain values?

  • Compare the problems of 1950 sitcoms with current topics; how is the nuclear family portrayed?

  • Use visual data to analyze the new consumerism (e.g., cars, TV, movies).

  • Catalogue new inventions and consumerism of the day as well as forms of entertainment.

  • Listen to music and learn the dances of the day

  • Analysis of lyrics and music of 1960-1970.

  • Analysis of clothing as part of the counter-culture of 1960-1970.

  • Primary sources: Betty Friedan

  • Draw inferences using lyrics, slogans and other media

  • Compare and contrast the culture of the idealized 1950s’ family unit with the individualized counter-culture

  • All the President’s Men, film (1976) (Rated R).

Cold War

• Listen to Ronald Reagan’s Berlin speech (1987) and Winston Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech (1946)

• Map the Cold War’s hot spots

• Simulate an air raid drill: Bert the Turtle

• Identify the cause-and-effect relationships of the Cold War, present day Middle East conflicts and Latin America

• View House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) clips to explore fact, opinion and bias.

• Identify examples of anti-communist sentiment in pop culture (e.g., comic books, movies)

• Political cartoon analysis of the Cuban Missile Crisis

• Visual data to analyze the Arms Race.

Contemporary United States

• Richard Nixon’s Resignation Speech, Farewell Address

• War Powers Act

• Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act

• Trans-Alaska Pipeline Legislation

• Bakke vs. California

• Ronald Reagan’s 1^st Inaugural Address

• Final Report of the Iran-Contra Investigation Independent Counsel Executive Summary

• Americans with Disabilities Act

• George W. Bush’s Speech to Congress on September 20, 2001

• PATRIOT Act

• Structured academic debate/Socratic dialog: Evaluate the goals, tactics and impacts of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. on the status of African-Americans.

• Compare and contrast the views of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

• Sequence major historical civil rights events from 1948 to present.

• Identify the different ways that SNCC, NAACP, SCLC and other groups’ furthered civil rights.

• Conceptual timeline: Evolution of the Civil Rights Movement in the 20th century.

• Debate present-day environmental regulations; New Federalism

• Map Europe’s changing boundaries after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

• Identify advantages and disadvantages of deregulation.

• View the Congressional hearings of Supreme Court nominees as a way of creating a conservative court

• Debate: When should the U.S. declare war and what is America’s political role in the world?

• Trace economic, social and political issues across various countries and regions.

• Debate issues related to energy dependence and environmental costs.

• Compare job market data across countries to create lists of essentials skills.

• Analyze economic data using graphs and charts.