U.S. History

United States history is always developing and growing, but studying the past offers us many opportunities to learn and work towards a better future. We will be continuing your U.S history knowledge from 8th grade, starting with a brief review before working through Industrialization and onward.

• Unit 1: Connecting with the Past: Nation's Beginnings

• Unit 2: Industrialization, Urbanization, Immigration, & Progressive Reform

• Unit 3: The Rise of the U.S. as a World Power

• Unit 4: The 1920s

• Unit 5: The Great Depression and the New Deal

• Unit 6: America's Participation in World War II

• Unit 7: Cold War Struggles Abroad and at Home

• Unit 8: Movements for Equality

• Unit 9: Contemporary American Society

In this course, students examine major developments and turning points in American history from the late nineteenth century to the present. During the year, the following themes are emphasized: the expanding role of the federal government; the emergence of a modern corporate economy and the role of organized labor; the role of the federal government and Federal Reserve System in regulating the economy; the impact of technology on American society and culture; changes in racial, ethnic, and gender dynamics in American society; the movements toward equal rights for racial, ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities and for women; and the rise of the United States as a major world power. 

As students survey nearly 150 years of American history, they learn how geography shaped many of these developments, especially in terms of the country’s position on the globe, its climate, and abundant natural resources. In each unit, students examine American culture, including religion, literature, art, music, drama, architecture, education, and the mass media.

The content covered in grade eleven is expansive, and the discipline-specific skills that are to be taught are equally demanding. To highlight significant developments, trends, and events, teachers use guiding questions around which their curriculum may be organized. Organizing content around questions of historical significance allows students to develop their understanding of that content in greater depth. Guiding questions also allow teachers the leeway to prioritize their content and highlight particular skills through students’ investigations of the past.

Questions that can frame the year-long content for eleventh grade are as follows: 

• How did the federal government grow between the late nineteenth and twenty-first centuries? 

• What does it mean to be an American in modern times? 

• How did the United States become a superpower? 

• How did the United States’ population become more diverse over the twentieth century? 

As students learn American history from the late 1800s through the 2010s, they will be encouraged to develop reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills that will enhance their understanding of the content. As in earlier grades, students will be taught that history is an investigative discipline, one that is continually reshaped based on research in primary sources and on new perspectives that can be uncovered. Students will be encouraged to read multiple primary and secondary sources; to understand multiple perspectives; to learn about how some things change over time and others tend not to; and they should appreciate that each historical era has its own context and it is up to the student of history to make sense of the past on these terms by asking questions about it.

In this course, students will examine major developments and turning points in American history from the late nineteenth century to the present. During the year, the following themes are emphasized: the expanding role of the federal government; the emergence of a modern corporate economy and the role of organized labor; the role of the federal government and Federal Reserve System in regulating the economy; the impact of technology on American society and culture; changes in racial, ethnic, and gender dynamics in American society; the movements toward equal rights for racial, ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities and for women; and the rise of the United States as a major world power.

• To search for similarities as well as changes throughout historical eras.

• To investigate the root of historical problems.

• To determine the watershed moments where everything changed.

• To examine the similarities and differences between concepts and eras.

• To study the writers of history to understand their interpretations

• To improve literacy and encourage critical thinking.

• To consider multiple accounts of events in order to understand international relations and events from a variety of perspectives.

• To learn by drawing generalizations from related articles, literature, primary sources, data & graphs, political cartoons, video sources, and diagrams.

In this unit, students will review key historical thinking skills including sourcing, corroboration, contextualization, etc. 

You can review this historical thinking chart for extra support.

Essential Questions:

• What are the key tenets of American Democracy?

• How have American freedom and slavery coexisted in the nation’s past?

• How did the country change because of the Civil War and Reconstruction in the 19th century?

• Why was the 13th Amendment needed?

Essential Questions:

• How did America’s economy, industries, and population grow after the Civil War?

• How did Progressives challenge the status quo of American politics, industry, and society?

• How were farmers affected by industrialization? How did they respond to industrialization?

• Who came to the United States at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century? Why did they come? What was their experience like when they arrived?

• How did the federal government impact the country’s growth in the years following the Civil War?

• Why did women want the right to vote and how did they secure that right?

Essential Questions:

• How did America’s role in the world change between the 1870s and 1910s?

• Did the United States become an imperial power? Why or why not?

• How did America change because of World War I?

Essential Questions:

• Why were the 1920s filled with political, social, and economic extremes?

• How did culture change in the 1920s?

• Were the 1920s a “return to normalcy?” Why or why not?

Essential Questions:

• Why was there a Great Depression?

• How did the New Deal attempt to remedy the problems from the Great Depression?

• How did ordinary people respond to the Great Depression?

Essential Questions:

• Why did Americans resist joining World War II before the bombing at Pearl Harbor?

• How did the American government change because of World War II?

• How was the war mobilized and fought differently in the Atlantic versus the Pacific?

• How did America win the war in the Pacific?

• How did World War II serve to advance movements for equity at home and abroad?

Essential Questions:

• What was containment? How was it employed?

• How did American foreign policy shift after World War II?

• Why was the period between 1946-1990 known as the Cold War?

• How did anti-communism drive foreign policy?

• How was the Cold War fought domestically? 

• How did the government work to combat the perceived threat of Communism domestically?

• How were American politics shaped by the Cold War? 

• How did the Cold War affect ordinary Americans?

Essential Questions:

• Why was there a Civil Rights Movement?

• What does “equal rights” mean?

• What were the goals and strategies of the Civil Rights Movement?

• How was the government involved in the Civil Rights Movement?

• How did various movements for equality build upon one another?

• Did the Civil Rights Movement succeed?

• How was the war in Vietnam similar to and different from other Cold War struggles?

• How did the war in Vietnam affect movements for equality at home?

Essential Questions:

• How has the role of the federal government (and especially the presidency) changed from the 1970s through more recent times?

• How did the Cold War end and what foreign policy developments resulted?

• What does globalization mean and how has it affected the United States?

• Why is the United States more diverse now than it was in the middle of the 20th century?

• In what ways have issues such as education, civil rights for people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ+ Americans, disabled Americans, economic policy, recognition of economic, social and cultural rights, the environment, and the status of women remain unchanged over time? In what ways have they changed?