As students study the conquest beyond U.S. borders, described by U.S. presidents as a project to “carry liberty and justice and the principles of humanity,” they will compare this rhetoric with the realities of the extent that liberty and justice were experienced by diverse Americans as well as (dis)Abled peoples when analyzing the nation’s immigration policy, limitations, American Open Door policy, and conquest into the South Pacific and Caribbean following the Spanish-American and Philippine-American wars. Students should also analyze America’s engineering of the Panama Revolution, as president Roosevelt’s “big stick” policy justified America extending its power and racial destiny in the world, and his policy on eugenics. 

Students will embark on a study of the impact of the “Great War,”  WWI at home. Students should read closely Wilson’s “Fourteen Points” speech of 1918 and determine the extent to which his speech was applicable domestically, especially in terms of women’s suffrage and civil rights. Students can study the impact of the Espionage and Seditions Acts on civil liberties at home, and the segregated units of African Americans who served in the military. 

The 1920’s

They will examine the “Great Migration” to industrial centers that followed upon their return home and how this led to the Harlem Renaissance. Students will also examine the growing freedoms and  pressures women faced with the passage of the 19th Amendment and the way that speakeasies challenging Prohibition led to an underworld of tolerance for diversity, including for LGBT people, and a shift in marriage values and partners in marriage placing a higher value on companionship. LGBT life expanded in 1920s Harlem and rules about acceptable gender behavior became more flexible for black and white Americans at drag balls, rent parties, and speakeasies. Students can examine lyrics to musicians of this era.  Students will also explore how reactions to the social and cultural openness of the 1920s led to increased violence and intimidation activities from Ku Klux Klan, which launched anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, anti-communities of color, and anti-LGBT, including the Red Scare. Additionally, students will analyze the immigration debates of the 1920s and study court cases such as United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind (1923) which ruled that naturalization could be restricted based on race. In addition, students should study how Congress placed restrictions on immigration such as nationality quotas in 1924, as a result of eugenics philosophy. Students will recognize how fear of communism and anarchism drove movements like the Palmer Raids, the “Red Scare,” the Sacco-Vanzetti case, and the resulting restrictions on privacy and expression. Students can read about decisions of Justices Louis Brandeis and Oliver Wendell Holmes in Schenck v. U.S. (1919) and Whitney v. California (1927) to understand the tension between rights of individuals and the power of government. 

Article: In Defense of Empire

Students will complete “Lessons in Looking: Imperialism Cartoons” and then create a political cartoon about one of five key historical understandings of the Philippine-American War from HERB: Resources for Teachers. American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning, “Lessons in Looking: Imperialism Cartoons,” https://herb.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/1774. Afterwards, students will participate in a debate to this inquiry question as though they were living during this time: “Should the U.S. Annex the Philippines?”

Resource: Facing History and Ourselves' Crimes Against Humanity and Civilization: The Genocide of the Armenians

1. Read silently the two poems by Diana der Hovannisian and highlight what stands out

   • "Two Voices" pg. 7

   • "Diaspora" pg. 10

2. Choral Reading - teacher reads and students join when a line they highlighted is read

3. Human Barometer Teaching Strategy: Where do you stand from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree? Let students share, shift, and then introduce a slight prompt change.

   • The international community has a moral duty to intervene when human rights are being violated. 

   • The United States has a moral duty to intervene when human rights are being violated.

   • The United States has a duty to militarily intervene when human rights are being violated.

4. Discuss or write about what shifted your opinion/placement.

Resource: Facing History and Ourselves' Crimes Against Humanity and Civilization: The Genocide of the Armenians

Categorize New York Times headlines (cut this document in to strips)

• • 1. Look at Headlines from New York Times

    2. Categorize in whichever way you choose

    3. What picture to these give of the genocide?

    4. What strikes you as new or intersting?

    5. What question does it raise?

    6. Given the patterns you see in the headlines, what seems to influence American care/engagement?

Was this a "hidden genocide"?

Essential Questions:

• When and why does one nation intervene in the events of another country?

• How do domestic factors influence American participation abroad?

The American Ambassador in Constantinople Armenian Relief

• "A Document and a Photograph"