8th Grade Social Studies

📚 8th Grade U.S. History Overview: Reconstruction to Present

📅 1. Reconstruction Era (1865–1877)

• End of Civil War and Assassination of Lincoln
  
  

• 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments (abolition of slavery, citizenship, voting rights)
  
  

• Freedmen's Bureau
  
  

• Black Codes and Jim Crow laws
  
  

• Reconstruction governments in the South
  
  

• Compromise of 1877 and the end of Reconstruction
  
  

🏭 2. Industrialization and the Gilded Age (1877–1900)

• Rise of big business (Carnegie, Rockefeller)
  
  

• Labor unions and strikes
  
  

• Immigration and urbanization
  
  

• Inventions (Edison, Bell)
  
  

• Robber barons vs. Captains of Industry
  
  

• Social problems (child labor, tenement housing)
  
  

🌎 3. Westward Expansion and Native American Policy

• Homestead Act
  
  

• Transcontinental Railroad
  
  

• Conflicts with Native Americans (Battle of Little Bighorn, Wounded Knee)
  
  

• Dawes Act
  
  

• Reservation system
  
  

🇺🇸 4. The Progressive Era (1890s–1920)

• Muckrakers (Upton Sinclair, Ida B. Wells)
  
  

• Reforms: workplace safety, child labor laws, women's suffrage (19th Amendment)
  
  

• Theodore Roosevelt and the Square Deal
  
  

• Conservation movement
  
  

⚔️ 5. Imperialism and World War I (1898–1918)

• Spanish-American War
  
  

• Annexation of Hawaii, Philippines
  
  

• U.S. involvement in WWI (1917)
  
  

• Treaty of Versailles and League of Nations
  
  

• Isolationism vs. Interventionism
  
  

🎉 6. The Roaring Twenties

• Economic boom
  
  

• Harlem Renaissance
  
  

• Prohibition and organized crime
  
  

• Women's rights (flappers, 19th Amendment)
  
  

• Stock Market speculation
  
  

📉 7. The Great Depression and New Deal (1929–1941)

• Stock Market Crash (1929)
  
  

• Dust Bowl
  
  

• Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR)
  
  

• New Deal programs (CCC, WPA, Social Security)
  
  

• Unemployment and poverty
  
  

🌍 8. World War II (1939–1945, U.S. entry 1941)

• Pearl Harbor
  
  

• Allied vs. Axis powers
  
  

• Homefront efforts, rationing, women in workforce
  
  

• Japanese internment camps
  
  

• D-Day and the Atomic Bomb
  
  

• Holocaust awareness
  
  

🌐 9. The Cold War Era (1945–1991)

• Communism vs. Democracy
  
  

• Korean War
  
  

• Vietnam War
  
  

• Cuban Missile Crisis
  
  

• Space Race
  
  

• Arms Race
  
  

• Fall of the Berlin Wall
  
  

👨🏾‍🦱 10. Civil Rights Movement (1950s–1970s)

• Brown v. Board of Education
  
  

• Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Parks
  
  

• Civil Rights Act of 1964
  
  

• Voting Rights Act of 1965
  
  

• Nonviolent protest vs. Black Power
  
  

🇺🇸 11. Modern U.S. History (1970s–Present)

• Watergate Scandal
  
  

• Reagan Era
  
  

• Persian Gulf War (1991)
  
  

• 9/11 and the War on Terror
  
  

• Barack Obama’s election (2008)
  
  

• Technology and social media boom
  
  
  

📝 Helpful Study Tips

• Create a timeline to organize major events.
  
  

• Use flashcards for key terms and people.
  
  

• Practice DBQs (Document-Based Questions
  
  

• Watch short documentaries or Crash Course videos to reinforce learning.