US II R and S

This class will explore US history beginning with the Industrial boom of the late 1800s.  America would rise from the ashes of The Civil War and become an industrial power house and eventually the only Super Power in the world.  This journey was not an easy one and still has its struggles today.  

The United States enters the 20th century as an up and coming force in the world, but by the end of WWII the industrial might of a capitalistic society had transformed the US into the strongest country on Earth.  However, this great strength would also cause great struggles throughout the world as we engaged in a Cold War with the USSR.  At home the struggles were just as great as they were abroad.  Racism and Jim Crow held steady in the south.  What is romanticized as a peaceful time, the 1950s sparked a Civil Rights Movement in the US, and an Arms Race with the Soviet Union.  Also in the 50s a small French garrison at Dien Bien Phu was attacked in Vietnam, a country that few Americans had ever heard of at this point.  The war that would follow led to unrest, an unpopular war, and a counter culture movement.  

We will explore all of this and look at how the events of the last hundred years also led to tension throughout the world, specifically the middle east.   This tension would bubble over on a crisp September morning in 2001 and lead America into it's longest war.  A war we are still fighting today and a war that has been in the background your entire life.  

Many of you have questions about the world you live in.  The best way to answer them is to understand the past.