American Studies II
Ms. Noyes
Course Outline
Essential Questions
I. Post Reconstruction
A. The Rise of Big Business
Essential Question: Has rapid industrial development been a blessing or a curse for
Americans?
Essential Question: Were business leaders “captains of industry” or Robber Barons”?
Essential Question: Does Trickle Down Economics work?
B. Immigration and the Organized Labor Movement
Essential Question: Has immigration been the key to America’s success?
Essential Question: Can workers attain economic justice without violence?
Essential Question: Should business be regulated by the government?
Essential Question: Should the United States limit immigration?
C. Impact on Native Americans
Essential Question: Can the “white man’s conquest” of the Native Americans be
justified?
Essential Question: Have Native Americans been treated fairly by the United
States’ government?
II. The Progressive Era
A. The Muckrakers and the Reform Movement
Essential Question: Is muckraking an effective tool to reform American politics and
society?
Essential Question: Can Reform Movements improve American Politics and Society?
B. Progressive Presidents
Essential Question: Does the government have the responsibility to help the needy?
Essential Question: Were the Progressives successful in making government more
responsive to the will of the people?
Essential Question: To what extent had African Americans attained the “American
Dream”?
III. American Imperialism
A. The Roots of Imperialism
Essential Question: Was American expansion overseas justified?
B. The Spanish American War
Essential Question: Did the Press cause the Spanish American War?
Essential Question: Was the United States justified in going to war against Spain in
1898?
C. Imperialism in East Asia
Essential Question: Does the need for self-defense give the U.S. the right to
interfere in the affairs of other countries?
Essential Question: Do you agree with Teddy Roosevelt that the United States
should be the world’s policeman?
Essential Question: Was the acquisition of the Panama Canal Zone an act of
justifiable imperialism?
Essential Question: Would you consider Teddy Roosevelt to be a “good” or “bad”
President?
IV. World War I
A. Causes of World War I
Essential Question: What impact did Imperialism have on creating the 1st World
War?
Essential Question: Could World War I have been avoided or was it inevitable?
B. The Home Front
Essential Question: Should the U.S. have entered World War I, or was it impossible
to remain neutral?
C. Wilson, War, and Peace
Essential Question: Was the Treaty of Versailles a fair and effective settlement for
lasting world peace?
Essential Question: Should the United States have approved the Treaty of
Versailles?
D. Effects of the War
Essential Question: Should a Democratic government tolerate dissent during times
of war and other crises?
V. The Roaring Twenties and The Great Depression
A. The Twenties
Essential Question: Was the decade of the 1920s a decade of innovation or
conservatism?
Essential Question: Did the Nineteenth Amendment radically change women’s roles in
America?
Essential Question: Has the women’s movement for equality in the United States
become a reality or remained a dream?
Essential Question: Should the United States have enacted Prohibition?
B. Causes of the Great Depression
Essential Question: Does economic prosperity result from tax cuts and minimal
Government intervention?
Essential Question: Was the Great Depression inevitable?
C. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal
Essential Question: Was the New Deal an effective response to the Great
Depression?
Essential Question: Did Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, weaken or save Capitalism?
Essential Question: Did the New Deal bring an end to the Depression and restore
prosperity to America?
Essential Question: Has America today abandoned the legacy of the New Deal?
VI. World War II
A. Rise of Totalitarian Governments
Essential Question: What conditions must exist in order for Dictators to rise?
Essential Question: How did the drafting of the Treaty of Versailles after World
War I cause World War II?
B. The Holocaust
Essential Question: Could the U.S. have done more to stop Hitler and possibly
prevent the Holocaust?
C. From Isolation to Involvement
Essential Question: Did U.S. foreign policy in the early 1900s contribute to World
War II?
Essential Question: Does American security at home depend on the survival of its
Allies?
Essential Question: Was war between Japan and the United States inevitable?
D. The Home Front during World War II
Essential Question: How important was the Home Front in the United States’ victory
in World War II?
Essential Question: Was the treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II
justified or an unfortunate setback for Democracy?
E. Effects of the War
Essential Question: Was Harry Truman justified in dropping the Atomic bomb on
Japan?
Essential Question: Should any country use Atomic (Nuclear) weapons to defeat its
enemies in a post World War II world?
VII. Post World War II America
A. America experiences an Economic Boom
Essential Question: Were the 1950s a period of great peace, progress, and
prosperity for Americans?
B. American Dissent and Discontent
Essential Question: Did minorities achieve the American Dream after World War II?
C. Civil Rights Movement
Essential Question: Did the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s expand democracy
for everyone?
Essential Question: Do you believe Martin Luther King’s non-violent approach was
effective?
Essential Question: Should Affirmative Action programs be used as a means to make
up for past injustices?
Essential Question: Do the inequalities of the 1960s still exist today?
VIII. The Cold War
A. The Cold War Begins
Essential Question: Was Containment an effective policy to thwart Communist
expansion?
Essential Question: Could the U.S. and U.S.S.R. have avoided the Cold War?
B. The Korean War
Essential Question: Should the U.S. have fought “limited wars” (Korean War) to
contain Communism?
C. The Cold War at Home
Essential Question: Should the United States have feared internal communist
subversion in the 1950s?
VIIII. The Cold War Expands
A. John F. Kennedy and the Cold War
Essential Question: Should President Kennedy have risked nuclear war to remove
missiles from Cuba?
Essential Question: Could the Cuban Missile Crisis been avoided?
Essential Question: Was J.F.K. a great president?
B. Lyndon Baines Johnson Administration
Essential Question: Did American Presidents have good reasons to fight a war in
Vietnam?
Essential Question: Should a president be able to wage war without congressional
authorization?
Essential Question: Did Johnson’s Great Society Program fulfill its promise?
C. America’s reaction to the Vietnam War
Essential Question: Did the war in Vietnam bring a domestic revolution to the United
States?
Essential Question: Was Lieutenant William Calley justified in the My Lai Massacre?
C. Richard Nixon Administration
Essential Question: Should Richard Nixon have resigned as President?
X. The Reagan Administration
A. Reaganomics
Essential Question: Did the economic policies of Ronald Reagan strengthen or weaken
the United States?
B. End to the Cold War
Essential Question: Was President Reagan responsible for the collapse of the Soviet
Union, bringing an end to the Cold War?
Essential Question: Did the United States win the Cold War?
Essential Question: Is the United States safer after the end of the Cold War?
XI. The Bush Administration
A. War on Terror
Essential Question: Are peace and stability in the Middle East vital to the United
States’ economy and national security?
Essential Question: Should it be the obligation of the United States to be the
world’s policeman?
Essential Question: Can global terrorism be stopped?
Essential Question: Was the United States justified to fight a war to remove
Saddam Hussein from power?
XII. Present-day America
A. Immigration
Essential Question: Does the United States have a fair and effective immigration
policy?
B. Racial Inequality
Essential Question: Has racial harmony and equality been achieved in the 21st
Century?
C. Foreign Affairs
Essential Question: Should the United States use force to enforce Democracy
throughout the world?
D. America at Home
Essential Question: Should stricter laws regulating firearms be enacted?
Essential Question: Is the death penalty a “cruel and unusual punishment”?
Essential Question: Should Lobbyists and Super Pacts be more strictly regulated?
Essential Question: Does the Media have too much influence over public opinion?
E. Economy
Essential Question: Can the United States maintain its unprecedented prosperity?
Essential Question: Should Americans be optimistic about our future?