MODERN AMERICA: 1945-2008
FALL SEMESTER 2015
August 24th - 28th: A Letter to America
Day One: Introduction to the Course
HW: Review A letter to America
Day Two: Assign Letter to America Paper
Review Course documentation
HW: Review A letter to America
Day Three: Discuss chapters introduction through chapter 3
HW: Current crises in America paper
Day Four: Discuss Chapter 4 – Postscript
HW: Current crises in America paper
August 31 - September 4: Current Crises in America and The Roots of the Cold War
Day One: Peer Edit
HW: Final drafts are due – Brief paper presentations
Day Two: Final drafts are due – Brief paper presentations
HW: HW: World War Two and the Destruction if the Old Order (HOT 5-12)
A collection of primary voices Major Problem’s pgs. 297-306
Day Three: The Roots of the Cold War
HW: America 1209-1233
Day Four: The Truman Doctrine, military alliances and a divided Germany
HW: The Venona Project and Atomic Espionage (HOT 29-37)
McCarthy describes the internal communist menace, the federal loyalty program and ‘We all
won’t be dead’ (MP 306-310)
September 7-11: The Cold War heats up
Day One: Labor Day No School
Day Two: Another Red Scare
HW: Truman’s hard line vs. Stalin’s hard line (MP 312-329)
Prep for Debate
Day Three and Four: College Counseling Orientation
September 14 -18 – The Korean Conflict and Ike’s Presidency
Day One: No School Rosh Hashanah
Day Two: Debate: Who was responsible for the Cold War?
HW: Background on the Korean Conflict
Day Three: Korea – A foreign Policy debacle? Watch Chosen
HW: Our mistakes in Korea
Day Four: Finish Chosen and discuss
HW: America 1282-1299 Foreign Policy in the Eisenhower Years
September 21-25: Cultural Conformity in the 1950s
Day One: Discuss Ike’s Foreign Policy
Eisenhower’s Farewell Address (HOT 41-45)
HW: The Luckiest Generation (HOT 53-65) Primary Sources A Young American-Life magazine
(MP pgs. 332-337)
Day Two: The Cultural of Conformity and collusion A Collection of Primary Sources Major
Problems in American history pgs. (337-344)
HW: HW: Major Problems in American history – The New York Times Reports a Murder in
Georgia, African American Parents petition the Clarendon S.C. School Board, A south African
Novelists Examines the Plight of “The Negro in the North,” 1954 – pgs. 173-180
Day Three: Discuss the African American experience in the late 40s and 50s
HOT pgs: 93-102 Brown v. Board of Education and Declaration of Constitutional Principles: The
Southern Manifesto
Day Four: Discuss Brown v. Board and the Southern Manifesto
HW: “My Pilgrimage to Non-Violence” MLK
September 28th-October 2nd: The Civil Rights Movement
Day 1: Discuss the Montgomery Bus Boycott and King’s Non Violent Philosophy
HW: Vanity Fair - Through a Dark Lens
Day 2 Watch Eyes on the Prize episode 2
The Crisis at Little Rock High School
HW: America 1306-1314
Day 3: Discuss Sit-in Freedom Rides and MLK’S Dream Speech
(In-Class Reading Freedom Riders: Alabama Bound)
HW: King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail
Day 4: Discuss the Crisis in Birmingham
HW: Malcolm X the Ballot or the Bullet
October 5-9: the evolving Civil Rights Movement
Day One: Emergence of Black Radicalism and the Civil Rights Act of 1964
HW: HOT 103-120 (We Shall Overcome, 1965-What We Want)
Day Two: From Selma to Watts and the Voting Rights Act
HW: Two visions of the Civil Rights Movement View from the Trenches and The continuing
Racial Crisis
Day Three: View from the Trenches and The continuing Racial Crisis
HW: Two review questions shared before class
Day Four: History Review
HW: Study for the Midterm
October 12 -16: The promise and peril of JFK’s Administration
Day One: History Midterm
HW: JFK’s First Inaugural Address (HOT 73-76), Bill Moyers Remembers (MP 400-401)
Day Two: Discuss the hope and promise of JFK
HW: Spinning out of Control: Kennedy’s War Against Cuba and the Missile Crisis (Major
Problems: MP Since 45 pgs. 148-159
Day Three: The Cuban Missile Crisis
HW: HOT The Great Society, LBJ and American liberalism (Hot 77-92)
Day Four: College Visit Day
October 19-23: A Crisis is Southeast Asia
Assign Term Paper
HW: JFK’s Assassination and LBJ’s Great Society
HOT 133-140 - Major Problems 427-431
Day Two: Roots the Vietnam conflict and Americanization of the War
HW: (HOT 141-148) and MP 431-433
Day Three: LBJ and the realities of the War
HW: An Atrocity is uncovered
Day Four: American Experience - My Lai Massacre
HW: Free Calley Campaign
October 26-30: Vietnam
Day One: Finish My Lai Massacre and discuss the Anti-War Movement
HW: HOT 149-161 plus 182-187
Day Two: The Anti-War Movements
HW: 1381-1387 and Nixon’s Vietnamization Speech
Day Two: Nixon’s Vietnam
HW: HOT 162-169
Day Three: Two Visions of the War - McNamara v. Lind
HW: Paper Topic Proposals
November 2-6:
Day One: Paper Topic Proposal Meetings
HW: HOT 209- 225
Day Two: Discss the Women’s Liberation Movement
HW: HOT 230-241
Day Three: The ERA and Roe v. Wade
HW: Preliminary list of 10 sources
Day Four: Head’s Holiday
November 9-13 Watergate
Day One: Preliminary list of 10 sources (Librarians)
HW: America 1381-1398
Day Two: Nixon and Watergate
HW: HOT 273 – 282
Day Three: The Legacy of Watergate
HW: HOT 283-298
Day Four: Carter - A president under fire
HW: HOT 299-335
November 16-20: America’s Turn Right
Day One: America’s Turn to the right
HW: Annotated Bib
Day Two: The Election of 1980 - America 1410-1417 MP – 466 to 471
Watch Reagan’s Inaugural address
HW: Annotated Bib
Day Three: Reaganomics -101 HOT 336-345
Read America’s Second Declaration of independence
HW: Annotated Bib
Day Four: The Reagan Doctrine and Reshaping the World
Preliminary Annotate Bibs are due
HW: America 1435 – 1444 and MP 499
November 23 and 24: History Papers
Day One: The President HW Bush
HW: Operation Desert Storm
Day Two: Operation Desert Storm
HW: Final Annotated Bibs
Day Three-Four: Thanksgiving Break
November 30 – December 4: The Hope of the 1990s
Day One: Clinton vs. the Contract with America
The Contract with America (HOT pgs. 346-349)
HW: First Draft
Day Two: Clinton’s Foreign Policy (A Series of Foreign Crises)
HW: First Draft
Day Three: Watch the American Experience The Clinton’s
HW: First Draft
Day Four: Peer Edit
HW: Final Draft
December 7-11: Term Paper Presentations
Day One: Work on papers/presentations
HW: Final drafts and paper presentations
Day Two: Papers are due Paper Presentations
HW: Paper Presentation
Day Three: Paper Presentation
HW: Paper Presentation
Day Four: Paper Presentations
HW: The 2000 Presidential Election
December 15-19: The Election of 2000
Day One:
Another Constitutional Crisis and the election of 2000 (American Experience?)
HW:
Day Two: Reflection and course evaluation
HW: