AP U.S. History
Mr. Dean
Overview- This course will provide students with the skills necessary to evaluate and think
critically about the issues and problems of U.S. History. Students will learn to assess a variety of
information and interpret the information. Students are expected to use critical thinking skills to
analyze the historical information presented. The course will be presented in thematic and
chronological formats. Students are expected to take notes and participate in classroom
discussion.
Textbook- Kennedy, David M., Lizabeth Cohen and Thomas Bailey. The American Pageant. 13th
ed. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2006
There will also be various primary source documents and essays that will be distributed
throughout the year
Course Outline- the course is divided into twelve units
1. Colonial History
2. Revolution and Independence
3. The Early Republic
4. The Spread of Democracy
5. Slavery and Sectionalism
6. Civil War and Reconstruction
7. The Gilded Age and the Growth of Industry
8. Imperialism and Progressivism
9. World War One and the 1920’s
10. The Great Depression , New Deal and War
11. Postwar America and the Cold War
12. America Since the 1970’s
Classwork
There will be frequent DBQ’s and FRQ’s for each unit. There will also be questions for each
chapter that students will be randomly assigned to answer in class. All students should have
answers ready and be prepared for discussion on the topics
Chapter quizzes will be given before we begin a new topic; students are expected to read the
chapter before they come to class
At the end of each unit there will be a unit test that will consist of essays and multiple choice
questions
Students need to take notes, at the very minimum the chapter questions need to be answered
thoroughly and completely to be prepared for in class exams and the AP Exam in May
All students will be required to keep a notebook to keep handouts, outlines, past work, maps,
chapter questions, etc.
I keep my notes online- lisaacademy.org/Matthew.Dean
The themes covered in this class as determined by AP board
American Diversity- diversity of different groups, roles and relationships in American
society
American Identity- national character and American exceptionalism, regional
differences
Culture- cultural conflict and expression in American history
Demographic Change- economic, cultural and political effects of demographic change
Economic Transformations- changes in trade, commerce and labor through time
Environment- ideas about conservation, effects of environmental change across time
Globalization- engagement with the world from the 1500’s to the present
Politics and Citizenship- political traditions, growth and spread of democracy,
citizenship struggles for various groups
Reform- anti-slavery, education, temperance, women’s rights, civil rights
Religion- variety of religions, influence on politics and society
Slavery and its legacy in the United States- economics of slavery, long term effects on
society
War and Diplomacy- armed conflict, effects on diplomacy and society
Unit 1: Beginnings
Chapter 1 – New World Beginnings
Chapter 2 – The Planting of English America
Chapter 3 – Settling the Northern Colonies
Chapter 4 – American Life in the Seventeenth Century
Timeframe
2 ½ weeks
Key Objectives
 Determine the factors that contributed to the shaping of North America including geographic
factors.
 Trace the first people of the Americas.
 Discuss the role of Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Exchange that followed.
 Evaluate the spread of Spanish America.
 Compare and contrast the origins and objectives of England’s first settlements in the New World.
 Discuss the challenges that settlers faced at Jamestown.
 Describe the cultural clash between settlers and Indians in the English colonies.
 Trace the founding of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia.
 Trace the roots of Puritanism from the Protestant Reformation.
 Evaluate the Plymouth landing by the Pilgrims.
 Trace the establishment of Rhode Island.
 Identify and detail the challenges and success of non-English settlements in the northern colonies.
 Understand the unique colony of Pennsylvania under William Penn.
 Determine the importance of tobacco to the survival of the economy of Virginia and in other areas.
 Discuss the history of slavery and how it came to America its growth in the colonies over time.
 Compare and contrast the societies and family life of the different colonies
Documents (sample of those used)
Cahokia (painting)
Indians of New Netherlands Account for creation
Mayflower Passenger List
English Trade with Indians
Settlement Map 1650-1770
John Winthrop: A Model of Christian Charity
Growth of New England, 1620-1750 (map)
Immigrant Groups in Colonial America, 1760 (map)
Triangular Trade (map)
Indentured Servitude of the Chesapeake
DBQ
1993 College Board Exam Document Based Question
Question: Although New England and the Chesapeake region were both settled largely by people of
English origin, by 1700 the region had evolved into two different societies. Why did this difference in
development occur?
Assessment
Multiple Choice & Free Response Essay
Unit 2: Revolution
Chapter 5 – Colonial Society on the Eve of Revolution
Chapter 6 – The Duel for North America
Chapter 7 – The Road to Revolution
Chapter 8 – America Secedes from the Empire
Timeframe
3 weeks
Key Objectives
 Understand the emergence of a recognizable “American” way of life.
 Describe the structure of colonial society.
 Explain how the colonial economy expanded to meet the needs of this rapidly growing population.
 Determine the changes that occurred with the Great Awakening.
 Describe the continuing differences in the daily lives of colonists.
 Evaluate the strength and spreading of France in North America.
 Analyze the colonial attitudes toward England and toward other colonies before the Great War for
empire.
 Identify the causes of the Great War for empire, and the reasons for the French defeat.
 Trace the effects of the war on the American colonists and on the status of the colonies within the
British empire.
 Understand the merits and menace of mercantilism.
 Explain the importance of the series of crises from the Sugar Act through the Coercive Acts, and
how each crisis changed colonial attitudes toward the mother country.
 Understand how the attitudes of Americans changed toward Parliament, the English constitution,
and the king.
 Examine Lexington and Concord – who fired the first shot, and does it really matter?
 Determine how the events in the colonies led the colonists to revolution.
 Trace the early battles and outcomes of the American Revolution.
 Discuss the ideas of Thomas Paine and “Common Sense.”
 Evaluate the reasons why the colonists were divided as patriots and loyalists.
 Describe how the thirteen American colonies were able to win their independence from one of the
most powerful nations on earth.
Documents (sample of those used)
Timeline, 1651 – 1775
North America, 1763 (map)
Land Division in New Orleans (map)
Virginia Gentleman Weighs “a Frail Woman’s” Class
Charleston, SC Sons of Liberty
The Sons of Liberty Resolution British and Colonial Soldiers (political cartoon)
Declaration of Independence
Paul Revere’s Ride (poem)
Non-Indian Population of North America, 1700-1780 (graph)
Common Sense
Colonial Loyalty (political cartoon)
Join, or Die (political cartoon)
Petition to Massachusetts General Court, 1777
DBQ
American Revolution (John Braithwaite)
Question: To what extent was the American Revolution a political movement, social movement,
military/diplomatic movement, or an economic movement? To what extent did democracy and
republicanism triumph over both anarchy and totalitarianism?
Assessment
Multiple Choice & Free Response Essay
Unit 3: Learning Independence
Chapter 9 – The Confederation and the Constitution
Chapter 10 – Launching the New Ship of State
Chapter 11 – The Triumphs and Travails of the Jeffersonian Republic
Chapter 12 – The Second War for Independence and the Upsurge of Nationalism
Timeframe
3 weeks
Key Objectives
 Critique how Americans attempted to apply Revolutionary ideology to the building of the nation and
to the remaking of society.
 Trace how the states created constitutions and the development of a confederation among the
states.
 Describe how and why the Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation.
 Examine the continued economic hardship of the colonies.
 Evaluate the problems of the young republic of the United States.
 Critique the differences between Hamilton and Jefferson.
 Describe the first presidency and the tone it set for the United States.
 Describe the leadership and presidency of Thomas Jefferson.
 Determine how and why the Louisiana Purchase was able to happen between France and the
United States.
 Identify how American ambitions came into conflict with British policies and led to the War of 1812.
 Summarize how the Americans were able to “win” the War of 1812, and the peace that followed.
 Understand how postwar expansion shaped the nation during the “era of good feelings.”
 Describe how sectionalism and nationalism could exist at the same time and in the same country.
 Evaluate how the differing views of what the nation should become led to the rise of America’s first
political parties.
 Examine the Monroe Doctrine.
Documents (sample of those used)
Washington’s Farewell Address
Preamble
Timeline, 1800-1817
Letter from Dolley Madison, 1814
Lewis & Clark: A Scientific Interest
Lewis & Clark: A Modern View (illustration)
Louisiana Purchase Map
The Battle of New Orleans (song)
The Star Spangled Banner
A New England Farm Family’s Reasons for Moving to a Mill Town, 1843
Principal Canals, 1840 (map
Population and Immigration, 1820-1860
DBQ
Hamilton versus Jefferson (John Braithwaite)
During the Revolutionary-Federalist Era, politics, parties, programs, policies, and people made an enormous
difference in how the new nation should be structured and run. Examine the documents and then assess
the importance of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson during the period 1775-1810 in the
establishment of the new nation? Whose interpretation of the Constitution prevailed?
Assessment
Multiple Choice & Free Response Essay
Assignments/Activities/FRQs
1. era. Demonstrate how the transportation system affected the development of the economy.
2. FRQ: Identify the beginnings of technology and innovation in American industry and in the
transportation system during the Jefferson era. Demonstrate how the transportation system
affected the development of the economy.
3. FRQ: Compare and contrast the economic development of the 1820s in the Old Northwest, the
Southwest, and the Far West.
Unit 4: Democracy, Economics, & Culture
Chapter 13 – The Rise of a Mass Democracy
Chapter 14 – Forging the National Economy
Chapter 15 – The Ferment of Reform and Culture
Timeframe
2 weeks
Key Objectives
 Outline how the “era of good feelings” came to an end and a new two-party system emerged.
 Evaluate the presidency of John Quincy Adams.
 Describe the election of Andrew Jackson and his use of the spoils system.
 Discuss the Trail of Tears and banking woes under Jackson.
 Characterize the ruse of the Whig Party as an alternative to Andrew Jackson and the Democrats.
 Describe the emergence of the two-party system in the United States.
 Examine how the American population changed between 1820 and 1840, and the effect this had
on the nation’s economic, social, and political systems.
 Describe how the dramatic economic growth of the 1820s and the 1830s was accomplished.
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Discuss the role of women in the economy.
Trace the advances in agriculture and industrialization that caused the economic growth.
Examine the religious changes with the Second Great Awakening.
Trace the reforms happening through the temperance movement, school reform, and the women’s
movement.
Documents (sample of those used)
Trail of Tears (map)
Veto of the Bank of the United States
Removal of the Eastern Indians
Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin (animation)
Domestic Economy
DBQ
Nationalism and Sectionalism (John Braithwaite)
Question: In the period from 1815 to 1858, two giant historical forces – ostensibly in opposition to each
other – prevailed simultaneously in America. Identify the two forces and discuss the geographic, political,
constitutional, economic, and diplomatic contrasts of both forces.
Assessment
Multiple Choice & Free Response Essay
Assignments/Activities/FRQs
1. FRQ: Compare and contrast the First Great Awakening with the Second Great Awakening.
2. FRQ: Describe Andrew Jackson’s ware with the Second Bank of the United States.
3. FRQ: Describe how the family changed between 1820 and 1860 in Northern cities. Explain how
that change affected the status of women.
Unit 5: Manifest Destiny & Unity Struggles
Chapter 16 – The South and the Slavery Controversy
Chapter 17 – Manifest Destiny and Its Legacy
Chapter 18 – Renewing the Sectional Struggle
Chapter 19 – Drifting Toward Disunion
Timeframe
2 ½ weeks
Key Objectives
 Examine the use and controversy of slavery in the South.
 Examine how free blacks were treated like slaves only without a master.
 Describe the life on a plantation for the slave and the owning family.
 Identify key players and tactics of the early abolitionist movement and the Southern response.
 Examine the presidency of John Tyler.
 Describe the idea of Manifest Destiny and how it influenced America and Americans during the
period.
 Critique the developments with Texas and Oregon during this period.
 Describe how the question of the expansion of slavery deepened divisions between the North and
the South.
 Explain how the issue of slavery reshaped the American political party system.
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Examine the use of railroads across the country with westward expansion and settlement.
Discuss the impact of writings such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Identify the political arguments and clashes that occurred as a result of the political tension
surrounding slavery.
Examine the Dred Scott decision and its implication.
Analyze the Lincoln and Douglas debates.
Trace how the South came to attempt secession, and explain how the government of the United
States responded.
Documents (sample of those used)
North Carolina Law, 1831 – prohibition of teaching slaves to read and write
Declaration of Sentiments, Douglass
“What to a Slave is the Fourth of July” Douglass
Rules for Husbands and Wives
Early Evidence of Sexual Tensions within Slavery
Manifest Destiny
Election of 1860 (map)
Declaration of Immediate Causes – South Carolina, 1852
Republican National Platform, 1860
The Caning of Charles Sumner (political cartoon)
Lincoln-Douglas Debates, 1858
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Compromise of 1850 (map)
Harpers Ferry Arsenal (picture)
DBQ
Slavery in America (John Braithwaite)
Question: What were the economic, social, and political motives for the creation and maintenance of
slavery in America? Discuss these issues at some significant length and be sure to touch upon all facets of
slavery: racial, gender, and child slavery.
Assessment
Multiple Choice & Free Response Essay
Assignments/Activities/FRQ
1. FRQ: Compare and contrast the history of Texas between 1820 and 1845 with the history of
Oregon in the same period.
2. FRQ: Discuss the implications of the Dred Scott decision in its historical reference.
Unit 6: Civil War & Reconstruction
Chapter 20 – Girding for War: The North and the South
Chapter 21 – The Furnace of Civil War
Chapter 22 – The Ordeal of Reconstruction
Timeframe
3 weeks
Key Objectives
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Analyze how both sides mobilized for war, and what that mobilization revealed about the nature
and character of each side.
Discuss the economic impact of the war on both the North and the South.
Examine the pivotal points of the Civil War for each side.
Evaluate the words of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address.
Understand how the North won the Civil War.
Critique Radical Reconstruction and how it changed the South but fell short of the full
transformation needed to secure equality the freedmen.
Understand that white society and the federal government lacked the will to enforce effectively
most of the constitutional and legal guarantees acquired by blacks during Reconstruction.
Explain how white leaders reestablished economic and political control of the South and sought to
modernize the region through industrialization.
Examine the race question and how it continued to dominate the South.
Analyze the Johnson presidency’s success and failures.
Documents (sample of those used)
Black Potential and the Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin
South Carolina Defines the Causes of Secession
Confederate Dead at Gettysburg (photograph)
Letter to New York Tribute by Lincoln, 1862
A House Divided Speech, Lincoln
Letter from Lincoln, 1861
Letter to a Grieving Mother, Lincoln, 1864
Gettysburg Address
Military Districts, 1867 (map)
Civil War (map)
Grant the Trapeze Artist (political cartoon)
DBQ
Urbanization and Immigration (John Braithwaite)
Question: Two major problems of the Gilded Age were urbanization and immigration. Assess the
economic, social, cultural, and political impact of these two major issues from 1875-1920.
Assessment
Multiple Choice & Free Response Essay
Assignments/Activities/FRQ
1. FRQ: Discuss the diplomatic efforts of the Union and the Confederacy during the Civil War.
2. FRQ: Discuss the various causes of the Civil War and determine if the Civil War was inevitable.
3. FRQ: Discuss the economic and social conditions of blacks in the South during Reconstruction.
Include the topics of education, farming, income, and family life.
Unit 7: Times of Great Change
Chapter 23 – Political Paralysis in the Gilded Age
Chapter 24 – Industry Comes of Age
Chapter 25 – America Moves to the City
Chapter 26 – The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution
Chapter 27 – Empire and Expansion
Timeframe
4 weeks
Key Objectives
 Discuss the liberal republican revolt of 1872.
 Evaluate the economic woes of the 1870s and the solutions offered by Grant.
 Examine the emergence of Jim Crow after the end of Reconstruction in the South.
 Detail the presidencies of Grover Cleveland.
 Examine how the growth of railroads worked to bind the country together as a whole and railroad
reforms.
 Understand how mechanization changed the industrial world in America.
 Analyze the roles and industries of Carnegie, Morgan, and Rockefeller.
 Determine who the robber barons were and what was perceived of them.
 Detail the characteristics of the South through industry changes.
 Summarize the impact of the new industrial revolution in all of America.
 Examine the growth of labor unions in various sectors.
 Discuss how the social and economic lure of the city attracted foreign and domestic migrants, and
how these newcomers adjusted to urban life.
 Identify how rapid urban growth forced adaptations to server problems of government
mismanagement, poverty, crime, inadequate housing, and precarious health and safety conditions.
 Examine new immigrations restrictions imposed during this time.
 Explain how the urban environment served as the focus for new philosophical ideas, expanded
leisure opportunities, fresh approaches to education, rapid expansion in journalism, and a new
consumerism.
 Understand how the new order of “high” urban culture inspired both serious writers and artists to
render realistic portrayals of the seamy side of city life, while many middle-and upper-class
Americans were engaging in expanded forms of leisure and entertainment.
 Compare and contrast the varied and vibrant ethnic and racial cultures that characterized the
American West and how Anglo-European whites enforced their dominant role by the later part of
the nineteenth century.
 Analyze the transformation of the Far West from a sparsely populated region of Indians and
various early settlers of European and Asian background into a part of the nation’s capitalistic
economy.
 Understand the closing of the frontier as Indian resistance was eliminated, minors and cowboys
spearheaded settlements, and government-subsidized railroads opened the area of intensive
development.
 Explain the development of mining, ranching, and commercial farming as the three major industries
of the West.
 List the problems faced by farmers as the agricultural sector entered a relative decline.
 Discuss the expansion of America.
 Examine the Spanish-American War and the outcome of the invasion of Cuba.
 Discuss policies regarding Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and China.
 Discuss the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.
Documents (sample of those used)
Louisiana Black Code
Southern Skepticism of the Freedmen’s Bureau
Political Symbols (illustration)
Chinese in San Francisco
Strike of 1877
Montana v. Rehberg
Election of 1896 (map)
De Lome Letter
USS Maine exploding (painting)
Tuskegee normal and Industrial Institute (pamphlet)
Letter from the Sandwich Islands – Twain
Pacific Expansion (map)
William Jennings Bryan Campaign Poster, 1900
“Cross of Gold” (speech)
The US Annexes Hawaii – US Congress
The Souls of Black Folk, 1903, W.E.B. du Bois
An Anti-Imperialist League Perspective, 1899
Atlanta Exposition Address, 1895, Booker T. Washington
DBQ
Progressivism (John Braithwaite)
Question: To what extent was the Progressive era (1870-1920) a unified movement of reform and change
in American Society? How effectively did progressivism manifest itself in national politics on the federal
level of government?
Assessment
Multiple Choice & Free Response Essay
Assignments/Activities/FRQs
1. FRQ: Examine and analyze the myth of the West in the late 1800s.
2. FRQ: Describe some of the major industries that developed after the Civil War. Identify the
technological innovations or inventions that made these industries possible.
3. FRQ: Describe, in detail, the arguments on both sides of the silver question.
4. FRQ: Analyze the level of imperialism of the United States and its impact on relationships with
other places of the world.
Unit 8: Progressivism, War, and “Roar”
Chapter 28 – Progressivism and the Republican Roosevelt
Chapter 29 – Wilsonian Progressivism at Home and Abroad
Chapter 30 – The War to End War
Chapter 31 – American Life in the “Roaring Twenties”
Timeframe
3 weeks
Key Objectives
 Identify the roots f progressivism in the early 1900s.
 Sort through the muck of the muckrakers.
 Understand how Roosevelt’s leadership helped fashion a new, expanded role for the national
government.
 Explain that politics during the administration of William Howard Taft showed that most of the
nation desired a more progressive approach.
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Summarize how the administration of Woodrow Wilson embodied both conservative and
progressive features.
Explain how the United States was eventually drawn into full participation in World War I.
Understand that the American intervention on land and sea provided the balance of victory for the
beleaguered Allied forces.
Describe how the Wilson administration financed the war, managed the economy, and encouraged
public support for the war effort.
Understand that Wilson tried to apply his lofty war aims to the realities of world politics and that he
substantially failed.
Characterize the American war effort as having a profound economic, social, and racial
significance.
Explain how the automobile boom and new technology led to the economic expansion of the
1920s.
Understand that most workers and farmers failed to share equitably in the decade’s prosperity.
Describe how a nationwide consumer-oriented culture began to shape society and how the “new
woman” emerged.
Describe how the changing society disenchanted some artists and intellectuals and led to broad
cultural conflict over ethnic and religious concerns.
Documents (sample of those used)
The Jungle
How the Other Half Lives
10 Calvary – African American soldiers in Cuba
Election of 1912 (map)
Voting Rights for Women (map)
Progressive Era (timeline)
Colored Women’s League of Washington (picture)
National Parks and Forests (map)
“Woman Suffrage” – Susan B. Anthony
“Are Women People?”, 1915, Alice Miller
Zimmermann Telegram
Steps to WWI (timeline)
Letter to Dante, Bartolomeo Vanzetti, 1927
Fourteen Points
The Western Front, 1918 (map)
Spies and Espionage (political cartoon)
DBQ
The Jazz Age (John Braithwaite)
Question: To what extent did the United States exemplify a decade of confidence, individualism,
disillusionment, alienation, cultural creativity, and diversity from 1919 to 1929?
Assessment
Multiple Choice & Free Response Essay
Assignments/Activities/FRQs
1. FRQ: Compare and contrast three of the groups that articulated the progressive spirit: the
muckrakers, the Social Gospel adherents, and the advocates of the Settlement House movement.
2. FRQ: Describe the effects on American society of the search for unity during World War I.
3. FRQ: Describe the artistic movements that occurred during the 1920s. Explain how these
movements differed from each other.
Unit 9: Depression, New Deal, and War
Chapter 32 – The Politics of Boom and Bust
Chapter 33 – The Great Depression and the New Deal
Chapter 34 – Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Shadow of War
Chapter 35 – America in World War II
Timeframe
3 weeks
Key Objectives
 Understand that Harding and Coolidge presided over pro-business administrations.
 Determine how weaknesses underlying the apparent prosperity of the 1920s led to the Great
Depression, and how the stock market crash touched it off.
 Understand that neither the efforts of local and private relief agencies nor the early volunteerism of
Herbert Hoover was able to halt the spiral of rising unemployment and declining production.
 Explain how the misery of those affected by the Great Depression swept FDR into the presidency.
 Analyze the New Deal programs and policies and examine their short and long term effectiveness.
 Understand that the New Deal helped give rise to a new role for the national government as a
“broker state” among various organized interests.
 Understand that in the 1920s, the US tried to increase its role in world affairs while avoiding
commitments.
 Explain how America turned increasingly toward isolationism and legislated neutrality.
 Describe how ware in Europe and Asia gradually drew the US closer to war, until the attack on
Pearl Harbor finally sparked American entry into World War II.
 Analyze how the war had a profound effect on the home front.
 Describe how three major western offensive combined with an ongoing Russian effort to defeat
Germany.
 Evaluate how sea power contained the Japanese, and how Allied forces moved steadily closer to
Japan and prepared for an invasion until the atomic bomb ended the war.
Documents (sample of those used)
African-American Migration, 1910-1950 (map)
Election of 193 (map)
Works Progress Administration Poster
Social Security Poster, 1935
Chamberlain, Mussolini, Hitler (picture)
Axis of Expansion 1935 – 1941 (map)
Hitler Takes Over the World (political cartoon)
Jewish Losses, 1939-1945 (map)
FDRs “Four Freedoms,” 1941
Pearl Harbor, 1941 (picture)
Hiroshima, 1945 (picture)
Soldiers Without Guns – US Army Poster
Surviving Nuclear War (poster)
DBQ
The Great Depression (John Braithwaite)
Question: Analyze and discuss the causes, course, and consequences of the depression of 1929 and how
it played itself out during the 1930s.
The New Deal (John Braithwaite)
Question: Was the “New Deal” of Franklin Roosevelt a conservative, a liberal, or a socialist program to deal
with the problems of depression and war? Consider with reference to at least FOUR of the following agencies:
NYA, CCC, TVA, SEC, AAA, FHA, NLRB, WPA, GI Bill, or Social Security Act in order to fulfill the constitutional
mandate of “…Providing for the General Welfare of the people”
Assessment
Multiple Choice & Free Response Essay
Assignments/Activities/FRQs
1. FRQ: Describe how major literary figures reacted to the Depression, and discuss how their works
reflected the problems of society.
2. FRQ: Compare and contrast the impact of World War II on minority groups within the United
States. Discuss specifically the impact on African Americans, Native Americans (Indians), Mexican
Americans, and women.
3. FRQ: Determine if the United States “allowed” the country to be attacked to be drawn into the war.
Unit 10: Cold & Uncomfortable
Chapter 36 – The Cold War Begins
Chapter 37 – The Eisenhower Era
Chapter 38 –The Stormy Sixties
Timeframe
2 weeks
Key Objectives
 Summarize the legacy of mistrust between the United States and the Soviet Union and how that,
combined with the events of World War II, caused the Cold War.
 Examine the policy of containment and analyze how it led to increasing US involvement in crises
around the world.
 Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the economy in the 1950s and early 1960s.
 Analyze the changes in the American lifestyle in the 1950s.
 Understand that while Eisenhower continued to allow containment by building alliances, supporting
anticommunist regimes, maintaining the arms race, and conducting limited interventions, he also
showed an awareness of American limitations and resisted temptations for greater commitment.
 Identify the reasons why the movement for African American civil rights became increasingly
assertive in the 1960s.
 Compare and contrast JFK’s New Frontier Program with LBJ’s Great Society.
 Understand how the United States became committed to defending the government in the southern
part of Vietnam and the reasons why United States involvement in Vietnam changed both
quantitatively and qualitatively in 1965.
 Explain the reasons why the 1968 Tet offensive had such a critical impact on both policy toward
Vietnam and American domestic politics.
 Analyze movements by youth, ethnic minorities, and women and how they challenged social
norms.
Documents (sample of those used)
Yalta Meeting (picture)
Dewy Defeats Truman (newspaper)
Uncle Sam and Great Britain (political cartoon)
“Containment” by George Kennan, 1946
We didn’t Start the Fire (lyrics)
Alabama Literacy Test, 1965
Election of 1960 (map)
JFK’s Inaugural Address
LBJ’s War on Poverty
Dwight D. Eisenhower’s “Domino Theory”, 1954
DBQ
2001 College Board Document Based Question
Question: What were the cold war fears of the American people in the aftermath of the second world war?
How successfully did the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower address these fears?
Assessment
Multiple Choice & Free Response Essay
Assignments/Activities/FRQ
1. FRQ: Discuss opposing historical views on the nature of McCarthyism in postwar America.
2. FRQ: Describe how and why suburbs developed. Explain some of the advantages and
disadvantages of living in those suburbs.
3. FRQ: Describe the methods that various ethnic minorities used in challenging America’s “melting
pot” idea of societal development during the 1960s.
Unit 11: Toward the Future
Chapter 39 – The Stalemated Seventies
Chapter 40 – The Resurgence of Conservatism
Chapter 41 – America Confronts the Post – Cold War Era
Chapter 42 – The American People Face a New Century
Timeframe
2 weeks
Key Objectives
 Explain that Nixon and Kissinger believed that stability in a “multipolar” world could be achieved
only by having the US force a new relationship with China and seek détente with the Soviet Union.
 Discuss the events of Watergate and the downfall of President Richard Nixon.
 Determine that Gerald Ford managed to restore confidence in the presidency but remained unable
to make significant breakthroughs in solving the nation’s international and economic problems.
 Understand that the difficult problems faced by Jimmy Carter combined with his leadership style
ensured that he would be a one-term president.
 Describe the nature of the “Reagan Revolution” and the meaning of “supply-side” economics.
 Evaluate the change in the Supreme Court to make a conservative court under Reagan.
 Describe the changing demography of America from 1970 to 1990.
 Describe the presidency of Bill Clinton as the first baby-boomer president.
 Discuss the scandal and impeachment of President Clinton and the American response.
 Trace the events of the controversial Bush-Gore election in 2000.
 Evaluate the events of September 11, 2001 and their result of the war on terror.
 Examine the economic and feminist revolution of the 2000s.
 Discuss the new immigration policies and the changing demographics of America.
Documents (sample of those used)
“Iran Seizure of the US Embassy,” Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing, 1981
Election of 1984 (map)
Earnings, Inequality, and Imports, 1986 (graph)
Election of 1992 (map)
Election of 2000 (map)
Crisis in the Middle East (map)
DBQ
Economic Woes for the latter 20th century (teacher made)
Question: Compare and contrast the different plans and their successes of the economic woes of the latter
20th century.
Assessment
Multiple Choice & Free Response Essay
Assignments/Activities/FRQs
1. FRQ: Compare détente with previous views with the Soviet Union and China, and examine its
success.
2. FRQ: Describe the development of the American Right in the 1970s and early 1980s. Carefully
distinguish between the different groups that were included under that label.