SYNTHESIS!
“Like in kind, but in a different time”
The rules: Once you see the initial topic, think of another
event that you could connect it to, the broad theme that
connects them, and be able to EXPLAIN the connection.
Expansion of US Territory and Power
• Connect the Louisiana Purchase to an
event/trend either before it or after
Manifest Destiny/War with Mexico
US Imperialism/Spanish-American
war
Increasing intervention/world power after WWII
Impact of Literature
Connect Uncle Tom’s Cabin to an event/trend
either before it or after
Common Sense
The Other America
How the Other Half Lives
Silent Spring
The Jungle
The Feminine Mystique
Clash Between the States and Federal
Government
Connect the Kentucky and Virginia
Resolutions to an event/trend either before it
or after
Fugitive Slave Law/Anthony Burns
SC nullification crisis
Current marijuana laws—ex. Colorado
Current backlash to gay marriage laws/court rulings
Internal Migration
• Connect the First Great Migration to an
event/trend either before it or after
Colonists moving past the Appalachians
Westward migration/Manifest Destiny
Second Great Migration
Relocation of Native Americans
to reservations
Internal movement during Great Depression/Okies
Sunbelt
Exodusters
Homestead Act
Expansion of Federal Power During
War
Connect the Espionage Act to an
event/trend either before it or after
Alien and Sedition Acts--Adams
Suspension of Habeas Corpus--Lincoln
Patriot Act--Bush
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution--LBJ
War Powers Act--Nixon
Executive Order 9066--FDR
Civil Rights
• Connect the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to an
event/trend either before it or after
Booker T. Washington/DuBois
Reconstruction—13th, 14th, 15th
amendments
Indiana’s Religious
Freedom Restoration Act
(2015)
Abolition movement—Garrison, The Liberator,
Frederick Douglass,
19th amendment (note the general connection
between civil rights and women’s rights)
Reform Movements
• Connect the Progressive Era to an event/trend
either before it or after
Antebellum Reform
Populists
Great Society
The New Frontier
The New Deal
Radical Reconstruction
Civil Rights Movement
Gay Liberation Movement
Women’s Liberation Movement
Radicalism in Labor Movements
• Connect the Haymarket Riot to an
event/trend either before it or after
Wagner Act
Reagan and Air Traffic Controllers
Red Scares
Palmer Raids
IWW
Sacco and Vanzetti
Emma Goldman
Federal Economic Policy
• Connect the Second National Bank/Bank War
to an event/trend either before it or after
Hamilton and First National Bank
JP Morgan
Nixon and the gold standard
Glass-Steagall Act/FDIC
Supply-side economics
Populism—bimetallism
TARP
Keynesian Economics
Federal Reserve Act
Immigration
• Connect the Chinese Exclusion Act to an
event/trend either before it or after
Gentlemen’s Agreement
National Origins Act
Old vs. New Immigrants
Know-Nothing Party
Hart-Cellar Act
Bracero Program
Current immigration issues—
illegal immigration,
DREAM Act
Rise in Asian and Latin
American immigrants post1965
Wartime Turning Points/Watershed
Battles
• Connect the Tet Offensive to an event/trend
either before it or after
Saratoga
Gettysburg
Midway
D-Day
Battle of New Orleans
(turning point in identity, nationalism)
Battle of Little Big Horn
Environmental Concerns
• Connect Teddy Roosevelt’s conservation
efforts to an event/trend either before it or
after
Sierra Club
Climate Change
CCC
Silent Spring
Decimation of the bison
EPA
Earth Day
Kyoto Protocol
Three Mile Island
TVA
Love Canal
Keystone Pipeline
Columbian Exchange
DDT/pesticides
Isolationism vs. Interventionism in US
Foreign Policy
• Connect the Nye Committee to an
event/trend either before it or after
Washington’s Farwell Address
Marshall Plan
UN
Embargo Act 1807
Quasi War
Conflict over the Treaty of Versailles/US does not join League of Nations
Monroe Doctrine
Roosevelt Corollary
NATO
Alfred Mahan
Truman Doctrine
Lend-Lease
Kissinger—Shuttle Diplomacy
Containment
Big Stick Policy
Bush Doctrine
Mexican-American War
Good Neighbor Policy
Kellogg-Briand Pact
54’40 or Fight
Korea and Vietnam
Women’s Roles and Rights
• Connect the Seneca Falls Convention to an
event/trend either before it or after
Republican Motherhood
ERA
Women’s Suffrage Movement—Susan B. Anthony,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton , Alice Paul
Roe v. Wade
19th Amendment
Women’s Liberation Movement
Abolition movement
15th Amendment
Gloria Steinam, Betty Friedan,
Phyllis Schlafly
Women’s role in temperance and other antebellum reforms
Rebellions
• Connect Bacon’s Rebellion to an event/trend
either before it or after
Whiskey Rebellion
Boston Tea Party
Shay’s Rebellion
Stono Rebellion
Bonus Army
Regulators
Paxton Boys
Sons of Liberty
Nat Turner’s Rebellion
Occupy Wall Street
Native Americans
• Connect the Dawes Severalty Act to an
event/trend either before it or after
Indian Removal Act
Trail of Tears
Reservation policy
Ft. Laramie Treaty
Pequot War
Sand Creek Massacre
King Phillips War
Little Big Horn
Wounded Knee
AIM
Worchester v. Georgia