Unit 9 America in World War II (2 weeks)
Big Picture Questions:
To what extent did the United States adopt an isolationist foreign policy in the 1920s and
1930s? How did this eventually lead to the outbreak of WWII in Europe?
Isolationism
Washington Naval Conference
Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact
Rise of Dictatorships
Russian Revolution of 1917
Joseph Stalin
German National Socialists (Nazis)
Benito Mussolini
Fascism
Adolf Hitler
League of Nations
Collective Security
Sudetenland
Munich Conference
Appeasement
German Invasion of Poland
Blitzkrieg
In what ways did the United States and Roosevelt try to maintain America’s neutrality? How
sincere was that neutrality?
Neutrality Acts
Cash and carry
Quarantine Speech
Flying Tigers
Lend-Lease Act
Four Freedoms
Winston Churchill
Atlantic Charter
What finally led the United States to enter WWII?
Increasing United States-Japanese Tensions
December 7, 1941
Pearl Harbor
Day of Infamy Speech
To what extent did World War II change the U.S. economic system and society?
Home Front
War Bonds
Volunteerism
Rationing
Ration coupons
Victory Gardens
Office of War Information
Women in the Workforce
WACS
Rosie the Riveter
African Americans
Tuskegee Airmen
Native Americans
Mexican Americans
Japanese American Internment
Executive Order 9066
Korematsu v. U.S.
How did the United States and its allies achieve victory in Europe during WWII?
Axis powers
Allied Powers
George Patton
D-Day
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Normandy
Omar Bradley
Battle of the Bulge
Vernon Baker
The Holocaust
Genocide
Final Solution
Liberation of the Concentration Camps
How did the United States and its allies achieve victory in Asia and the Pacific during WWII?
Bataan Death March 1942
Island hopping
Navajo code talkers
Battle of Midway
Chester Nimitz
Douglas McArthur
George C. Marshall
Decision to use the atomic bomb
Albert Einstein
Harry Truman
Atomic bomb
Hiroshima
Nagasaki
What is the legacy of WWII?
Radar
Sonar
Cryptic code breaking
Proximity fuse
Antibiotics
Jet and rocket engines
WWII statistics (U.S. deaths, worldwide deaths, wounded etc.)
The Nuremberg Trials 1945-46
“Denazification”
Division of Germany
Occupation of Japan
Instructional Focus: This unit starts off discussing how America’s return to isolationism and the rise of
dictatorships during the Great Depression led to the start of WWII in Europe. The unit also discusses
appeasement attempts and their failure; this would be a great opportunity to pull in some of Dr. Seuss’s
political cartoons. The unit then goes on to discuss America’s attempts at neutrality and why we were
finally forced into going to war. This provides an opportunity for students to listen and analyze FDR’s Day
of Infamy speech. Changes in America on the home front will then take center stage and there are great
propaganda posters that can be analyzed and students should be exposed to some of these primary
sources as they are often used on state testing. We then focus on how the war was won in both Europe
and Asia. Special attention should be given to the decision to use the atomic bomb and the moral
dilemma facing the United States and Harry Truman and this topic would make a great writing assignment
providing the students the opportunity to support a position on a social studies issue. WWII had a lasting
legacy and care should be taken that students understand these.
Lil’ Hitler clip Chicken Robot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-axJTzj0VU
Suggested Resources:
Dr. Seuss political cartoons: http://bank.imgdumpr.com/index.php/random/real-political-cartoons-by-drseuss-during-wwii-30-pics/
National Geographic video comparing/contrasting the movie “Pearl Harbor” with actual events.
FDR: Audio and text of Day of Infamy speech
Documentary of Tuskegee Airmen
Documentary of Navajo Codebreakers