Chapter 1.  Colonial Foundations

In this first chapter, students learn how the voyages of Christopher Columbus and other European explorers brought two worlds together—the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Then they learn how religious conflicts and the doctrine of mercantilism spurred Western European rulers to make claims to parts of North America and led Spain, France and the Netherlands to establish colonies there. Students next learn how England established its first colonies in North America and how New England, the Mid-Atlantic Colonies and the Southern Colonies differed.  Students explore the contributions of key groups to colonial life, the origins and characteristics of the Atlantic slave trade, how the colonies were governed, the impact of the British policy of Salutary Neglect, and the effects of the Great Awakening.

Primary Sources:

• Olaudah Equiano on the “Middle Passage” (1789)
• William Penn’s “Frame of Government” (1682)
• Jonathan Edwards’ sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

Chapter 2.  The American Revolution

Students learn about the causes and course of the French and Indian War, including the role played by George Washington. Then they learn how the Proclamation Line of 1763 and British attempts to tax the colonies in the aftermath of the French and Indian War—including the Stamp Act, Townshend duties and Tea Act—led to increasing disagreements between the colonists and the British government.  Students are also introduced to John Locke’s views of the social contract.

Students next learn how armed conflict between the British and the colonists broke out in Massachusetts in 1775, how the Second Continental Congress created the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander, how the colonists declared their independence, and how the colonists won the Revolutionary War. They learn how foreign volunteers like the Marquis de Lafayette and Baron von Steuben helped train the Continental Army, and how French assistance was crucial to the final victory. They also look at the role of geography in several key battles. Maps illuminate the chief campaigns.

Primary Sources:

• Excerpt from the Stamp Act (March 1765)
• Excerpt from the Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress (October 1765)
• Tondee’s Tavern Resolutions (August 1774)
• Excerpt from Thomas Paine, Common Sense (January 1776)
• Richard Henry Lee’s Resolution for Independence (June 1776)
• Excerpts from the Declaration of Independence (July 1776)
• Excerpt of letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams

Chapter 3. The Story of Our Constitution

Students learn how the newly independent states drafted their own state constitutions and how the Second Continental Congress drafted the Articles of Confederation, creating our first national government. Students learn about the Land Ordinance of 1785, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, and the difficulties that arose because our first national government was too weak. Next, they learn about Shays’ Rebellion and how the Annapolis Convention called upon states to send delegates to revise the Articles of Confederation. Students learn how delegates from the different states met in Philadelphia in May 1787 to revise the Articles of Confederation but wrote a whole new Constitution instead. They learn about the compromises at the Constitutional Convention, the structure of the new federal government, three of the core principles of our Constitution (the separation of powers, checks and balances, and federalism), the debate over ratification, and the Bill of Rights.

Primary Sources:

• Articles I, II, V and VI from the Northwest Ordinance (July 1787)
• Excerpt from Noah Webster, Sketches of American Policy (1785)
• Excerpt of letter from George Washington to John Jay
• Excerpts from James Madison’s Notes of the Constitutional Convention
• Preamble to the United States Constitution
• Excerpt from James Madison, The Federalist, No. 51 (February 1788)
• The First Amendment

Chapter 4.  The First Presidents of the New Republic

Students learn about the administration of our first President, George Washington, and how his actions created precedents for later Presidents. They learn about the first Cabinet, Hamilton’s financial plan, the rise of the first political parties, the impact of the French Revolution on American political parties, and President Washington’s “Farewell Address.”

Students learn about the disagreements between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans during the Presidencies of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson—including the “XYZ” Affair, the “Quasi-War,” the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, the “Revolution of 1800,” the Louisiana Purchase, the Supreme Court decision of Marbury v. Madison, and the Embargo of 1807. Special emphasis is placed on Jefferson’s views respecting the constitutionality of the Louisiana Purchase.

Students learn about the causes, course and consequences of the War of 1812. Then they learn about the collapse of the Federalist Party and the subsequent “Era of Good Feelings,” including the Tariff of 1816, the chartering of the Second Bank of the United States, Henry Clay’s “American System,” the annexation of Florida, the Missouri Compromise, and the Monroe Doctrine.

Primary Sources:

• Excerpt from the Proclamation of Neutrality (1793)
• Excerpt from President Washington’s “Farewell Address” (1796)
• Excerpts from the Alien and Sedition Acts (1797)
• Correspondence of President Thomas Jefferson on the Louisiana Purchase (1803)
• Francis Scott Key, “The Star-Spangled Banner” (September 1814)
• Excerpt from President James Monroe, speech to Congress announcing the “Monroe Doctrine” (December 2, 1823)

Chapter 5.  The Age of Jackson 

Students learn about the Presidency of Andrew Jackson, including his election in 1828, the end of state property qualifications and rise of “Jacksonian Democracy,” Jackson’s rotation of office-holders (or “spoils system”), the Indian Removal Act, the Cherokee “Trail of Tears,” Jackson’s “War” on the Bank, and the Nullification Crisis.

Students learn about the Industrial Revolution and the first textile mills in New England using new industrial machinery. Students also learn about the “Transportation Revolution,” including turnpikes, canals, steamboats, trains and the telegraph.  Northern cities were transformed by the arrival of newcomers from the countryside and of immigrants from Ireland and Germany. Students learn about Henry Clay’s “American System” and how it was opposed by Jacksonian Democrats. They next learn about the Second Great Awakening and how it contributed to an “Age of Reform,” which included the rise of the abolitionist and temperance movements, the push for educational reform, and the demand for women’s rights. 

Students learn how Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin and the demand for raw cotton by British and American factories led to a sudden expansion of the system of slavery across the South. Students learn about plantation life, the exploitation of enslaved African Americans, and how slaves resisted the brutal and dehumanizing demands of slavery by developing their own unique culture, by escaping and even by rebelling.

Primary Sources:

• President Andrew Jackson to Congress on the Indian Removal Act (1830)
• President Andrew Jackson to the People of South Carolina (December 1832)
• Excerpt from “The Declaration of Sentiments,” Seneca Falls (1848)
• Excerpt from Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave
• Excerpt from Fanny Kemble, Journal of Residence on a George Plantation
• Excerpt from Frederick Douglass, “What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July?” (July 4, 1852)
• Excerpt from The Confessions of Nat Turner (1831)
• Excerpt from Commonwealth v. Nat Turner (1831)

Chapter 6. The Civil War

Students learn about the settlement of parts of Texas by Anglo-American settlers, the Texas Revolution, the doctrine of “Manifest Destiny,” the election of James Polk as President, the settlement of the Oregon controversy, the Mexican-American War, the Mexican Cession, Students learn about the Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850 the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott decision. They consider how slavery, sectionalism, states’ rights, the struggle over the balance of power in Congress, and the election of Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln led to the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861. Then they learn about the advantages held by the North and South at the beginning of the war, military strategies, key battles, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Northern victory, and the immediate consequences of the war.

Primary Sources:

• Excerpt from U.S. Supreme Court, Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
• President Abraham Lincoln, “Gettysburg Address” (1863)
• Emma Balfour, eyewitness account of conditions at Vicksburg
• Mayor of Atlanta’s appeal to General Sherman and Sherman’s response (September 1864)
• Excerpt from President Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address (1865)

Chapter 7.  The Reconstruction Era

Students learn about the struggles over the reconstruction of the South after the Civil War. They examine the Freedmen’s Bureau, the Black Codes; the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson; the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments; the sharecroppers, Exodusters and “Buffalo Soldiers”; and the Ku Klux Klan. They also learn how Reconstruction ended in 1877.  In an important postscript, students learn how Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other Civil Rights leaders later overturned Southern “Jim Crow” laws and how Cesar Chavez similarly fought for the rights of Mexican-American migrant farmworkers.

Primary Sources:

• The 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments

Chapter 8.  The Rise of Industrial America

Students learn about America’s “Second Industrial Revolution” and the rise of the railroad, telephone, steel, oil, and electricity industries in the decades after the Civil War. They examine the foundations of economic growth, the impact of railroads and the creation of a national market. They learn about the contributions of inventors like Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell. Students look at the achievements and tactics of successful entrepreneurs such as Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan, who combined technology and resources to transform American life. They examine the attempt to curb industrial monopolies with the Sherman Antitrust Act and other legislation.

Students then learn about the impact of industrialization on American workers. They learn about the worsening of conditions for many industrial workers, and how workers responded by forming their own labor unions. These unions used collective bargaining, strikes, and picket lines to improve their conditions. Students also learn about the creation of the American Federation of Labor.

Next, they learn about the increasing numbers of immigrants that began arriving from Eastern and Southern Europe.  They learn how these “New Immigrants” differed from the “Old Immigrants,” and especially how they were processed and admitted at Ellis Island in New York City.  They also study immigration from East Asia and learn how these immigrants were admitted at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. Both the “New Immigrants” and Asian immigrants faced bias and discrimination from American “Nativists.” In 1882, most immigration from China was cut off by the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Chapter 9.  The Last Frontier

Students learn about the lifestyles of American Indians on the Great Plains. Then they learn how the Great Plains and the Far West were transformed by the construction of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869, and by the defeat of Indian tribes in the so-called “Indian Wars.” The Sioux and other Plains Indians lost most of their land, were confined to reservations, and saw their traditional cultures threatened.

Students consider the push-and-pull factors that brought new settlers to the West, including the discovery of precious metals, the completion of the transcontinental railroad, the massacre of the wild bison on the Great Plains, and the defeat of Indian tribes by the U.S. Army. Students learn about cattlemen and the “long drive,” the conflicts between ranchers and farmers over land use, and how farmers on the Great Plains adapted to arid conditions, enabling them to turn the Great Plains into vast producers of wheat. Finally, students look at how farmers reacted to the decline in crop prices at the end of the century by organizing the Populist Party. The Populists’ program included many far-reaching proposals that were later adopted: direct election of U.S. Senators, a secret ballot, and income tax. Their candidate, William Jennings Bryan, lost the 1896 Presidential election to William McKinley in a close contest.

Primary Sources:

• Excerpt from the surrender of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce (1877)
• Excerpt from Willa Cather, My Antonia

Chapter 10.  The Progressive Era

Students learn about the origins of the Progressive Movement, a middle class reform movement aimed at remedying the worst abuses of industrial society, including the difficulty of competing against “Big Business.” They examine the influence on the Progressive Movement of investigative journalists known as “muckrakers.” They learn how women reformers helped the poor in settlement houses and campaigned for women’s suffrage, to end child labor and to improve conditions for workers. They also learn about municipal reform and social and political reforms at the state level—including factory legislation, and adoption of initiative, referendum and recall. They next learn about legislative achievements at the federal level, including the 16th and 17th Amendments—requiring the direct election of U.S. Senators and permitting federal income tax. They examine the achievements of the Progressive Presidents—Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson—including the Meat Inspection Act, Pure Food and Drug Act, creation of the National Conservation Commission, creation of more national parks and monuments, lower tariffs, the Federal Reserve Act, the graduated income tax, and the Clayton Antitrust Act.  A law banning child labor in 1916 was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Students also learn how African Americans were denied their voting rights in Southern states in the late 19th century and how the Progressive Era was also a time of increased racial segregation in the South with the passage of “Jim Crow” laws.  The U.S. Supreme Court upheld these laws with its “separate but equal” doctrine in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). President Woodrow Wilson also imposed racial segregation among employees of the federal government.  Finally, students learn how African-American leaders and other Progressive reformers reacted to the spread of segregation by forming the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) in 1909-1910.

Primary Sources:

• Excerpt from Ida Tarbell, History of the Standard Oil Company (1904)
• Excerpt from Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (1906)
• Excerpt from Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Chapter 11. American Imperialism

Students learn about the causes, course and effects of the Spanish-American War (1898). They learn how this event triggered a debate over whether the United States, a democratic republic, should become an imperialist power.  Imperialists argued that the United States had a responsibility to spread its values and know-how to other peoples (the “White Man’s Burden”) and that America needed colonies for strategic reasons, to provide raw materials, and to serve as markets for American goods.  Anti-imperialists argued that imperialism was opposed to the democratic principles upon which the nation was founded.

In the event, the United States annexed territories in the Pacific and the Caribbean. They kept the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam, which they had occupied in the Spanish-American War; they also annexed Hawaii and turned Cuba into a virtual American protectorate.  Filipinos had expected to achieve independence from Spain with American help—the U.S. acquisition of the Philippines led to a war between the United States and Filipino rebels that last for several years—far longer than the Spanish-American War itself.  In these years, Americans increased their trade across the Pacific, “opened” Japan to trade, and imposed the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine on the countries of the Caribbean and Central America.  The United States intervened to collect debts and take other measures on behalf of European powers, rather than letting European powers intervene themselves.  When negotiations with Colombia failed, President Theodore Roosevelt also took advantage of the opportunity to support Panamanian rebels to secure control of the Panama Canal Zone for the United States. It took a decade for the United States to overcome natural obstacles and build the Panama Canal.

Primary Sources:

• Excerpt from Teller Amendment (1898)
• Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden” (1899)
• Mark Twain opposing U.S. imperialism in the Philippines (October 1900)
• Excerpts from William Jennings Bryan, acceptance speech at the 1900 Democratic National Convention
• Excerpt from the Platt Amendment (1901)

Chapter 12. The United States in World War I

Students learn about the events that led to the outbreak of World War I in Europe, trench warfare, the British blockade of the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire), and German submarine warfare.  They learn that despite American efforts to stay out of the war, the Zimmerman Telegram and German unrestricted submarine warfare brought Americans into the conflict.

They learn that U.S. entry into World War I led to changes at home, including the conversion of industries into wartime production, conscription, increased taxes, and new laws restricting freedom of speech. Eugene Debs was arrested for violating the Espionage Act by speaking out against the war, while the U.S. Supreme Court upheld wartime restrictions on free speech in Schenck v. United States (1919).  They learn that as workers went overseas to fight, there was a greater need for workers in factories at home. This led to the beginnings of the “Great Migration”—the migration of African-American sharecroppers and workers from the rural South to the cities of the Northeast and Midwest.

The arrival of American forces in Europe led to the collapse of the Central Powers.  President Wilson announced his Fourteen Points—a plan to promote peace, stability and democracy by breaking up multinational empires into national states, creating an independent Poland, returning Alsace-Lorraine to France, promoting free trade, and creating a new international peacekeeping organization—the League of Nations.  President Wilson traveled to Paris to help negotiate the peace treaties.  The Treaty of Versailles, however, was very harsh on Germany. Students learn that Wilson was able to get the Allies to agree on the creation of the League of Nations, but that the U.S. Senate refused to approve the treaty or join the League, taking Americans in a more isolationist direction.

Primary Sources:

• Excerpt from Schenck v. United States (1919)
• President Woodrow Wilson, “The Fourteen Points” (January 1918)
• Article X, Covenant of the League of Nations

Chapter 13. The Roaring Twenties

Students learn how political, economic and cultural developments in the decade after World War I (1919-1929) promoted a shared national identity. They learn how the end of the war saw rising fears about the spread of communism and anarchism, known as the “Red Scare.”  A series of explosions by anarchist terrorists led to the arrest and deportation of foreign-born radicals in the “Palmer Raids.” They learn how these events, combined with ethnic prejudice against newcomers from Eastern and Southern Europe, led to the first laws restricting European immigration. Students also learn about the 18th Amendment and how the attempt to outlaw alcoholic drinks during Prohibition led to an increase in organized crime. They learn how the 19th Amendment guaranteed women the right to vote and how women became more assertive in the 1920s as their rights and opportunities increased.  Students learn how the use of mass production to manufacture automobiles reduced their price and led to a spread of automobile ownership, affecting all aspects of American society. The Twenties also saw increased use of advertising, publishing of magazines, the spread of radio sets, and the first motion pictures with sound. Finally, students learn how the “Great Migration,” the experiences of African-American soldiers overseas, and the rise of African-American newspapers and magazines, led to a flourishing of African-American culture known as the “Harlem Renaissance.” African-American writers, artists and musicians expressed their feelings about the damaging impact of racial prejudice.  They also promoted jazz music, an African-American art form that was quickly taken up by all Americans.

Primary Sources:

• Excerpts from A. Mitchell Palmer, “The Case against the Reds” (1920) and Emma Goldman, speaking at her deportation hearing (October 1919)
• 18th and 19th Amendments
• Langston Hughes on jazz music

Chapter 14. The Great Depression and the New Deal

Students consider the different factors that led to the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, including overproduction, under-consumption, stock market speculation, and a shaky banking system. They also consider historians’ debates about the relation between the stock market crash and the subsequent Great Depression. They learn about the human impact of the Great Depression at a time when there was no “safety net.”  Banks failed, people lost their savings, jobs and homes, and many Americans faced hunger. Students learn that private agencies and local governments were unable to cope with the magnitude of the economic crisis and that President Herbert Hoover’s measures at the federal level were too little, too late. Shantytowns of desperate, homeless people on the outskirts of cities even became known as “Hoovervilles.”

Students also learn how the Depression was made worse for farmers in the middle of the country when decades of over-farming and a severe drought led to an ecological disaster on the Great Plains, known as the “Dust Bowl” because of the huge clouds of dust it caused.

The Great Depression led to the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who promised Americans a “New Deal.” Roosevelt believed the economic crisis was as serious as any war and he mobilized the resources of the federal government to combat it. Students learn about the New Deal’s measures of “Relief, Recovery and Reform” in both the First and the Second New Deal.  They learn about the many new federal agencies that Roosevelt created, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Securities Exchange Commission, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Civilian Conservation Corps. Students learn how Roosevelt attempted to reduce unemployment through federal work-relief programs. They learn how the Social Security Act was the centerpiece of the Second New Deal and created a “safety net” for those who became unemployed or were too old to work. They learn about the efforts of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to help women and downtrodden groups, especially African Americans, during the Great Depression. Finally, students learn about critics of the New Deal from both the “right” and the “left,” and how the U.S. Supreme Court posed the greatest threat of all to the New Deal, leading Roosevelt to propose his unpopular “court-packing” plan.

Primary Sources:

• Ann Marie Low on the Dust Bowl (April and August 1934)
• President Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address (March 1933)
• Huey Long, “Share the Wealth,” radio broadcast (March 1935)
• Eleanor Roosevelt, “What Ten Million Women Want” (March 1932)
• Eleanor Roosevelt, speech in favor of Social Security (1934)

Chapter 15. America in World War II

Students learn about the outbreak of World War II in Europe and about American attempts to stay out of war with the Neutrality Acts.  They also learn how, when the German dictator Adolf Hitler occupied most of Western Europe and Britain was fighting alone against Germany, Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act to make it easier for the United States to help Britain.  Students learn that, although Roosevelt was cooperating closely with the British, Americans actually entered the war after Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Germany also declared war on the United States, and students learn that Roosevelt decided to focus American efforts on defeating Germany first. Americans now mobilized for war. Factories converted to wartime production, all males ages 18-45 became subject to the draft, and essential goods were rationed.  President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which led to the relocation of Japanese Americans along the West Coast to inland internment camps.  When African-American leaders threatened to hold a march on Washington, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802, throwing open all federal jobs and all jobs with federal contractors to African-American workers.

Students learn how the United States and Britain delayed the invasion of France while the Soviet Union suffered the brunt of Nazi German attacks. The tide in Europe finally turned when the Germans lost the Battle of Stalingrad (August 1942-February 1943). Meanwhile, U.S. and British forces fought against German troops in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. The Allies also faced logistical problems when large numbers of Allied supply ships were sunk in the Atlantic by German submarines. The Allies overcame this threat by improving their convoy systems.

Students learn that the Allies finally launched their D-Day attack on Normandy—the largest amphibious landing in history—in July 1944. The Allies landed successfully on Normandy’s beaches and advanced rapidly through France.  Meanwhile, the Soviet army marched towards Germany from the opposite direction. Soviet troops only took the city of Berlin after bitter fighting. Students learn that Hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker at the end of April 1945, and Germany surrendered a week later.

Americans now focused their efforts on defeating Japan. Students learn that the turning point in the Pacific Theater had already been reached in 1942 when Americans destroyed several Japanese aircraft carriers at the Battle of Midway (a naval battle). Rather than launching a massive invasion of Japan in 1945, which would have cost thousands of U.S. lives. President Harry Truman ordered a new invention, the atomic bomb, to be dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This led the Japanese to surrender in August 1945, finally ending the war.

Students learn that World War II led to the deaths of more than 50 million people, further increased the powers of our federal government, and resulted in the birth of the United Nations, a new peacekeeping organization that replaced the League of Nations.

Primary Sources:

• President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Address before Joint Session of Congress the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (December 8, 1941)
• Justice Hugo Black, majority opinion, Korematsu v. United States (1944)
• Justice Frank Murphy, dissenting opinion, Korematsu v. United States (1944)
• John Hersey, Hiroshima (1946)

Chapter 16. The Truman and Eisenhower Years: Cold War, Prosperity and Civil Rights

Students learn about the differences between the Soviet Union and the United States that led to the Cold War, including the brutality of the Stalinist regime and Soviet mistrust of the Western Allies after the events of World War II. They learn how the Stalin failed to honor his pledge at Yalta to permit free elections in Poland and how that led to the fall of an “Iron Curtain” over Eastern Europe. 

Students learn how Truman formulated the policy of containment with the “Truman Doctrine” (1947), in which he not only offered military and financial assistance to Greece and Turkey but also pledged American support to all free peoples struggling to resist communism. This was followed by the Marshall Plan, a program of U.S. financial assistance for the nations of Europe to help rebuild their economies and enable them to resist the appeals of communism.

Students learn how the Cold War spread from Europe to Asia. In 1949, Mao Zedong turned China into the world’s most populous communist nation, and in 1950, communist North Korea invaded South Korea. Students learn that the United States, acting under the authority of the United Nations (which the Soviet Union was then boycotting), intervened to save the South Koreans.  General MacArthur landed U.S. troops close to Seoul, cutting off the North Korean army.  His advance was so successful that he crossed over into North Korea and approached the Chinese border.  Contrary to MacArthur’s expectations, communist China entered the war.  President Truman relieved MacArthur of his command when he made public statements contradicting Truman and recommending an expansion of the war.

Students learn how the Cold War also had an impact at home. People feared communist spies were helping the Soviet Union. The House Committee on Un-American Activities examined suspected communists, including famous actors, directors and screenwriters.  Senator Joe McCarthy claimed that communists were secretly at work inside the U.S. State Department. McCarthy became popular until it became clear he had no evidence.

Students discover that the post-war years were a time of economic prosperity.  The G.I. Bill of Rights provided World War II veterans with low-interest mortgages and money for further education.  President Eisenhower sponsored the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act, which created our present system of interstate highways.

Students discover that civil rights made great strides forward in these years. In Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed racial segregation in public schools. The Montgomery bus boycott ended segregation on buses in Montgomery, Alabama, and brought civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., into national prominence.

Finally, students learn about the impact of the Soviet launch of the satellite Sputnik, which led to the creation of the U.S. space agency (NASA), and federal support of mathematics and science education.

Primary Sources:

• President Harry Truman, speech before Joint Session of Congress announcing “Truman Doctrine” (March 12, 1947)
• Senator Joe McCarthy, speech in Wheeling, West Virginia (February 1950)
• President Harry Truman, Executive Order 9981 (July 26, 1948) desegregating the U.S. armed services
• Chief Justice Earl Warren (unanimous opinion), Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

Chapter 17. The Kennedy and Johnson Years: Cuba, Civil Rights, the Great Society and Vietnam

Students learn about the 1959 Cuban Revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, the unsuccessful invasion by Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs, and the Cuban Missile Crisis.  They learn about the election of John F. Kennedy after three successful television debates. They also learn about his “New Frontier” programs, most of which did not pass through Congress, and his tragic assassination in 1963.  They learn about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” the “March on Washington,” Dr. King’s stirring “I have a Dream” speech, and the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Students examine President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” programs, and the impact of television on American politics and culture.  Then they learn about the background to the Vietnam War. Students learn about the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the escalation of American involvement in Vietnam.  Finally, they examine the social and political turmoil of 1968—including the Vietcong’s Tet Offensive, the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy, the rioting after Dr. King’s assassination, and the violence at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Primary Sources:

• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (1963)
• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “I have a Dream,” speech at Lincoln Memorial during “March on Washington” (August 28,1963)
• Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (August 7, 1964)

Chapter 18. The Presidency in Crisis: Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter

Students learn how, in the 1970s, American Presidents experienced a series of major crises. They learn how Richard Nixon reduced the number of American troops in Vietnam through “Vietnamization,” while he increased the bombing of North Vietnam and neighboring Laos and Cambodia. Nixon’s continuation of the war grew increasingly unpopular, but eventually Nixon and Henry Kissinger were able to achieve an end to the fighting with the Paris Peace Accords and American withdrawal from Vietnam.

Students learn how Nixon reopened U.S. relations with China and signed the law creating the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”). Then they learn how Nixon attempted to conceal his involvement in the Watergate scandal, leading to his resignation.  His successor, Republican Gerald Ford, granted Nixon a Presidential pardon shortly after coming becoming President. The pardon was unpopular with many Americans.

Students learn how, in these years, women became more militant in their demands for social and economic equality.  In 1966, Betty Friedan and other feminists founded “NOW” (the National Organization of Women).

Next, students learn how Jimmy Carter, a former Governor of Georgia, was elected President in 1976 as a “Washington outsider.”  Carter reintroduced humanitarian principles into U.S. foreign policy. He signed a treaty for the return of the Panama Canal Zone to Panama, and brokered an agreement between Egypt and Israel in the Camp David Accords.  Carter was unable, however, to reduce rising gasoline prices or “stagflation” (inflation combined with high unemployment) at home. 

In 1979, the Shah of Iran was overthrown.  The country’s new leader, the Ayatollah Khomeini, proclaimed that Iran had become an Islamic Republic. Students learn that when President Carter allowed the deposed Shah to enter the United States for medical treatment, angry Iranian students seized staff at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran. Carter was unable to obtain the release of the hostages, who remained captives for 444 days. Carter was defeated in the 1980 Presidential election by Ronald Reagan, a former actor and past Governor of California.

Primary Sources:

• Richard Nixon, The Memoirs of Richard Nixon
• U.S. Supreme Court, United States v. Nixon (1974)
• Richard M. Nixon, resignation speech (August 8, 1974)
• National Organization of American Women (“NOW”), “Statement of Purpose” (October 29, 1966)
• President Gerald R. Ford, Presidential pardon of Richard Nixon (September 8, 1974)

Chapter 19. America in Recent Times: Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama

In this last chapter, students learn about the United States from 1981 to the election of Barack Obama as President in 2008. They learn how President Reagan introduced “Reaganomics”—lower taxes, less government regulations, and less government spending on domestic programs—to fight stagflation. Students consider other factors that also promoted economic recovery, including lower oil prices and increased military spending.

Students consider Reagan’s foreign policy and his attempt to roll back communism under the “Reagan Doctrine.”  They learn about the problems faced by the Soviet Union, President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, Mikhail Gorbachev’s attempts at reform inside the Soviet Union, and Gorbachev’s arms summits with President Reagan. Gorbachev refused to use armed force against the countries of Eastern Europe, leading to the end of the Cold War and eventually to the dissolution of the Soviet Union itself.

Students learn how George H.W. Bush was President when the Cold War finally came to an end. They learn how Bush exercised U.S. power by organizing an international coalition to drive the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, out of Kuwait.  Then they learn how Bill Clinton was elected President in 1992, and how under Clinton, Americans enjoyed a “peace dividend,” an explosion in information technology, and general prosperity. Students also learn how Clinton became involved in a scandal arising from his lying under oath about his relations with a White House intern. Students learn that Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives but that the Senate refused to remove him from office.

Students learn that the United States was attacked by terrorists on September 11, 2001.  President George W. Bush called for a “War on Terror.”  They learn that U.S. troops invaded Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban government, which had been protecting terrorist Osama bin Laden. Students also learn that Congress passed new legislation to increase domestic security. In 2003, Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq, where he believed Saddam Hussein had hidden “weapons of mass destruction.” Students learn that Hussein was defeated, arrested, tried and executed by the new Iraqi government for his crimes as dictator, but that no weapons of mass destruction were ever found.

Students learn that Americans experienced a severe financial crisis in the last year of the Bush Presidency. Then they learn about the historic nature of the 2008 Presidential election, where the leading contenders on the Democratic side were Barack Obama, an African American, and Hillary Clinton, a woman.  They learn that Barack Obama was nominated and won the election, becoming the first African-American President. They also learn that on the Republican side, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin became the first woman to be nominated for the office of Vice President by a major party.

Primary Sources:

• President Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address (January 20, 1981)
• Ronald Reagan, Speech at Brandenburg Gate,“Tear down this wall!” (June 12, 1987)
• House of Representatives, Articles of Impeachment of President Bill Clinton (December 19, 1998)
• President George W. Bush, Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People (September 20, 2001)
• Barack Obama, Presidential election victory speech at Grant Park, Chicago (November 4, 2008)