Course Title: Advanced Placement U

Social Studies

Advanced Placement

U.S. History II

Course Description:

The Advanced Placement program is designed to provide students with the analytical skills and factual knowledge necessary to deal critically with past and present issues in American history. Students will learn to weigh evidence and assess various interpretations of historical scholarship. In addition, students will learn how to analyze and interpret statistical tables, charts, graphs, and maps. Students will also be required to express themselves with clarity and precision, both orally and in writing. Various projects assigned throughout the term will assist in the development of these skills. Generally this course will adhere to national AP guidelines and will include a review of U.S. I and II through research and analysis of selected topics assessing the political, economic, social, and cultural developments in U.S. history.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of U.S. Honors History I

Required to meet New Jersey two-year United States History standard. Elective for Honors level.

Mission Statement

The mission of Social Studies in the Glen Ridge schools is to educate students to become responsible, productive, and active citizens within a democratic society. The Social Studies curriculum will develop the students’ understanding of themselves and their environment, encompassing an awareness of the United States as part of a global society. The curriculum stresses an educational environment which teaches respect for cultural, political, gender, racial and ethnic diversity. The goals will empower students with critical thinking, thoughtful decision-making, communication, and leadership skills. Students will study historical, geographic, social, political, and economic issues that shape that world. The Social Studies program will provide students with the knowledge and understanding of the past which is essential for coping with the present and planning for the future.

Topic/Unit 1: Industrial Supremacy – Chapter 17

Essential Questions:

What factors helped lead to American dominance during the Industrial Age?
Why was this explosion of industrial capitalism both extolled for its accomplishments and attacked for its excesses?
How did American workers react to the physical and psychological realities of the new economic order?

Objectives:

Students will understand:

The reasons for the rapid industrial development of the United States in the late nineteenth century.
The impact of technological innovations in promoting industrial expansion.
The role of the individual entrepreneur in the development of particular industries.
The changes in the organization and management of American business.
The use of classical economics and Social Darwinism to justify and defend the new industrial capitalism.
The critics of the new industrial capitalism and the solutions they proposed.
The conditions of immigrants, women, and children in the work force.
The efforts of organized labor to form national associations.
The reasons organized labor generally failed to achieve its objectives.

Core Curriculum Standards: 6.1 A.1-8, 6.2 A.1, 6.2 B.6, 6.2 C.5, 6.4 I.11, 6.4 H.1-4, 6.5 B.5, 6.6 D.5

Topic/Unit 2: The Age of the City – Chapter 18

Essential Questions:

How did social and economic issues attract foreign and domestic migrants to American cities?
How did these newcomers adjust to urban life?
How did rapid growth force adaptations to severe problems of government mismanagement, poverty, crime, inadequate housing, and precarious health and safety conditions?
How did the urban environment serve as a focus for new philosophical ideas, expanded leisure opportunities, fresh approaches to education, rapid expansion in journalism, and a new consumerism?
How did the new order of “high” urban culture inspire both serious writers and artists to render realistic portrayals of the seamy side of city life?

Objectives:

Students will understand:

The patterns and processes of urbanization in late nineteenth century America.
The changes in the pattern of immigration in the late nineteenth century.
The new economic and social problems created by urbanization.
The relationships of both urbanization and immigration to the rise of boss rule.
The early rise of mass consumption and its impact on American life, especially for women.
The changes in leisure and entertainment and the growth of mass-culture opportunities including organized sports, vaudeville, movies and other activities.
The main trends in literature and art during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The impact of the Darwinian theory of evolution on the intellectual life of America.
The profound new developments in American educational opportunities.

Core Curriculum Standards: 6.1 A.1-8, 6.2 A.1, 6.2 D.4, 6.4 H.1-4, 6.5 B.5, 6.6 A.2, 6.6 B.1, 6.6 B.2, 6.6 B.3, 6.6 D.1-4, 6.6 E.4

Suggested Activities for Chapter 17 Industrial Supremacy and Chapter 18 The Age of the City:

· Read a Horatio Alger story and then in groups of 4 write a “Horatio Alger” story set in modern times. The stories should be a romanticized version of “rags to riches” using “pluck and luck”. * Students will share their stories on the second day.

· Hold a roundtable debate/discussion on the following: “The great tycoons were benefactors of society.”

· Contrast and compare photography of the turn of the century life and today. (Special emphasis on Jacob Riis)

· Assess the ways in which editorial cartoons, both current and historic, offer insight into events that shape the world: NYTimes lesson plan. In this lesson, students will analyze Thomas Nast cartoons and compare them with cartoons today. Students will then construct their own cartoons to share with the class.

· Study and read aloud George Washington Plunket’s speech on “Honest Graft” and role-play the arrogance and confidence of dirty politics. Students will then debate the issue from Taking Sides: “Was City Government in the Late-Nineteenth Century America a “Conspicuous Failure”?

Topic/Unit 3: From Stalemate to Crisis – Chapter 19

Essential Questions:

How did the evenly balanced Democratic and Republican parties during the late nineteenth century flow from differing regional and sociocultural bases?
Why was the political system involving a limited national government unable to respond effectively to the nation’s rapid social and economic changes?
How did the troubled agrarian sector mount a powerful but unsuccessful challenge to the new directions of American industrial capitalism and how did this confrontation come to a head during the crisis of the 1890s?

Objectives:

Students will understand:

The nature of American party politics in the last third of the nineteenth century.
The problems of political patronage in the administrations of Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, and Chester A. Arthur that led to the passage of the Pendleton Act.
The circumstances that permitted the Democrats to gain control of the presidency in the elections of 1884 and 1892.
The origins, purposes, and effectiveness of the Interstate Commerce Act and the Sherman Antitrust Act.
The positions of the two major parties on the tariff question, and the actual trend of tariff legislation in the 1880s and 1890s.
The rise of agrarian discontent as manifested in the Granger movement, the Farmers’ Alliances, and the rise of the Populist movement.
The rise of the silver question from the Crime of ‘73 through the Gold Standard Act of 1900.
The significance of the presidential campaign and election of 1896.
The reasons for the decline of agrarian discontent after 1898.

Core Curriculum Standards: 6.1A.1-8, 6.2 A.1, 6.2 A.4, 6.2 A.6, 6.2 B.1, 6.2 B.6, 6.2 C.4, 6.2 C.5, 6.4 H.1, 6.4 H.2, 6.4 H.3, 6.4 H.4

Suggested Activities for Chapter 19 Stalemate to Crisis:

Analyze the reasons for the emergence of the Populist Movement in the late nineteenth century (1995 free response) Team leaders will lead the discussion.
Read Vachel Lindsey’s book on the election of 1896 titled Bryan, Bryan, Bryan, Bryan. The poem views the election through the eyes of a 16 year old, and it will lead to a discussion of politics of the period. Students will write a parody using a modern day personality as the subject.
Hold a round table debate/discussion on the following: “There is still no difference between a Democrat and a Republican.”

Topic/Unit 4: The Imperial Republic- Chapter 20

Essential Questions:

Why did Americans turn from the old continental concept of Manifest Destiny to a new worldwide expansionism?
How did the Spanish-American War serve as the catalyst to transform imperialist stirrings into full-fledged empire?
How did the nation make attitudinal, political, and military adjustments to its new role as a major world power?

Objectives:

Students will understand:

The new Manifest Destiny and how it differed from the old Manifest Destiny.
The objectives of American foreign policy at the turn of the century with respect to Europe, Latin America, and Asia.
The variety of factors that motivated the United States to become imperialistic.
The relationship between American economic interests (especially tariff policy) and the developments in Hawaii, Cuba, and Puerto Rico.
The causes of the Spanish-American War.
The military and political problems encountered in fighting the Spanish and, subsequently, the Filipinos.
The problems involved in developing a colonial administration for America’s new empire.
The motives behind the Open Door notes and the Boxer intervention.
The nature of the military reforms carried out following the Spanish-American War.

Core Curriculum Standards: 6.1 A.1-8, 6.2 A.1, 6.2 C.3, 6.2 E.1, 6.2 E.2, 6.3 D.1, 6.3 E.3, 6.4 H.4, 6.4 H.5, 6.4 H.6, 6.4 I.1, 6.5 B.2, 6.5 B.5, 6.6 A.2, 6.6 A.3, 6.6 A.4, 6.6 A.5, 6.6 A-6, 6.6 D.5

Suggested Activities for Chapter 20 The Imperial Republic:

Study cartoons of the time on foreign policy and compare them to today’s cartoons on foreign policy.
Conduct a simulation game by Bill Herdt.
Hold a round table debate/discussion on the use and effect of yellow journalism
Complete a variety of primary source readings

Topic/Unit 5: The Rise of Progressivism- Chapter 21

Essential Questions:

How was progressivism a reaction to the rapid industrialization and urbanization of the United States in the late nineteenth century?
How did progressives share an optimistic vision that an active government could solve problems and create an efficient, ordered society?
Why did progressives want to reduce the influence of party machines on politics?
How did the temperance, immigration restriction, and women’s suffrage movements take on crusade-like aspects?

Objectives:

Students will understand:

The origins and varieties of the progressive impulse.
The social justice reforms of the period, and the role of the church in carrying out the Social Gospel.
The progressive emphasis on scientific expertise, organizational reform, and professionalism.
The role of women and women’s organizations in promoting reform.
The significance of the women’s suffrage movement.
The desire of the progressives to limit the role of political party organizations, and the measures they advocated to accomplish their goal.
The temperance movement and its relationship to other progressive reforms.
The origins of the NAACP and the importance of W. E. DuBois.
The movement to restrict immigration and how restricting immigration was regarded as a reform.
The alternate approaches to the problems of the trusts: socialism, regulation, or trust busting.

Core Curriculum Standards: 6.1 A.1-8, 6.2 A.1, 6.2 A.3, 6.2 A.4, 6.2 A.5, 6.2 B.3, 6.2 B.4, 6.2 B.5, 6.2 B.6, 6.2 C.1, 6.2 D.4, 6.4 H.1, 6.4 H.2, 6.4 H.3, 6.4 H.4, 6.4 I.2, 6.4 I.10, 6.5 A.1, 6.5 A.5, 6.5 B.3, 6.5 B.5, 6.6 B.1, 6.6 B.2, 6.6 B.3, 6.6 D.1, 6.6 D.2, 6.6 D.4, 6.6 E.4

Topic/Unit 6: The Battle of National Reform- Chapter 22

Essential Questions:

How did Theodore Roosevelt’s leadership help fashion a new expanded role for the national government?
How did politics during the administration of William Howard Taft show that most of the nation desired a more progressive approach?
How did the administration of Woodrow Wilson embody both conservative and progressive features?
What factors led the United States to assume a much more assertive and interventionist foreign policy, especially toward the Caribbean region?

Objectives:

Students will understand:

The nature and extent of Theodore Roosevelt’s “square deal” progressivism.
The similarities and differences between the domestic progressivism of William Howard Taft and of Roosevelt.
The conservation issue and why it triggered the split between Taft and Roosevelt.
The consequences of the split in the Republican Party in 1912.
The differences between Roosevelt’s New Nationalism and Wilson’s New Freedom.
The differences between Woodrow Wilson’s campaign platform and the measures actually implemented during his term.
The new direction of American foreign policy introduced by Roosevelt, especially in Asia and the Caribbean.
The similarities and differences between Taft’s and Roosevelt’s approaches to foreign policy.
The reasons for the continuation of American interventionism in Latin America under Wilson.

Core Curriculum Standards: 6.1 A.1-8, 6.2 A.1, 6.2 A.3, 6.2 A.4, 6.2 A.6, 6.2 B.3, 6.2 B.4, 6.2 B.5, 6.2 B.6, 6.2 C.1, 6.2 C.2, 6.2 C.4, 5.2 C.5, 6.2 D.4, 6.4 H.1, 6.4 H.2, 6.4 H.3, 6.4 H.4, 6.4 H.6, 6.4 I.1, 6.4 I.2, 6.5 A.1, 6.5 A.5, 6.5 A.8, 6.5 B.1, 6.5 B.4, 6.5 B.5, 6.6 A.2-6, 6.6 D.1, 6.6 D.2, 6.6 E.1, 6.6 E.3, 6.6 E.5, 6.6 E.7

Suggested Activities for Chapter 21 The Rise of Progressivism and Chapter 22 The Battle for National Reform:

Examine and analyze television and magazine ads’ portrayal of women today. Students will compare and contrast these to ads from the early 1900s.
Read the novel, The Jungle, and discuss its impact at the turn of the century and submit a journal of their reactions.
Hold a round table debate/discussion on the following: “In light of African American history, Booker T. Washington’s advice to African Americans was better than W.E.B. DuBois’.”

Topic/Unit 7: America and the Great War- Chapter 23

Essential Questions:

How was the United States, which leaned toward the Allies since the outbreak of World War I, eventually drawn into full participation in the war?
How did American intervention on land and sea provide the balance of victory for the beleaguered Allied forces?
How did the Wilson administration finance the war, manage the economy, and encourage public support of the war effort?
What factors lead to the failure of Wilson’s attempt to apply his lofty war aims to the realities of world politics?
What profound effects did America’s war effort have on economic, social, and racial issues?

Objectives:

Students will understand:

The background factors and the immediate sequence of events that caused the United States to declare war on Germany in 1917.
The contributions of the American military to Allied victory in World War I.
The extent of government control of the economy during World War I and the results of that control.
Propaganda and the extent of war hysteria in the United States during World War I.
The announced American objectives in fighting the war.
Woodrow Wilson’s successes and failures of Versailles.
The circumstances that led the United States to reject the Treaty of Versailles.
The economic problems the United States faced immediately after the war.
The reasons for the Red Scare and the upsurge of racial unrest in postwar America.

Core Curriculum Standards: 6.1 A.1-8, 6.2 A.1, 6.2 E.2, 6.3 F.1, 6.4 H.5, 6.4 H.6, 6.4 I.1, 6.4 I.3-7, 6.5 B.5, 6.6 A.2-6, 6.6 D.5, 6.6 E.1

Suggested Activities for Chapter 23 America and the Great War:

Assess the relative influence of the following in the American decision to declare war on Germany in 1917: German naval policy, American economic interests, Woodrow Wilson’s idealism, Allied propaganda, and America’s claim to world power. (1995 AP Exam) This will be done in groups of 4. Each group will have a spokesman who will present the ranking of these influences in importance in America’s decision to declare war. Students will then be asked to defend their choices.
Read the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front and apply the subject matter to the development and images of disillusionment reflecting the 1920s attitude towards World War I.
Hold a round table debate on the following: “Government intolerance and curtailment of Civil Liberties is justified in wartime.”

Topic/Unit 8: The New Era - Chapter 24

Essential Questions:

How did the automobile boom and new technology lead to the economic expansion of the 1920s?
Why did most farmers and workers fail to share equitably in the decade’s prosperity?
How did the nationwide consumer-oriented culture begin to shape society and how did the “new woman” emerge?
How did the changing society lead to broad cultural conflict over ethnic and religious concerns?
How did Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, despite their dissimilar personalities, preside over ardently pro-business administrations?

Objectives:

Students will understand:

The reasons for the industrial boom in the 1920s after the initial period of economic readjustment following World War I.
The nature and extent of labor’s problems.
The plight of the American farmer.
The changes in the American way of life and American values in the 1920s in the areas of consumerism, communications, religion, and the role of women.
The reflection of these changed values in American literature and art.
The effects of prohibition on American politics and society.
The reasons of xenophobia and racial unrest in the 1920s.
The debacle of the Harding administration.
The pro-business tendencies of the Republican administrations in the 1920s.

Core Curriculum Standards: 6.1 A.1-8, 6.2 A.1, 6.2 A.6, 6.2 C.4, 6.3 F.2, 6.4 I.8, 6.4 I.10, 6.4 J.1, 6.5 A.3, 6.5 A.4, 6.5 A.5, 6.5 A.7, 6.5 A.8, 6.5 B.5, 6.6 B.1-3, 6.6 D.1-4, 6.6 E.4, 6.6 E.8

Suggested Activities for Chapter 24 The New Era:

Using students’ readings, discuss the “new economy” and new trends in business organization. This discussion will include the impact of the economy on labor unions, farmers, and immigrants. A writing closure assignment will accompany the lesson.
Analyze The Great Gatsby (English class reading) and its depiction of the 1920s. A writing activity will accompany the lesson.
Explore the clash of cultures experienced in the 1920s. They will evaluate the clashes on Prohibition, change in women’s role in society, the Red Scare and religious fundamentalism, and the rise of racial intolerance. (Use of Taking Sides) Students will role play members of each group and exchange viewpoints while in character.
View silent films of the era and write a reaction to their impact on society and culture.

Topic/Unit 9: The Great Depression - Chapter 25

Essential Questions:

How did the weaknesses underlying the apparent prosperity of the 1920s lead to the Great Depression?
How did the Stock Market crash touch off a downward economic cycle in the United States and around the world?
Why did local and private agencies and the early volunteerism of Herbert Hoover’s efforts fail to halt the spiral of rising unemployment and declining production?
How did economic pressures of the depression affect the American people, especially minorities?
How did the misery of those affected by the depression sweep Franklin Roosevelt into the presidency?

Objectives:

Students will understand:

The relationship between the stock market crash and the subsequent Great Depression.
The reasons that the Great Depression started and lasted so long.
The effects of the Depression on business and industry.
The problems of unemployment and the inadequacy of relief.
The particular problems of farmers in the Dust Bowl.
The impact of the Depression on minorities.
The impact of the Depression on working women and the American family.
The reflection of the economic crisis in American culture.
President Herbert Hoover’s policies for fighting the Depression.

Core Curriculum Standards: 6.1 A.1-8, 6.2 A.1, 6.2 B.3-6, 6.2 D.4, 6.3 F.2, 6.4 I.10, 6.4 J.1, 6.5 A.1, 6.5 B.5, 6.6 D.1, 6.6 D.2

Topic/Unit 10: The New Deal - Chapter 26

Essential Questions:

How did Franklin Roosevelt, although limited by his basically traditional economic views, push through programs of economic planning and depression relief?
How did popular protests against the New Deal policies, and protests from leftist, rightists, and those who defied categorization, inspire Roosevelt to launch a new burst of action known as the Second New Deal?
Why was the New Deal virtually moribund in 1938 despite Roosevelt’s overwhelming reelection in 1936?
How did the New Deal give rise to a new role for the national government as a “broker state” among various organized interests?

Objectives:

Students will understand:

The series of emergency measures designed to restore confidence and enacted during the first 100 days.
The New Deal programs for raising farm prices and promoting industrial recovery.
The first federal efforts at regional planning.
The New Deal programs for reforming the financial system.
The federal relief programs and Social Security.
The political pressures from both the left and the right that caused Franklin Roosevelt to move in new directions from 1935 on.
The changes in organized labor during the New Deal.
The effects of the Court-packing scheme and of the recession of 1937 and 1938 on Roosevelt and the New Deal.
The impact of the New Deal on minorities and women.
The lasting significance of the New Deal to the American economy and political system.

Core Curriculum Standards: 6.1 A.1-8, 6. 2 A.1, 6.2 A.3, 6.2 A.4, 6.2 A.6, 6.2 B.1, 6.2 C.1, 6.2 C.2, 6.2 C.4, 6.2 C.6, 6.2 D.4, 6.3 E.1, 6.3 F.2, 6.4 J.2-4, 6.5 A.1, 6.5 A.2 6.5 A.3, 6.5 A.5, 6.5 A.6, 6.5 A.8, 6.5 A.9, 6.5 B.1, 6.5 B.3, 6.5 B.5, 6.6 E.5

Suggested Activities for Chapter 25 The Great Depression and Chapter 26 The New Deal:

The class will be split into five groups- each representing one of Brinkley’s causes of the Great Depression. Each group, after working together, will summarize their assigned cause or problem. After all groups have reported, the class will rank the causes based on the strength of argument.
Explore the social and historical reference of the Joad family from The Grapes of Wrath. This use of music, film clips, and art will become part of the study of the novel. A closing writing activity will accompany the lesson.
Conduct a round table debate on the following: “It is the government’s responsibility to intervene during economic downturns.”
Take part in a role-play activity.

Topic/Unit 11: The Global Crisis 1921-1933 - Chapter 27

Essential Questions:

How did the United States in the 1920s try to increase its role in world affairs, especially economically, and avoid commitments?
How did America, in the face of the growing world crises in the 1930s, turn increasingly toward isolationism and legislated neutrality?
How did war in Europe and Asia gradually draw the United States closer and closer to war until the attack on Pearl Harbor finally sparked American entry into World War II?

Objectives:

Students will understand:

The new directions of American foreign policy in the 1920s.
The effects of the Great Depression on foreign relations.
The patterns of Japanese, Italian, and German aggression that eventually led to World War II.
The factors that led to the passage of neutrality legislation in the 1930s.
The specific sequence of events that brought the United States into the war.

Core Curriculum Standards: 6.1 A.1-8, 6.2 B.1, 6.2 C.3, 6.2 C.5, 6.2 D.2, 6.2 D.3, 6.2 E.1, 6.2 E.2, 6.3 D.1, 6.3 E.3, 6.3 F.2, 6.3 G.1, 6.4 J.5-7

Topic/Unit 12: America in a World at War - Chapter 28

Essential Questions:

How was the productive capacity of the United States key to the defeat of the Axis?
What profound effect did the war have on the home front?
How did three major western offensives combined with the ongoing Russian effort defeat Germany?
How did sea power contain and defeat the Japanese in the Pacific during World War II?
Was the decision to use the atomic bomb to end World War II a wise decision?

Objectives:

Students will understand:

The efforts of the federal government to mobilize the nation’s economy for war production.
The effects of American participation in the war on the Depression and on New Deal reformism.
The changes that the wartime involvement brought for women and racial and ethnic minorities.
The contributions of the United States military to victory in North Africa and Europe.
The contributions of the United States military to victory in the Pacific.

Core Curriculum Standards: 6.1 A.1-8, 6.2 B.1, 6.2 C.3, 6.2 C.5, 6.2 D.2, 6.2 D.3, 6.2 E.1, 6.2 E.2, 6.3 D.1, 6.3 E.3, 6.3 F.2, 6.3 G.1, 6.4 J.5-7

Suggested Activities for Chapter 27 Global Crisis and Chapter 28 American in a World at War:

Use music, art, and literature to express the era.
View the Bill Moyer’s documentary: The Democrat and the Dictator which charts the rise and influence of FDR and Adolf Hitler on world events.
View The Homefront and complete a writing assignment.
Research and form a thesis on the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Topic/Unit 13: The Cold War - Chapter 29

Essential Questions:

How did a legacy of mistrust between the United States and the Soviet Union combine with the events of World War II to cause the Cold War?
How did the policy of containment lead to increasing United States involvement in crises around the world?
How did World War II end the Depression and usher in an era of nervous prosperity?
How did a turbulent postwar era climax in a period of hysterical anticommunism?

Objectives:

Students will understand:

The background of United States relations with the Soviet Union before World War II.
The extent of collaboration between the United States and the Soviet Union during World War II and the differences of view that developed between the two nations concerning the nature of the postwar world.
The meaning of the doctrine of containment and the specific programs that implemented containment.
The problems of postwar readjustment in the United States, especially controlling inflation.
The nature of the Fair Deal--its successes and failures.
The significance of China’s becoming communist to American foreign policy in Asia.
The circumstances that led to United States participation in a “limited” war in Korea.
The reaction of American public opinion to President Harry Truman’s handling of the “police action” in Korea, including his firing of Douglas MacArthur.
The nature and extent of American fears of internal communist subversion during the early Cold War years.

Core Curriculum Standards: 6.1 A.1-8, 6.2 A.1, 6.2 A.7, 6.2 C.1, 6.2 C.3, 6.2 C.4, 6.2 D.2, 6.2 D.3, 6.2 E.1, 6.2 E.2, 6.2 E.3, 6.3 D.1, 6.3 E.3, 6.3 G.1, 6.3 G.2, 6.4 H.2, 6.4 K.1-2, 4-6, 6.5 B.5, 6.5 B.8, 6.6 A.2-6, 6.6 D.1, 6.6 D.2, 6.6 D.5, 6.6 E.4

Suggested Activities for Chapter 29 The Cold War:

Use art, music, and literature to study the era.
Analyze the influence on American-Soviet relations in the decade following World War II of the following: Yalta Conference, Communist Revolution in China, Korean War, and McCarthyism. After discussing their influence, students will rank them in importance in creating tension in the Cold War.
Use role-playing activities for the Cold War.
View On the Waterfront as a depiction of the 1950s and the controversy concerning labor unions.
Use a variety of primary source materials.

Topic/Unit 14: The Affluent Society - Chapter 30

Essential Questions:

How was the technological, consumer-oriented society of the 1950s remarkably affluent and unified despite the persistence of a less privileged underclass and the existence of a small corps of detractors?
Why did the Supreme Court’s social desegregation decision of 1953 mark the beginning of a civil rights revolution for American blacks?
How did President Eisenhower preside over a business-oriented “dynamic conservatism” that resisted most new reforms without significantly rolling back the activist government programs born in the 1930s?
How did Eisenhower continue to allow containment by building alliances, supporting anticommunist regimes, maintaining the arms race, and conducting limited interventions while also showing an awareness of American limitations and resisting temptations for greater commitments?

Objectives:

Students will understand:

The strengths and weaknesses of the economy in the 1950s and early 1960s.
The changes in the American lifestyle in the 1950s.
The significance of the Supreme Court’s desegregation decision and the early civil rights movement.
The characteristics of Dwight Eisenhower’s middle-of-the-road domestic policy.
The new elements of American foreign policy introduced by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.
The causes and results of increasing United States involvement in the Middle East.
The sources of United States difficulties in Latin America.
The reasons for new tensions with the Soviet Union toward the end of the Eisenhower administration.

Core Curriculum Standards: 6.1 A.1-8, 6.2 A.1, 6.2 A.4, 6.2 B.2, 6.2 B.3, 6.2 B.4, 6.2 B.5, 6.2 B.6, 6.2 C.4, 6.3 E.1, 6.4 K.5, 6.4 K.6, 6.4 L.4, 6.5 A.1, 6.5 A.3, 6.5 A.6, 6.5 B.5, 6.5 B.8, 6.6 B.1-3, 6.6 D.4, 6.6 D.5, 6.6 E.8

Suggested Activities for Chapter 30 The Affluent Society:

Students will debate the role of the automobile in American society.
Role play “What’s My Line?” and present important figures of the era to the class.
Research the ‘beat” poets of the era and create a “poetry corner” as they orally recite favorite poems of the beat era.
Hold a round table debate/discussion on the following: “The most American place in America is the suburbs.”
Analyze and discuss Brinkley’s view that Eisenhower was “cautious in…international affairs.” Students will assess the validity of this statement regarding policies toward Korea, Vietnam, the Suez Canal, Iran, Israel, and the Soviet Union. They will work in groups of 4 and then write up a written evaluation paper. The class as a whole, once groups have reported their assessments, will rank the effectiveness of Eisenhower in handling these crises.
Evaluate in writing the following statement: “To what extent did the decade of the 1950s deserve its reputation as an age of political, social, and cultural conformity.” (1994 AP Exam)
Use a variety of primary source material.

Topic/Unit 15: Civil Rights, Vietnam and the Ordeal of Liberalism - Chapter 31

Essential Questions:

How did Lyndon Johnson use the legacy of John Kennedy plus his own political skills to erect his Great Society and fight the war on poverty with programs for health, education, job training, and urban development?
How did the civil rights movement finally generate sympathy among whites to accomplish the legal end of segregation?
How did the persistence of racism give rise to the black power philosophy and leave many problems unsolved?
How did containment and the U.S. preoccupation with communism lead the nation to use military force against leftist nationalist movements in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and, most disastrously, Vietnam?
Why and how did 1968 become a critical year in American liberalism?

Objectives:

Students will understand:

The new directions of domestic reform manifested by John Kennedy’s New Frontier program.
The new elements added to Kennedy’s program by Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society proposals.
The reasons why the movement for African American civil rights became increasingly assertive in the1960s.
The significance of Martin Luther King, Jr., to the civil rights movement and the importance of other forces, including the Nation of Islam.
The new elements that Kennedy introduced in both the nation’s defense strategy and its foreign policy.
The background and sequence of events leading to the Cuban missile crisis.
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.
The reasons why the 1968 Tet offensive had such a critical impact on both policy toward Vietnam and American domestic policies.

Core Curriculum Standards: 6.1 A.1-8, 6.2 A.1, 6.2 A.3-6, 6.2 B.1, 6.2 B.3-6, 6.2 C.1, 6.2 C.3, 6.2 C.4, 6.2 C.6, 6.2 D.2, 6.2 D.3, 6.2 D.4, 6.2 E.1, 6.2 E.2, 6.2 E.3, 6.3 D.1, 6.3 G.2, 6.4 K.5, 6.4 K.6, 6.4 L.4, 6.4 L.5 6.5 A.2, 6.5 A.4, 6.5 B.5, 6.5 B.7, 6.6 A.2-6, 6.6 B.1-3, 6.6 D.1, 6.6 D.2, 6.6 E.1, 6.6 E.3, 6.6 E.4, 6.6 E.5