Unit 7

UNIT 7: 1890-1945 – The American Pageant chapters 27-35; Don’t Know Much About History pages 285-398

Content: An increasingly pluralistic United States faced profound domestic and global challenges, debated the proper degree of government activism, and sought to define its international role.  Includes: The formation of the Industrial Workers of the World and the AFL; industrialization and technology, mass production and mass consumerism, the radio and the movies; WWI; Harlem Renaissance; The Great Depression and the New Deal, and WWII.

Key Concepts:

7.1: Government, political and social organizations struggled to address the effects of large-scale industrialization, economic uncertainty, and related social changes such as urbanization and mass migration.

7.2: A revolution in communications and transportation technology helped to create a new mess culture and spread of “modern” values and ideas, even as cultural conflict between groups increased under the pressure of migration, world wars, and economic distress.

7.3 Global conflicts over resources, territories and ideologies renewed debates over the nation’s values and its role in the world, while simultaneously propelling the United States into a dominant international military, political, cultural, and economic position.

Activities:

History Logs – notes and short responses to reading assignments.

Primary Source Analysis: Early 1900s new transportation advertisements; 1920s advertisements; Espionage Act of 1917; Sedition Act of 1917; Eugene Deb’s Speech Condemning Espionage Ace and Sedition Act; The Zimmermann Note; FDR’s 1^stInaugural Address; Roosevelt’s Court Packing Plan; FDR’s Day of Infamy Speech; Truman’s The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb; New Deal political cartoons (pro and con), graph showing economic cycles during the Great Depression and WWII.

Viewpoints: Japanese internment during WWII?

DBQ Deconstruction: DBQ on how the different policies of FDR and Hoover toward the proper role of government reflected five decades of debates about citizenship, economic rights, and the public good.  Be sure to indicate how specific policies reflect the global economic crisis of the 1930s.

Students will write an essay comparing Wilson’s Neutrality document to George Washington’s, and discuss the changes, if any, in the context in which U.S. foreign policy was made.

Unit Test – Multiple Choice Questions; Short Response Questions; DBQ and Long Question: To what extent were the policies of the New Deal a distinct turning point in U.S. History, and to what extent were they merely an extension of Progressive Era policy goals?  Confine your answer to the programs/policies that addressed the specific needs of American workers.

During this unit students will discuss possible answers to the following essential questions:

Identity: How did the continuing debates over immigration and assimilation reflect changing ideals of national and ethnic identity?  How did class identities change in this period?

Work, Exchange, and Technology: How did movements for political and economic reform take shape in this period, and how effective were they in achieving their goals?

Peopling: Why did public attitudes towards immigration become negative during this time period?  Why did opposition emerge to various reform programs?

Politics and Power: How did reformist ideals change and reformers took them up in different time periods?  Why did opposition emerge to various reform programs?

America in the World: Why did U.S. leaders decide to become involved in global conflicts such as the Spanish American War, World War I, and World War II?  How did debates over interventions reflect public views of America’s role in the world?

Environment and Geography: Why did reformers seek for the government to wrest control of the environment and national resources from commercial interests?

Ideas, Beliefs, and Cultures: How did “modern” cultural values evolve in response to developments in technology?  How did debates over the role of women in American public life reflect changing social realities?