High School U.S. History- Resources

USH 1 | Westward Expansion and the
New South Trace how economic developments and the westward movement impacted
regional differences and democracy in the post Reconstruction era.

1. Illustrate the impact of Manifest Destiny on the economic and technological
development of the post-Civil War West (including mining, the cattle
industry, and the transcontinental railroad).

2. Trace the changing role of the American farmer (including establishment of the
Granger movement, the Populist Party, and agrarian rebellion over currency issues).

3. Evaluate the Dawes Act for its effect on tribal identity, land ownership, and
assimilation of American Indians.

4. Explain the impact of the Populist movement on the role of the federal
government in American society.

5. Evaluate Reconstruction Amendments, black codes, Jim Crow,
disenfranchisement, sharecropping, Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896), and the rise
of early Civil Rights Activists as a response to the injustice such as Booker T.
Washington, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and W.E.B. DuBois.

Clay’s American System (BB) Assessment

Transcontinental Railroad (BB) Assessment

Assimilation through Education – Primary Source Set

“Supreme Court Kills Segregation”: Newspaper coverage of Brown v. Board of Education

USH 2 | Industrialization
Analyze industrialization and its impact on the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century.

1. Interpret the changes brought by industrialization to the American economy
(including mass production in factories, creation of corporations and
monopolies, influence of industrialists like John Rockefeller and Andrew
Carnegie, the impact of inventions/innovations and inventors).

2. Compare population changes caused by industrialization (including
settlement patterns of the new immigrants from Europe and China and the
nativist reaction evidenced by the Chinese Exclusion Act).

3. Interpret the impact of industrialization on workers on living conditions
linked to urbanization, tenement living, social gospel, Jane Addams, and the
lack of city services; the responses of workers to work and life challenges
(including the formation of labor unions, the Knights of Labor, the American
Federation of Labor the industrial Workers of the World, the rise of labor
leaders, Eugene V. Debs, Samuel Gompers, the impact of strikes, Haymarket
Riot, Homestead Strike, and Pullman Strike).

4. Analyze the effects of laissez-faire economics on business practices in the
United States and their effects (including John D. Rockefeller, Andrew
Carnegie, JP Morgan, and Bessemer Process, horizontal, vertical integration,
and Sherman Antitrust Act).

5. Trace the evolution from the power of the political machines to Civil Service
reform (including Spoils/patronage system, Tweed Ring, Thomas Nast, and
Pendleton Civil Service Act).

Unions in Paterson, New Jersey (BB) Assessment

Immigration (BB) Assessment

1877 Railroad Strike (BB) Assessment

Anarchism and the Haymarket Affair (BB) Assessment

Haymarket Aftermath (BB) Assessment

The Rockefeller Foundation (BB) Assessment

Jacob Riis (BB) Assessment

Riis’s Urban Photography (BB) Assessment

Labor History (BB) Assessment

Immigration: Challenges for New Americans – Primary Source Set

Profile of inventor Chloe Etta Johnson, 1909

USH 3 | Progressive Movement Evaluate causes, goals, and outcomes of the Progressive Movement.

1. Assess the impact of media and influence of muckrakers on public opinion
during the Progressive movement (including Upton Sinclair, Jacob Riis, and
Ida Tarbell).

2. Trace the development of political, social, and cultural movements and
subsequent reforms (including women’s suffrage, Temperance Movement,
and compulsory public education).

3. Evaluate the limitation of reform efforts of the voices of the Niagara
Movement, the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP), Ida B. Wells, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Marcus
Garvey in response to Jim Crow Laws, Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896).

4. Compare and contrast presidential domestic policies of Theodore Roosevelt,
William Taft, and Woodrow Wilson (including trustbusting, Pure Food and
Drug Act, Meat Inspection Act, conservation, the Hepburn Act, Federal
Reserve, and Federal Trade Commission).

5. Trace national legislation including the use of Sherman Antitrust Act, the
Clayton Antitrust Act, and constitutional amendments (16-19) resulting from
and affecting the Progressive Movement.

Riis’s Urban Photography (BB) Assessment

The Conservation Movement (BB) Assessment

The Role of Women (BB) Assessment

Standard Oil Company (BB) Assessment

Women’s Suffrage – Primary Source Set

Computing division at a government department, early 20th century

Women in the News: Air Force Women Mechanics, 1950. 1:44 

Students performing atmospheric pressure experiments, around 1899

Prof. Maria Mitchell: The Life and Work of America’s Only Woman Astronomer, 1888

Auto repair workers, around 1915-20

Patients and staff at the Tuskegee Institute, around 1915-20

USH 4 | Imperialism and WWI Assess the domestic and foreign developments that contributed to the emergence of the United States as a world power in the twentieth century.

1. Assess causes of the Spanish-American War (including yellow journalism,
the sinking of the USS Maine, and economic interest in Cuba).

2. Explain the role of the Rough Riders on the iconic status of President
Theodore Roosevelt.

3. Analyze consequences of the Spanish-American War (including territorial
expansion in the Pacific and the Caribbean (Treaty of Paris 1898), insurgency
in the Philippines, and establishment of the Anti-Imperialist League).

4. Trace the involvement of the United States in the Hawaiian Islands for
economic and imperialistic interests.

5. Evaluate the role of the Open-Door Policy and the Roosevelt Corollary on
America’s expanded economic and geographic interests.

6. Compare the executive leadership represented by Theodore Roosevelt’s Big
Stick Diplomacy (the Roosevelt Corollary), William Howard Taft’s Dollar
Diplomacy, and Woodrow Wilson’s Moral Diplomacy.

7. Evaluate the factors that led to US involvement in World War I (including
the “Lusitania”, Zimmerman Telegram, and unrestricted submarine
warfare).

8. Investigate controversies over the Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points,
Treaty of Versailles of 1919, and the League of Nations.

9. Evaluate the domestic impact of World War I (including the war mobilization
effort, changes in the workforce, the origins of the Great Migration, and
Schenck vs. United States (1919)).

American Imperialism (BB) Assessment

Explosion of the USS Maine (BB) Assessment

Standard Oil Company (BB) Assessment

Debate Over the League of Nations (BB) Assessment

League of Nations (BB) Assessment

Appeasement at Munich (BB) Assessment

The Spanish-American War: The United States Becomes a World Power – Primary Source Set

Computing division at a government department, early 20th century

USH 5 | 1920s – 1930s Evaluate the impact of social and economic changes and the conflict
between traditionalism and modernism in the 1920s through the 1930s.

7. Debate the causes and effects of the social change and conflict between
traditional and modern culture that took place during the 1920s, including
the role of women, the Red Scare, immigration quotas, Prohibition, and the
Scopes trial.

9. Analyze the Great Depression for its impact on the American family
(including the Bonus Army, Hoovervilles, Dust Bowl, and Dorothea Lange).

10. Investigate conditions created by the Dust Bowl for their impact on
migration patterns during the Great Depression.

Lange’s Iconic Photograph (BB) Assessment

Immigration (BB) Assessment

The Role of Women (BB) Assessment

Breadlines in the 1930s (BB) Assessment

Migrant Mother (BB) Assessment

Migrant Mother Significance (BB) Assessment

The Dust Bowl – Primary Source Set

Found Poetry – Primary Source Set

The Harlem Renaissance – Primary Source Set

“The Cost of the Drought”

Buried farm machinery, Oklahoma

Women Scientists Who Carry on Research Work for Uncle Sam, 1931

Computing division at a government department, early 20th century

Profile of inventor Chloe Etta Johnson, 1909

Letter from Katharine Wright, 1909

Alice C. Evans working in her laboratory, 1928

Auto repair workers, around 1915-20

USH 6 | Great Depression and New Deal Analyze the causes and effects of the Great Depression and New Deal.

3. Analyze President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal as a response to the economic
crisis of the Great Depression (including Keynesian economics and the effectiveness
of New Deal programs in relieving suffering, achieving economic recovery,
promoting organized labor, and incorporating reforms).

Labor Movement in the 1930s (BB) Assessment

Mexican Americans in the 1930s (BB) Assessment

The New Deal – Primary Source Set

USH 7 | World War II
Examine the nation’s role in World War II and the impact on domestic and international affairs.

1. Explain the isolationist debate as it evolved from the 1920s through the
1930s to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the subsequent change in United
States’ foreign policy.

2. Examine roles of significant World War II leaders (including Franklin D.
Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, and
George S. Patton).

3. Identify the impact of military strategies of World War II (including
blitzkrieg, island-hopping, and amphibious landings).

4. Analyze the U.S. response to war crimes committed during World War II like
the Holocaust and Bataan Death March (including the Nuremberg Trials, and
the postwar Universal Declaration of Human Rights).

5. Analyze the reasons for and results of dropping atomic bombs on Japan.

6. Describe the mobilization of various industries to meet war needs.

7. Explain the expansion of the U.S. military through the selective service and
the contributions of minority populations (including Native Americans,
African Americans, Japanese Americans, and women).

8. Trace the way in which the U.S. government took control of the economy
through rationing, price controls, limitations on labor unions, prohibition of
discrimination in the defense industry, the sale of bonds, and wage controls.

9. Discuss the impact and challenges faced by women and minorities during
the war (including A. Phillip Randolph, Bracero Program, the Zoot Suit Riots,
Double V Campaign, and Rosie the Riveter).

10. Summarize the discrimination that Japanese Americans faced during WWII
including internment and Korematsu vs. United States (1944).

The Role of Women (BB) Assessment

Forced Removal of Japanese Americans (BB) Assessment

Japanese Internment (BB) Assessment

Iwo Jima (BB) Assessment

Nagasaki (BB) Assessment

Labor History (BB) Assessment

Japanese American Internment – Primary Source Set

Presidential Speeches (specifically, “Franklin D. Roosevelt’s ‘Infamy’ address requesting a declaration of war against Japan, December 8, 194”) – Primary Source Set

Women Scientists Who Carry on Research Work for Uncle Sam, 1931

Elizabeth Bigelow Stewart interview, Veterans History Project

Women in the News: Air Force Women Mechanics, 1950. 1:44

The Public Health Nurse, around 1914-18

Operating a hand drill, working on a dive bomber, 1943

Training volunteer nurse’s aides, 1943

USH 8 | Post WWII: President Truman
and President Eisenhower Assess the evolving role of the U.S. in global affairs and the domestic impact on national security, individual freedoms, and changing culture.

1. Distinguish between cold war and conventional war.

2. Locate areas of conflict during the Cold War from 1945 to 1960 (including
East and West Germany, Hungary, Poland, Cuba, Korea, and China).

3. Analyze the breakdown of relations between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. after
WWII.

4. Identify and explain the steps the U.S. took to contain communism during
the Truman and Eisenhower administrations.

5. Describe how the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan deepened the
tensions between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.

6. Identify the importance of the following on Cold War tensions: Berlin Blockade,
Berlin Airlift, NATO, Warsaw Pact, and Iron Curtain.

7. Evaluate the role, function, and purpose of the United Nations (UN).

8. Examine the United States’ reaction to Communist takeover in China.

9. Summarize the Korean War and its impact on the Cold War.

10. Describe U.S. government efforts to control the spread of communism
within the United States and impact of the Red Scare on individual
freedoms.

11. Discuss the role of the space race and the arms race in the Cold War
(including Sputnik, the U-2 incident, and NASA).

12. Explain the social and cultural changes in post war America (including the
G.I. Bill, Interstate Highway Act, the Baby Boom, and the impact of
television).

Cold War Foreign Policy (BB) Assessment

Soviets in Berlin (BB) Assessment

USH 9 |President Kennedy,
President Johnson, and President Nixon Demonstrate an understanding of domestic and international issues from each administration.

1. Analyze the domestic events of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon
(including The New Frontier, Great Society, the Silent Majority, the anti-war
and counter-cultural movements, the Watergate scandal, and the Supreme
Court case, U.S. vs. Nixon (1974)).

2. Debate the reasons for the nation’s changing immigration policy, with
emphasis on how the Immigration Act of 1965 and successor actions have
transformed American society.

3. Analyze the impact of the African American Civil Rights Movement on other
movements (including American Indian Movement (AIM), United Farm
Workers (UFW), and the Disability Rights Movement).

4. Describe the changing roles of women in society as reflected in the entry of
more women into the labor force and the changing family structure
(including the Equal Pay Act, and the modern women’s movement).

5. Analyze the impact of the environmental movement and the development
of environmental protection laws.

6. Explain how the federal, state, and local governments have responded to
demographic and social changes, including population shifts to the suburbs,
racial concentrations in the cities, Rustbelt-to-Sunbelt migration, and drug
abuse.

7. Analyze the international policies and actions taken as a response to the
Cold War (including U.S. involvement in Cuba, the escalation of the war in
Vietnam as a result of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, and de-escalation of
Cold War tensions through détente).

Civil Rights Movement in Context (BB) Assessment

Mexican American Rights (BB) Assessment

The Role of Women (BB) Assessment

Greensboro Sit-Ins (BB) Assessment

United Farm Workers (UFW) (BB) Assessment

The Sea and Rachel Carson, 1953

America’s Great Potential

USH 11 | Civil Rights Movement Evaluate the impact of the Civil Rights Movement on social and political change in the United States.

1. Explain the importance of President Truman’s order to integrate the U.S.
military and the federal government.

2. Trace the federal government’s involvement in the modern Civil Rights
Movement (including the abolition of the poll tax, nationalization of state
militias, Brown vs. Board of Education (1954), the Civil Rights Acts of 1957
and 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965).

3. Explain contributions of individuals and groups to the modern Civil Rights
Movement (including Martin Luther King, Jr., James Meredith, Medgar
Evers, Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the
National Association for the Advancement Colored People (NAACP), and the
grassroots efforts of the Civil Rights movement (civil rights foot soldiers)).

4. Describe the development of the Black Power Movement (including the
ideology of self-defense which inspired the change in focus of the SNCC, the
rise of Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, and the Black Panther Movement).

5. Describe the significance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a
Birmingham Jail” and his “I Have a Dream” speech.

6. Describe the accomplishments of the modern civil rights movement
(including the growth of the African American middle class, increased
political power, and declining rates of African American poverty).

7. Evaluate the effectiveness of major non-violent demonstrations and events
on the Civil Rights Movement (including Montgomery Bus Boycott, sit-ins,
Freedom Rides, the March on Washington, and Selma March).

Civil Rights Movement in Context (BB) Assessment

Olympics Protest (BB) Assessment

Little Rock (BB) Assessment

Greensboro Sit-Ins (BB) Assessment

Kathleen Cleaver Interview (BB) Assessment

Nashville Riot (BB) Assessment

The NAACP: A Century in the Fight for Freedom – Primary Source Set

Rosa Parks – Primary Source Set

The Role of Women (BB) Assessment

Jim Crow and Segregation – Primary Source Set

Women’s Suffrage – Primary Source Set

The NAACP: A Century in the Fight for Freedom – Primary Source Set

The Civil Rights Movement– Primary Source Set

Washington, D.C., science class, 1942

USH 12 | 1992 to the Present Explain key domestic issues as well as America’s role in the changing world from 1992 to present.

1. Examine domestic issues (including Contract with America, Impeachment
Trial of William “Bill” Clinton, Eminent Domain, No Child Left Behind,
Hurricane Katrina, and Affordable Care Act of 2010).

2. Describe the reactions to domestic and global terrorism (including
Oklahoma City bombing, terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, Operation
Iraqi Freedom, the War in Afghanistan, the U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act,
Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Homeland Security).