8Th Grade US History: Semester Class (Spring - Part 2)

This is a semester course that meets once a week for 1 hour. This class examines United States history, starting with the Gilded Age and concluding with the war on terror. 

The class is a lecture- and discussion-based course. Participation is required. The course will provide multiple perspectives, including the historical perspectives of women, and Native Americans, as well as exploring the experiences of racial and ethnic groups, including African American and migrant history. 

No prior knowledge is required. 

This course follows the California history and social science standards for US history. Students will study the ideas, issues, and events from the Spanish American War up to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the United States. After reviewing the development of America’s democratic institutions, students will learn about the challenges facing the United States. 

The curriculum will be as follows:

Week 1: 
American Foreign Policy, 1890-1914 
The Spanish-American War and Overseas Empires 
Roosevelt's Rough Riders
Economic Imperialism in East Asia 
Roosevelt’s “Big Stick” Foreign Policy 
Taft’s “Dollar Diplomacy” 

Week 2: WW1
Causes of the Great War
Archduke Francis Ferdinand 
Assassination
Austria-Hungary declares war 
Invasions 
First Battle of the Marne

Week 3: WW1
Naval blockade 
Gallipoli Peninsula
The Lusitania 
Italy 
Attack on Verdun. 

Week 4: WW1
War tech 
Naval Battle of Jutland 
Battle of the Somme
The United States declares war 
General John J. Pershing, 

Week 5: WW1
America Joins the war
Russia armistice with Germany 
Battle of Cantigny  
Crossing the Marne River 
Battle at St. Mihiel salient and Meusse-Argonne 
End of the War 
Pandemic of 1918

Week 6: 
The Stock Market Crash of 1929
President Hoover’s Response 
The Depths of the Great Depression
Assessing the Hoover Years on the Eve of the New Deal

Week 7: 
The Rise of Franklin Roosevelt 
The First New Deal 
The Second New Deal 

Week 8:
The rise of fascism 
Imperial Japan 
Anti-Comintern Pact
Japan invades China 
Hitler annexes Austria into Germany

Week 9:
Germany invades Poland
France and Britain declare war
Invasion of Denmark and Norway
Blitzkrieg
Battle of Britain
Tripartite Pact creating the Axis Alliance

Week 10: 
Germany and the Axis Powers attack Russia 
Pearl Harbor 
US enters World War II 
Battle of Midway
Allies invade Sicily
Italy surrenders 

Week 11:
Holocust
Mussolini escapes 
D-day and the Normandy invasion
Invasion of France 
Paris liberated 
Battle of the Bulge
US Marines invade Iwo Jima
President Franklin Roosevelt dies/President Truman
Hiroshima/Nagasaki
End of the War

Week 12:
The Challenges of Peacetime 
The Marshall Plan
The Cold War 
The American Dream 
Popular Culture and Mass Media 
The African American Struggle for Civil Rights

Week 13:
The Kennedy Promise
Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society 
The Civil Rights Movement Marches On 
Challenging the Status Quo 

Week 14: 
Identity Politics in a Fractured Society 
Vietnam
Watergate: Nixon’s Domestic Nightmare 
The OPEC crisis
Jimmy Carter in the Aftermath of the Storm

Week 15:
The Reagan Revolution 
Political and Cultural Fusions 
A New World Order 
Bill Clinton and the New Economy 
Impeachment 
Bush v. Gore

Week 16:
September 11, 2001
The War on Terror 
The Domestic Mission 
New Century, Old Disputes 
Hope and Change
New sources and contributions of large-scale immigration.