This is first part of a complete history of the United States. It will be taught through a combination of discussion and lecture, depending on the level of engagement students are willing to offer. I often use memes in my classes to humorously underline points. I also use primary and secondary sources, including writings, pictures, and artwork. This particular curriculum that I have created is unique in that it was my keystone education project and has been looked at rigorously by educational professionals, and is National Council for the Social Studies aligned. The specific alignments can be found in the Syllabus provided upon enrollment in the classroom. 

Students who have taken classes with me will be familiar with my "hot takes" tone- pointing out contradiction, racism, sexism, etc., and leading discussion about these topics. I strongly believe that to make history relatable, we need to be constantly making connections to modern day. Many history classes that I have observed wave away the sexism/racism/etc. of historical time periods as being products of the time. In this class, they will be dealt with head on and evaluated by the students. The experiences and contributions of minorities are fundamental to this class, not side panels. 

Teaching US history today is highly contentious. Many people disagree about what should and should not be included. I believe that students, as future adults, need to see the entire picture of the United States; its accomplishments as well as its many defects and faults. The interesting thing about the United States is that it was a nation founded on ideals, an experiment that had never been undertaken before. The guiding force for this class will be the US Constitution, and the enduring question: To what extent has the United States lived up to its initial ideals? This is a question we will come back to time and time again in this class and will form the basis for students final project, which is to lead a discussion on how has the US lived up to its ideals as set forth in the Constitution? 

This is the first of 3 terms of this class, as it is expansive. This is the first part of this course and will cover from the Revolutionary War to the turn of the 20th century. 

The United States started as a Grand Experiment of English Liberal ideals set forth by Enlightenment thinkers. The unique geography of the continent the experiment was set on set forth arguably the most influential nation the world has ever known. The challenges set forth by the United State’s unique blend of people and resources, as well as by foreign forces, has seen the initial ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness tried time and time again. The United States is constantly reevaluating and reinventing itself through government, economics, and culture. 

Part 1: Constitutional Foundations for the United States Democratic Republic
The first 90 years of the United States was a tumultuous time that saw three wars, including one that nearly ripped apart the Union. This is framed through the lens of the revolutionary concepts and ideals that led to the creation of the United States Constitution and Declaration of Independence, and English liberal concepts involving who deserves to vote and proper function of a government. Contradictions must be acknowledged when talking about Constitutional ideals in the treatment of African slaves and Native American Indians. During this time also, there is tremendous land acquisition, growing urbanization and industrialization, and the birth of American Reform Tradition and the two-party system. 
Issue Statement: To what extent was the United States Constitution a “Grand Experiment”?

Week 1 Lesson 1: The Constitution: The Foundation of American Society
Historical Foundations:
-17th- and 18th- Century Enlightenment Thought
-European intellectuals (Locke, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Smith)
-Key events (Magna Carta, habeas corpus, English Bill of Rights, Glorious Revolution)

Week 1 Lesson 2: The peoples and peopling of the American colonies (voluntary and involuntary) 
-Native American Indians (relations between colonists and NAI, trade, alliances, forced labor, warfare)
-Slave Trade
-Varieties of immigration motivation, ethnicities, and experiences

Week 1 Lesson 3: Colonial Experience: political rights and mercantile relationships
-Colonial Charters and self-government: Mayflower Compact, town meetings, House of Burgesses, local government, property rights, enforceable contracts, Albany Plan of Union
-Native American governmental systems
-Colonial Slavery (Slave resistance, contradiction between emerging ideals of freedom and liberty)

Week 2 Lesson 4: The Revolutionary War and the Declaration of Independence
-Causes of Revolution (Zenger Case, Salutary neglect)
-Revolutionary Ideology
-Revolutionary leaders: Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry
-Slavery, African-Americans, and the outcome of the American Revolution
-African American role in the Revolution
-Growth of the “Free Black” population

Week 2 Lesson 5: Constitutional Convention
-Representation and Process
-Framers of the Constitution (James Madison) 
-Plans of Government (Virginia Plan, New Jersey Plan, Connecticut Plan)
-Conflict and Compromise: seeking effective institutions
-Protecting liberty against abuses of power
-Power separated and balanced
-The constitution, slavery, and fear of tyrannical powers of government

Week 2 Lesson 6: Ratification
-The Federalist Papers- a New York activity with widespread influence 
-The debate: Federalist and Anti-Federalist arguments

Week 3 Lesson 7: The Bill of Rights 
-Basic Structure and function: three branches and their operation

Week 3 Lesson 8: Basic Constitutional Principles
-National power
-Federalism
-The judiciary
-Civil liberties
-Criminal procedures 
-The rights of women under the Constitution
-Presidential power 
-The separation of powers
-Avenues of representation
-Constitutional changes and flexibility

Week 3 Lesson 9: War of 1812 
-A new nation in a world at war
-The failure of Republican diplomacy
-Impact on Native American Indians, Spain, and industry 
-Monroe Doctrine
Optional Exam 1 Posted

Week 4 Lesson 10: The Constitution Tested: Nationalism and Sectionalism 
-Factors unifying the United States, 1789-1861
-The first and second two-party systems
-The market economy and interstate commerce
-The Marshall Court

Week 4 Lesson 11: Constitutional stress and crisis 
-Developing sectional differences and philosophies of government
-The growth of urban and industrial patterns of life in the North
-The transportation revolution
-Introduction of the factory system
-Working conditions

Week 4 Lesson 12: Life in the US
-Women and work 
-Urban problems 
-Middle-class and working-class life in the pre-Civil War North (families, gender roles, schooling, childhood, living conditions, status of free Blacks) 
-Foreign immigration and nativist reactions (Jews, Irish, Germans)
-Patterns of Southern development (growth of cotton cultivation, movement into the Old Southwest, women on plantations)
-Life under slavery (slave laws, material conditions of life, women and children, religious and cultural expression, resistance)

Week 5 Lesson 13: Equal rights and justice
-Expansion of franchise, search for minority rights, expansion of slavery, abolitionist movement, the underground railroad, denial of Native American Indian rights and land ownership
-Political democratization: national political nominating convention, secret ballot
-The rise of mass politics (John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, the spoils system, the bank war, Martin Van Buren)
 
Week 5 Lesson 14: Native Americans
-History of Indian relations from 1607
-Native American cultural survival strategies (cultural adaptation, cultural revitalization movements, Pan-Indian movements, resistance)
-The removal policy: Worcester v. Georgia, 1832

Week 5 Lesson 15: Manifest Destiny 
-The Louisiana Purchase
-Exploring and settling the West 
-Motives for and implications of expansion and western settlement
-Politics of western expansion (Manifest Destiny, the Texas and Oregon questions, the Mexican War)
-Impact of western expansion upon Mexicans and Native Americans

Week 6 Lesson 16: The Constitution in jeopardy: The American Civil War
-Causes: United States society divided
-Party disintegration and realignment and polarization
-Abraham Lincoln, the secession crisis, and compromise efforts
-Impact of war on home front
-Government policy during the war

Week 6 Lesson 17: Civil War ct. 
-African-American participation 
-Effects
-The Emancipation Proclamation
-The Gettysburg Address
-13th Amendment

Week 6 Lesson 18: Reconstruction
-Lincoln’s Plan
-13th, 14th, 15th Amendments 
-Impeachments of Andrew Johnson
-Shifting relationships between federal gov. & state gov.

Week 7 Lesson 19: The North
-Economic & Technological impacts
-Expanding World Markets
-Developing Labor Needs

Week 7 Lesson 20: The New South
-Status of Freedmen
 -Struggle for political control in the New South
-Supreme Court Interpretations of the 13th & 14th Amendments
-The “proper role” of African Americans 

Week 7 Lesson 21: The End of Reconstruction
-Disputed Election of 1876
-End of military occupation
-Restoration of white control in South
-Plessy v. Ferguson


Week 8 Lesson 22: The Rise of American Business, Industry, and Labor 1865-1920
-Rise of Monopolies
-Expanding Markets
-New industries (steel, transportation, communication)
-Transportation (railroads & automobiles)
-Rockefeller, Carnegie, Ford

Week 8 Lesson 23: Labor’s response to economic change: organize. 
-Efforts of National Labor Unions
- Unions & Social Issues (education)
-Attitudes towards immigrants, African-Americans, Women

Week 8 Lesson 24: Impact of Industrialization
-Urban Growth
-Attractions
-Problems
-Social Darwinism

Week 9 Lesson 25: Work and Workers
-Factories and People
-Working Conditions
-Living Conditions

Week 9 Lesson 26: The People
-The Great Migration
-Women, Families, and Work
-Victorian Ideal vs. Reality 
-Outside and Inside the Home
-Jobs: domestics, laundresses, textile workers, telephone operator, typists

Week 9 Lesson 27: Women, Families, and Work
-Emerging Family Patterns
-Problems of child labor, elderly, disabled, and African-American Women (case study)
-Role of Religion
-The growing Middle Class

Week 10 Lesson 28: Art and Literature 

Week 10 Lesson 29: Immigration
-New Sources- the “new ethnicity”
-Case studies- Italian, Chinese, Russian/Jewish
-Urbanization


Week 10 Lesson 30: Discussion: How has the United States lived up to its ideals set forth in the Constitution during this period?
-Students should have arguments and discussion questions prepared