This is second 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 second of 3 terms of this class, as it is expansive. This is the second part of this course and will cover the 1920s through World War II.

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 2: Industrialization, World Wars and Great Depression
A number of factors changed the face of American life during the turn of the 20th century. Poorly instituted reconstruction ideals, new immigration, and rapidly changing technology in the fields of transportation, communication, and production, led to rapid industrialization and the emergence of millionaire businessmen,  urban growth, and new types of immigration. As a consequence of the growing density of urban centers, westward expansion began and changed the ways of life for Native American Indians and established the political borders of much of the United States. The 1920s and 1930s in American history provide a sharp contrast to one another. In the 1920s, new economic opportunities made new technologies available to more people. Women found themselves free to live independent lives, and there was an explosive new culture to discover. However, the 1930s saw much of this done away with as the Great Depression set in. Women lost their jobs and their newfound sense of freedom, many American families their sense of stability, and the previously exciting new pop culture reflected the dustier, more difficult existence and desires for escape of the period. Less than thirty years after World War I, the United States finds itself involved in another war, this time on two fronts: Asia and Europe. The country finds itself pulled out of the Great Depression by the power of a War Economy, and life changes yet again for Americans. The war effort is an “all hands on deck” situation, with men off to war in whatever capacity they can serve in, women coming out of retirement to work in factories, and celebrities helping raise money for the War Effort. By the time the War ends, the country is thrust into a war over influence, where Americans are committed to stopping the spread of communism at any cost- even if that means sacrificing some constitutional principles. 



Week 1 Lesson 1: Reactions to the “new” immigration
-Cultural Pluralism
-Nativist Reactions
-Impact on established minorities
-"Yellow Peril"
-Quota Acts of 1921 & 1924

Week 1 Lesson 2: The Frontier
-Land West of the Mississippi
-Native American Nations
-The Homestead Act

Week 2 Lesson 3: The Impact of Industrialization
-Improved Transportation
-Western Migration of Immigrants

Week 2 Lesson 4: Native Americans
-Pressures of advancing white settlement
-Treaties & legal status
-The Indian Wars
-Legislating Indian Life
-Indian Civil Rights Laws 


Week 2 Lesson 5: Reform in America
-Pressures for reform
-Progressives supported the use of government power for different reform purposes
-Struggle for fair standards of business operation and working conditions
-Increasing inequalities between wealth and poverty
-Rising power and influence of the middle class

Week 2 Lesson 6: The Muckrackers and reform
-Novelists (Norris, Sinclair)
-Legislation (Pure Food and Drug Act, 1906, Meat Inspection Act, 1906)
-Magazine writers (Steffens, Tarbell)
- settlement movement and the problems of poverty

Week 3 Lesson 7: Women's Rights 
-Suffrage movement
-Fight for birth control
-Temperance Movement 

Week 3 Lesson 8: The Black Movement and reform 
-Formation of NAACP
-Ida Wells
-Marcus Garvey

Week 3 Lesson 9: Progressivism and government action
-Emerging Progressive movement: political reform
-Influence of America’s urban middle class
-Municipal and state reform



Week 4 Lesson 10: The stewardship theory of the Presidency
-Theodore Roosevelt 
-Legislation strengthening railroad regulation and consumer protection
-Trust-Busting court cases
-Conservation

Week 4 Lesson 11: The 1912 Election
-Woodrow Wilson
-Graduated income tax
-Antitrust Act and FTC
-Women’s Suffrage amendment
-Isolationism

Week 4 Lesson 12: American Colonialism 
-An emerging global involvement
-Perry and the “opening” of Japan  
-United States and China
-Acquisition of Hawaii

Week 5 Lesson 13: The Spanish-American War
-Imperialism
-Causes for war
-United States Empire- Puerto Rico, Cuba
-Acquisition of the Philippines
-Panama Canal

Optional Exam 1

Week 5 Lesson 14: World War I 
-United States Involvement 
-Causes of US entry into WWI
-US role in war

Week 5 Lesson 15: Wartime constitutional issues
-War opposition and patriotism: the draft issue
-Espionage and sedition acts
-Red Scare, 1918-1919
-League of Nations

Week 6 Lesson 16: Impact of War
-Effect on gender roles, African Americans
-African Americans move to Northern Cities
-The 20s: Business Boom or false prosperity?

Week 6 Lesson 17: Problems on the farm
-Expansion, mortgages, and advancing technology
-Farmers and minorities fail to share in economic benefit
-Speculative boom: the “big bull market”

Week 6 Lesson 18: Mass consumption and the clash of cultural values
-The Automobile: new industries, products, services
-Installment buying
-Real estate boom and suburban development
-Economic implications 

Week 7 Lesson 19: Entertainment
-Radio
-Motion Pictures
-Advertising
-Cultural homogenization

Week 7 Lesson 20: Constitutional and Legal Issues
-Threats to Civil Liberties: Red Scare, KKK
-Prohibition (18th Amendment)
-Stimulus in crime
-Science, religion, and education: the Scopes Trial
-Restrictions on immigration: closing of the golden door

Week 7 Lesson 21: Shifting Cultural Values
-Revolution in morals and manners: Fads, flappers, Freud
-Women’s changing roles
-The literary scene
--Sinclair Lewis, Ernest Hemingway, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, and F. Scott Fitzgerald
--The Harlem Renaissance: Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes, Bessie Smith


Week 8 Lesson 22: The Great Depression
-Onset of the Depression
-Weakness in the economy
-Overproduction/underconsumption 
-Overexpansion of credit (stock on margin)
-The Stock Market Crash
-Worldwide nature- growing financial interdependence

Week 8 Lesson 23: Government Response
-The Hoover Response
-Trickledown economics
-Reconstruction Finance Corporation
-Unemployment, the Bonus Army, Hoovervilles, impact on women and minorities
-FDR and the New Deal
--Constitutional Issues

Week 8 Lesson 24: The Dust Bowl 
-The New Deal
-Indian Reorganization Acts (1934)**
-Culture of Depression
-Literature: John Steinbeck, Langston Hughes

Week 9 Lesson 25: Isolation and neutrality
-Causes of disillusion and pacifism
-Neutrality Acts of 1935-37
-Spanish Civil War: testing war tech and ideology
Optional Exam 1

Week 9 Lesson 26: Failure of peace; triumph of aggression
-Aggressions of Japan, Germany, Italy; 1932-1940
-Appeasement: The Munich Conference
-Gradual US involvement 
-Neutrality Acts of 1939 “Cash and Carry”
-Lend-Lease Act and 50 overage destroyers deal

Week 9 Lesson 27: The United States in WWII
-Pearl Harbor
-The human dimension of the war
-The arsenal of democracy
-Role of women (WACs, Rosie the Riveter, return of the retired)
-Allied Strategy and leadership
-A Two-Front War

Week 10 Lesson 28: The Home Front 
-Mobilization: the draft, minority issues
-Financing the war: war bond drives, Hollywood goes to war
-Rationing

Week 10 Lesson 29: US in Japan
-The Manhattan Project (role of refugees)
-Truman’s Decision to use the bomb against Japan
-US occupation of Japan: the MacArthur Constitution
-Japanese War Crime Trials
-Incarceration of West Coast Japanese-Americans

Week 10 Lesson 30: Presentation of "New Ethnicity" project:
-choose a “new ethnicity” immigrant and create a representation of what their life might have been like- why they left and what it was like in the New World. Can be any medium (short story/essay, video, cartoon, discussion, journal entries…)
Optional Exam 2