United States History (Credit Recovery)

Syllabus:

Semester 1:

Section 1: A New Nation Transforms

In this section, you will learn about:

• Foundations of American democracy, the Constitution, and early laws
• Technologies and land policies that led to westward expansion and the market revolution
• Southern economy, politics, and culture
• How the conflict over slavery led to the Civil War
• Post-war Reconstruction
• The industrial revolution and its impact 
• The Gilded Age

• The impact of technologies and innovations on the growth of big business
• Westward movement

• How the U.S. government and westward settlement impacted Native American tribes

Lessons:

• The Founding of the Nation and the Challenge of Slavery – Part 1
• The Founding of the Nation and the Challenge of Slavery – Part 2
• Manifest Destiny and the Market Revolution
• The Breaking and Reshaping of the New Nation – Part 1
• The Breaking and Reshaping of the New Nation – Part 2
• The Rise of Industrial America
• Big Business and Robber Barons in the Railroad Age
• Western Expansion into Contested Lands

Section 2:The Gilded Age In America

In this section, you will learn about:

• Urbanization and the rise of cities
• Development of a mass consumer culture and its impact on norms, practices, and ways of life
• The new southern economy and the rise of segregation in the South
• Working conditions that led to the rise of influential labor organizations
• Politics in the Gilded Age 
• The rise of Populism
• Women’s participation in political life in the late 19th century

Lessons:

• The American City and its People
• Leisure and Mass Consumer Culture
• The New South
• Working Class Politics and Resistance
• Gilded Age Politics and the Populist Response

Section 3: The Progressive Era

In this section, you will learn about:

• The Progressive Era and impact of Progressivism
• Women’s fight for the right to vote 
• Social control as related to progressive reform
• Progressive politics and reforms under the presidential administrations of Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, and Woodrow Wilson
• Expansion of the federal government for progressive reforms related to consumer protection, labor policies, business regulation, environmental conservation, banking, and alcohol prohibition
• Radical reform movements and groups that progressives excluded (Blacks, Native Americans, women)
• Socialists in America

Lessons:

• The Origins of the Progressive Movement
• State and Local Progressivism
• Progressivism and Social Control
• National Progressive Politics 
• The Limits of Progressive Reform

Section 4: American Imperialism and Involvement In WWI

In this section, you will learn about:

• The United States’ role in the world
• Domestic policy changes in the late 19th century
• The Spanish American War
• The Philippine War 
• The United States as an imperial power
• World War I 
• The lasting impacts of World War I

Lessons:

• New Imperialism and the United States’ Role in the World
• The Spanish-American War and American Imperialism
• The United States Enters World War I
• America at War: On the Homefront and the Battlefields
• Lasting Impacts of U.S. Involvement in World War I

Section 5: America from the Roaring Twenties to the Great Depression

In this section, you will learn about:

• U.S. peacetime economy following World War I
• The United States’ changing role in the world 
• Changes in mass production and manufacturing 
• Consumerism and mass culture in the 1920s 
• The Harlem Renaissance
• Post-war changes in America including the labor movement of the 1920s, the “Red Scare,” the “New Woman,” and challenges faced by Black Americans
• How social changes like the anti-immigration policy and Fundamentalism impacted America
• The Great Depression
• Roosevelt’s approach to repairing the nation after the Great Depression including New Deal programs 
• How Americans navigated the Great Depression in the 1930s

Lessons:

• The “Roaring Twenties” and the New Economic Order
• Consumerism and Mass Culture
• Conflict and Reform in a Changing Society
• The Great Depression in America
• The New Deal

Semester 2:

Section 1: The U.S. in a World of Crisis

In this section, you will learn about:

• The rise of fascism and the Nazis in Europe
• The events leading up to the outbreak of World War II 
• The reasons why the United States stayed out of World War II and why the nation eventually entered into it
• The American homefront experience during the war
• Key battles and events and the wartime experiences of American soldiers
• Lasting political, economic, social, and cultural impacts of U.S. involvement in World War II

Lessons:

• World War II and American Intervention
• Preparing for War and the Homefront Experience
• America at War
• Lasting Impacts of U.S. Involvement in World War II

Section 2: Containing Communism and Constructing the American Dream

In this section, you will learn about:

• The context for the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union
• Competing economic and political ideologies of capitalism and socialism
• How anticommunism entered into and impacted American politics
• How the Cold War provided an opportunity for civil rights activists to fight against racial discrimination in the U.S.
• The Second Red Scare
• Decolonization and how the process played into the Cold War
• The origins of the Korean War and U.S. involvement in the conflict
• The post-war economic boom and its political, economic, and social impacts
• New technologies, such as the automobile and the television, and their impact on American culture and society
• Persistent social problems such as poverty, racial discrimination, and environmental harms that drew criticism and social activism leading into the 1960s

Lessons:

• Origins of the Cold War
• Anti Communism and American Politics after the War
• Containment and the Cold War in Korea
• Living the Dream in Postwar America
• The Other America and Seeds of Dissent

Section 3: An Era of Social Change

In this section, you will learn about:

• The Kennedy administration’s domestic policies and leadership during the Cold War
• President Johnson’s “Great Society” and the challenges it sought to address
• The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s that took action to end racial discrimination and segregation in the South
• The rise of Dr. Martin Luther King and his impact on the civil rights movement
• Black nationalism and the role of Malcolm X in the movement
• The origins of the war in Vietnam and why the United States decided to become involved
• Fighting conditions in Vietnam and the impact the war had on Vietnamese civilians and American soldiers
• The antiwar movement that arose in the United States in response to the Vietnam War
• Various movements that emerged to tackle social and environmental problems and inequities in the 1960s and 1970s, including the women’s rights movement, the American Indian movement, the gay and lesbian movement, and the environmental movement

Lessons:

• Kennedy’s New Frontier at Home and Abroad
• Johnson’s Great Society and its Limits
• Taking on Segregation in the Civil Rights Movement
• The United States and the Vietnam War
• The Civil Rights Revolution Expands

Section 4: America Shifts to the Right

In this section, you will learn about:

• The Nixon presidency and the Watergate scandal
• How the U.S. withdrew from Vietnam and the outcome of the war
• The conservative shift that occurred in the 1970s and 1980s and the impact of conservative economic policies
• Key events and domestic policies during the Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations
• How the Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations faced foreign challenges, particularly in Latin America and the Middle East
• How the Cold War finally came to an end and the conflicts in Eastern Europe that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union 
• The rise of computers and the internet, and the impacts of revolutionary technological change
• Globalization and the “new economy” at the end of the 20th century

Lessons:

• The Fall of Nixon and the End of Vietnam
• The Conservative Resurgence
• Foreign Challenges and America’s Role in the Post-Cold War Era
• The Clinton Years: Computerization, Globalization, and America at the End of the Millennia

Section 5: America in the 21st Century: Challenges at Home and Abroad

In this section, you will learn about:

• The George W. Bush administration’s domestic policies and its response to multiple crises
• The September 11 terrorist attacks 
• The “War on Terror” waged by the United States and its impacts both at home and abroad
• The context for the U.S. waging wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
• The events that led to the Great Recession and the response from government to soften its negative impacts
• The political, economic, and social impacts of the Great Recession 
• The Obama administration’s domestic and international policies
• Events leading up to the 2016 presidential election
• Significant actions and measures carried out by the Trump administration
• The Trump-Ukraine scandal and the first impeachment of President Trump
• The COVID-19 pandemic and the government response at the federal level
• The January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and the second impeachment of President Trump
• Challenges facing Americans today, including wealth inequality, racial inequality, mass incarceration, health challenges, political polarization, globalization, climate change, and immigration.

Lessons:

• The Second Bush Presidency and the September 11 Attacks
• America’s War on Terror
• The Great Recession and the Rise of Barack Obama
• The Trump Presidency from Beginning to End
• Challenges Facing Americans Today