American History II - 11th Grade History

Foxcroft Academy: 2002-03 School Year

Theme for the Course:

American History from 1877 to 1968, focusing on political, economic and social developments, including but not limited to race relations, progressive reforms, American involvement in the world wars, FDR and the Depression, the Cold War, Civil Rights and Vietnam.

Grading Policy

In order to assess students according to their progress in meeting individual learning standards, there will be six all essay examinations covering different units. Inquiry and Analysis papers will be required every few weeks. In addition, students will conduct a semester long examination of the civil rights movement from 1863 to 1968, focusing on the people and events that made the period between 1954 and 1968 such a turbulent time. Late in the semester, time will be taken up by a debate over civil rights and its place in American history.

Inquiry and Analysis Assignments

Since the only way to fully understand the past is to get information from those who lived it, every few weeks, students will be expected to analyze specific primary source documents dealing with different aspects of the civil rights question, with topics chosen by the instructor. Analysis papers will be at least 3 pages each and must be typed or computer printed (double-spaced). Late Inquiry and Analysis papers will be deducted 10 points per day.

Research Paper

The paper will be at least 10 pages plus a bibliography, and the paper will be scored for grammar as well as content. The paper must conform to the FA Writing guide. All papers must use multiple primary sources and multiple secondary sources. The specific topic is up to you, but it must be on an issue from the question of civil rights, and the instructor must approve it. If you need suggestions, please see the teacher. Late research papers will be deducted 20 points per day. Failure to complete the Research Paper assignment results in an automatic failure of the course.

Civil Rights Paper

Students will prepare a paper of at least 2 pages in preparation for the civil rights debate. The paper must be in the form of a persuasive essay, one that seeks to influence the general public as to the merits of one side of the civil rights issue or the other, and will be discussed in detail later. The teacher will assign half the class to advocate for civil rights, the other half will advocate against the issue.

Spring 2003 Due Dates - note that the exams are not listed here

07 Feb 2003 -- Inquiry and Analysis #1

07 Mar 2003 -- Inquiry and Analysis #2

28 Mar 2003 -- Inquiry and Analysis #3

18 Apr 2003 -- Inquiry and Analysis #4

02 May 2003 -- Research paper due

16 May 2003 - Civil Rights paper due

Inquiry and Analysis Assignments

1) Black Code of Mississippi, 1865

http://toptags.com/aama/docs/bcodes.htm

2) Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)

http://coursea.matrix.msu.edu/~hst203/documents/plessy.html

and

Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954)

http://www.nationalcenter.org/brown.html

3) Martin Luther King -- A Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963)

http://almaz.com/nobel/peace/MLK-jail.html

4) Inaugural Address of Governor George C. Wallace, Montgomery, Ala (14 Jan 1963)

http://www.archives.state.al.us/govs_list/inauguralspeech.html

and

Governor Wallace's Schoolhouse Door Speech, University of Alabama (11 Jun 1963)

http://www.archives.state.al.us/govs_list/schooldoor.html

American History II Units

Unit 10 - Reconstruction (1863 to 1876)

  • Lincoln and a moral crusade
  • Emancipation Proclamation
  • Andrew Johnson
  • Freedmen's Bureau
  • Carpetbaggers and Scalawags
  • Black Codes
  • Radical Republicans
  • 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments
  • KKK
  • Impeachment
  • Grant and Scandal
  • Redeemer Governments
  • Hayes/Tilden and 1876
  • Legacy of Reconstruction
  • Unit 11 - The Gilded Age (1869 to 1889)

    • The Solid South and the Democratic Party
  • Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall
  • Robber Barons and the Gospel of Wealth
  • Labor Unions, Debs and Socialism
  • Catalogs and the growth of cities
  • WOPS, PORTAGEES AND POLAKS
  • Settlement of the American West
  • Fencing in the natives
  • Turner's Frontier Thesis
  •  

     Unit 12 - Progressivism and Reform and the Great War (1890 to 1920)

  • Populism and Progressivism
  • Election of 1896 and the Cross of Gold
  • American Imperialism
  • Progressive Reformers
  • American Bourgeoisie
  • Trust Busters
  • Upton Sinclair
  • Prohibition
  • Women and the Vote
  • Teddy Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson
  • The War in Europe - Review (World Hist)
  • American Isolationism
  • US in the War (1917 to 1918)
  • Wilson and the Treaty of Versailles
  • League of Nations and the American Senate
  •  

    Unit 13 - The Roaring Twenties (1920 to 1929)

  • Harding and Coolidge -- A Return to Normalcy
  • Social History from the Period
  • La Cosa Nostra - Organized Crime
  • Babe in the Bronx
  • Monkey business in Tennessee
  • Radio and Talkies
  • Spirit of St. Louis
  • Hoover and the End of Poverty
  • Unit 14 - The Great Depression (1929 to 1940)

    • Black Tuesday
  • Hoover and the Bonus Army
  • FDR and a New Deal
  • First Hundred Days
  • Alphabet Soup legislation
  • The Kingfisher and "Share our Wealth"
  • Dust Bowl and Okies
  • Packing the Court
  • New Deal Legacy - Recovery or Socialism?
  •  

     

    Unit 15 - World War II and the Cold War

  • Neutrality
  • Japanese Aggression
  • War in Europe
  • War in the Pacific
  • Hiroshima and Nagasaki
  • Truman Doctrine -- containing communism
  • Marshall Plan
  • Korea
  • McCarthyism
  • Sputnik and the Apollo missions
  • Cuba and Castro
  • Vietnam
  • Unit 16 -- Civil Rights Project

    • Southern Paternalism
  • Reconstruction and Black Codes
  • KKK and the White Knights
  • Redeemer Governments
  • Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)
  • Development of Separate Societies
  • Brown vs. the Board of Education (1954)
  • Little Rock Schools (1957)
  • Jackie Robinson and 1947
  • JFK and MLK
  • Oxford and Ole Miss
  • 1963 -- A watershed year
  • Freedom Summer of 1964
  • Byron De La Beckwith and Medgar Evers
  • Watts and 1968
  • Wallace in Alabama
  • Movie: Mississippi Burning
  • Movie: Ghosts of Mississippi
  • Legacy of Civil Rights
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