IMAGINE
I L L U M I N AT E
I N N O VAT E
INVEST
INSPIRE
COMMON CORE
Social Studies
Cincinnati Public Schools · Vision i5 — An Uncommon Approach to the Common Core Standards
Grade 10
Key Knowledge and Concepts
American History —
Examines history of the United States of America from 1877 to the present.
• The federal republic has withstood challenges to national security and expanded
the rights and roles of its citizens.
• The episodes of its past have shaped the nature of the country today and
prepared it for the challenges of tomorrow.
• After the Civil War, the rise of industrialization
and corporations, mechanized farming and
technological innovations transformed
America’s economy. An expanding workforce,
influx of immigrants and governmental
laissez-faire policies led to the growth of
labor organizations.
• During southern Reconstruction following
the Civil War, previous political and social
traditions returned, and racial discrimination
was institutionalized.
• The Progressive era was an effort to address
the ills of American society stemming from rapid
population growth, urbanization and political
corruption. The U.S. expanded overseas,
became involved in WWI and emerged as a
world power.
• The 1920s, a dynamic and conflicting decade,
saw the U.S. attempting to return to isolationism
and modernize while clinging to traditionalist
views. The 1920s brought improvement in
the standard of living, due to technological
innovations in communication, transportation
and industry, but there were social and
cultural tensions.
• The 1930s saw an extreme decrease in
economic activity called the Great Depression.
President Roosevelt’s New Deal expanded
federal government with mixed results.
• World War II began in Europe in 1939 and in
America in 1941. Hitler and Nazism were
defeated, the balance of world power between
communist-aligned nations and democracyaligned nations was altered, and the Nuclear
Age began.
• The Cold War “war of wills” was an ideological
struggle between the U.S and the Soviet Union.
The U.S. responded to communism’s spread
with a policy of containment. The Second Red
Scare and McCarthyism reflected Cold War
fears, and conflicts in Korea (1950s) and Vietnam
(1960s) caused substantial loss of life and
influenced domestic and international politics.
• Following WWII, the U.S. experienced its
greatest economic boom from advances in
science, technology and business techniques.
The 1950s and 1960s saw a momentous struggle
for minorities seeking civil rights.
• The 1970s brought a population flow from cities
to suburbs, the internal migration from “Rust Belt”
to “Sun Belt” and increasing immigration.
American society was stunned by the Watergate
affair, with a president resigning due to covering
up wrongdoing.
• The 1980s brought improved global communications,
transnational business organizations, and a shift
from manufacturing to service industries. Political
debate focused on government’s role in the
economy, social welfare and national security. The
Cold War ended, with communist governments
collapsing in the Soviet Union and other Eastern
European nations.
• The U.S. faced new and dangerous political,
economic and national security challenges in the
post-Cold War world following terrorist attacks
of Sept. 11, 2001.
COMMON CORE
Literacy Standards
• Use textual evidence to analyze primary and
secondary sources, including assessment of
author’s claims; determine the main ideas;
summarize text; and identify key historical,
political, social and economic processes.
• Identify the meaning of a text through
academic vocabulary and text structure.
• Compare and contrast primary and secondary
sources, and authors’ points of view on similar
topics, and analyze whether historical events
cause or precede later events.
• Integrate quantitative and qualitative data
analysis from print or digital text.
• Write social studies specific arguments that
support claims through logic and evidence.