U. S. History Course Summary
Department: Social Studies
Semester 1
Learning Objective #1
Students will analyze the causes, events, and effects of the American Civil War &
Reconstruction.
Target(s) to Meet Learning Objective #1
 CW Causes – sectional differences, expansion of slavery (territories), popular
sovereignty, states’ rights vs. federal power, abolitionist movement, Bleeding
Kansas, Harpers Ferry, Dred Scott, Election of 1860, secession
 CW People & Events: Abraham Lincoln, Fort Sumter, Battles of Antietam &
Gettysburg, Emancipation Proclamation, Sherman’s March to the Sea, Appomattox,
Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant
 CW Other Keys – Anaconda Plan, suspension of habeas corpus, technological warfare
(e.g., rifles, ironclads)
 Reconstruction: Jim Crow laws & KKK, Civil War amendments, attempts at economic
recovery, carpetbaggers & scalawags, Freedman’s Bureau, sharecropping, Radical
Republicans, Johnson’s impeachment, corruption (Grant adm.), Compromise of 1877
(Hayes/Tilden), Exodusters
Timeline
3 weeks
Learning Objective #2
Students will explain the reasons for and consequences of immigration to the United States.
Target(s) to Meet Learning Objective #2
 Reasons: economic & political turmoil, demand for labor, desire for freedom, westward
expansion & settlement
 Consequences: anti-immigration laws, nativism, population boom, poor urban
conditions, political machines
Timeline
3 weeks
© Liberty High School 2011
Learning Objective #3
Students will evaluate factors that led to industrialization and its impacts on America.
Target(s) to Meet Learning Objective #3
 Factors that lead to industrialization: abundance of resources & labor, political stability,
laissez-faire policies, entrepreneurs (e.g., Carnegie, Rockefeller), transportation, growing
middle class, technological advances, growing markets
 Impacts: increased mobility, northern migration, urbanization, Populist movement,
William Jennings Bryan, unionization & strikes, Progressive movement, Progressive
Amendments (16-19), muckrakers, child labor & compulsory education laws,
protectionism (tariffs), Social Darwinism, Gilded Age
Timeline
3 weeks
Learning Objective #4
Students will explore and analyze America’s transition from isolationism to a world power
through military, economic, and social endeavors.
Target(s) to Meet Learning Objective #4
 Military Imperialism: Hawaiian annexation, Spanish-American War, Platt Amendment
(Guantanamo Bay), Filipino Rebellion, Boxer Rebellion, big-stick diplomacy
 Economic Imperialism: annexation of Guam, Philippines, Hawaii, Puerto Rico; Panama
Canal, Open-Door Policy, dollar diplomacy
 Social Imperialism: Social Darwinism, missionary diplomacy (Pancho Villa)
Timeline
1 week
Learning Objective #5
Students will identify the factors that led to U.S. involvement in World War I, examine its
events, and assess its effects at home and abroad.
Target(s) to Meet Learning Objective #5
 Causes of U.S. involvement – MAIN causes (militarism, alliances, imperialism,
nationalism), Lusitania & unrestricted U-Boat warfare, Zimmermann Telegram,
propaganda
 Events – Franz Ferdinand, technology & tactics (e.g., trenches, airplanes), Bolshevik
Revolution, armistice, Fourteen Points, Treaty of Versailles
 Effects – social changes (e.g., women to work, Prohibition), loss of civil liberties (Schenck
vs. U.S.), economic issues (post-war overproduction), League of Nations, U.S.
isolationism, German resentment of Versailles (rise of Hitler)
Timeline
3 weeks
© Liberty High School 2011
Learning Objective #6
Students will assess the social, political, and economic impacts of the Roaring Twenties and the
Progressive Movement on America.
Target(s) to Meet Learning Objective #6
 Social – Prohibition, flappers, women in workplace, KKK, immigration, Scopes trial,
radio/film
 Political – Red Scare, normalcy, Teapot Dome Scandal
 Economic – post-war boom, laissez-faire economics, rise and impact of unions,
buying on credit, stock speculation
Timeline
2 weeks
Learning Objective #7
Students will evaluate the role conflict has played in American History (e.g., Mexican-American
War, Spanish-American War, World War I)
Target(s) to Meet Learning Objective #7
 This is a thematic objective whose targets are outlined in prior objectives.
Timeline
Ongoing – This objective is thematic and incorporates information from other objectives.
Learning Objective #8
Students will recognize how major social and economic changes affected America (e.g., equal
rights, industrialization).
Target(s) to Meet Learning Objective #8
 This is a thematic objective whose targets are outlined in prior objectives.
Timeline
Ongoing – This objective is thematic and incorporates information from other objectives.
© Liberty High School 2011
Semester 2
Learning Objective #1
Students will identify causes of the Great Depression, analyze attempts to resolve the crisis, and
assess both immediate and continuing impacts of New Deal programs.
Target(s) to Meet Learning Objective #1
 Students will identify causes of the Great Depression, analyze attempts to resolve
the crisis, and assess both immediate and continuing impacts of New Deal programs.
 Causes – stock speculation and market crash, bank closures, overproduction in
agriculture and industry, overuse of credit, worldwide depression
 Attempted solutions – Hoover (ex. Reconstruction Finance Corporation), New Deal
programs of Relief, Recovery, and Reform (including CCC,WPA, TVA, FDIC, SEC, AAA,
Social Security)
 Results/Impacts – Bonus Army, election of FDR, Dust Bowl/conservation efforts,
economically-induced migration, increased government regulation, social
acceptance of government intervention, cultural diversions (ex. movies)
Timeline
3 weeks
Learning Objective #2
Students will analyze the reasons for U.S. involvement in World War II, as well as its key events
and effects.
Target(s) to Meet Learning Objective #2
 Students will analyze the reasons for U.S. involvement in World War II, as well as its
key events and effects.
 U.S. Involvement – the Neutrality Acts, Lend-Lease Act, economic sanctions and
embargoes, Atlantic Charter, rise of Hitler (Nazis overtake Europe), Pearl Harbor
 Military Events – Battle of Britain, African Campaign, Battle of Stalingrad, D-Day
invasion, Battle of the Bulge, island-hopping, Battle of Midway, atomic bombings
 Other Keys – FDR, Truman, Stalin, Churchill, Mussolini, Hitler, Hirohito, Tojo, General
Eisenhower, Holocaust, technological advances (ex. radar, penicillin, synthetics) war
propaganda, rationing & resource conservation, Yalta & Potsdam Conferences
 Effects – race riots, changes on the home front, internment camps, U.S.& Soviet
emergence as superpowers, United Nations, atomic age, decolonization, creation of
Israel
Timeline
2 weeks
© Liberty High School 2011
Learning Objective #3
Students will investigate how events occurring in the latter half of the 20 th century contributed
to the Cold War. (e.g., Korean War, Cuban Missile Crisis; détente)
Target(s) to Meet Learning Objective #3
 Foreign policy – Marshall Plan, Truman Doctrine, NATO/Warsaw Pact, Berlin Airlift &
Wall, domino theory, atomic arms race (MAD)
 Conflicts – fall of China to Communism, Korean War, Cuban Missile Crisis (Castro,
Kennedy)
Timeline
2 weeks
Learning Objective #4
Students will identify the political and social changes of the 1950s & 1960s, and their effects on
the American public. (e.g., Great Society, civil & equal rights movements)
Target(s) to Meet Learning Objective #4
 1950s – G.I. Bill, suburbia, conformity, consumerism, Joseph McCarthy, Beatniks,
desegregation/civil rights (e.g., Brown, Little Rock Nine), Sputnik & space race, TV
 1960s – Great Society (Medicare/Medicaid, educational reforms), Peace Corps,
minority group activism (e.g., black, Hispanic, women), counterculture, assassination
of Kennedys/King
Timeline
2 weeks
Learning Objective #5
Students will identify primary motives for U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia, key events in the
Vietnam War, and the effects of this conflict at home and abroad.
Target(s) to Meet Learning Objective #5
 U.S. involvement – containment/domino theory, anti-Communist sentiment (Cold
War)
 Events & People –Dien Bien Phu, Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, Tet Offensive, Operation
Rolling Thunder, LBJ, Ho Chi Minh, Ngo Dinh Diem, General Westmoreland, Henry
Kissinger, Nixon (Cambodia/Pol Pot), Kent State Massacre, My Lai Massacre
 Other Keys – attrition, draft dodging, weapons technology (napalm, Agent Orange),
Vietnamization, Paris Peace Accords, fall of Saigon; détente
 Effects – Election of 1968 (e.g., LBJ withdraws, DNC/Chicago), change in public
perception of government and war, societal changes (e.g., antiwar protests)
Timeline
3 weeks
© Liberty High School 2011
© Liberty High School 2011
Learning Objective #6
Students will recognize how Watergate and other political events (e.g., Pentagon Papers, Cuba)
affected the public’s views of American government.
Target(s) to Meet Learning Objective #6
 People & Events – illegal actions of CIA & FBI, Pentagon Papers (Vietnam),
Watergate, plumbers
 Effects – increased skepticism (and public scrutiny) in regards to governmental
actions; increased role/power of media
Timeline
3 weeks
Learning Objective #7
Students will evaluate the role conflict has played in American History (e.g., World War II, Cold
War, Korean War, Vietnam War)
Target(s) to Meet Learning Objective #7
 This is a thematic objective whose targets are outlined in prior objectives.
Timeline
Ongoing – This objective is thematic and incorporates information from other objectives.
Learning Objective #8
Students will recognize how major social and economic changes affected America (e.g., equal
rights, industrialization).
Target(s) to Meet Learning Objective #8
 This is a thematic objective whose targets are outlined in prior objectives.
Timeline
Ongoing – This objective is thematic and incorporates information from other objectives.
© Liberty High School 2011