America in Modern History
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66 Terms
Emancipation Proclamation
Who: President Abraham Lincoln
When: January 1, 1863
Where: Confederate states in rebellion against the Union
Why: To weaken the Confederacy's war effort, prevent European recognition of the South, and transform the Civil War into a moral crusade against slavery
How: Issued as an executive order using Lincoln's constitutional authority as Commander-in-Chief during an armed rebellion
Reconstruction Era
Who: U.S. Federal Government, Southern state governments, Radical and Moderate Republicans, and former Confederate leaders
When: 1865–1877
Where: Formerly Confederate states across the American South
Why: To rebuild the war-devastated South, establish terms for readmitting former Confederate states to the Union, and define the legal and political rights of newly freed Black Americans
How: Implemented federal legislation, established the Freedmen's Bureau, deployed Union military occupying forces, and ratified constitutional amendments
Reconstruction Amendments
Who: U.S. Congress and state legislatures
When: 1865–1870
Where: United States
Why: To permanently abolish slavery, establish national citizenship, guarantee equal protection under the law, and secure voting rights regardless of race
How: Ratified the 13th Amendment (abolishing slavery), 14th Amendment (granting citizenship and equal protection), and 15th Amendment (prohibiting racial voting discrimination)
Bradwell v. Illinois
Who: Myra Bradwell vs. State of Illinois / U.S. Supreme Court
When: 1873
Where: Washington, D.C. / Illinois
Why: Bradwell challenged Illinois's refusal to grant her a law license based on her gender, claiming it violated her 14th Amendment rights
How: The Supreme Court ruled against Bradwell, declaring that the 14th Amendment's Privileges or Immunities Clause did not guarantee women the right to practice a profession
Redeemers
Who: White Southern Democrats, elite landowners, and conservative political leaders
When: 1870s–1890s
Where: Southern United States
Why: To dismantle Republican Reconstruction governments, restore white political supremacy, and re-establish social and economic control over freed Black Americans
How: Utilized political disenfranchisement, economic coercion, Jim Crow segregation laws, and violent paramilitary groups like the Ku Klux Klan and White League
Bargain of 1877
Who: Republican and Democratic political leaders
When: 1877
Where: Washington, D.C., and the American South
Why: To resolve the fiercely disputed 1876 presidential election between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden
How: Democrats conceded the presidency to Hayes in exchange for the complete withdrawal of all remaining federal troops from the South, effectively ending Congressional Reconstruction
Literacy Tests for Voting
Who: Southern state lawmakers and local voting registrars
When: Late 1800s–1960s
Where: Southern United States
Why: To systematically disenfranchise Black voters without explicitly violating the 15th Amendment's prohibition against racial discrimination in voting
How: Enacted state laws requiring voter registration applicants to pass complex, subjectively evaluated reading, writing, and constitution-interpretation exams
Plessy v. Ferguson
Who: Homer Plessy vs. State of Louisiana / U.S. Supreme Court
When: 1896
Where: Louisiana / Washington, D.C.
Why: Homer Plessy legally challenged Louisiana's Separate Car Act, which mandated racial segregation on railway passenger cars
How: The Supreme Court ruled 7-1 against Plessy, establishing the 'separate but equal' constitutional doctrine that legalized racial segregation for nearly six decades
Frontier Thesis
Who: Historian Frederick Jackson Turner
When: 1893
Where: American West / Chicago World's Fair
Why: To offer a compelling historical explanation for the development of distinct American democratic values, character, and national identity
How: Presented an influential academic essay arguing that continuous westward expansion into open frontier wilderness forged American individualism, egalitarianism, and democratic institutions
Great Migration
Who: Approximately six million African Americans
When: 1916–1970
Where: From the rural South to urban industrial cities in the North, Midwest, and West
Why: To escape virulent Jim Crow segregation, racial violence, and economic subjugation while seeking industrial job opportunities created by World Wars and economic growth
How: Relocated via expanding passenger railway lines and highways to major urban hubs like Chicago, Detroit, New York, and Philadelphia
Dawes Severalty Act
Who: U.S. Congress and President Grover Cleveland
When: 1887
Where: Native American reservations nationwide
Why: To forcibly assimilate Native Americans into Euro-American agrarian culture, dismantle communal landholding traditions, and dissolve tribal sovereignty
How: Partitioned communal reservation lands into individual private plots for Native families, declaring remaining 'surplus' tribal lands available for public sale to white settlers
Native American Assimilation Policies
Who: U.S. Federal Government, Christian missionary societies, and Indian agents
When: Late 1800s–Early 1900s
Where: Native reservations and Indian Boarding Schools (e.g., Carlisle Indian Industrial School)
Why: To systematically eradicate indigenous cultures, tribal languages, and sovereign identities in favor of Euro-American societal norms
How: Implemented mandatory off-reservation boarding school education, enforced religious conversion, outlawed traditional practices, and imposed individual private property ownership
Wounded Knee Massacre
Who: U.S. Army 7th Cavalry regiment and Lakota Sioux (led by Chief Spotted Elk)
When: December 29, 1890
Where: Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota
Why: U.S. military forces sought to suppress the Ghost Dance spiritual revitalization movement and forcibly disarm Lakota bands
How: American troops surrounded the Lakota encampment and opened fire with rapid-firing Hotchkiss guns, killing over 200 Lakota men, women, and children
The Gilded Age
Who: Industrial magnates ('robber barons'), urban factory workers, mass immigrants, and political bosses
When: 1870s–1890s
Where: United States, particularly northern and midwestern industrial centers
Why: Unchecked industrialization created unprecedented national wealth alongside severe urban poverty, labor exploitation, and systemic political corruption
How: Driven by corporate monopolies, rapid technological advancements, mass European immigration, and a dominant laissez-faire government economic philosophy
Scientific Management (Taylorism)
Who: Mechanical engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor
When: 1880s–1910s
Where: American industrial manufacturing plants
Why: To maximize factory productivity, eliminate wasted human motion, and transfer complete workplace control from skilled labor to corporate management
How: Conducted time-and-motion studies to break manufacturing processes down into standardized, simplified, and strictly timed assembly tasks
Andrew Carnegie
Who: Scottish-American industrialist, steel magnate, and philanthropist
When: 1835–1919
Where: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Why: Built a vast steel empire and authored 'The Gospel of Wealth' to argue that surplus fortunes should be redistributed for social betterment
How: Controlled every stage of production through vertical integration and donated over $350 million to construct thousands of public libraries, universities, and cultural institutions
Social Darwinism
Who: British philosopher Herbert Spencer and American sociologist William Graham Sumner
When: Late 1800s
Where: United States and Europe
Why: To provide an ideological justification for extreme wealth inequality, corporate monopolies, imperialism, and resistance to government social reform
How: Misapplied Charles Darwin's biological theory of natural selection and 'survival of the fittest' to human social classes and economic competition
Pullman Strike
Who: Pullman Palace Car workers, American Railway Union (led by Eugene V. Debs), and the U.S. Federal Government
When: 1894
Where: Pullman, Illinois, and nationwide railroad networks
Why: Industrial workers protested a 25% wage reduction implemented without any corresponding reduction in company-town rents
How: Railroad workers initiated a nationwide boycott halting rail traffic; President Cleveland deployed federal troops and obtained a court injunction to crush the strike
Muckrakers
Who: Progressive Era investigative journalists, authors, and photojournalists (e.g., Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, Jacob Riis)
When: 1890s–1910s
Where: United States, primarily growing metropolitan centers
Why: To expose corporate corruption, unsafe industrial conditions, political bossism, and urban poverty in order to spark public outrage and political reform
How: Published detailed investigative reports, exposed photographs, and reform-minded books in popular mass-circulation national magazines and newspapers
Jane Addams
Who: Progressive social reformer, pacifist, and co-founder of Hull House
When: 1860–1935
Where: Chicago, Illinois
Why: To relieve urban poverty, assist European immigrants adapting to industrial city life, and expand social welfare services
How: Established settlement houses providing English language instruction, public healthcare, childcare facilities, vocational training, and community advocacy
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
Who: Immigrant garment workers and factory owners Max Blanck and Isaac Harris
When: March 25, 1911
Where: New York City, New York
Why: Severe industrial safety violations and profit-focused neglect created fatal working conditions
How: A fire broke out in the upper floors; locked exit doors and inadequate fire escapes trapped workers inside, resulting in 146 deaths and spurring widespread factory safety legislation
Nineteenth Amendment
Who: U.S. Congress, state legislatures, and women's suffrage activists (e.g., Alice Paul, Carrie Chapman Catt)
When: 1920
Where: United States
Why: To guarantee women the constitutional right to vote and eliminate sex-based voter discrimination nationwide
How: Passed by Congress and ratified by three-fourths of states following decades of political lobbying, public demonstrations, parades, hunger strikes, and persistent activism
U.S.S. Maine Explosion
Who: U.S. Navy sailors and President William McKinley
When: February 15, 1898
Where: Havana Harbor, Cuba
Why: Sent to Havana to safeguard American citizens and property during the Cuban War of Independence against Spain
How: An unexplained explosion sank the battleship, killing 266 crewmen; sensationalist 'yellow press' coverage blamed Spain, rousing public outcry that led to the Spanish-American War
Open Door Policy
Who: U.S. Secretary of State John Hay
When: 1899–1900
Where: Imperial China
Why: To secure equal commercial access for American businesses in Chinese markets and prevent European powers from carving China into exclusive colonies
How: Dispatched diplomatic notes to major European imperial powers requesting equal trade opportunities and formal recognition of Chinese territorial integrity
Platt Amendment
Who: U.S. Congress and the government of the Republic of Cuba
When: 1901
Where: Washington, D.C., and Cuba
Why: To maintain American economic and military domination over Cuba following the Spanish-American War
How: Forced Cuba to incorporate provisions into its constitution granting the U.S. the right to intervene militarily in Cuban affairs and lease land for Guantanamo Bay Naval Base
Roosevelt Corollary
Who: President Theodore Roosevelt
When: 1904
Where: Latin America and the Caribbean
Why: To prevent European military interventions in the Western Hemisphere prompted by Latin American financial debts
How: Expanded the Monroe Doctrine by asserting the unilateral right of the United States to act as an 'international police power' in Latin American nations
Dollar Diplomacy
Who: President William Howard Taft and Secretary of State Philander Knox
When: 1909–1913
Where: Latin America and East Asia
Why: To advance U.S. diplomatic and economic interests abroad without relying on direct military intervention
How: Encouraged American commercial banks and corporations to extend loans and capital investments in foreign nations, backed by American diplomatic leverage
Sinking of the Lusitania
Who: British ocean liner, German submarine U-20, and civilian passengers
When: May 7, 1915
Where: Atlantic Ocean, off the southern coast of Ireland
Why: Executed as part of Germany's naval blockade and unrestricted submarine warfare campaign against Great Britain
How: A German U-boat torpedoed the liner, causing it to sink in 18 minutes and killing 1,198 passengers (including 128 Americans), provoking intense anti-German resentment in the U.S.
Zimmermann Telegram
Who: German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann, German Minister to Mexico, and the U.S. Government
When: January 1917
Where: Berlin, Mexico City, and Washington, D.C.
Why: Germany sought a military alliance with Mexico to distract the United States should America enter World War I
How: British intelligence intercepted a coded German telegram offering financial support and the return of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona if Mexico attacked the U.S.
Committee on Public Information (CPI)
Who: U.S. Federal Government agency headed by journalist George Creel
When: 1917–1919
Where: United States
Why: To build overwhelming domestic public enthusiasm, war bond sales, and support for U.S. participation in World War I
How: Produced massive wartime propaganda campaigns utilizing posters, news releases, patriotic movies, and short speeches delivered nationwide by volunteer 'Four-Minute Men'
Espionage Act of 1917
Who: U.S. Congress and President Woodrow Wilson
When: June 1917
Where: United States
Why: To curb anti-war activism, draft resistance, military insubordination, and potential espionage during World War I
How: Enacted federal law penalizing acts that interfered with military operations or recruitment, and authorized the Postmaster General to censor disloyal mail
Sedition Act of 1918
Who: U.S. Congress and the Wilson Administration
When: May 1918
Where: United States
Why: To eliminate public anti-war political opposition and silence public criticism of the federal government during WWI
How: Broadened the Espionage Act by making it a federal crime to speak, print, or publish 'disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language' against the U.S. government, military, or flag
Neutrality Acts of the 1930s
Who: U.S. Congress
When: 1935–1939
Where: United States
Why: To prevent American entanglement in foreign conflicts amid rising European and Asian fascism, driven by post-WWI isolationism
How: Passed legislative restrictions imposing automatic embargoes on arms shipments, forbidding loans to belligerent nations, and restricting American travel on foreign ships
Atlantic Charter
Who: President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
When: August 1941
Where: Aboard warships off Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, Canada
Why: To define common Allied war aims and establish a post-WWII international vision before official American military entry
How: Issued a formal joint declaration supporting self-determination, disarmament, freedom of the seas, and open global economic cooperation
Attack on Pearl Harbor
Who: Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service vs. U.S. Pacific Fleet
When: December 7, 1941
Where: Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii
Why: Imperial Japan sought to disable the U.S. Pacific Fleet to prevent American interference with Japanese territorial expansion in Southeast Asia
How: Executed a surprise military airstrike destroying battleships, aircraft, and installations, instantly ending American neutrality and propelling the U.S. into WWII
D-Day (Operation Overlord)
Who: Allied military forces (primarily U.S., British, and Canadian troops)
When: June 6, 1944
Where: Normandy, France
Why: To liberate Western Europe from Nazi occupation and open a major western military front against Nazi Germany
How: Executed the largest amphibious assault in military history utilizing landing craft, naval bombardment, airborne troop drops, and air superiority
Manhattan Project
Who: U.S. Government, Army Corps of Engineers, and international scientists led by J. Robert Oppenheimer
When: 1942–1945
Where: Secret installations in Los Alamos (NM), Oak Ridge (TN), and Hanford (WA)
Why: To develop the world's first nuclear weapons before Nazi Germany could construct an atomic bomb
How: Mobilized vast scientific, industrial, and military resources to enrich nuclear fuel and assemble functional atomic weapons
Yalta Conference
Who: The 'Big Three' Allied leaders: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin
When: February 1945
Where: Yalta, Crimea, Soviet Union
Why: To negotiate the final defeat of Nazi Germany and design the political architecture of postwar Europe
How: Agreed to divide Germany into four military occupation zones, hold democratic elections in liberated Eastern Europe, and establish the United Nations
Truman Doctrine
Who: President Harry S. Truman
When: March 1947
Where: Washington, D.C. (specifically providing assistance to Greece and Turkey)
Why: To contain global Soviet Communist expansion and halt the spread of totalitarianism during the early Cold War
How: Pledged American military and economic support to democratic nations facing external communist aggression or armed internal subversion
Taft-Hartley Act
Who: U.S. Congress (passed over President Truman's presidential veto)
When: 1947
Where: United States
Why: To curb the political power and strike frequency of organized labor unions after massive post-WWII labor strikes
How: Banned closed shops, restricted secondary strikes, required union leaders to sign non-communist affidavits, and empowered states to pass 'right-to-work' laws
Hollywood Ten
Who: Ten prominent film directors, screenwriters, and producers
When: 1947
Where: Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, California
Why: Investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) regarding alleged communist influence in the motion picture industry
How: Refused to answer congressional inquiries about political affiliations on First Amendment grounds, resulting in citations for contempt of Congress, prison sentences, and industrial blacklisting
McCarthyism (Joseph McCarthy)
Who: U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy
When: 1950–1954
Where: United States Senate / Washington, D.C.
Why: To exploit anti-communist Cold War panic (the Second Red Scare) for personal political gain
How: Conducted sensationalist Senate hearings making unproven allegations of communist subversion within the State Department, federal agencies, and U.S. Army
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
Who: President Lyndon B. Johnson and U.S. Congress
When: August 1964
Where: Gulf of Tonkin, Vietnam / Washington, D.C.
Why: Passed in response to reported skirmishes between North Vietnamese torpedo boats and American destroyers
How: Authorized the President to take 'all necessary measures' to repel armed attacks against U.S. forces, granting near-total authority to escalate military action in Vietnam without a formal war declaration
Tet Offensive
Who: Viet Cong guerrillas and North Vietnamese Army vs. U.S. and South Vietnamese military forces
When: January–February 1968
Where: Cities, towns, and military bases throughout South Vietnam
Why: To inflict major military casualties on Allied forces and force the U.S. government to negotiate a military exit
How: Launched coordinated surprise attacks on over 100 urban areas; though repelled militarily, it created a severe credibility gap that shattered U.S. public belief in victory
Pentagon Papers
Who: Military analyst Daniel Ellsberg, U.S. Department of Defense, and national press (The New York Times, The Washington Post)
When: 1971
Where: Washington, D.C. and major news outlets
Why: Revealed that successive presidential administrations had systematically lied to the public and Congress about U.S. political and military involvement in Vietnam
How: Ellsberg leaked a classified top-secret military study to newspapers, leading to a landmark Supreme Court ruling protecting press freedom against executive censorship
Détente Policy
Who: President Richard Nixon, National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, and Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev
When: 1969–1979
Where: United States, Soviet Union, and international summit locations
Why: To reduce Cold War military friction, minimize nuclear confrontation risks, and stabilize superpower relations
How: Conducted bilateral diplomatic summits, negotiated arms control treaties (SALT I), and expanded trade and cultural exchanges
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)
Who: President Ronald Reagan
When: 1983
Where: United States
Why: To create a technological defense against incoming ballistic missiles and move away from the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)
How: Proposed a complex space-based laser and satellite anti-missile defense system (dubbed 'Star Wars') that strained Soviet economic resources to match
"We are glad, now that we see the facts with no veil of false pretense about them to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the world and for the liberation of its peoples, the German peoples included: for the rights of nations great and small and the privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of life and of obedience. The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve."
Source: Primary Source Year: 1917
Author: President Woodrow Wilson
Purpose: To request a congressional declaration of war against Germany and frame U.S. entry as a moral crusade to 'make the world safe for democracy'
Historical Context: Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare and sent the Zimmermann Telegram, convincing Wilson to abandon armed neutrality
"Crucial to the American strategy...was the issue of the 'second front.' From early 1942 onward, the Russians urged the United States and Great Britain to open a second front to relieve them of the awful burden of fighting alone against more than two hundred divisions of the German Wehrmacht. The Anglo-American response was long on promise but short on delivery. In May 1942, President Roosevelt informed Josef Stalin that he 'expected the formation of a second front this year'; and in August, Prime Minister Winston Churchill assured Stalin that the assault on Europe would begin no later than spring of 1943. Instead, the Americans and the British postponed any direct cross-Channel invasion of Western Europe and focused their military action on the Mediterranean periphery: North Africa in late 1942, and Sicily and Italy in the summer of 1943."
Source: Secondary Source ('America's Half-Century')
Year: 1989
Author: Historian Thomas J. McCormick
Purpose: To analyze Allied grand strategy in WWII and show how delays in launching a Western European second front fueled deep Soviet suspicion
Historical Context: The Soviet Red Army absorbed the brunt of German casualties while Anglo-American commanders delayed the Normandy invasion until June 1944
“We question, then, the ability and even the desire of the United States government to guarantee free elections abroad. We maintain that our country's cry of 'preserve freedom in the world' is a hypocritical mask, behind which it squashes liberation movements which are not bound, and refuse to be bound, by the expediencies of United States cold war policies. We are in sympathy with, and support, the men in this country who are unwilling to respond to a military draft which would compel them to contribute their lives to United States aggression in Vietnam in the name of the 'freedom' we find so false in this country."
Source: Primary Source
Year: 1966
Author: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
Purpose: To condemn U.S. imperial military involvement in Vietnam and highlight the hypocrisy of sending Black Americans to fight for rights abroad that were denied at home
Historical Context: As the Vietnam War escalated, major civil rights organizations increasingly aligned with the domestic anti-war movement
"The wealthiest 1 percent of families in 1890 owned 51 percent of the real and personal property; the 44 percent of families at the bottom owned only 1.2 percent of all the property....Over the long term, wages changed little in the late nineteenth century, when most workers earned less than about $800 a year."
Source: Secondary Source ('Standing at Armageddon')
Year: 1987
Author: Historian Nell Irvin Painter
Purpose: To document severe socioeconomic inequality and concentrated corporate wealth during late 19th-century American industrialization
Historical Context: Unchecked corporate growth and laissez-faire government regulation during the Gilded Age produced extreme fortunes for industrial tycoons alongside poverty for industrial laborers
“State in what manner you think you can take care of yourselves... Answer. The way we can best take care of ourselves is to have land, and turn in and till it by our labor-that is, by the labor of the women, and the children, and the old men-and we can soon maintain ourselves and have something to spare..."
Source: Primary Source
Year: 1865
Author: Garrison Frazier (representing Black leaders in meeting with General Sherman)
Purpose: To articulate freed Black Americans' vision of meaningful freedom as land ownership and economic self-sufficiency
Historical Context: At the Civil War's conclusion, Union military leaders met with Black leaders in Savannah, Georgia, to discuss land distribution and post-slavery social integration
Primary Source vs. Secondary Source Definitions
Primary Source: Firsthand, contemporary account or original document created during the historical period under investigation (e.g., diaries, speeches, official records).
Secondary Source: After-the-fact analysis, interpretation, or historical evaluation created by researchers or scholars using primary source evidence (e.g., textbooks, academic biographies).
Four Key Groups Competing during Reconstruction
Moderate Republicans: Sought rapid readmission of Southern states with basic civil protections for freed people.
Radical Republicans: Advocated transforming Southern society, enforcing equal rights, and punishing former Confederates.
Southern White Democrats: Strove to restore antebellum social hierarchies and political white supremacy.
Formerly Enslaved African Americans: Fought for autonomy, land ownership, educational access, political voting rights, and family reunification.
Primary Legal Legacy of Reconstruction's End
Who: Southern state legislatures and white conservative leaders
When: 1890–1965 Where: American South
Why: To legally enforce racial subordination and circumvent the 14th and 15th Amendments
How: Codified Jim Crow legal segregation, poll taxes, literacy tests, and disenfranchisement laws that denied equal constitutional rights to Black citizens
Two U.S. Strategies against Western Native Resistance
Annihilation Strategy: Military subjugation, force, and destruction of essential economic resources (such as the systematic slaughter of the American bison).
Assimilation Strategy: Forced cultural eradication executed through reservation land partition (Dawes Act) and compulsory boarding school education.
The Gilded Age 'Labor Problem'
Core Conflict: National debate over who justly deserved the wealth generated by industrialization.
Key Issue: Determining whether democratic principles should extend to industrial working conditions, fair wages, union organizing rights, and corporate regulation.
Three Major Gilded Age Labor Strikes
Great Railroad Strike (1877): Nationwide rail strike sparked by wage cuts, crushed by federal military troops.
Homestead Strike (1892): Violent clash between steelworkers and Pinkerton guards at Carnegie's steel plant.
Pullman Strike (1894): Nationwide railway boycott against wage cuts, broken by federal military intervention.
Four Transformative Factors in America (1850–1900)
Civil War & Reconstruction: Reshaped national governance, ended slavery, and redefined federal supremacy.
Westward Expansion: Displaced Indigenous peoples and expanded agrarian and resource extraction industries.
Heavy Industrialization: Transformed the U.S. into a dominant global manufacturing powerhouse.
Mass International Immigration: Provided industrial labor and reshaped American urban demographics.
Two Foreign Policy Traditions Shaping Woodrow Wilson
Liberal Internationalism: Advocated global peace through collective security organizations, international law, and democratic cooperation.
Moral / Missionary Diplomacy: Asserted an American duty to export democratic values, political morality, and constitutional ideals worldwide.
Key Figures in the WWI Treaty League Debate
Isolationist Leader: Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, who opposed joining the League of Nations without reservations protecting U.S. sovereignty.
Internationalist Leader: President Woodrow Wilson, who championed unconditional ratification of the Treaty of Versailles and League of Nations membership.
Three Initial Historical Eras Studied (1865–1920)
Reconstruction Era (1865–1877): Post-Civil War rebuilding and federal efforts to integrate freed people.
Industrialization & The Gilded Age (1870s–1890s): Unprecedented corporate growth, urban expansion, and wealth inequality.
Progressive Era (1890s–1920): Widespread political, economic, and social reform movements addressing Gilded Age abuses.
Three Home Front Groups Examined in WWII
Japanese Americans, African Americans, Women
In many ways, the United States was a remarkably different place by 1920 than it had been in 1865. What key areas of life had changed, what caused the changes, and how did those changes impact Americans’ lives, relationships with one another, and interactions with other countries? Did any aspects of American life represent more continuity than change during this period?
Thesis: Between 1865 and 1920, the United States experienced major changes in its economy, society, politics, and role in the world because of industrialization, immigration, reform movements, and expansion overseas. These changes transformed Americans’ work, rights, communities, and relationships with other countries, but racial inequality, discrimination, and economic inequality remained important continuities throughout the period.
Vocab: Reconstruction, Reconstruction Amendments, Redeemers, Literacy tests, Plessy v. Ferguson, and Great Migration, Gilded Age, Scientific Management, Andrew Carnegie, Social Darwinism, Pullman Strike, Muckrakers, Settlement houses, Jane Addams, Triangle Factory Fire, 19th Amendment, Frontier Thesis, Dawes Act, Assimilation, U.S.S Maine, Open Door Policy, and Dollar Diplomacy
Abraham Lincoln hoped the Civil War would produce a new birth of freedom in the United States. Did it? Did freedom, liberty, and opportunity expand or narrow for African Americans, American Indians, wage workers, and women?
Thesis: The Civil War and Reconstruction created a “new birth of freedom” by expanding legal rights and opportunities for some Americans, especially African Americans, but freedom remained limited because of racial discrimination, economic inequality, and gender inequality continued. African Americans gained citizenship and voting rights, while American Indians faced assimilation, wage workers struggled for better conditions, and women gained some opportunities but did not receive full political equality until 1920.
Vocab: Reconstruction, Reconstruction Amendments, Redeemers, Literacy Tests, Plessy v. Ferguson, Great Migration, Dawes Act, Assimilation, Massacre at Wounded Knee, Gilded Age, Scientific Management, Pullman strike, Triangle Factory Fire, Muckrakers, Andrew Carnegie, Jane Addams, Settlement houses, 19th Amendment.
Choose two of the wars we have studied since 1890 and offer an interpretation about why the United States fought each and the impacts each war had on freedom and democracy abroad and at home. (Options: Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, the Cold War, the Vietnam War.)
Thesis: The United States fought World War I and the Cold War largely to defend democracy, freedom, and American security against perceived threats abroad. However, both wars created contradictions at home, as the government expanded its powers and restricted some freedoms in the name of national security, while American foreign policy promoted democracy and influenced political systems around the world.
WWI:
Why the U.S. fought: German unrestricted submarine warfare, Zimmerman Telegram.
Abroad: U.S. entered the war claiming to help make the world safe for democracy.
At Home: Government used the Committee on Public Information to build support for the war.
Espionage and Sedition Acts restricted criticism of the government and war.
Continuity/contradiction: America promoted democracy abroad while limiting certain freedoms at home.
Vocab: Lusitania, Zimmerman Telegram, Committee on Public Information, Espionage and Sedition Acts
Cold War:
Why the U.S. fought: To contain the spread of communism and prevent the Soviet Union from expanding its influence.
Abroad: U.S. supported allies and intervened in conflicts such as Vietnam to contain communism.
At Home: Fear of communism contributed to McCarthyism, investigations, and pressures agianst suspected communists.
Truman Doctrine.
Continuity/contradiction: Again, the U.S. presented itself as a defender of freedom while some Americans faced restrictions because of suspected political beliefs.
Vocab: Truman Doctrine, Joseph McCarthy, Hollywood Ten, detente, Strategic Defense Initiative.