Government Need for a formal plan of union 

the Albany Plan of Union 

Development of state constitutions 

Inadequacy of Continental Congress as a national government 

Development of a formal plan of government 

Draft and debate in Congress, 1776-1777 

Ratification by the states, 17781781; period of operation, 17811789 

The structure of government under the Articles of Confederation

The Great Compromise on representation 

The three-fifths compromise on slavery 

The commerce compromises

  The underlying legal and political principles of the Constitution 

Federalism 

Separation of powers 

Provisions for change 

Protection of individual rights 

The Constitution and the functioning of the federal government

The Preamble states the purpose of the document 

The structure and function of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches 

The relation of states to the federal union

Assuming the responsibility for a federal system 

The Constitution as a living document 

The elastic clause and delegated power facilitate action 

Amendment procedure as a mechanism for change 

The Bill of Rights 

Neutrality and national security

Washington through Monroe: foreign affairs, establishing boundaries 

Neutrality: A key element of American foreign policy—influence of geography

A new nation in a world at war 

Economic pressures as a tool of diplomacy

The failure of Republican diplomacy: War of 1812 (significance of the War for Native American Indians, Spain, the growth of industry)

Principles Change civil war

The Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address 

United States society divided a. Party disintegration and realignment and sectional polarization (Kansas-Nebraska Act, disintegration of the Whig Party and the rise of the Republican Party, Dred Scott decision, John Brown’s raid)

 Abraham Lincoln, the secession crisis, and efforts at compromise (Lincoln-Douglas debates, election of 1860, secession, compromise plans, Fort Sumter) 

Wartime actions a. Military strategy, major battles (Antietam, Gettysburg), and human toll b. Impact of war on home front (civil liberties during the Civil War, women’s roles)

Government policy during the war (wartime finances, creating a national currency, transcontinental railroad, Homestead Act)

Impact of industrialization  a. Attractions: jobs, education, culture, public education system b. Problems (slums, increased crime, inadequate water and sanitation services) c. Skyscrapers and elevators; tenements and walk-ups d. Social Darwinism, increased class division, conspicuous consumption, social conscience, philanthropy

Work and workers  a. Factories and people—immigrant patterns of settlement b. Geographic, economic, social, and political considerations c. Working conditions: “wage slavery” d. Living conditions: company towns and urban slums e. The Great Migration 

 Women, families, and work  a. Traditional roles—Victorian ideal and reality b. Outside and inside their homes: double drudgery c. Jobs for domestics, laundresses, and textile workers; technology brought jobs as telephone operators and typists d. Emerging family patterns: two wage earners, broken homes e. Problems of child labor, elderly, disabled, and African-American women 

Labor’s response to economic change: Organize, efforts at national labor unions: Knights of Labor (1869); AF of L(1881-1886); ILGWU (1900) a. “Bread and butter” objectives b. Unions and social issues (education) c. Attitudes toward immigrants, AfricanAmericans, women d. Union leadership (Gompers, Debs) 

Struggle and conflict a. Major strikes: gains and losses— Homestead, Pullman (In Re Debs, 1895), Lawrence b. Management’s position c. Weapons or tactics employed in disputes between labor and management d. Attitude and role of government

Agrarian response to economic change: Organize and protest a. The Grange movement as agrarian protest b. Populism: a political response—William Jennings Bryan and the election of 1896 

 National government response: Interstate Commerce Act

A.An emerging global involvement  a. Role of increased American power b.Communications technology c. American attitudes toward international role d. Growth of naval power e. Perry and the “opening” of Japan (1854) 

Other Pacific overtures a. United States and China; the Chinese perspective (Boxer Rebellion) b. The Open-Door policy c. Acquisition of Hawaii d. Naval bases: Samoa

Imperialism: the Spanish-American War a. Causes for war b. United States empire—Puerto Rico; Cuban protectorate (the Platt Amendment) c. Acquisition of the Philippines: “the great debate” d.  Disposition of territories e. Constitutional issues f. Latin American affairs g. Monroe Doctrine update (Roosevelt corollary)

Mass consumption and the clash of cultural values  a. The automobile: new industries, products, and services b. Installment buying: consumer durable goods (appliances) c. Real estate boom and suburban development; its economic and geographic implications: decline of trolleys and trains, improvement of roads

The emergence of new regional, political, and economic units a. Entertainment: radio; motion pictures; advertising and cultural homogenization  b. Constitutional and legal issues c. Threats to civil liberties: Red Scare, Ku Klux Klan, and Sacco and Vanzetti d.. Prohibition (18th Amendment) and the Volstead Act: stimulus to crime, public attitudes, repeal (21st Amendment) e. Science, religion, and education: the Scopes trial (1925)

Restrictions on immigration: closing the “golden door” 

Shifting cultural values a. Revolution in morals and manners: fads, flappers, and Freud

 Women’s changing roles a. Effect of World War I  b. Involvement in the political process: the 19th Amendment c. Health and working conditions  

Onset of the Depression

1. Weakness in the economy a. Overproduction/underconsumption (maldistribution of wealth) b. Overexpansion of credit (e.g., buying stock on margin)

2. The stock market crash a. Worldwide nature—Growing financial interdependence b. Interdependent banking systems c. International trade d. Political repercussions

3. The Hoover response a. Rugged individualism; “trickle down” economics b. Reconstruction Finance Corporation

4. Unemployment, the Bonus Army, Hoovervilles; impact on women and minorities

 Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal: Relief, recovery, and reform programs

1. Relief of human suffering a. Bank “holiday”; Emergency Banking Act b. Federal Emergency Relief Act c. Unemployment: WPA, PWA, CCC; troubling equity issues

2. Recovery of the United States economy a. NRA: “codes of fair competition” b. Mortgage relief: HOLC, FHA c. First and second AAA, scarcity and parity

3. Search for effective reform (program examples) a. Banking: Glass-Steagall Act (FDIC) b. Stock market: SEC c. Social Security d. Labor 

4. Labor’s response: Formation of CIO

5. Controversial aspects of the New Deal a. Constitutional issues  b. 1936 election “mandate” c. Roosevelt’s “Court-packing” proposal: failure and success d. 1940: third-term controversy (the unwritten constitution) e. Passage of the 22nd Amendment (1951)

6. The human factor a. FDR as communicator and his efforts to restore public confidence; press conferences, “fireside chats,” and effective use of the radio b. Eleanor Roosevelt as the President’s eyes and ears c. The Dust Bowl and the Okies d. The New Deal and women (Frances Perkins) e. The New Deal and minorities (shift in African-American vote): discriminatory results f. Indian Reorganization Act (1934)

 Isolation and neutrality

1. Causes of disillusion and pacifism

2. Neutrality Acts of 1935-37

3. Spanish Civil War: testing war technology and ideology

 4. FDR’s “quarantine” speech (1937)

 Failure of peace; triumph of aggression

1. Aggressions of Japan, Germany, Italy: 19321940

2. Appeasement: The Munich Conference (1938)

3. German attack on Poland; start of World War II in Europe

4. Gradual United States involvement a. Neutrality Act of 1939 (“cash and carry”) b. Lend-Lease Act and 50 overage destroyers deal c. The moral dimension: The Atlantic Charter (August 1941)

The United States in World War II

1. Pearl Harbor

2. The human dimensions of the war a. The “arsenal of democracy” (feats of productivity) b. Role of women: WACs; Rosie the Riveter; return of the retired c. Mobilization: the draft; minority issues d. Financing the war: war bond drives; Hollywood goes to war e. Rationing f. Experiences of men and women in military service

3. Allied strategy and leadership a. Assistance to Soviet Union b. Europe first c. Atwo-front war

4. The atomic bomb a. The Manhattan Project (role of refugees) b. Truman’s decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan: Hiroshima and Nagasaki c. United States occupation of Japan; the “MacArthur constitution” d. Japanese war crime trials

5. The war’s impact on minorities
a. Incarceration of West Coast JapaneseAmericans; Executive Order 9066; Korematsu v. United States(1944) b. Extent of racially integrated units in the military c. The Nazi Holocaust: United States and world reactions d. The Nuremberg war crimes trials; later trials of other Nazi criminals, e.g., Eichmann, Barbie

6. Demobilization a. Inflation and strikes b. The G.I. Bill; impact on education and housing c. Truman’s Fair Deal d. Partisan problems with Congress e. Minorities continued to find it difficult to obtain fair practices in housing, employment, education f. Upset election of 1948; Truman versus Dewey g. Truman and civil rights

 International peace efforts

1. Formation of the United Nations

2. United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights a. Eleanor Roosevelt’s role b. Senate response

3. Displaced persons: refugee efforts

 Expansion and containment: Europe

1. Summitry: Yalta and Potsdam, establishing “spheres of influence”

2. The Iron Curtain: Winston Churchill

3. Postwar uses for United States power a. The Truman Doctrine: Greece and Turkey b. The Marshall Plan (1) Aid for Europe (2) The Common Market (3) European Parliament c. Berlin airlift d. Formation of NATO alliance

Containment in Asia, Africa, and Latin America

1. The United States and Japan a. Separate peace treaty (1951) b. Reconstruction of Japan

2. The United States and China a. Rise to power of Mao Zedong and the People’s Republic of China b. Chiang Kai-shek to Taiwan (1949)

3. USSR tests an A-bomb (1949)

4. The “hot war” in Asia: Korean War a. The Yalu River: China enters the war b. United Nations efforts: MacArthur, Truman, and “limited war” c. Stalemate and truce (1953)

5. Point four aid: Africa, Asia, Latin America

The Cold War at home

1. Truman and government loyalty checks Case studies: The Smith Act and the House Un-American Activities Committee (Watkins v. United States, 1957); the Alger Hiss case (1950); the Rosenberg trial (1950) 

2. Loyalty and dissent: the case of Robert Oppenheimer

3. McCarthyism

4. Politics of the Cold War a. Loss of China b. Stalemate in Korea c. Truman’s falling popularity

 The Kennedy years

1. The New Frontier: dreams and promises a. Civil rights actions

2. Foreign policy and Cold War crises a. Bay of Pigs invasion b. Vienna Summit/Berlin Wall c. Cuban missile crisis d. Laos and Vietnam e. Latin America and the Alliance for Progress f. Peace Corps g. Launching the race to the Moon h. Nuclear Test Ban Treaty 1963, 1967; Hot Line established

3. Movement for rights of disabled citizens a. Background  b. Kennedy administration, 1961-1963; beginning awareness, changing attitudes 

 Johnson and the Great Society

1. Expanding on the Kennedy social programs a. War on poverty; VISTA b. Medicare c. Federal aid to education d. Environmental issues and concerns

2. The Moon landing: the challenge of space exploration

3. Continued demands for equality: civil rights movement a. Black protest, pride, and power  NAACP(National Association for the Advancement of Colored People): legal judicial leadership, Urban League b. Case studies (CORE (Congress of Racial Equality): “Freedom Riders”  c. Legislative impact 

 4. Demands for equality: women a. The modern women’s movement Commission and the Civil Rights Act, 1963-1964

5. Rising consciousness of Hispanic-Americans a. “Brown power” movement b. Organizing farm labor (Cesar Chavez) c. Cuban and Haitian immigration d. Increasing presence in American politics

6. Demands for equality: American Indian Movement (AIM) and other protests a. Occupation of Alcatraz b. The “long march” c. Wounded Knee, 1973

7. Rights of the accused a. Mappv. Ohio,1961 b. Gideonv. Wainwright, 1963 c. Mirandav. Arizona,1966

8. Legislative reapportionment: Bakerv. Carr,1962

Vietnam: sacrifice and turmoil

1. The French-Indochinese War: early United States involvement; Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy policies (review how foreign policy is formulated)

2. United States and the spread of communism; domino theory; credibility of other United States commitments

3. Civil war in South Vietnam; concept of guerrilla warfare

4. LBJ and the Americanization of the war a. Fear of “losing” Vietnam b. Escalation and United States assumptions; Tet offensive

5. Student protests at home a. Draft protesters b. Political radicals: protests, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), antiwar c. Cultural radicals: hippies and communalists

6. 1968: Ayear of turmoil a. President Johnson’s decision not to seek reelection b. Assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (April 1968) and Robert Kennedy (June 1968) c. The Democratic Convention; war protesters disrupt proceedings d. Impact of the Vietnam War on society

 The Bush Presidency 

1.The election of 1988 a. Effects of demographics b. Rise of a third party (H. Ross Perot) c. Increasing influence of political action committees

2. Domestic issues a. Environmental concerns b. Immigration issues c. Savings and loan scandal d. Social concerns (Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, 1990 and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania, et.al. v. Casey,1992)

3. Foreign policy issues a. Dissolution of the Soviet Union b. Fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification (1990) c. Crisis in Bosnia d. Persian Gulf crisis

 The Clinton Presidency

1. Domestic issues Decisions and Actions a. Social concerns  b. Economic concerns  c. Political concerns

2. Foreign policy issues a. United States—Middle East relations: Israeli—PLO agreement (Rabin—Arafat) b. United States in the global economy (NAFTA)  (GATT)