This class can coordinate with my American Literature 1 course.  Students may join even if they have not completed part 1.

This course is a rhetorical level course intended to introduce the student to the major themes and moments in US history.  This course will involve both writing and reading.  We will be reading a full-range of primary documents from each time period and geographical area we study.  You will be learning how to read, think about, analyze, argue with, and present ideas about history and to connect events to the larger trends and themes in world history.

This class is a discussion-based, interactive format.  Each week you will be responsible for reading background material and assigned primary documents.  You will be expected to write a reading response for each of your readings.  These reading responses should be 1-2 pages on the background material for each time period in history and the important elements of the work.  You should be building a timeline of major events in US history across geographical boundaries. In class, we will spend much time discussing our reading, putting themes in their historical context and asking questions about the author’s and our own worldviews.  I expect you to come to class prepared to participate in this discussion. You will also be assigned brief presentations.  These presentations will involve researching the biographical information for significant figures and key information for major moments we will study in class. 

This class covers a time period in United States history that deals with problems of racism and discrimination, as well as efforts made to correct those problems in the legal, economic, and societal institutions of the country.  This class will utilize primary documents from a variety of sources to give voice to those marginalized groups throughout those struggles.  

1. Westward

2. The economy of the Old South

3. Slavery and Sectionalism

4. Civil War

5.  Civil War strategy

6.  Presentations on Civil War battles due

7.  Life on the Home Front

8. Reconstruction

9.  In class debate on the various approaches to Reconstruction

10.  The West

11. The Gilded Age

12. The City

13.  Industrialization cont

14.  Reform movements

15.  Test 1

16. Progressivism

17. WWI

18. Modernism

19. New Era

20. The New Deal

21. WW2

22. Atomic Bomb and Truman

23.  Cold War diplomacy

24. The 50s Consumerism and McCarthyism

25.  Korean War

26.  Civil Rights Era

27. 60s Protests and Counter culture

28. 70s Vietnam

29. 80s and 90s Conservatism and end of the Cold War

30. Final test