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HIST-1301-DC008 United States History I
Prerequisite: RDNG 0331-minimum grade of C or a score on a state-approved test indicating college-level reading skills
A survey of the social, political, economic, cultural and intellectual history of the United States from the pre-Columbian era to the Civil War/Reconstruction period. United States History I includes the study of pre-Columbian, colonial, revolutionary, early national, slavery and sectionalism, and the Civil War/Reconstruction eras. Themes that may be addressed in United States History I include: American settlement and diversity, American culture, religion, civil and human rights, technological change, economic change, immigration and migration, and creation of the federal government.
Student Resources Student Resources Website
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(3 sem hrs; 3 lec)
On Campus Course
Textbooks will be discussed in class.
Students will need to a three inch three ring binder, paper, pens, highlighters, pencils, and access to a textbook or reading material on a daily basis.
After studying the material presented in this course, the student will be able to:
1. Create an argument through the use of historical evidence.
2. Analyze and interpret primary and secondary sources.
3. Analyze the effects of historical, social, political, economic, cultural, and global forces on this period of United States history.
In order to receive your AC Connect Email, you must log in through AC Connect at https://acconnect.actx.edu .
If you are an active staff or faculty member according to Human Resources, use "Exchange". All other students, use "AC Connect (Google) Email".
Students in the AP History classroom will be treated with the same respect as students that enroll in a college level survey history course. In return, the students will have college-level expectations put upon them: they will need to show discipline, respect, responsibility, and studiousness. Students will respect the rules of the classroom as well as each other. Cheating is unacceptable and assignments that are completed dishonestly will always receive the grade of a ‘0’. Students’ level of commitment to the class will reflect itself in the level of effort they put into the classroom and demands of the course curriculum.
In addition, students are expected to follow all Palo Duro High School and Amarillo College policies and procedures.
Grades: Students will be assessed over a variety of assignments such as participation and engagement in class, homework/readings, quizzes, tests, writings, and discussions.
Tests: 40%
Quizzes: 10%
Homework/readings: 15%
Writings/Discussion: 15%
Participation/engagement: 20%
Regular attendance is necessary for satisfactory achievement. Therfore, it is the responsibility of the student to attend class. The instructor will discuss the attendance policy in further detail in class.
Content Schedule: the following schedule is tentative and subject to change.
However, this is the rough outline of what material will be presented in class and when.
Week 1: Pre-Columbian Civilizations and Early Colonial Contact
Week 2: English Colonization 1607-1763
Week 3: Causes of the American Revolution: 1763-1776
Week 4: Revolution Through the Articles of Confederation 1776-1783
Week 5: Creating a New Government: The Constitution 1787-1789
Week 6: The Administrations of Washington and Adams: 1789-1800
Week 7: The Administrations of Jefferson and Madison: 1800-1816
Week 8: New Nationalism: The Era of Good Feelings 1816-1828
Week 9: The Administrations of Jackson and Van Buren: Changes within Politics: 1828-1840
Week 10: Society and Economy: 1800-1860
Week 11: Westward Impulses and the Road to Civil War: 1800-1860
Week 12: Road to Civil War, continued.
Week 13: Civil War and Reconstruction
Week 14: Civil War and Reconstruction, continued. (Have a great Thanksgiving!)
Week 15: Rise of Industry, Labor, and Mass Consumption: 1840-1900
Week 16: The Gilded Age: 1868-1900
Week 17: Semester Review and Semester Exams (Happy Holidays!)
Personal Philosophy
History is well known as the study of change over time. However, it is more than that. It is a rigorous discipline that requires the student of it to understand a number of perspectives and resources. It allows the student to better understand and contextualize the world in which they live. Understanding history is much more than the acquisition of factual knowledge like dates and names. To achieve a full understanding of historical concepts and material, the student must seek to analyze and interpret both primary and secondary resources to come to conclusions about the eras and historical content they study. In a history classroom, the teacher serves as someone who helps the student to understand historical themes, concepts, and perspectives as well as content.
History is also a discipline that emphasizes the communication and expression of gained knowledge. Students should be able to effectively and clearly communicate their ideas to others. Because of this, students should be able to learn to formulate structured writing products that include thesis statements and properly formed paragraphs. To understand history is to communicate it.
Course Overview
The first semester of the entire AP US History course is one that covers the beginnings of North American history at the time of European exploration until the Gilded Age. Teaching materials and methods will include textbooks, excerpts, primary and secondary documentation, discussion, writing exercises, current events, debates, document-based question exercises, videos, movies. Analytical and writing skills will be emphasized.
The following is a brief overview of each unit in the class:
Unit 1: Early American Indian Civilizations to the French and Indian War (2 Weeks)
In this unit, students will learn about the historical content of Early American Indian Civilization in North America, reasons for European exploration in the area, the Spanish and French experience in North America, the effects of Virgin Soil Epidemics on Native American peoples, and the push-pull factors that lead England to colonize in North America. Specific content includes:
Key Themes of the Unit: “Environment and Geography,” Peopling,” and “Work, Exchange, and Technology”
Specific Contents of the Unit
- Importance of agriculture in North American tribes, maize, and “three sisters” farming
- Differences between Plains Indian tribes (nomadic, dry land farming) and tribes of the Northeast like the Iroquois and the Algonquian speaking tribes (hunter-gatherer, permanent settlement, hunting)
- The effects of virgin soil epidemics like measles and small pox in Native America people
- The Ecomienda New World economic system and experience with Native Americans in Meso- America and the American present-day Southwest
- The French New World economic and trade system and their experience with Native Americans in the Northeast and present-day Canada
- The religious and economic push and pull factors that lead to British colonization in the New World including overpopulation, primogeniture, unemployment, the enclosure movement, the Protestant Reformation, and the Glorious Revolution,
-The culture and societies of differing colonies and the major events of the British colonies until the end of the Seven Years War, including the history of the foundation of the colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Virginia, Rhode Island, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.
- The Columbian Exchange/Three Way Trade Across the Atlantic: Europe, N. America and Africa
- The need for labor: indentured servants, the ‘head-right system” and Salt Water Slavery in the West Indies.tured servants and the “head-right system”
- The First Great Awakening: Armenianism v. Calvinism
- Dominion of New England, Edmund Adros, and the Navigation Laws
- Beginnings and Effects of the Seven Years War: The Proclamation of 1763 and the end of “Salutory Neglect”
Activities
-Students will write an essay that identifies the differences between European and Native American uses of land ownership, money, trade, and agricultural practices. Emphasis will be on pre-writing organization of essays.
-Students will write an essay that identifies economic and religious push and pull factors that lead to English colonization. Thesis formulation and pre-writing organization will be emphasized.
***Student will be evaluated in the form of participation/engagement, classroom discussion, reading comprehension, a Quiz, and a Unit Test.
Primary Source Readings:
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edward (1741) in Nash and Schultz, Retracing the Past: Volume 1 – to 1877 (Boston: Pearson Longman, 2007), 85-89
“A Model of Christian Charity” by John Winthrop (1630). Ibid., 35-36.
“Lawes Divine, Morall, and Martiall” (1610) hosted by the Jamestown Project by the University of Virginia Library at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/jamestown-browse?id=J1056.
Secondary Document Readings
Richter, Daniel K., Facing East From Indian Country: A Native History of Early America (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001), 53-59.
à Be able to discuss how English contact with American Indians changed how native peoples changed interacted with each other and with Europeans
Kennedy, David M. et al., The American Pageant 14th Edition (Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning), Chapter 4 pages 68-87.
Unit 2: The Age of the American Revolution: Beginnings, the War, and Experimentations with Democracy (3 Weeks)
In this unit, students will how England sought to regulate their new land winnings about the Seven Years War while trying to raise the funds to do so. American colonists will reject this effort and begin to claim English violations of their rights. These sentiments will inevitably lead to the American Revolution.
Key Themes of the Unit: “American Identity,” “Politics and “Power,” “Ideas, Belief, and Culture”
Specific Contents of the Unit
- John Locke, Adam Smith, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau – beginnings of Classical Liberalism and effects of Enlightenment thought in America
- Pontiac’s Rebellion and the need for The Proclamation of 1763
- The Navigation Acts, The Sugar Act, The Stamp Act, “taxation without representation”, The Townshend/Intolerable Acts, the Quartering Act, and the Currency Act,
- Declaration of Independence, major battles, and gaining independence from Britain
- The Sons of Liberty, the Boston Tea Party, and the Boston “Massacre”
- John Dickenson, the Articles of Confederation, its many weaknesses and one strength
- Need for new government: James Madison, the Constitution, checks and balances, and compromise to for a nation
Primary Document Readings
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense
The Declaration of Independence
The Constitution and the Bill of Rights
Federalist Papers #10
Secondary Document Readings
Wood, Gordon S., The American Revolution: A History (New York: The Modern Library, 2003), 17-32.
à Be able to discuss the various taxes and regulation implemented upon the American colonies by England
Morgan, Edmund S., The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1995), 54-65
à Be prepared to discuss and write as to whether or not Parliament had the right to tax the colonies and whether or not all members of Parliament thought a Stamp Act on the American colonies was the best method of raising revenue from the Americas for a British army in the colonies.
Activities
-Students will participate in a debate as to whether or not the American colonies should have acquiesced in the form of new British economic regulations and taxes for the benefit of the empire or whether the British should have been rebelled against for its attempt to use power over the colonies irresponsibly.
- Students will write an essay with the focus of new regulations for the American colonies and how these regulations affected/hurt the colonists’ rights and economic freedoms. Emphasis will be on generalization of a thesis from the analyzed materials and primary documents.
Unit 3: Experimentation in Republicanism: The Domestic and Foreign Challenges of the Early Republic and the Presidencies of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison (2 Weeks)
In this unit, students will learn about the nation’s and multiple president’s struggles to guide the country on its new path of democratic experimentation. Many debates will arise as to whether states or the federal government is sovereign, whether British or French make better allies, how do deal with Native Americans, the extent of powers of multiple branches of the Federal government, specifically the President and the Supreme Court, and the War of 1812.
Key Themes of the Unit: American Identity, Politics and Power, and America in the World
Specific Contents of the Unit
- Settling the West: The Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787
- Effects of the Declaration of Independence in France, Haiti, and Latin America
- American Indians: a “nation within a nation” and the Constitution
- Federalist characteristics versus Anti-Federalist (Democratic Republican) characteristics
- Arguments for a strong central government including Shays’ Rebellion, a refresher on the weakness of central government under the Articles of Confederation, the Whiskey Rebellion, Hamilton’s Economic Plan, and the Judiciary Act of 1789
- Arguments against a central government, including the Alien and Sedition Act’s role in sparking the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, and the reason for Anti-Federalist want of a Bill of Rights
- Foreign Affairs of the Early Republic including Washington’s Declaration of Neutrality with Franch during their Revolution, Jay’s Treaty with Britain, Pinckney’s Treaty with Spain, and the XYZ Affair in France
-Washington’s Farewell and challenges of other presidents to come including Adam’s dodging war with France, Thomas Jefferson and the Revolution of 1800/the 12th Amendment, and the Louisiana Purchase
-The War of 1812 and how American was dragged into it including the impressement of sailors, the want and economic effects of the Embargo Act of 1807 and the Intercourse Act of 1809, including the effects of the war upon the nation.
Activities
-Students will write a perspective making the case that either a strong central government or a weak central government was best for the nation in the beginning. Also, they will argue as to whether or not our country currently should emphasize states rights or federal rights and choose a couple of topics to use as evidence for their argument.
-Students will write a short essay than analyzes Washington’s farewell address and answer the question as to why Washington probably warned against the things he did at that time.
-Students will read the Bill of Rights and write an interpretation essay that answers questions regarding what fears the Democratic Republicans had of a strong central government.
***Students will be assessed over the material in the form of participation, engagement, and discussion as well as a potential reading/content quiz, and a test.
Primary Document Readings
Washington’s Farewell Address
Bill of Rights
Article I of the Constitution (emphasis on Indian relations)
Marbury v. Madison court transcript
Secondary Document Readings
Kennedy, David M. et al., The American Pageant 14th Edition (Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning), Chapter 10, pages 199-222.
Hickey, Donald R., The War of 1812: A Short History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995) 103-109.
Unit 4: The Era of Good Feelings and a New Sense of Nationalism (1 Week)
Themes of the Unit: “American Identity,” “America in the World,” “Environment and Geography”
In this unit, students will learn about the new sense of nationalism after the War of 1812. This unit will include expansion of land via numerous treaties with foreign powers, supremacy of the federal government as established by the Marshall Court, The Monroe Doctrine.
Specifics of the Unit
- The Marshall Court ruled in various ways that asserted the power of the federal government over the states. Cases to be reviewed are: Fletcher v. Peck, McCullough v. Maryland, Dartmouth College v. Woodward, Cohens v. Virginia, and Gibbons v. Ogden
- America expanded its borders in great amounts during this time via treaties which include: The Adams-Onis Treaty with Spain in 1819, the Treaty of 1818 with Canada, and the Russo-American Treaty of 1824 with Russia.
- The Monroe Doctrine, reality versus symbolism.
Activities of the Unit
-Students will draft a treaty with another country asking for part of their land for a price. Students will have to write reasons for wanting their land and why selling the land to the US is a good idea for both countries involved. They may be any country in the world engaging any other country in the world.
***Students will be graded on their participation, engagement, discussion and assessment over material via quiz and Test
Primary Source Readings
The Monroe Doctrine text
Case text of McCullough v. Maryland
Secondary Source Readings
Kennedy, David M. et al., The American Pageant 14th Edition (Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning), Chapter 12, pages 255-258 and 263-271.
Unit 5: Issues of the Jackson and Van Buren Presidencies (1Week)
Key Themes of the Unit: “Peopling,” and “Politics and Power”
In this unit, students will understand how many of the nation’s issues came to a head during Jackson’s presidency, including the powers of the president while in office, role of the bank in America’s economy, how Native Americans fit into an American society, and the sovereignty of states in the face of federal power. Jackson will deal with these issues while leaving a depressed economy in the hands of his successor, Martin Van Buren.
Specific Contents of the Unit:
-Students will be given a biographical background of Andrew Jackson so that his politics are better understood; content concerns his rise to power including his history in Tennessee, his roles in the army during the Battle of New Orleans and the First Seminole War in Florida.
- The “Corrupt Bargain” of the 1824 election and how Jackson was elected in 1828
- The key issues and debates of the time under Jackson, including the battle for the bank, the Indian Removal Act, the Trail of Tears, the Worcester v. Georgia case, and the Blackhawk War, the Tariff of Abominations and how it sparked the Nullification Crisis
- Students will understand how Jackson expanded the powers of the presidency by studying the “spoils system,” the power of the legislative veto, expansion of campaigning by presidential nominees.
- Students will understand how Jackson’s opponents viewed his actions as unconstitutional
- The election of 1836 and the failures of Van Buren to handle the Panic of 1837
Activities
-Students will analyze political cartoons of Andrew Jackson and write an essay as to how the average person might have perceived Jackson as a president via popular cartoons.
- Students will write a perspective essay as to whether or not Jackson overstepped his presidential powers when removing Indians from Georgia.
***Students will be graded on their participation, engagement, discussion and assessment over material via quiz and Test
Primary Source Readings
Worcester v. Georgia text
Packet of political cartoons depicting Jackson in various ways
Secondary Resource Readings
Meacham, Jon, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House (New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2008), 198-204.
Kennedy, David M. et al., The American Pageant 14th Edition (Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning), Chapter 13, 277-293.
à Students should be prepared to discuss whether or not Jackson violated the Constitution in his response to Worcester v. Georgia, whether or not closing the Bank of the United States was good or bad for the country, and whether or not Jackson had the Indian’s best interest in mind when he removed them from Georgia.
Unit 6: American Society from 1800-1860 (1 Week)
In this unit, students will understand the changes in American society with an emphasis on advances in technology, farming in the South, the transportation revolution/The American System, the communications revolution, attempts at reformation of women’s and African Americans’ role in society, religious revivals, exploration of the western lands, and the differences between Northern and Southern economics and society.
Key Themes of the Unit: “Work Exchange and Technology,” “Identity,” “American in the World”
Specific Content of the Unit:
- The boom of “king cotton” in the South and the increase demand for slave labor
- Role of canals, roads, turnpikes, and railroads in the growth of the American economy
- Increase of manufacturing in the North to make mass-produce goods on a cheaper scale
- The Second Great Awakening and its effects on society
- The birth of the suffragette movement and women’s role in social reformation
- The abolition movement including Frederick Douglas and William Lloyd Garrison
- Lewis and Clark Expedition, William Pike’s exploration, and the Gold Rush of 1849
- The birth of sectionalism between the North and South
Activities of the Unit:
- Students will create a compare and contrast graph analyzing the differences between the North and South as it relates to tariffs, types of labor, social values, role of government, urban and infrastructural development, manufacturing, technological advancements, and other areas of comparison
- Students will write a thesis essay concerning the factors that made American economic growth during the first half of the 19th Century possible
***Students will be graded on their participation, engagement, discussion and assessment over material via quiz and Test
Primary Source Readings:
“William Swain’s Letter from the California Gold Fields” 1850 in Nash and Schultz, Retracing the Past: Volume I – To 1877 (Boston: Pearson Longman, 2007), 255-258.
“The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro” by Frederick Douglass (1852) hosted by PBS at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2927t.html
Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Keynote Speech at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, hosted by greatamericandocuments.com at http://www.greatamericandocuments.com/speeches/stanton-seneca-falls.html
Secondary Source Readings:
Howe, Daniel Walker, What Hath God Wrought” (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 211-236
à Students should be able to discuss how new modes of transportation increased the number of jobs and products while decreasing the price of goods
à Students should be able to discuss how the increase of printed material unified the country and increase political and social participation
Unit 7: Sectionalism and the Coming of the Civil War (2 Weeks)
In this unit, students will understand the political and economic factors that led to the rise of sectionalism in the United States and how slavery brought with it issues concerning the power of the federal government in relation to state’s right and personal rights.
Key Themes of the Unit: “Politics and Power,” “Work, Exchange, and Technology,” Environment and Geography”
Specific Contents of the Unit:
- The debate between free versus slave labor; The Tallmadge Amendment and the Missouri Compromise of 1820; The Annexation of Texas; The Compromise of 1850; The Mexican American War of 1848; The Kansas Nebraska Act; The Actions of John Brown; The Dred Scott case; The Lincoln Douglas Debates: the Election of Abraham Lincoln, secession of the Southern states
Activities
- Students will write an essay that attempts to seek compromise between the Northern and Southern states on the eve of the Civil War.
- Students will write an essay evaluating the motivations of John Brown and his actions at Harper’s Ferry. Students must take a side as to whether or not his actions were justified.
- Students will write an essay summarizing Lincoln’s attitude towards slavery and his position on immediate emancipation of slaves and why he took this position.
- Students will write an essay over whether or not the Southern states seceded for a defense of state’s rights or for the perpetuation of slavery
***Students will be graded on their participation, engagement, discussion and assessment over material via quiz and Test
Primary Source Readings
-Transcript of the Dred Scott v. Sanford case hosted by ourdocuments.com at http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=29&page=transcript
- Letters to and from John Brown after Harper’s Ferry hosted by PBS at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/brown/filmmore/reference/primary/
- Lincoln in the first Lincoln-Douglass debate on slavery hosted by the National Park Service at http://www.nps.gov/liho/historyculture/debate1.htm
- “William Jay Mocks and Dismissed the Proslavery Argument” (1836) in Wilentz and Earle Major Problems of the Early Republic, 1787-1848 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008), 394-396
- “J. H. Hammond Defends Slavery” (1836) in Ibid.
Secondary Source Readings
McPherson, James, The Battle Cry of Freedom (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988) 201-207
Kennedy, David M. et al., The American Pageant 14th Edition (Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning), Chapter 19, pages 437-459.
à Students should be able to discuss the key events that lead to the disunion of the nation and be able to argue them from the perspectives of both the Northern and Southern states
Unit 8: Civil War and Reconstruction (2 weeks)
Key Themes of the Unit: “Politics and Power,” and “Ideas, Beliefs, and Culture”
Specific Contents of the Unit
- The events and effects of various major battles of the Civil War including The First Bull Run, Antietam, Gettysburg, and Sherman’s “March to the Sea”
- The Various plans for Reconstruction including the Lincoln Plan, the Wade-Davis Bill, Johnson’s plan, and the plan of the Radical Republicans and Thaddeus Stevens in Congress, and the Reconstruction Act
- The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendment, the Freedmen’s Bureau, the Civil Rights Bill, and their failure in the South due to Black Codes and the Rise of the Ku Klux Klan
- Johnson’s Battle with Congress and his near impeachment
- Republican post war legislation including the role of William Seward in the acquisition of Alaska in 1867 from Russia, the Railroad Act, and the Homestead Act
Activities
- Movie: Lincoln
- Students will compare and contrast the Lincoln Reconstruction Plan, the Wade-Davis Bill, Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan, and that of Radical Republicans in Congress via essay. The students will then take a stance on which bill/plan was the best for the nation.
- Students will participate in a debate that pits one position, whether Northern Republicans sought to free slaves for political power or whether they attempted to free slaves to solely for the benefit of slaves.
***Students will be graded on their participation, engagement, discussion and assessment over material via quiz and Test
Primary Source Readings
-The Emancipation Proclamation, The Gettysburg Address, and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address in Heffner, A Documentary History of the United States, 8th ed. (New York: Signet, 2009), 207- 217.
- Political Cartoons of the Civil War hosted by teacheamericanhistory.org at http://www.teachamericanhistory.org/File/Political_Cartoons_of_the_Civil_War.pdf
- Letters from Sherman to Grant hosted by the Civil War Trust at http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/primarysources/william-t-sherman-to-us.html
and hosted by North Carolina State University History Department at http://history.ncsu.edu/projects/cwnc/items/show/295
Secondary Source Readings
-Bruce Catton, The Civil War (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005), 22-35.
- Black Codes Article “The Southern ‘Black Codes’ of 1865-66” hosted by Constitution Rights Foundation at http://www.crf-usa.org/brown-v-board-50th-anniversary/southern-black-codes.html
-Kennedy, David M. et al., The American Pageant 14th Edition (Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning), Chapter 22, 513-534.
Unit 9: Rise of Labor, Industry, Mass Consumption, and its Causation of the Gilded Age (2 Weeks)
Students will learn about the growth of technological innovations in various parts of the country and on various industries. These innovations allowed for a revolution in production techniques, the growth of factories, and a cheaper production of an increased amount of goods. However, these new forms of urban development and factory production came with negative consequences for the average person. The focus of this unit will be to understand how these innovation both benefitted, and ultimately hurt the average American.
Key Themes of the Unit: “Work, Exchange, and Technology,” “Politics and Power”
Specific Content of the Unit
- The innovations in the last half of the Nineteenth Century including the light bulb, the Bessemer process, the railroad, the sewing machine, oil production, the steel plow, barbed wire, and coal.
- The trend of Americans to move to the cities from rural environments
- The role of robber barons such as Vanderbilt, Morgan, Carnegie, and Rockefeller, and laissez faire economics, and the formation of monopolies and trusts
- The poverty experienced by urban poor
- The rise of labor unions like the Knights of Labor, the American Federation of Labor, the International Workers of the World, among other, and their demands upon employers
- Labor riots and strikes like the Haymarket Riot and the Pullman strike
- The efforts of reform for urban poor and African Americans by Jane Addams and Hull House, W.E.B. Dubois, and Booker T. Washington
- Immigration into the United States and the negative reaction thereof; Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
- The role of political machines/political bosses in the cities and in politics
- Social Darwinism versus the Social Gospel
- Opening the West via railroads, land sales, and Indian legislation
Activities
- Introduction Activity: Students will write an essay outlining their plans for a new piece of technology that will help the economy or help society advance. They will explain how this technology is a lot like the light bulb of its day and the internet of today. In this way, students will understand the impact of new technologies of the latter half of the 19th C.
- Political cartoons from the Gilded Age thesis writing exercise.
- Andrew Carnegie “Wealth” response questions
***Students will be graded on their participation, engagement, discussion and assessment over material via quiz and Test
Primary Source Readings
Political cartoons of the Gilded Age
“Wealth” by Andrew Carnegie (1889) in Heffner, A Documentary History of the United States 8th ed. (New York: Signet, 2002), 228-236.
“Letter on Labor in Industrial Society” by Samuel Gompers (1894) in Ibid.
“Atlanta Exposition Address” by Booker T. Washington in 1893 in Ibid.
“Chinese Exclusion Act” (1882) in Nash and Schultz, Retracing the Past: Volume II – Since 1865 (New York: Pearson Longman, 2006), 128-130.
Secondary Source Readings
Sean Dennis Cashman, American in the Gilded Age: From the Death of Lincoln to the Rise of Theodore Roosevelt 3rd ed (New York: New York University Press, 1993), 100-150.
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