U.S. History to Present

Students will examine United States history through a thematic lens across time and place. Students will utilize historical thinking skills to examine primary and secondary accounts to formulate an understanding of the past. The course content will focus on United States geography over time, as well as a thematic approach to exploration and expansion, revolution and reform, economic interactions, and ideological conflict and progress. Key events and people will be studied through their interactions with these themes. This will provide students with both an understanding of chronology as well as how decisions can impact events moving forward.

The following are major objectives which students are expected to learn:

Students will

• Develop skills for historical and geographical analysis.
• Use maps, globes, photographs, pictures, cartoons, and tables.
• Examine how early cultures developed in North America.
• Describe European exploration in North America and West Africa.
• Identify factors that shaped colonial America.
• Analyze causes and results of the American Revolution.
• Examine westward expansion and reform in America from 1801 to 1861.
• Understand the causes, major events, and effects of the Civil War.
• Describe how life changed after the Civil War as a result of Reconstruction.
• Explain the changing role of the United States from the late nineteenth century through World War II.
• Examine the social, economic, and technological changes of the twentieth century.
• Identify the major causes and effects of American involvement in World War II.
• Examine the key domestic issues during the second half of the twentieth century, including the Civil Rights Movement.