The New Deal

Wed/Mon. 5/18-23: Read 770-778
Tuesday. 5/24: Read 778-791
Wed/Thrs, 5/25-26: Read 791-799
Friday, 5/27: Test

Big Questions
1. What factors and events caused the Great Depression?
2. Why was FDR such a successful politician? Why was Hoover a failure?
3. Describe the differences between the First, Second, and Third New Deals.
4. Describe the new Democratic coalition created by FDR?
5. How did the war New Deal affect the labor movement?
6. How did the New Deal change government?
7. Why did the FDR’s “court-packing” scheme fail?
8. How did the New Deal affect African Americans?
9. What is Keynesian economics?

Know the significance of the following:

New Deal Programs: Emergency Banking Relief Act; Glass-Steagall Act.; Agricultural Adjustment Act; Tennessee Valley Authority; Rural Electrification Administration; Truth in Securities Act; Public Works Administration; Works Progress Administration; Resettlement Administration

Economics: Roosevelt Recession; John Maynard Keynes

Labor: Wagner Act; National Labor Relations Board; AFL; CIO; John L. Lewis; Trade union; Industrial Union; UAW; Sit-down strike;

Politics: FDR; Al Smith; Herbert Hoover; Fr. Coughlin; Dr. Townsend; Huey Long; Court-packing scheme

The Politics of Boom and Bust

 Fri/Mon 5/13-16:  Conservativism Returns: Read 746-760
1. Why were conservative Republicans more successful in the 1920s than the previous decade?
2. How did they change the direction of domestic and foreign policy?
3. What were thepolitical scandals of the period?
4. What happened to the money that American banks loaned to Europe?

Tuesday 5/17:  Hoover and The Great Depression: Read 760-768
1. Why did the economy crash in 1929?
2. How did Hoover react?
3. How successful was he in solving the crisis?

Cultural Change & Conflict 1920s

Tues/Wed, 5/3-4: Read 720-731 Cultural Conflict in the 1920s 1. How did World War I affect the political climate of the 1920s, especially for socialists?
2. In what ways did the 1920s see a rise in nationalism and what were the results of this rise?
3. Why was prohibition finally enacted?  What were the results?
4. In what ways was this a era a period of cultural conflict between traditionalists and modernists?

Thrs, 5/5 Read 732-745.  The Birth of Mass Culture
1. What were the prevailing political moods, policies, and issues of the 1920s?
2. How did consumerism and “mass culture” affect American culture?
3. What new entertainments emerged during the 1920s?
4. What were the prominent developments and authors in literature?
5. Was this a period of increasing personal freedom and liberty, or of social control and oppression?

Monday 5/10 Term Paper Outline Due.

Know the significance of the  ; Henry Ford; Warren Harding; Calvin Coolidge; Smoot-Hawley Tariff; Teapot Dome; Kellog-Briand Pact Herbert Hoover; “rugged individualism”; Al Smith; jazz; Jelly Roll Morton; Louis Armstrong; Duke Ellington; the Charleston; George Gershwin; F. Scott Fitzgerald; Ernest Hemingway; Sinclair Lewis; T.S. Eliot; Langston Hughes; Thomas Hart Benton; Edward Hopper; Georgia O’Keefe; Alfred Steiglist; Social Conflicts; Red Scare; National Origins Act; Ku Klux Klan; Great Migration; Harlem Renaissance; Marcus Garvey; Scopes Trial; 18th Amendment; Volstead Act; Margaret Sanger

World War I

Major Questions:• Why did the United States finally get involved in a European war when we had resisted them for so long?
• How did our involvement in World War I change the United States at that time?
• Did it in any way change us permanently?

Mon, 4/25; The Road to War: Read pages 688-697.
1. What factors caused the war?
2. How did the U.S. government and public respond to the war?
3. What challenges were there to the U.S. remaining neutral? Were we ever really neutral?
4. Why did the U.S. enter the war? Why did we enter on the side of Britain and France? 

Tues-Wed, 4/26-27; The War and American Society: Read 697-710.
1. How did the U.S. raise an army?
2. What did the federal government do to supply the troops with the proper material and food? What long-term effect might this have had?
3. How did the war affect the economy?
4. What effect did U.S. troops have on the war? What effect did the war have on American soldiers?
5. What did the government do to get Americans to support the war?
6. Who opposed the war? What happened to those who opposed the war? Why? Was the government responsible?

Thurs/Fri 4/28-29; The Search for a New World Order: Read 710-719
1. What were Wilson’s Fourteen Points generally aiming at doing? Was this a new idea? Was it a good idea?
2. Why did Wilson fail to get his Fourteen Points into the Treaty of Versailles?
3. Was the League of Nations a good idea? Why did the Senate reject it? Was it the Senate’s fault, or Wilson’s?

Monday, 5/2;  TEST  - Progressivism, Imperialism and World War I

Explain the significance of the following:
Lusitannia; Sussex; George Creel; General John Pershing; Eugene V. Debs; Bernard Baruch; Herbert Hoover; Zimmermann note; Selective Service Act; Committee on Public Information; Espionage and Sedition Acts; Industrial Workers of the World ; “Wobblies”; War Information Board; War Industries Board; National War Labor Board; Sixteenth Amendment; Eighteenth Amendment; Nineteenth Amendment; Food Administration; Russian Revolution; Bolshevism; Big Four; Henry Cabot Lodge; collective security; Irreconcilables; Reservationists; Fourteen Points; self-determination; Treaty of Versailles; Article 10; League of Nations.

American "Imperialism"

Wednesday 4/13: Stirrings of Imperialism: Read 626-640
1. Why did the United States begin to expand overseas?
2. Was this a change from earlier American foreign policy?
3. How and why did the United States acquire Hawaii? Why did Cleveland oppose the annexation?
4. Why did the United States declare war on Spain? Was it for selfish or selfless reasons?
5. Why did we invade the Philippines?

Thursday-Friday 4/14-15: The Republic as Empire: Read 640-653
1. What effect did the Platt Amendment have on Cuba and its relationship to the United States?
2. Why did the United States hold onto the Philippines? Was this the right thing to do? What were the results of the Philippine War for the Philippinos and America?
3. Did the United States become an imperialist power as a result of the Spanish-American War?Explain the arguments of the Anti-Imperialist League.
4. What was the Open Door in China? Why did the United States call for it? Was it successful?
5. Explain the Roosevelt Corollary? How did it relate to the Monroe Doctrine? Was it good for the United States? Was it good for Latin America?
6. How did the United States gain the Panama Canal? Was this just? Why was it so important to the United States?

Weds. 4/20: Taft's and Wilson's Latin American Policies: Read  675-676; 685-688.  Hand in revised Roosevelt "Essay" Outline.
1. How was Dollar Diplomacy different from Roosevelt’s policies? How was it the same?
2. How was Wilson’s policy towards Latin America different? How was it the same?
3. What was the overall affect of these three presidents’ policies towards Latin America? Does it have any affect on today? Were these policies wise? Were they moral?


Know the significance of the following: The Influence of Sea Power upon History by Alfred Thayer Mahan; Frederck Jackson Turner and his “Frontier Thesis”;  Hawaii; Spanish-American War; William McKinley; William Randolph Hearst & yellow journalism; U.S.S. Maine ; Teller Amendment; Admiral Dewey; Battle of San Juan Hill; Platt Amendment; Philippines; Anti-Imperialist League; Open Door;  Panama Canal; Roosevelt Corollary; Gunboat Diplomacy; “Speak Softly, but Carry a Big Stick”;  Dollar Diplomacy; Woodrow Wilson; Pancho Villa

The Progressives

Tuesday-Wednesday, April 5-6: The Muckrakers and the Beginnings of Progressivism; Read pages 654-664. 
1. In the views of the progressives, what was wrong with America, and what did they propose to fix it?
2. Were their views revolutionary?
3. Progressivism is generally viewed by most historians as a positive movement in American politics.  Were their any negative sides to progressivism?







Thursday, April 7: Roosevelt and Progressivism in the Presidency; Read pages 665-678.
Write an outline for an essay that would answer the question, "Does Teddy Roosevelt belong on Mount Rushmore?" Your answer should be an outline of an essay and may be in "bulleted" form. It should start with an introductory paragraph that includes your thesis and main ideas. You must present specific evidence to support your evidence.




Friday-Monday, April 8-11:  Woodrow Wilson's Progressive Domestic Program; Read pages 579-585 in preparation for tomorrow's Wilson vs. Roosevelt debate.  The debate will center on the areas of:
1. Regulation of Big Business
2. Finance, Tax and Tariffs
3. Race
4. The Environment
5. Labor




Know the significance of the following:
Muckrakers; McClure’s; Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives; Lincoln Steffens, Shame of the Cities; Ida Tarbell; Upton Sinclair, The Jungle; Triangle Waistshirt Factory fire; Social Gospel; Jane Adams; Hull House; Eugene V. Debs; Socialist Party; commission plan; city manager; initiative; referendum; recall; direct primary; Robert LaFollette; Margaret Sanger; 16th Amendment; 17th Amendment; 18th Amendment; Theodore Roosevelt; Square Deal; Northern Securities Act; Hepburn Act; Meat Inspection Act; Pure Food and Drug Act; New Nationalism; Bull Moose Party; Conservation; John Muir; Forest Reserve Act; William Howard Taft;  Mann-Elkins Act; Woodrow Wilson; New Freedom; Louis Brandeis; Underwood-Simmons Tariff; Federal Reserve Act; Federal Trade Commission; Clayton Antitrust Act; Workman’s Compensation

Gilded Age Politics

Friday/Monday, 3/18-21: Race, Ethnicity and the Bloody Shirt in Urban and National Politics: Read 502-514
 1. What was machine politics? Why did it develop and why was it politically successful? Was it a successful response to the challenges of governing a city?
 2. How did blacks fare politically in the 1880s and 1890s?
 3. How was the Civil War used by politicians throughout this period?

Tuesday, 3/22: National Politics in the Gilded Age: Read 515-529. Review pages 618-624.
 1. Why did the authors choose this title for this chapter? Is it appropriate? Why?
2. What was different about politics during the Gilded Age?
 3. What were the political strengths, strategies, and platforms of each party?
 4. Who were the populists? To whom did they appeal? What was their platform? Why did they fail to win a presidential election?
5. Explain the conflict over monetization of silver and gold.
6 . What is your personal opinion of politics and political leaders in the Gilded Age?

AND complete your March Madness Gilded Age Presidential Bracket

Know the significance of the following: Grantism; Schuyler Colfax; Credit Mobilier; Liberal Republicans; Horace Greeley; Panic of 1873; Rutherford B. Hayes; Election of 1876; “the bloody shirt”; Grand Army of the Republic; Sherman Silver Purchase Act, 1890; Roscoe Conkling; James A Garfield;  Pendleton Civil Service Act, 1883; Chester A. Arthur; Grover Cleveland; Benjamin Harrison; Jim Crow Laws; lynchings; Plessy v Feguson(1896); Depression of 1893; Greenback-Labor Party; Populists; James Weaver; William McKinley; William Jennings Bryan; Cross of Gold Speech

Industrial and Urban Revolution

INDUSTRIALIZATION
Fri-Tues, 3/4-8.; Industrial Growth: Read 530-545
1. In what ways and to what extent did the economy change from 1865-1900?
2. How did new ways of organizing business help create this change?
3. How did new technologies and inventions help create this change?
4. How and why did railroads lead this change?
5. What were the costs and benefits of industrialism?
6. What were the arguments of its supporters and critics?

Wed. 3/9; Industrial Workers and the Economy: Read 545-557
1. How did industrial work change the lives and culture of American workers?
2. How did industrialism affect immigration rates and experiences?
3. Did industrialism improve their lives?
4. Did industrialism provide an avenue for Americans to pursue the “American Dream?”
5. What successes did the labor movement achieve, and why were its successes limited?
6. Why did the Knights of Labor fail?
7. Why was the American Federation of Labor more successful than the Knights of Labor?

Know the significance of the following:
Scientists and Industrialists: George Washington Carver; Thomas Alva Edison; Alexander Graham Bell; Henry Bessemer; Henry Ford; Frederick Winslow Taylor (Taylorism); Leland Stanford; Cornelius Vanderbilt; Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Steel; John D. Rockefeller & Standard Oil; J.P. Morgan & U.S. Steel

Social Theories: Herbert Spencer & Social Darwinism; Andrew Carnegie & Gospel of Wealth; Russell Conwell & Acres of Diamonds; Henry Ward Beecher & Protestant Ethic

New Business Organizations: vertical integration; horizontal integration; corporations; pools; trusts; holding companies; interlocking directorate

Labor Movement: Eugene V. Debs; Samuel Gompers; Terence Powderly; Knights of Labor; American Federation of Labor; Haymarket Square Riot; Homestead Strike; Pullman Strike; Railroad strike of 1877

URBANIZATION
 Thrs-Fri,  3/10-11; Immigration: Read 558-572
1. How did immigration change from 1865-1920?
2.What were the cultural, material and social difficulties that immigrants and migrants faced when they migrated to American cities? What attempts were made to stop immigration?
3. Why was transportation so important to the growth of cities? What were the most important new technologies of transportation?
4. What were the challenges in housing the new urban population? Were they successfully met?

Mon-Tues,  3/14-15; Responses to Strains of Urban Life & High Culture & The Rise of Mass Consumption in Age of the City : Read 572-593
1. How did the cities attempt to solve the problems of urban poverty? Were they successful? Why?
2. How did different reformers respond to the problems of the city? Was these attempts at liberation or control of the working class? Were they successful in their reforms?
3. (This topic will be covered in class)What was machine politics? Why did it develop and why was it so successful? Was machine politics a successful response to the challenges of governing a city?
4. How did industrialism and urbanization affect the press, education and literature?
5. How did art portray this new urban culture?
6. How did urbanization and industrialization affect women and the family?
7.What is “mass consumption?” What are some good examples of it? How did it change American culture? Did it improve American life?

Know the significance of the following:
Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives; Jane Addams; Hull House; the social gospel; Boss Tweed; Tammany Hall; settlement houses; Mark Twain; Upton Sinclair, The Jungle

Wed. 3/16 - TEST - Reconstruction, the West, Industrialization and Urbanization

The "Conquest of the West"

For Friday-Mon, 2/26-29; Anglo-Indian Conflict in the Trans-Mississippi West: Read 594-604.
1. What was the relationship between the Plains Indians and the buffalo?
2. Was there always conflict on the Plains between whites and Indians? Why was there eventual conflict between the two?
3. Why did the Sioux go to war with the United States in 1876? What was the result? Why did the Sioux and other tribes eventually lose to the United States?
4. What was the Dawes Severalty Act? Who supported it and why? What was the effect on the tribes and on their land?
5. What was the Ghost Dance? Why did Indians follow this new religion? Why is Wounded Knee significant?
6. What was the overall effect of reservations on Indian society and culture?

 For Tues-Wed, 3/1-2; Railroads Open the West & Success and Defeat for the American Farmer: Read pages  604-625.
1. What effect did railroads have on populating the West and promoting the economy there.
2. How did the government enable and support the railroads?
3. How did railroads abuse their clients, investors, and the government?
4. How did the government try to control these abuses? Were they successful?
5. How and why did cattle-raising evolve from the “Long Drive” to an organized “big business?”
6. What were the factors that led farmers to settle the West? How did government laws, the military, railroads, economic and environmental factors impact this movement?
7. Was the Homestead Act successful? Why?
8. What obstacles did the western environment present to farmers? How were they overcome? What problems were not overcome?
9. What was Frederick Jackson Turner’s “frontier thesis?” Was it a realistic and accurate explanation of American history?
10. How and why did farming become an “industrialized” big business? What effect did this have on farmers and farming?
11. How did immigration affect the West? From what countries did immigrants to the West come?
12. Why did so many farmers get caught up in a cycle of debt that they could not get out of?
13. How and why did farmers organize themselves for their benefit?
14. Were the National Grange, the Farmer’s Alliance and the Populists successful? Why?

Reconstruction

Tues/Wed, 2/9-10: The Problems of Peace-Making, 479-485
1. What were the general goals and obstacles to Reconstruction?
2. Describe both Lincoln's and Johnson's Reconstruction plans. What were their different goals, strong points and failings? Why was each opposed by Congress?

Thurs/Fri, 2/11-12:  Radical Reconstruction, 485-492
1. What were the Black Codes and why were they so odious to Northern Congressmen?
 2. Why was there so much conflict between Johnson and Congress?
 3. What is your opinion of Johnson?
4. What is your opinion of the Republican Congressional leaders?

 Monday 2/22: The South in Reconstruction, 492-501
1. What were the successes and failures of the Reconstruction governments in the South?
2. How did Reconstruction change the lives of African-Americans?
3. How did Reconstruction change the lives of white southerners?
4. What methods did white southerners use to keep black southerners in the same economic, social, and political position?
5. How did northern politics and economic issues affect Reconstruction?
6. Did he deserve to be impeached and removed from office?
7. Why was Reconstruction abandoned? Who was responsible for the end of Reconstruction?
8. Was Reconstruction successful? Who was responsible for its successes and failures? Could Reconstruction have fully succeeded?

Know the significance of the following: Lincoln’s 10% Plan; Andrew Johnson; Johnson’s Restoration Plan; “Black Codes”; Radical Republicans; Charles Sumner; William Seward; Thaddeus Stevens; Wade-Davis Bill; Freedman’s Bureau; 13th Amendment; 14th Amendment; 15th Amendment; Military Reconstruction; Tenure of Office Act; Edwin Stanton; Johnson’s impeachment; Scalawags; Carpetbaggers; Ku Klux Klan; White League; sharecropping; crop-lien system; poll tax; literacy tests; President Grant; Horace Greeley; Compromise of 1877; Rutherford B. Hayes; Samuel Tilden

The Civil War

Tuesday/Wednesday, 2/2-3: How the Civil War was Fought; read pages 434-452.
1. How did each side finance the war? Is there anything problematic with these methods? In what ways were they similar?
2. How did each side raise their armies? Is there anything problematic with these methods? In what ways were they similar?
3. Why did the South need and expect help from Great Britain and France? Why did they fail to gain help?
4. Did Lincoln violate the Constitution to win the war? Was he right to do so?
5. What advantages did each side have at the outbreak of war? Who should have won?
6. What was different about the Civil War? What new technologies were used and what effects did they have on the war?

 Thursday/Fri 2/4-5: The War; read pages 452-478.
1. Who had the upper hand in the first two years of the war? Why?
2. Why was the Battle of Antietam important?
3. What were the US policies towards slaves before the Emancipation Proclamation? What did the Proclamation do for slaves? Why did Lincoln choose that moment to change his policies? Were the proclamation and its timing wise?
4. What was life like for African-Americans during the war? What effect did African-Americans have on the war’s outcome?
5. What was the turning point of the war? Why do historians consider this to be the turning point?
6. Why was the siege of Vicksburg important?
7. Why was Grant a successful general when so many earlier generals were unsuccessful?
8. What was the effect of Sherman’s “March to the Sea” on the South?
9. Why did Lincoln almost loose the election of 1864? Who opposed him? Why did Lincoln win?
10. How did Grant finally defeat Lee? What was his treatment of Lee and the Confederate soldiers like? Why did he treat his adversaries that way?

Know the significance of the following:
Jefferson Davis, Abraham Lincoln, William Seward, Andrew Johnson, Conscription Act, 20-Negro Law, Emancipation Proclamation, Copperheads, Peace Democrats, New York Draft Riot, Battle of Bull Run (Manassas), Battle of Antietam, Battle of Fredericksburg, Anaconda Plan, blockade, border states,  Siege of Vicksburg, Battle of Gettysburg, Sherman’s March to the Sea, Appomattox Courthouse, USS Monitor, CSS Virginia (Merrimack), Robert E. Lee, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, George B. McClellan, Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, John Wilkes Booth, Gettysburg Address

Monday 2/8; Test: Manifest Destiny, What Caused the War, the Civil War.

Cause of the Civil War

For Monday/Tues, 1-20: The Limits of "Compromise" in the 1850s. Read ages 390-408.
1. How did the territory gained in the US-Mexico War help lead to the Civil War?
2. Why did Taylor invite California to join the union as a free state? Why did this create a crisis?
3. Why couldn’t Henry Clay broker a compromise this time? Who was able to get the compromise passed? Why was he able to pass it?
4. Was it really a compromise? Why?
5. What was the Fugitive Slave Act and why did it cause problems in both the North and the South?
6. What was the Kansas-Nebraska Act? Why did Douglas call for it? Why was it controversial?
7. What was the Free Soil Party? What was their ideology?
8. Why did the Republican Party organize and become so popular so quickly? Who made up the party?
Know the significance of the following: Wilmot Proviso, Zachary Taylor, free soil, popular sovereignty, Omnibus Bill, Millard Fillmore, Stephen Douglas, Fugitive Slave Law, personal liberty laws, Franklin Pierce, Gadsden Purchase, Ostend Manifesto, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Republican Party.

For Wednesday 1/27: The Crisis Escalates in Kansas and the Court. Read 409-418.
1. What affect did Uncle Tom’s Cabin have on the nation?
2. What was “bleeding Kansas?” Why did it happen? What effects did it have on the rest of the country?
3. Was the Republican Party responsible for the widening the gap between North and South? Why?
4. Why did the Dred Scott Case scare northerners so much?
Know the significance of the following: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, “Bleeding Kansas”, Pottawatamie Creek, John Brown, “Beecher’s bibles”, James Buchanan. Dred Scott v Sandford, Roger B. Taney, Lecompton Constitution

For Thrs/Fri: The Secession Crisis. Read 419-432
1. What was the long-term importance of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates? In what ways did Douglas both win and lose because of the debates?
2. What affect did John Brown have on the South? What did northerners think of him?
3. Why did Lincoln’s election cause southern states to secede?
4. How did Lincoln respond to southern states’ secession?
Know the significance of the following: Lincoln-Douglas Debates, “Freeport Doctrine”, raid on Harper’s Ferry, election of 1860, Jefferson Davis, Ft. Sumter, Crittenden Compromise

Slavery

By Wednesday, 1/20: Read pages 348-370 (Chapter 16).
1. How did the development of the cotton economy change the South? Consider the economy and demographics.
2. What effect did it have on slavery? What effect might this have had on national politics and the political priorities in the South?
3. Describe the distinct classes that made up white society. How was this social system different from the North’s society?
4. What was slavery like for the average African American in the 1800s?
5. What was life like for free African Americans?
6. Why were there so few slave rebellions in America? How did slaves resist slavery?
7. How did slave culture evolve to help African Americans adapt to and survive the brutality of slavery?
8. How was African American language, music, religion and family different from those of the whites around them? Did these cultural institutions affect America in the long term?
9. What were the first abolitionists like (American Colonization Society)? Why did they not succeed?
10. What was different about William Lloyd Garrison and The Liberator? What affect did they have on the South?
11. Did the North accept the new abolitionists? Why?
12. How did the South defend slavery?
Know the significance of the following: Upper South, Deep South, “Black Belt”, “cavaliers”, planters, Nat Turner, American Colonization Society, William Lloyd Garrison, The Liberator, Elijah Lovejoy, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth

SLAVERY TODAY

Slavery is alive and well in the world today. Estimates are that there are somewhere between 10 to 30 million people enslaved around the world today, including the United States. US State Department estimates that up to 17,000 people are "trafficked" into the United States every year to serve as slaves. They are a population hidden from view who are forced into prostitution, farm work, or domestic servitude against their will and without compensation, freedom or rights. To learn more about the tragedy of modern slavery and to take action to end slavery, visit the following sites.

The Frederick Douglass Family Foundation
CNN Freedom Project
Free The Slaves
"The Girls Next Door" (groundbreaking article about sex slavery in America)
10 Quick Shocking (but not verified by me)Facts About Slavery

Manifest Destiny

Friday/Monday, 1-8/11. Manifest Destiny. Read pages 275-280 & 371-380.
1. What is Manifest Destiny? How did race and religion figure into the concept of Manifest Destiny? Was Manifest Destiny moral and/or proper?
2. Who owned Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California? What difficulties did they have settling and governing the area?
3. How did Americans first begin to immigrate to Texas? What problems did this create for Mexico and the American immigrants?
4. Why did the Texans rebel? How did the Texans win their independence?
5. Who owned the Oregon Territory? Why? Why were immigrants coming there?
6. Why was the United States able to obtain Oregon without going to war with Great Britain?

Know the significance of the following: Manifest Destiny, John L. O’Sullivan, Oregon & California, Transcontinental Treaty, Adams-Onis Treaty, “54°,40’ Or Fight”, Sutter’s Mill, ‘49ers


  Tuesday, 1-12. The US-Mexico War. Read pages 381-389.  Prepare for Trial of James K. Polk.
1. Why did Texas not become part of the United States rights away?
2. How did Tyler add Texas to the United States?
3. Why did the United States go to war with Mexico?
4. Did Polk force war with Mexico?
5. Was our war with Mexico a moral and/or wise war?
6. What were the results of the war?
Know the significance of the following: Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston, Santa Anna, the Alamo, Goliad, San Jacinto, Lone Star Republic, Andrew Jackson, Stephen Tyler, James K. Polk, Nueces River, Rio Grande, Zachary Taylor, Santa Anna, Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, Gadsden Purchase

Good Documentary on the US-Mexico War:


Below is a phenomenal song about the US-Mexico War, by the Irish band The Chieftans and a number of Mexican musicians. It is about the San Patricios, a group of Irish immigrants in the US Army who switched sides in the middle of the war and chose to fight for Mexico against the United States.



An article on the San Patricios can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Patricios

Thursday, 1/7. Forging the National Economy. Read pages 287-318.
1. How did the demography of America change in the early 1800s? How did this affect our culture?
2. How did immigration change in the early 1800s? How did Americans react to these changes? What effect did this have on American culture and politics?
3. What were the most important technological innovations in this period? How did technological innovations affect farming, the economy of the South and slavery?
 4. Trace the development of industry from homes to factories. Trace the development of the form of business from the individual proprietor to the corporation.
 5. What improvements in technology and changes in law enabled these developments? How did changes in transportation change the Mid-west, the Northeast, and the South?
 6. Who were the first groups to work in these new industrial factories, and how were they recruited?
 7. How effective were workers in controlling the conditions of their work?
8. How did the workplace, the lives of women and nature of families change due to working in industrial factories?
 9. What is the significance of the Supreme Court cases Charles River Bridge v Warren Bridge (1837) and Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842)? (These will be covered in class)

Know the significance of the following: Nativism, “Know-Nothings”, Erie Canal, De Witt Clinton, Robert Fulton, Eli Whitney, general incorporation laws, Lowell system, Charles River Bridge v Warren Bridge (1837), Commonwealth v Hunt (1842)