Pursuing American Ideals

Students trace the nation's founding era, from the growth of the colonies to the forging of a new republic and its near-collapse over slavery. They examine the ideals set out in the Declaration of Independence and investigate how the Civil War and Reconstruction tested and reshaped American democracy.

As the nation becomes an industrial giant, students explore westward expansion, a wave of new industries, and the immigrants who filled its growing cities. They weigh the human cost of that growth and the reform movements, including the fight for women's suffrage, that pushed America toward its ideals.

Students follow the United States as it turns its attention outward, acquiring new territory, seeking markets abroad, and entering World War I. They debate whether the country became an imperial power and consider how war and a growing global role reshaped America at home.

Students look beneath the familiar images of the Jazz Age and the Depression to examine two decades of cultural change, economic extremes, and hard questions about immigration and wealth. They investigate what caused the Great Depression, how the New Deal responded, and how ordinary people endured it.

Students examine how the United States moved from isolation to global superpower through the attack on Pearl Harbor, the mobilization for World War II, and the decades-long standoff with the Soviet Union. They analyze how the war advanced movements for equality at home and abroad, and how anti-communism and containment shaped American life and foreign policy.

Amid postwar prosperity and the rise of the suburbs, students explore the persistent poverty and inequality that lay beneath the surface. They study the goals and strategies of the civil rights movement, evaluate its successes and limits, and trace how later movements for equality built on its work.

Students investigate an era that opened with hope and closed in doubt, marked by the Vietnam War, assassinations, political scandals, and a crisis of national confidence—alongside real achievements in space, the arts, and the environment. They analyze how Vietnam compares with other Cold War conflicts and how the era's upheaval affected movements for equality.