The United States Through Modern Times

The Constitutional Convention and its compromises come first. Students then examine how the Constitution has created "a more perfect Union" and which freedoms the Bill of Rights protects, along with why those freedoms are important.

The early republic turns on the differing Federalist and Democratic-Republican visions for the United States. Lessons also weigh U.S. involvement in world affairs in the early 1800s, what it meant to be an American then, and how well Andrew Jackson promoted democracy.

Manifest Destiny anchors the expansion story, with students weighing how justifiable U.S. expansion in the 1800s was. Two more lessons cover the motives, hardships, and legacies of the groups that moved west, and how Mexicano contributions have influenced life in the United States.

Mid-century reform is the starting point, with students assessing how much the reform movements of the era improved life for Americans. Lessons then contrast life in the North with life in the South and examine how African Americans faced slavery and discrimination.

A dividing nation follows, with students sorting which events of the mid-1800s held the country together and which pulled it apart. The Civil War's outcome and the Reconstruction era come next, including how far Reconstruction brought African Americans toward full citizenship.

Tensions in the West begin this unit, with a look at how settlers changed the region and affected American Indians. Students weigh whether the benefits of industrialization outweighed the costs, then study what life was like for immigrants in the early 1900s.

The Progressive Era leads, with students judging whether the progressives improved life in the United States. Lessons then weigh U.S. actions in world affairs at the turn of the 20th century, the trends that shaped 1920s culture, and the effects of the Great Depression.

World War II's causes and consequences open the unit, along with how the war changed the United States. Students examine why the 1950s are remembered as an age of affluence, how U.S.-Soviet rivalry shaped the postwar world, and what made the Vietnam War difficult to win.