United States History

Syllabus

 

Mrs. Maddock, Teacher of History

Availability (Office Hours)

As a general rule, I’m always available.  Every day I arrive by 7:15 AM.  Monday – Thursday I am here until 3:00 PM or later.  If possible, I request that you please notify me in advance that you will come so that I know to expect you.  Once such an appointment is made, the expectation is that you will be there.  If you have made an appointment to see me, and then suddenly can not make it due to unforseen emergencies, common courtesy dictates you will send apologies via email or personal conversation ASAP.

 

Your US History Course

This course will examine the constitutional, social, political, cultural, economic and international development of the United States.  In such a survey course, the aim is to outline the evolution of our nation in the context of mutual rights and responsibilities of citizens and governments in a complex and rapidly changing world.  We will get to do some historiography – the study of the writing of History – and thereby see various ways historians, over the last century or so, have approached or interpreted trends and events of US History.

 

Textbook

Danzer, Gerald A.; Klor de Alva, J. Jorge; Krieger, Larry S.; Wilson, Louis E.; Woloch, Nancy. The Americans. Boston: McDougal Littell, 2005.

 

In addition to your textbook, you will need to use a variety of sources that will come to you as photocopies.  It is critical that you keep such handouts in an organized notebook and bring them with you every day.

 

Skills

 

  • Reading Comprehension

 

  • Critical thinking

 

  • Analysis – cause and effect, significance of people/events/legislation in the big picture

 

  • Organization – notes, papers, homework tasks

 

  • Memorization and Study skills 

 

  • Historical research

 

  • Clear expression (spoken and written)

 

 

 

 

Topics in US History

 

  • Independence and the Constitution

 

 

  • A New Nation and its “Manifest Destiny”

 

 

  • Civil War and Reconstruction

 

 

  • Settling the West

 

 

  • Industrialization, Urbanization, and the Progressives

 

 

  • American Imperialism

 

[Midyear Exam]

  • First World War & Wilsonian Democracy

 

 

  • The Roaring Twenties

 

 

  • The Great Depression & the New Deal

 

 

  • Second World War

 

 

  • Cold War & Civil Rights

 

 

  • Vietnam

 

 

  • The Seventies – A Malaise and a Sunbelt