Recovery+Reaction,+Reform

=Unit 11: Recovery, Reaction, Reform=
 * Recognize the origins and key policies of the Cold War
 * Identify the causes and results of military conflict in Korea and Vietnam
 * Identify major political and reform leaders of the 1950s and the actions or policies associated with them
 * Describe the cultural and political shifts of the post-war era
 * Identify the role of individuals, the media, and the Supreme Court in promoting civil rights in the 1950s
 * Identify individuals or practices that restricted the rights of citizens in the 1950s
 * Identify the major differences between communist and capitalist economic systems
 * Demonstrate familiarity with landmark Supreme Court cases including //Plessy v. Ferguson// and //Brown v the Board of Education//

Links
Harry S. Truman Library and Museum

Key Words

 * capitalism:** an economic system in which individuals or corporations own goods and businesses, and public demand determines the prices, production, and distribution of most goods
 * communism:** a political and economic system in which the people own goods and businesses in common, but the government manages and controls them
 * arms race:** a competition between two or more nations to see who can build the most or the deadliest weapons
 * vaccine:** a substance made of a weakened or dead bacteria or virus that is administered to a living creature to increase immunity to a particular disease
 * baby boom:** a marked increase in birthrate in the United States between 1946 and 1964
 * franchise:** the right or license granted to an individual or group to market a company's goods or services
 * G.I. Bill of Rights:** a variety of bills that Congress enacted to give money to military veterans for college educations, home-buying loans, and other benefits
 * colonialism:** control by one power or nation over another area or people
 * domino theory:** the theory that if communism takes over one nation, it will take over the neighboring nations as well
 * dove:** an opponent of a war or warlike policy
 * hawk:** a supporter of a war or warlike policy
 * imperialism:** the policy of expanding national power or influence by taking other lands
 * dissenting opinion:** a justice's written opinion disagreeing with the majority opinion of the court
 * integrate:** to bring together different racial and ethnic groups
 * boycott:** to join together in refusing to buy, sell, or use something or to have any dealings with someone
 * civil disobedience:** opposing a law or practice by refusing to obey it
 * civil rights movement:** a movement that sought fair treatment for all Americans regardless of race
 * NAACP:** the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, an organization of blacks and whites formed to fight racial injustice
 * National Guard:** a military force whose job is to defend the public during civil emergencies and maintain peace within a country or state

Lesson 1: New Challenges
By September 1945, World War II was over. The United States emerged from that conflict as the richest, most powerful nation on Earth. But the end of the war did not bring lasting peace, as FDR had envisioned. Instead, the nation became embroiled in new conflicts, both foreign and domestic. The ongoing rivalry with the Soviet Union and communism intensified.
 * 1) Read Preface and Chapter 3 in //A History of US: All the People// by Joy Hakim
 * 2) Describe two ways in which the U.S. reacted to growing Soviet power

Lesson 2: New Leadership
After World War II, the Soviet Union controlled or influenced several eastern-European nations and encouraged the spread of communism to other lands. Great Britain's prime minister, Winston Churchill, realized the threat that Stalin and communism posed to the world. In response to this threat, President Harry Truman rose to the challenge of helping any nation endangered by communism. Truman's family background and his love of history provided him with better training for the office of president than many of his contemporaries realized. media type="custom" key="20581854" A Postwar World An Iron Curtain Truman Biography Video


 * 1) Read Harry S. Truman : thirty-third president of the United States / by George E. Stanley
 * 2) Read Chapters 1 & 4 in //A History of US: All the People// by Joy Hakim
 * 3) What does NATO stand for?
 * 4) What is meant by the "Iron Curtain" & why do you think Winston Churchill used that term to describe the division between communist and non-communist Europe?

Lesson 3: Fighting Bad Ideas
While President Truman tried to stop the spread of communism, he also encouraged democracy abroad by giving foreign aid to countries hurt by the war. At home, he called for more democracy by proposing an end to segregation and extending full civil rights to blacks.

Being Fair
 * 1) Read Chapter 5 in //A History of US: All the People// by Joy Hakim
 * 2) What was the Marshall Plan?
 * 3) How did Truman fight racism in the United States?

Lesson 4: Despite the Polls
Truman made many enemies with his foreign policy and civil rights programs. His own Democratic Party split in three because of his stance on these and other issues, and in the months leading up to the 1948 election, people were sure the split would be Truman's downfall. On election night, way before the election results were in, newspaper reporters wrote articles congratulating Truman's' opponent, Thomas Dewey. But they were in for a surprise. American voters gave Truman their endorsement in his upset victory over Dewey.

Truman vs Dewey


 * 1) Read Chapter 6 in //A History of US: All the People// by Joy Hakim
 * 2) Complete the interactive Whistle Stop Tour
 * 3) Why did people expect Truman to lose the 1948 election?
 * 4) Read Chapter 7 in //A History of US: All the People// by Joy Hakim
 * 5) Write a paragraph explaining how the Cold War started

Lesson 5: Seeing Red Again
The domination of Eastern Europe by the Soviet Union, the victory of communists in a civil war in China, the theft of atomic-bomb secrets by communist spies, and communist North Korea's invasion of South Korea all contributed to a growing fear of communism in the United States. Better Red Than Dead


 * 1) Read Chapter 7 in //A History of US: All the People// by Joy Hakim
 * 2) Review The Spread of Communism Map
 * 3) List two ways the growth of communism in Asia had an impact on the United States

Lesson 6: Hunting Reds
Senator Joseph McCarthy played on Americans' fears of communism and helped set off a new Red Scare that threatened may freedoms that the Bill of Rights guaranteed to U.S. citizens.


 * 1) Read Chapter 8 in //A History of US: All the People// by Joy Hakim
 * 2) Was the public frightened because of real or perceived events?
 * 3) Read The Cold War / R.G. Gran
 * 4) Do you believe witch-hunts, like McCarthy's fanatical search for communists in the 1950s, could happen today? Write a brief paragraph explaining why or why not

Lesson 7: The Nifty Fifties
After 20 years of Democratic presidents, Americans elected Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952. A new party in the White House was not the only change. The '50s marked the beginning of a new era. The growing number of home television sets and significant developments in science and technology brought about far-reaching changes in American culture. media type="youtube" key="n_KxlhLnFR4" height="315" width="420" Video of Eisenhower The Magic of Television


 * 1) Read America in the 1950s / Edmund Lindop
 * 2) Read Dwight D. Eisenhower / Jean Darby
 * 3) Read Chapter 9 in //A History of US: All the People// by Joy Hakim
 * 4) How did television change life in the United States in the 1950s?
 * 5) Start the "Nifty Fifties Scavenger Hunt Sheet. Complete by end of this unit.

Lesson 8: New Ways of Life
The face of America changed dramatically in the 1950s as the automobile transformed the way people lived, traveled, and ate. During the '50s, more people could afford cars, and cars made people more mobile. Along with mobility came the creation of interstate highways, drive-in businesses, supermarkets, and suburbs. It was the beginning of a new age in the United States. The Automobile Shapes the City 1948 Oldsmobile Video
 * 1) Read Chapter 10 in //A History of US: All the People// by Joy Hakim
 * 2) What things in current American culture were introduced in the 1950s?
 * 3) What groups were left out of the economic prosperity of the 1950s?

Lesson 9: Trouble Abroad
Many nations, including the United States, fought for their freedom in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and more broke away from empires in the early twentieth century. After World War II, India used nonviolent means to gain independence from Britain, and the United States granted freedom to the Philippines. But in Vietnam, which France had colonized in the mid-1800s, communist Ho Chi Minh led a bloody but calculated fight against French domination. Fearful of the spread of communism in Southeast Asia, the United States backed France by sending money and military advisers to French troops in Vietnam. Photos from the Vietnam War Vietnam War - Academic Kids Map of Vietnam
 * 1) Read Timeline of the Vietnam War / Charlie Samuels
 * 2) Read Chapter 11 in //A History of US: All the People// by Joy Hakim
 * 3) On your world map, label the Philippines, India, and Vietnam
 * 4) How did the Phillipines gain independence? How did India? Vietnam?
 * 5) What role did the United States play in the struggle?

Lesson 10: Breaking Barriers
The Supreme Court's decision in //Plessy v. Ferguson// had set segregation and Jim Crow firmly in place. yet many people believed that "separate but equal" could never be equal. By the 1950s, African Americans and members of other minorities were mounting challenges to segregation in public schools, transportation, and sports. In 1954, the court declared in //Brown v. Board of Education// that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. But the ruling by itself would not bring an end to Jim Crow. Laws have to be enforced, and some Americans were determined not to enforce this one. media type="youtube" key="TTGHLdr-iak" height="315" width="560" Separate But Equal Civil Rights Movement Civil Rights Timeline Civil Rights Photos Brown v. Board of Education


 * 1) Read Chapters 12 and 13 in //A History of US: All the People// by Joy Hakim
 * 2) Research the following people. Choose two to create a short biography/informational sheet about. Charles Houston; Elizabeth Peratrovich; Justice Marshall Harlan; Linda Brown; Thurgood Marshall; Chief Justice Earl Warren
 * 3) Review Amendment 14, what did the 1896 decision in //Plessy v. Ferguson// say about this amendment?
 * 4) What arguments did Thurgood Marshall and NAACP lawyers use against segregation in //Brown v. Board of Education?//
 * 5) ​Read Heroes for civil rights / by David A. Adler
 * 6) Read Thurgood Marshall / by Christine Taylor-Butler

Lesson 11: Champions of Change
Martin Luther King Jr., a young black minister from Alabama, studied Thoreau and Gandhi's ideas on nonviolence and put those ideas into practice. Rosa Parks, a black woman from Birmingham, Alabama, refused to obey unjust Jim crow laws even tough she knew she would be arrested. In the early years of the civil rights movement, ordinary people did extraordinary things and inspired people of all races to press on in the battle for justice and human rights. media type="youtube" key="v8A9gvb5Fh0" height="315" width="560" media type="youtube" key="V57lotnKGF8" height="315" width="420" I Have a Dream A Man Named King Rosa Parks: Pioneer of Civil Rights Rosa Parks Bus Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site


 * 1) Read Chapters 14 & 15 in //A History of US: All the People// by Joy Hakim
 * 2) Define perseverance
 * 3) How was Martin Luther King Jr. influenced by the ideas of Mohandas Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau?
 * 4) What were the key events and people involved in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the outcome of the boycott?
 * 5) Complete a profile in courage sheet on either Martin Luther King, Jr. or Rosa Parks

Lesson 12: Child Champions
In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in public schools was unlawful, but Southern states were slow to act. Three years later, schools in the Deep South still kept blacks from attending the same schools as whites. Then a federal judge ordered public schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, to integrate. When nine black students tried to attend an all-white high school int he fall of 1957, the governor ordered the Arkansas national Guard to bar the entrance, and an angry mob threatened the students. Three weeks later, President Eisenhower sent federal troops to escort the nine students to school and protect them from the crowd. media type="youtube" key="SVgPSvB1LBw" height="315" width="560"

We Shall Overcome Central High Ruby Bridges


 * 1) Read Chapter 16 in //A History of US: All the People// by Joy Hakim
 * 2) Be prepared to discuss each of these people's role in the crisis at Little Rock: National Guard; Governor Orval Faubus; Desegregation Activists; The Little Rock Nine; Newspaper Reporters; President Eisenhower
 * 3) Listen to In Her Own Words: "I am Elizabeth Eckford"
 * 4) Write a paper describing how you might have felt if you were a student during this time