Overview of U.S. History
Helpful Resources for the Overview Test:
The short essay questions will ask you to focus on major periods of U.S. History, the periods I will ask you about include:
Revolutionary War and the writing of the Constitution
Civil War and Reconstruction
The Twenties and the Great Depression
World War II and the very first years of the Cold War
The Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam Era
This page will provide you with a variety of helpful information designed to make the overview experience a more positive one for you. The overview is divided into four week long periods, which are as follows:
Weeks 1 & 2: 1600-1800
Weeks 3 & 4: 1801-1900
Weeks 5 & 6: 1901-1945
Weeks 7 & 8: 1946-2003
The Timeline
You will be completing a timeline segment for each week of study. When we are done with the overview you will have a nice timeline of United States History that will be especially helpful to you as we work our way through each theme and study for final exams each semester. Your timeline does not need to be big and pretty, it needs to be neat, informative, and portable - so I recommend that you type each segment of your timeline and keep it saved on your computer. Each of the four timeline segments will be collected on the Monday following the week of study (for example, the Week 1 timeline will be collected on September 8th).
Requirements for the Timeline
20-25 events/people/ideas from each 2 week period of the overview unit (i.e. 20-25 events from 1600-1800)
For each item on your timeline you need to:
assign a date or date range to it
describe it & discuss its significance
provide a sense of cause and effect
Timeline Example:
| Date | Event | Significance |
| 1607 | Jamestown Settlement - Established by John Smith in search for gold and other economic resources | Beginning of Middle colonies which would be focused on trade and manufacturing |
| 1620 | Mayflower Lands at Pilgrim Rock - Puritans leave England in search of religious tolerance and a place where they can build their perfect society | Establishment of New England colonies and start of Puritan influence on American values and culture |
Key Terms
These are important people/events/ideas/concepts that you should understand about each period of the overview. For each term you need to write your own definition containing the pertinent facts and ideas that define and identify the term.
Weeks 1&2 (1600-1800):
| New England Colonies (Puritans) | Middle Colonies (toleration, trade) | Southern Colonies (plantations, cash crops, slaves) |
| Native American Wars | Great Awakening | French & Indian (or Seven Years) War |
| Proclamation of 1763 and new taxation (stamp, sugar, etc.) | Response to taxation (Sons of Liberty, Boston Massacre, Boston Tea Party) | Continental Congress & Start of the Revolution |
| Declaration of Independence | Revolutionary War (start to finish - know your major battles) | Articles of Confederation & Shay's Rebellion |
| Constitutional Convention (new constitution, Bill of Rights) | Washington's Presidency (Cabinet, Whiskey Rebellion, etc.) | People: Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Washington, Hamilton, Paine, Henry, J. Adams, S. Adams |
Weeks 3&4 (1801-1900):
| Jefferson's Presidency (LA Purchase) | War of 1812 | Monroe Doctrine |
| Jackson's Presidency (Bank, Cherokee) | Growth of Political Parties | Social Movements (Abolition, Temperance, Education, Suffrage) |
| Compromise over Slavery (3/5, MO, 1850, K-N Act, Dred Scott) | Westward Expansion (Oregon Cession, Mexican Cession, Texas, etc.) | Election of 1860 & outbreak of Civil War) |
| Course of the Civil War (key battles, etc.) | Reconstruction (Johnson, Radical Republicans, sharecropping, Jim Crow) | Westward Settlement (mining, ranching, railroads, removing the American Indians) |
| Industrialization (monopolies, growth of cities, earl trade unions) | Immigration (who, why, where, when) | Imperialism (Hawaii, Cuba, Philippines, Spanish American War) |
| People: Lewis & Clark, John Brown, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Susan Anthony, Chief Joseph, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller | ||
Weeks 5&6 (1901-1945):
| Progressives (people, causes, specific reforms) |
Teddy Roosevelt's Presidency | Causes & First Three Years of WWI |
| U.S. Involvement in WWI (including homefront) | WWI Peace Process | Roaring Twenties (Jazz, Prohibition, the mob, sports, prosperity, etc.) |
| Culture Clash in the Twenties (rural vs. urban, natives vs. imms, etc.) | Market Crash and the start of the Depression |
FDR and the New Deal |
| Life during the Depression (Dust Bowl, Hoovervilles, Long, Charles Coughlin) | Rise of Dictators & Start of WWII | WWII on the Homefront |
| Pacific Theater WWII (vs. Japan) | European Theater WWII (vs. Germany) | End of WWII (Yalta, Potsdam, A-Bomb) |
| People: Jane Addams, Bob
LaFollette, Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover,
Babe Ruth, Al Capone, Charles Lindbergh, WEB DuBois, Douglas MacArthur,
Harry Truman |
||
Weeks 7&8 (1946-2003):
| Early Cold War in Europe (1946-1949), Division of Germany, Marshall Plan, Berlin Airlift, etc. | Korean War (causes, course of war, outcome) |
Fifties Culture (Baby Boom, suburbs, TV, mass consumption, conformity, etc.) |
| Start of Civil Rights Movement (Montgomery Bus Boycott, Sit Ins, Freedom Riders, etc.) | Middle Cold War (Arms Race, Sputnik, U-2, Castro, Cuban Missile Crisis, etc.) | Peak of Civil Rights Movement (1963, Birmingham, Miss Summer Project, Civil Rights Act) |
| Vietnam War (causes, controversy, type of fighting, why we lost) | Late Sixties/Early Seventies Culture (youth/music/drugs, "Silent Majority", liberation movements, etc.) | Nixon's Presidency (Moderate Supreme Court, China, USSR, Watergate) |
| Carter's Presidency (Energy Crisis, Camp David, Iran Hostage Crisis, stagflation) | Reagan's Presidency (Reaganomics, End of Cold War, Star Wars, Iran Contra) | The Nineties (Persian Gulf War, Tech Economy, Clinton, Republican Revolution |