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U.S. History B
   

Course Description

This course follow US History A and introduces students to major movements and concepts of American history from 1930-1945.  Students will study domestic and foreign policy leading up to and during World War II and the Cold War, the civil rights movement, and contemporary social issues such as immigration, energy, poverty, science and technology, etc. In conjunction with the Unit, students will utilize the textbook entitled America’s History, Land of Liberty, Book Two: Since 1865.

Credits: 5
Languages: English and Spanish


University of California
A-G Approval
State Standards
High School Exit Exam

Course Content

Unit 6 - 1930-1945: America and World War II

California History-Social Science Curriculum Standards

11.7.1. Examine the origins of American involvement in the war, with an emphasis on the events that precipitated the attack on Pearl Harbor.

11.7.2. Explain U.S. and Allied wartime strategy, including the major battles of Midway, Normandy, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the Battle of the Bulge.

11.7.3. Identify the roles and sacrifices of individual American soldiers, as well as the unique contributions of the special fighting forces.

11.7.4. Analyze Roosevelt's foreign policy during World War II.

11.7.5. Discuss the constitutional issues and impact of events on the U.S. home front, including the internment of Japanese Americans and the restrictions on German and Italian resident aliens; the response of the administration to Hitler's atrocities against Jews and other groups; the roles of women in military production; and the roles and growing political demands of African Americans.

11.7.6. Describe major developments in aviation, weaponry, communication, and medicine and the war's impact on the location of American industry and use of resources.

11.7.7. Discuss the decision to drop atomic bombs and the consequences of the decision.

11.7.8. Analyze the effect of massive aid given to Western Europe under the Marshall Plan to rebuild itself after the war and the importance of a rebuilt Europe to the U.S. economy.


Unit Objectives

Upon completion of this Unit, students will:

  • Understand the rise of fascism and the causes of World War II in Europe.
  • Understand the reasons why the U.S. entered World War II and the consequences of doing so.
  • Understand important effects of World War II at home and abroad.
  • Understand the Holocaust.
  • Understand how World War II ended and the effects of the atomic bomb.
  • Demonstrate their understanding of important concepts throughout various activities and writing assignments.


Unit 7 - 1945-1960: The American Dream - A Post-War Boom

California History-Social Science Curriculum Standards

11.1.4 Examine the effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction and of the industrial revolution, including demographic shifts and the emergence in the late nineteenth century of the United States as a world power.

11.2.1 Know the effects of industrialization on living and working conditions, including the portrayal of working conditions and food safety in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle.

11.2.2 Describe the changing landscape, including the growth of cities linked by industry and trade, and the development of cities divided according to race, ethnicity, and class.

11.2.3 Trace the effect of the Americanization movement.

11.2.4 Analyze the effect of urban political machines and responses to them by immigrants and middle-class reformers.

11.2.5 Discuss corporate mergers that produced trusts and cartels and the economic and political policies of industrial leaders.

11.2.6 Trace the economic development of the United States and its emergence as a major industrial power, including its gains from trade and the advantages of its physical geography.
11.2.7 Analyze the similarities and differences between the ideologies of Social Darwinism and Social Gospel.

11.2.8. Examine the effect of political programs and activities of Populists.

11.2.9 Understand the effect of political programs and activities of the Progressives

11.3.1 Describe the contributions of various religious groups to American civic principles and social reform movements.

11.3.2 Analyze the great religious revivals and the leaders involved in them, including the First Great Awakening, the Second Great Awakening, the Civil War revivals, the Social Gospel Movement, the rise of Christian liberal theology in the nineteenth century, the impact of the Second Vatican Council, and the rise of Christian fundamentalism in current times.

11.3.3 Cite incidences of religious intolerance in the United States.

11.6.5 Trace the advances and retreats of organized labor, from the creation of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations to current issues of a postindustrial, multinational economy, including the United Farm Workers in California.


Unit Objectives

Upon completion of this Unit, students will:

  • Understand the post-World War II boom in labor, industry, and economies.
  • Understand the “Fair Deal”
  • Understand lifestyles in the atomic age and popular culture of the time period.
  • Demonstrate their understanding of important concepts throughout various activities and writing assignments.


Unit 8 - 1945-1990: US Foreign Policy during the Cold War

California History-Social Science Curriculum Standards

11.8.5 Describe the increased powers of the presidency in response to the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War.

11.9.1 Discuss the establishment of the United Nations and International Declaration of Human Rights, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and their importance in shaping modern Europe and maintaining peace and international order.

11.9.2 Understand the role of military alliances, including NATO and SEATO, in deterring communist aggression and maintaining security during the Cold War.

11.9.3 Trace the origins and geopolitical consequences (foreign and domestic) of the Cold War and containment policy.

11.9.4 List the effects of foreign policy on domestic policies and vice versa.

11.9.5 Analyze the role of the Reagan administration and other factors in the victory of the West in the Cold War.

11.9.6 Describe U.S. Middle East policy and its strategic, political, and economic interests, including those related to the Gulf War.


Unit Objectives

Upon completion of this Unit, students will:

  • Understand the creation of the UN, the IMF, and the World Bank.
  • Understand the origins of the Cold War.
  • Understand U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War and the domestic effects of the Cold War.
  • Understand how and why the Cold War came to an end.
  • Demonstrate their understanding of important concepts throughout various activities and writing assignments.


Unit 9 - A Decade of Contrasts: The Twenties

California History-Social Science Curriculum Standards

11.8.2 Describe the significance of Mexican immigration and its relationship to the agricultural economy, especially in California.

11.8.8 Discuss forms of popular culture, with emphasis on their origins and geographic diffusion.

11.10.1 Explain how demands of African Americans helped produce a stimulus for civil rights, including President Roosevelt's ban on racial discrimination in defense industries in 1941, and how African Americans' service in World War II produced a stimulus for President Truman's decision to end segregation in the armed forces in 1948.

11.10.2 Examine and analyze the key events, policies, and court cases in the evolution of civil rights, including Dred Scott v. Sandford, Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, and California Proposition 209.

11.10.3 Describe the collaboration on legal strategy between African American and white civil rights lawyers to end racial segregation in higher education.

11.10.4 Examine the roles of civil rights advocates (e.g., A. Philip Randolph, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcom X, Thurgood Marshall, James Farmer, Rosa Parks), including the significance of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" and "I Have a Dream" speech.

11.10.5 Discuss the diffusion of the civil rights movement of African Americans from the churches of the rural South and the urban North, including the resistance to racial desegregation in Little Rock and Birmingham, and how the advances influenced the agendas, strategies, and effectiveness of the quests of American Indians, Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans for civil rights and equal opportunities.

11.10.6 Analyze the passage and effects of civil rights and voting rights legislation (e.g., 1964 Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act of 1965) and the Twenty-Fourth Amendment, with an emphasis on equality of access to education and to the political process.

11.10.7 Analyze the women's rights movement from the era of Elizabeth Stanton and Susan Anthony and the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the movement launched in the 1960s, including differing perspectives on the roles of women.


Unit Objectives

Upon completion of this Unit, students will:

  • Understand the history of segregation.
  • Become familiar with major civil rights leaders and their contributions to the civil rights movement.
  • Understand the complexities of the civil rights movement, various monumental court cases, and the progress of the civil rights movement.
  • Understand the continuing struggle for civil rights.
  • Demonstrate their understanding of important concepts throughout various activities and writing assignments.


Unit 10 - 1960 - Present: America Today

California History-Social Science Curriculum Standards

11.8.7: Describe the effects on society and the economy of technological developments since 1945.

11.9.7: Examine relations between the United States and Mexico in the twentieth century, including key economic, political, immigration, and environmental issues.

11.11.1: Discuss the reasons for the nation's changing immigration policy, with emphasis on how the Immigration Act of 1965 and successor acts have transformed American society.

11.11.2: Discuss the significant domestic policy speeches of Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton.

11.11.3: Describe the changing roles of women in society as reflected in the entry of more women into the labor force and the changing family structure.

11.11.4: Explain the constitutional crisis originating from the Watergate scandal.

11.11.5: Trace the impact of, need for, and controversies associated with environmental conservation, expansion of the national park system, and the development of environmental protection laws, with particular attention to the interaction between environmental protection advocates and property rights advocates.

11.11.6: Analyze the persistence of poverty and how different analyses of this issue influence welfare reform, health insurance reform, and other social policies.

11.11.7: Explain how the federal, state, and local governments have responded to demographic and social changes.


Unit Objectives

Upon completion of this Unit, students will:

  • Understand Cold War domestic policy from 1950-1977.
  • Understand various domestic concerns (energy, Reaganomics, Star Wars, etc.) from 1977-today.
  • Understand foreign and domestic politics after the Cold War.
  • Understand various social changes including women’s rights, poverty, immigration, the environment, science and technology, etc.).
  • Demonstrate their understanding of important concepts throughout various activities and writing assignments.