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United States History III: Reconstruction–The Digital Age

In the high school United States History course, students study both change and continuity as they investigate diverse perspectives and enduring issues in the United States over time. Students will explore United States history from Reconstruction to the Digital Age using disciplinary tools and resources that support the planning and development of inquiries, evaluation of a broad range of historical sources, and communication of knowledge and ideas about the nation’s history. (Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Standards)

Course Questions
• How have conceptions of liberty, equality, and justice changed over time?
• What should be the role of the United States in global events and issues?

Course Topics
1. Reconstruction
2. Immigration, Industrialization, and Progressivism
3. Imperialism and World War I
4. The 1920s, Great Depression, and New Deal
5. World War II
6. Cold War and the Civil Rights
7. Foreign Policy, Global Conflicts, and Cultural Shifts
8. National Identity in a Digital Age

Civics and Government

In the high school Civics and Government course, students study the United States government as they investigate the rights and responsibilities of citizens in a democracy. Students will explore foundational documents, structure and function of government, political participation, and civic engagement using disciplinary tools and resources that support the planning and development of inquiries, evaluation of a broad range of historical sources, and communication of civic knowledge through deliberation and informed action about political events and issues. (Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Standards)

Course Questions
• What are the structures and functions of the United States government?
• How is the political system in the United States dependent upon the participation and civic engagement of its citizens?

Course Topics
1. Foundations of American Democracy
2. Structure and Function of Government
3. Political Participation and Engagement

Themes

Topics

Towns

Bernstein's proposal

The Right to an Education: Connecticut’s 1965 Education Amendment

How has the right to education evolved in Connecticut, and why does it matter today?

Delegates at the 1965 Constitutional Convention

The Demand for Change: Federal Intervention and the 1965 Constitutional Convention

How did the 1965 Constitutional Convention represent a turning point in Connecticut's commitment to the principle of "one person, one vote" and democratic representation?

1965 Connecticut Constitution

The Uneven Playing Field: Connecticut’s Representation Before 1965

To what extent does the way we count people determine whether a system of government is fair and representative?

Responding to Horrors: U.S. Refugee Policy in the Post-Vietnam War Period

To what extent do specific historical events shape U.S. refugee policy?

Cape Verdean Life and Influence in Connecticut

To what extent was the Cape Verdean immigrant experience typical or atypical within United States history?

The Struggle for Equality: Black Burials in the Old Willimantic Cemetery

To what extent did burial practices reflect the status of enslaved people and free Black people in Connecticut?

Connecticut’s Complicity in Slavery

To what extent was Connecticut a “slave state”?

Anti-Racist Allies and Accomplices in Connecticut History

In what ways are both anti-racist allies and anti-racist accomplices important in the struggle for social justice?

Telling Their Stories: African Americans in the American Revolution

How do historians reconstruct the stories of people from the past?

The Role of Enslaved People in Founding Connecticut

Why should enslaved people be seen as “founders” of Connecticut?

Understanding the Census: Tracking Connecticut’s Black Population

How did attitudes towards slavery and Black Americans change over time in early Connecticut?

The Triumph and Tragedy of Urban Renewal

Who decides what infrastructure is good for people?

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the Coast Guard

What does patriotism mean to different communities within the United States?

LGBTQ+ History in Connecticut: Advocacy and Organization

How did the modern LGBTQ+ movement develop and evolve in Connecticut?

LGBTQ+ History in Connecticut: Colonial Era Laws and Legislation

How did colonial laws marginalize LGBTQ+ individuals?

LGBTQ+ History in Connecticut: Medical Marginalization

How were LGBTQ+ individuals marginalized through medicalization in the 20th century?

Zoning: Examining Housing Policy in Connecticut

How have rules about housing shaped Connecticut?

No to Nazis in Connecticut: Southbury Takes a Stand

To what extent can individuals be agents of change in their communities?

The Problem with “Delinquent Women”: The Connecticut State Farm for Women, 1915-1938

To what extent should individuals, groups, and/or institutions have the power to make decisions about the lives and welfare of others?

Religious Freedom for Jews in Connecticut

How did Jewish immigrants expand religious freedom in Connecticut?

Immigrants Build a Community: Hartford Jews in the Early 20th Century

How did immigrants build a community in Hartford in the early 20th century?

Dr. Jewel Plummer Cobb: A Role Model in STEM and Higher Education

To what extent is it easier for women and people of color to enter the fields of STEM and higher education today than it was in the 1950s–1990s?

Housing Segregation in Connecticut

In what ways is segregation still practiced in the United States today?

Tribal Sovereignty in Connecticut

What makes a nation?

Geographies of Food: The Roles of Migration, Landscape, and Food Availability in the United States

How have geography and history shaped regional differences in foods in the United States?

Foodscapes of Connecticut

What geographical and historical factors affect the foodscapes of Connecticut?

Mary Townsend Seymour: A Hartford Activist Fights for Equity

In what ways have communities of color advocated for equity?

Government is People: Creating a Symposium of Local, State, and Federal Government Speakers

What does the government do?

Empowering Students’ “Civic Voices” in Local and State Government: Middle/High

Why is it important that students use their “civic voices” in local and state government to produce positive change?

Cruel and Unusual: An Interdisciplinary Study of Incarceration Across Two Centuries

What is “cruel and unusual” punishment?

Words Change the World: Teaching About Racial Injustice Through the Work of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Ta-Nehisi Coates

To what extent can fiction and non-fiction both help us learn, change, and adapt our understanding of an historic or contemporary moment?

Learning by Looking: Reading a Post-Civil War Photograph

What can we learn from an anonymous historical photograph?

Late 1960s Civil Unrest in Connecticut’s Capital City

What conditions led to civil unrest in the 1960s?

The Chinese Educational Mission and How Asian American Stories Reframe American History

How did participating in the Chinese Educational Mission influence both its students and America?

Hate Speech, Free Speech, and the First Amendment: The Church of the Creator Comes to Wallingford

Should public spaces be open to all types of speech?

Bilingual Education for Spanish Speakers in 1970s Hartford

How have communities advocated for fair and equal access to education in Connecticut?

The Black Panthers and the May Day Rally in New Haven

How is the First Amendment used to advocate for justice in America?

Eugenics in Connecticut: Legislating Genetic Purity in the Nutmeg State

Are all reforms good?

Post-World War II Puerto Rican Farm Labor Migration to Connecticut

How did Connecticut industries influence migration and immigration to the state and the development of new communities?

Visions of Change: Colt and the Growth of Industrial Connecticut

What impact did industrialization have on people’s lives in the mid- to late-19th century?

Connecticut’s Ratification of the Constitution

How are decisions made about how a nation should be governed?

Church & State in the “Land of Steady Habits”

Has there ever been complete separation of church and state in Connecticut?

A Connecticut Lawyer Stands for Human Rights

To what extent is the international community responsible for the protection of human rights?

“Women of Connecticut: Are You Helping?” The Reaction to Emergency Food Measures During World War I

Do government campaigns to promote “voluntary” patriotic efforts in a time of war strengthen or weaken American democracy?

“Saved.” Theodate Pope and the Sinking of the Lusitania

To what extent has the United States succeeded in remaining neutral in times of war or global conflict?

Connecticut Prepares for War, 1917

How does the role of government change in a time of war?

Peach Pit Hogshead

Joining the War Effort, One Peach Pit at a Time

How does an entire society participate in war?

Letter from Charles F. Coughlin to his mother, November 16, 1917

Over There: A Connecticut Soldier in France

How do you measure the cost of war?

The Immigrant Experience During World War I: Enemy Aliens

How did the government effort to mobilize and monitor the Connecticut home front during World War I affect the immigrant experience and conceptions of national identity?

Detail of the pamphlet American Ideals

Beware Thy Neighbor? German Americans in Connecticut during WWI

Has America always been a “Land of Opportunity” for immigrants?

W. E. B. Dubois in the office of The Crisis

Black World War I Veterans Demand Civil Rights

How did World War I impact the struggle for civil rights in Connecticut and America?

World War I enlistment banner

Enlist Now! Selling Sacrifice to the People of Connecticut, 1917

Why do people enlist in the military?

“Making Munitions is a Woman’s Job” During World War I

What impact did the women of Connecticut have on the Great War (WWI)?

Waterburian Held for Reviling Flag; Another Tries to Kill Soldier

Free Speech and Seditious Speech on the CT World War I Home Front

Does free speech exist in a time of war?

World War I Propaganda

What role does propaganda play in a time of war?

Hill-Stead workers and overseer Allen Cook, ca. 1913

Is That a Mastodon?! A Case Study in Civic Responsibility

To what extent are we, as citizens and communities, responsible for scientifically and/or historically significant finds on public property?

The Civilian Conservation Corps in Connecticut

How did the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) impact Connecticut?

On the Move: The Bicycle, Women, and Social Change in the 19th Century

To what extent are technology, fashion, and social reform interconnected?

Suffragists

Connecticut Women and the Women’s Suffrage Movement

How have American concepts of freedom and equality changed since the 1870s? How might the changes be perceived differently by different segments of the population?

African Americans in Progressive-Era CT: The Battle Over the Jack Johnson Fight film

What does the battle over the Johnson-Jeffries fight film tell us about the social position of African Americans in Progressive-Era Connecticut?

Roots of Labor Unrest in Progressive-Era CT

What were the causes of the labor unrest that roiled Connecticut in the years between 1900 and World War I?

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