US History II

Assignment for Today: Each group will address one of these questions below, using the documents in our textbook. By the end of class each group should leave a comment here, responding to your assigned question.

Question 1: Using the evidence in Documents 23.1 – 23.5, which of these is the more correct statement and why?
World War II transformed racial and gender relations in the US.
World War II reinforced traditional racial and gender relations in the US.

Question 2: How should the end of the war be remembered? Whose point of view needs to be acknowledged, respected and included? Try writing a brief account of the end of the war that follows your own advice. Use Documents 23.6 – 11

Question 3 (laptop based): What physical resources, and what moral reasoning, did official American messages employ to build support for the conflict? How did war promotional materials construct World War II as a just, or even a “good” war? What kinds of commitments were being asked of the American people? Use any of these media documents:

WW2 Radio and Film Propaganda Examples (requires Windows Media Player)
Internet Archive: Films Made by the Office of War Information
Internet Archive: Audio recordings w/ keyword “World War II: Homefront”
“It’s Everybody’s War” (20th Century Fox)
Produce for Victory: Posters on the American Home Front

Question 4: After 1945, the new postwar historical context included both the reality of atomic weapons, and a deep ideological standoff between “the West” and the USSR. How did this context affect understanding of foreign affairs and the US’s role in them? Use Documents 24.1 – 5

Question 5: In the 1940s and early 1950s, many Americans feared internal threats as well as those in international relations. Using Documents 24.6 – 10, answer these questions: In what different ways would HUAC and the witnesses appearing before it have defined “un-American”? What gave HUAC and the broader cultural movement now termed “McCarthyism” so much power at the time?

In our third unit, US history collides with world history in a big way, and we seek to explain how the US became involved in the Second World War and the subsequent Cold War. We also explore the transition from the New Deal “welfare state” through the wartime homefront years to a multi-decade era of prosperity and political consensus. But were the postwar “good times” for everyone?

Mon 3/24 World War II. Reading: Chapter 24. We will also discuss the Primary Source paper project; see new tab above for the details and guidelines. Constitutional Module #3 will go live on Blackboard (due by April 25).

Wed 3/26 Peer Review Writing Workshop. No reading, but bring a *printed* draft of your Primary Source paper to class.

Fri 3/28 The Cold War Begins. Reading: Chapter 24.

Mon 3/31 Workshop Day – bring textbook. Reading: Documents from Chapters 23-24

Wed 4/2 Troubled Innocence. Reading: Chapter 25. Primary Source paper is due

Fri 4/4 Liberal Consensus. Reading: Chapter 26, up to p. 836.

Mon 4/7 Workshop Day – bring textbook. Reading: Documents from Chapter 25-26

Wed 4/9 Discussion Day on Postwar America. Reading: Rest of Ch 26 and Review Ch 23-26

Fri 4/11 Exam #3 (Chapters 23-26). As before, you may bring a prepared double-sided 8.5×11″ sheet of paper