United States History II: Since 1865

Table of Contents

• Instructor Resources (Materials Available with Log In)

• The Era of Reconstruction, 1865-1877

• • Introduction
  • Restoring the Union
  • Congress and the Remaking of the South, 1865–1866
  • Radical Reconstruction, 1867–1872
  • The Collapse of Reconstruction
  • Video: Reconstruction and 1876

• Go West Young Man! Westward Expansion, 1840-1900

• • Introduction
  • The Loss of American Indian Life and Culture
  • The Impact of Expansion on Chinese Immigrants and Hispanic Citizens
  • The Westward Spirit
  • Video: Westward Expansion
  • Homesteading: Dreams and Realities
  • Making a Living in Gold and Cattle

• Industrialization and the Rise of Big Business, 1870-1900

• • Introduction
  • Inventors of the Age
  • From Invention to Industrial Growth
  • Video: The Industrial Economy
  • Building Industrial America on the Backs of Labor
  • A New American Consumer Culture

• The Growing Pains of Urbanization, 1870-1900

• • Introduction
  • Urbanization and Its Challenges
  • The African American “Great Migration” and New European Immigration
  • Relief from the Chaos of Urban Life
  • Video: Growth, Cities, and Immigration
  • Change Reflected in Thought and Writing

• Politics in the Gilded Age, 1870-1900

• • Introduction
  • Political Corruption in Postbellum America
  • The Key Political Issues: Patronage, Tariffs, and Gold
  • Farmers Revolt in the Populist Era
  • Social and Labor Unrest in the 1890s
  • Video: Gilded Age Politics

• Leading the Way: The Progressive Movement, 1890-1920

• • Introduction
  • The Origins of the Progressive Spirit in America
  • Video: The Progressive Era
  • Progressivism at the Grassroots Level
  • New Voices for Women and African Americans
  • Video: Women's Suffrage
  • Progressivism in the White House
  • Video: Progressive Presidents

• Age of Empire: American Foreign Policy, 1890-1914

• • Introduction
  • Turner, Mahan, and the Roots of Empire
  • The Spanish-American War and Overseas Empire
  • Economic Imperialism in East Asia
  • Roosevelt’s “Big Stick” Foreign Policy
  • Taft’s “Dollar Diplomacy”
  • Video: American Imperialism

• Americans and the Great War, 1914-1919

• • Introduction
  • American Isolationism and the European Origins of War
  • The United States Prepares for War
  • A New Home Front
  • From War to Peace
  • Video: America in World War I
  • Demobilization and Its Difficult Aftermath

• The Jazz Age: Redefining the Nation, 1919-1929

• • Introduction
  • Prosperity and the Production of Popular Entertainment
  • Transformation and Backlash
  • A New Generation
  • Republican Ascendancy: Politics in the 1920s
  • Video: The Roaring 20s

• Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? The Great Depression, 1929-1932

• • Introduction
  • The Stock Market Crash of 1929
  • President Hoover’s Response
  • The Depths of the Great Depression
  • Video: The Great Depression
  • Assessing the Hoover Years on the Eve of the New Deal

• Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932-1941

• • Introduction
  • The Rise of Franklin Roosevelt
  • The First New Deal
  • The Second New Deal
  • Video: The New Deal

• Fighting the Good Fight in World War II, 1941-1945

• • Introduction
  • The Origins of War: Europe, Asia, and the United States
  • The Home Front
  • Victory in the European Theater
  • The Pacific Theater and the Atomic Bomb
  • Videos: World War II

• Post-War Prosperity and Cold War Fears, 1945-1960

• • Introduction
  • The Challenges of Peacetime
  • The Cold War
  • Video: The Cold War
  • Video: The Cold War in Asia
  • The American Dream
  • Popular Culture and Mass Media
  • The African American Struggle for Civil Rights
  • Video: Civil Rights and the 1950s

• Contesting Futures: America in the 1960's

• • Introduction
  • The Kennedy Promise
  • Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society
  • The Civil Rights Movement Marches On
  • Challenging the Status Quo

• Political Storms at Home and Abroad, 1968-1980

• • Introduction
  • Identity Politics in a Fractured Society
  • Video: The 1960s in America
  • Coming Apart, Coming Together
  • Video: The Rise of Conservatism
  • Vietnam: The Downward Spiral
  • Watergate: Nixon’s Domestic Nightmare
  • Jimmy Carter in the Aftermath of the Storm
  • Video: Ford, Carter, and the Economic Malaise

• From Cold War to Culture Wars, 1980-2000

• • Introduction
  • The Reagan Revolution
  • Video: The Reagan Revolution
  • Political and Cultural Fusions
  • Video: George HW Bush and the End of the Cold War
  • A New World Order
  • Bill Clinton and the New Economy
  • Video: The Clinton Years, or the 1990s

• The Challenges of the Twenty-First Century

• • Introduction
  • The War on Terror
  • The Domestic Mission
  • Video: Terrorism, War, and Bush
  • New Century, Old Disputes
  • Hope and Change
  • Video: Obamanation: Crash Course US History #47

• Appendices

• • The Declaration of Independence
  • The Constitution of the United States
  • Presidents of the United States of America
  • U.S. Political Map
  • U.S. Topographical Map
  • United States Population Chart
  • Further Reading