Grade 11: United States History and Geography (History-Social Science Framework)

Overarching Ideas

Connecting with Past Studies: The Nations Beginnings

Industrialization, Urbanization, Immigration, and Progressive Reform

The Rise of the United States as a World Power

The 1920s

The Great Depression and the New Deal

America's Participation in World War II

Cold War Struggles Abroad

Cold War Struggles at Home

Movements for Equality

Contemporary American Society

How did the federal government grow between the late nineteenth and twenty-first centuries?

What does it mean to be an American in modern times?

How did the United States become a superpower?

How did the United States' population become more diverse over the twentieth century?

What are key tenets of American democracy?

How did the country change because of the Civil War and Reconstruction in the nineteenth century?

How did America's economy, industries, and population grow after the Civil War?

Who came to the United States at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century? Why did they come? What was their experience like when they arrived?

How did the federal government impact the country's growth in the years following the Civil War?

Why did women want the right to vote, and how did they convince men to grant it to them?

How did America’s role in the world change between the 1870s and 1910s?

Did the United States become an imperial power? Why or why not?

How did America change because of World War I?

Why were the 1920s filled with political, social, and economic extremes?

How did culture change in the 1920s?

Were the 1920s a “return tnormalcy?” Why or why not?

Why was there a Great Depression?

How did the New Deal attempt to remedy problems from the Great Depression?

How did ordinary people respond tthe Great Depression?

Why did Americans not want to join World War II before the bombing at Pearl Harbor?

How did American government change because of World War II?

How did American government change because of World War II?

How was the war mobilized and fought differently in the Atlantic versus the Pacific?

How did the America win the war in the Pacific?

How did World War II serve to advance movements for equality at home and abroad?

What was Containment? How was it employed?

How did American foreign policy shift after World War II?

Why was the period between 1946 and 1990 known as the Cold War?

How did anti-communism drive foreign policy?

How was the Cold War fought domestically?

How did the government work to combat the perceived threat of communism domestically?

How were American politics shaped by the Cold War?

How did the Cold War affect ordinary Americans?

Why was there a Civil Rights Movement?

What does “equal rights” mean?

What were the goals and strategies of the Civil Rights Movement?

How did various movements for equality build upon one another?

Did the Civil Rights Movement succeed?

How was the government involved in the Civil Rights Movement?

How was the war in Vietnam similar to and different from the other Cold War struggles?

How did the war in Vietnam affect movement for equality at home?

How has the role of the federal government (and especially the presidency) changed from the 1920s through more recent times?

How did the Cold War end, and what foreign policy developments resulted?

What does globalization mean, and how has it affected the United States?

Why is the United States more diverse now than it was in the middle of the 20th century?

In what ways have issues such as education; civil rights for people of color, immigrants, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) Americans, and disabled Americans; economy policy; recognition of economic, social and cultural rights; the environment; and the status of women remained unchanged over time? In what ways have they changed?