Contents
Acknowledgments ?xi
Preface to the Second Edition ?xiii
Introduction: Why Use a Thematic, Document-Based Approach for Teaching U.S. History? ?1
Why Thematic? ?2
Why Document Based? ?3
Meeting Common Core and Other State and National Standards ?6
Common Core State Standards ?7
What Do We Mean When We Say ?We??: Framing our Study of U.S. History ?8
Structure of a Unit ?9
Structure of a Lesson ?12
Assessment ?16
Accounting for Grade Level and Differentiating Instruction ?17
Classroom Climate ?18
Designing Your Own Thematic Units ?20
0. ?Historians? Skills: Why and How Study History? ?21
Lesson 0.1: Who Are You in History? ?22
Lesson 0.2: Who Are We Together? ?24
Lesson 0.3: How Do We Want to Work Together? ?26
Lesson 0.4: Why Study History? ?28
1. ?American Democracy: What Is American Democracy, and What Should It Be? ?37
Lesson 1.1: What Did Kamala Harris Believe Were the Greatest Threats to Democracy in the United States? ?38
Lesson 1.2: How Did Native American Traditions Influence American Democracy? ?40
Lesson 1.3: How Did Thomas Paine Argue for Independence From Britain? ?43
Lesson 1.4: What Was James Madison?s Argument for Representative Democracy? ?45
Lesson 1.5: What Did Thomas Jefferson Believe Were the Main Responsibilities of Government? ?47
Lesson 1.6: How Did Andrew Jackson Represent the ?Common Man?? ?49
Lesson 1.7: How Did Frederick Douglass Criticize American Democracy? ?52
Lesson 1.8: How Did Abraham Lincoln Define Democracy? ?54
Lesson 1.9: How Did Susan B. Anthony Interpret the Constitution? ?56
Lesson 1.10: What Did John F. Kennedy Believe the United States Should Do for the World? ?58
Lesson 1.11: Why Did Ronald Reagan Believe America Was Great? ?60
Lesson 1.12: Why Did Barack Obama Think the United States Was Not Yet a Perfect Union? ?62
2. ?Diversity and Discrimination: What Does Equality Mean? ?66
Lesson 2.1: What Was the Supreme Court?s Argument for Allowing Same-Sex Marriage? ?67
Lesson 2.2: How Did the Virginia Slave Codes Change Race Relations? ?69
Lesson 2.3: What Did the Constitution Say About Slavery? ?72
Lesson 2.4: How Did Native Americans Argue for Equal Rights? ?74
Lesson 2.5: How Did Sojourner Truth Define Equality? ?76
Lesson 2.6: What Was the Supreme Court?s Rationale for Denying Black People Citizenship? ?77
Lesson 2.7: Why Did John Brown Think Violence Was Justified to End Slavery? ?79
Lesson 2.8: What Was the Supreme Court?s Reasoning for ?Separate but Equal? Facilities? ?81
Lesson 2.9: Why Did Elizabeth Cady Stanton Believe Women Deserved the Same Rights as Men? ?83
Lesson 2.10: What Was the Supreme Court?s Argument for Excluding Chinese People From U.S. Citizenship? ?85
Lesson 2.11: What Was the Ku Klux Klan?s Argument for White Supremacy? ?88
Lesson 2.12: How Did the Supreme Court Explain Its Decision to Overturn the ?Separate but Equal? Doctrine? ?90
Lesson 2.13: How Did Malcolm X Think Racial Equality Could Be Achieved? ?92
Lesson 2.14: How Did Judy Heumann Oppose Discrimination on the Basis of Disability? ?94
3. ?States? Rights and Federal Power: How Should Power Be Distributed Among Local, State, and Federal Governments? ?99
Lesson 3.1: How Did Donald Trump Try to Challenge the Authority of State Election Officials? ?99
Lesson 3.2: What Was the Balance of Power Between the States and Congress in the Articles of Confederation? ?102
Lesson 3.3: How Did the Constitution Compare With the Articles of Confederation? ?104
Lesson 3.4: How Did George Washington Explain His Decision to Suppress the Whiskey Rebellion? ?106
Lesson 3.5: How Did States? Rights and Federalist Interpretations of the Constitution Differ? ?109
Lesson 3.6: Is the State or Federal Government Responsible for Protecting Native American Nations? ?111
Lesson 3.7: How Did Daniel Webster Argue That States Couldn?t Nullify Federal Laws? ?114
Lesson 3.8: How Did the Southern States Explain Their Decision to Secede From the Union? ?116
Lesson 3.9: Why Did Dwight Eisenhower Enforce Desegregation? ?118
Lesson 3.10: How Did Orval Faubus Argue for Segregation as a ?State?s Right?? ?120
Lesson 3.11: Does the State or Federal Government Protect Individuals From Environmental Harm? ?121
4. ?Government, Business, and Workers: What Role Should Government and Business Play in Promoting Citizens? Well-Being? ?125
Lesson 4.1: Why Did Some Amazon Workers Unionize? ?125
Lesson 4.2: What Were Christopher Columbus?s Economic and Social Goals? ?128
Lesson 4.3: Why Did John Calhoun Define Slavery as a ?Positive Good?? ?130
Lesson 4.4: Why Did the Lowell Mill Women Go on Strike? ?132
Lesson 4.5: How Did W. E. B. Du Bois Think That the Government Succeeded and Failed in Helping Formerly Enslaved People? ?134
Lesson 4.6: What Was Andrew Carnegie?s Argument for Social Darwinism? ?136
Lesson 4.7: How Did the ?Other Half? Live as Shown in Jacob Riis?s Photos? ?138
Lesson 4.8: How Did Upton Sinclair Want to Change the Meatpacking Industry? ?142
Lesson 4.9: What Was Henry Ford?s Plan for Ending Poverty? ?144
Lesson 4.10: How and Why Was Tulsa?s Black Wall Street Destroyed? ?146
Lesson 4.11: What Were the Aims of the New Deal? ?149
Lesson 4.12: Why Did Lyndon Johnson Launch a War on Poverty? ?151
Lesson 4.13: Why Did Dolores Huerta Believe Farmworkers Were Being Mistreated? ?153
Lesson 4.14: What Was Reaganomics? ?155
5. ?Foreign Policy: Under What Circumstances Should the United States Intervene in World Events? ?159
Lesson 5.1: Why Did Anthony Blinken Consider Climate Change Relevant to National Security? ?159
Lesson 5.2: Why Did George Washington Believe the United States Should Stay Neutral? ?162
Lesson 5.3: How Did the Monroe Doctrine Change U.S. Foreign Policy? ?164
Lesson 5.4: How Was the Idea of Manifest Destiny Used to Justify Taking Over Foreign Lands? ?166
Lesson 5.5: Why Did Mark Twain Oppose U.S. Colonization of the Philippines? ?167
Lesson 5.6: How Did Woodrow Wilson Try to Convince Americans to Stay Neutral in World War I? ?169
Lesson 5.7: How Did Franklin D. Roosevelt Explain His Decision to Involve the United States in World War II? ?171
Lesson 5.8: How Did Eleanor Roosevelt Explain the Purpose of the United Nations? ?173
Lesson 5.9: How Did the Truman Doctrine Change U.S. Foreign Policy? ?175
Lesson 5.10: Why Did Martin Luther King Jr. Oppose the Vietnam War? ?177
Lesson 5.11: On What Basis Did Henry Kissinger Advise Richard Nixon to Oppose Chilean President Salvador Allende? ?179
Lesson 5.12: How Did Bill Clinton Explain His Decision to Intervene in the Genocide of Bosnian Muslims? ?182
Lesson 5.13: What Was George W. Bush?s Strategy in the War on Terror? ?184
6. ?Civil Liberties and Public Safety: Under What Conditions, If Any, Should Citizens? Freedoms Be Restricted? ?188
Lesson 6.1: Why Did Ted Cruz Oppose Covid-19 Vaccine and Mask Mandates? ?188
Lesson 6.2: How Did the United States Explain Its Decision to Declare Independence From Britain? ?191
Lesson 6.3: What Does the Bill of Rights Guarantee? ?192
Lesson 6.4: How Did John Adams Restrict Freedom of the Press? ?195
Lesson 6.5: What Was Abraham Lincoln?s Argument for Suspending Habeas Corpus Rights During the Civil War? ?196
Lesson 6.6: Was Carrie Nation?s Temperance Activism Protected by the Constitution? ?198
Lesson 6.7: How Did Herbert Hoover Explain His Decision to Disperse the Bonus Army? ?200
Lesson 6.8: How Did Franklin D. Roosevelt Justify the Internment of Japanese Americans? ?202
Lesson 6.9: How Did Paul Robeson Defend Himself Against Joseph McCarthy?s Accusation That He Was a Communist? ?204
Lesson 6.10: How Did COINTELPRO Justify Its Surveillance of U.S. Citizens? ?206
Lesson 6.11: What Rights Did the Black Panther Party Demand, and Why? ?208
Lesson 6.12: How Did the U.S. Government Defend the USA PATRIOT Act? ?211
Lesson 6.13: What Was Barack Obama?s Plan to Reduce Gun Violence? ?213
7. ?American Identity: What Do We Mean When We Say ?We?? ?217
Lesson 7.1: Great Law of Peace, Dekanawida, C. 1500 (Lesson 1.2) ?218
Lesson 7.2: An Act Concerning Servants and Slaves, Virginia House of Burgesses, 1705 (Lesson 2.2) ?218
Lesson 7.3: Declaration of Independence, CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 1776 (Lesson 6.2) ?218
Lesson 7.4: Our Hearts Are Sickened, John Ross, 1838 (Lesson 2.3) ?218
Lesson 7.5: Scott V. Sanford, 1856 (Lesson 2.6) ?219
Lesson 7.6: Declaration of Immediate Causes, South Carolina Legislature, 1860 (Lesson 3.8) ?219
Lesson 7.7: The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois, 1903 (Lesson 4.5) ?219
Lesson 7.8: Investigation of the Labor Conditions, Massachusetts House Document NO. 50, 1845 (Lesson 4.4) ?220
Lesson 7.9: On Women?s Right to Vote, Susan B. Anthony, 1872 (Lesson 1.9) ?220
Lesson 7.10: Appeal for Neutrality, Woodrow Wilson, 1914 (Lesson 5.6) ?220
Lesson 7.11: My Life and Work, Henry Ford, 1922 (Lesson 4.9) ?221
Lesson 7.12: The Klan?s Fight for Americanism, Hiram W. Evans, 1926 (Lesson 2.10) ?221
Lesson 7.13: The New Deal, Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936 (Lesson 4.11) ?221
Lesson 7.14: Day of Infamy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1941 (Lesson 5.7) ?221
Lesson 7.15: By Any Means Necessary, Malcolm X, 1964 (Lesson 2.12) ?222
Lesson 7.16: Why I Am Opposed to the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King Jr., 1967 (Lesson 5.10) ?222
Lesson 7.17: A Shining City on a Hill, Ronald Reagan, 1974 (Lesson 1.11) ?222
Lesson 7.18: The War on Terror, George W. Bush, 2001 (Lesson 5.13) ?223
Lesson 7.19: A More Perfect Union, Barack Obama, 2008 (Lesson 1.12) ?223
Appendices ?225
Appendix A: Quick Reference Guide ?225
Appendix B: Course Entry Survey ?234
Appendix C: Course Exit Survey ?234
Appendix D: Unit Entry Survey ?234
Appendix E: Biographical Paper Instructions ?234
Appendix F: Summit Research Worksheet ?235
Appendix G: Unit Exit Survey ?235
Appendix H: 21st-Century Issue Letter Instructions ?236
Appendix I: Designing Your Own Thematic Units ?236
Appendix J: Online Content ?236
References ?237
Index ?239
About the Author ?249
