Unit 6: Progressive Promise and Disillusion (1890s-1939)

#601: Progressivism: ​What is Progressivism?

  • View Crash Course U.S. History #27 (embedded to right).
  • Read Foner 559-65 (The Politics of Progressivism).
Materials needed for class:
  • Neither Foner nor your Course Reader will be needed for tomorrow's class. However, please bring a charged laptop.

#602 Progressivism: ​The Jungle

Read:
  • Selection from Upton Sinclair, The Jungle in the Course Reader (pages 85-86).
Materials needed for class:
  • Please bring your Course Reader and a charged laptop to class.

#603 Progressivism: Women's Suffrage and its Opponents

Assignment:
  • Read Foner 558-59 (“The New Feminism” and “The Birth-Control Movement”).
  • View “Crash Course U.S. History #31: Women’s Suffrage” (13 minutes). Embedded to right.
Materials needed for class:
  • Please bring a charged laptop to class.

#604 Bridge: U.S. Interventions in Latin America

Read: Materials needed for class:
  • A charged laptop.

#605 WWI: Entering the Great War

Read:
  • Foner 580-86, 587-91 “America and the Great War” and “The War at Home”)
Consider:
  • Why did the United States enter World War I?
  • What connections can you find between progressive policies before World War I and the actions taken by the government during the war both at home and abroad?
  • What were the goals and methods of the Committee on Public Information during World War I?
Materials needed for class:
  • Foner
  • Charged laptop.

#606 WWI: War at Home

Read:  Consider:
  • “War is the health of the State.” This refrain appears several times in Bourne’s essay. What does he mean by this statement?
  • According to Bourne, how do conditions of war alter the behavior of citizens within a democratic society?
  • Why does Debs relate the history of wartime dissent?
​Materials needed for class:
  • Foner.
  • Charged laptop.
  • Optional: You may also consider printing out a copy of Bourne for easier annotation.

#607 WWI: The Wilsonian Moment

Read: 
  • Read Foner 599-606 ("1919").
  • "President Woodrow Wilson's 14 Points," January 1918 in the Course Reader, 99-103.
Consider:
  • Identify the goals of those pressing for global change in 1919, and of those who opposed them.
  • Describe how the ending and immediate aftermath of World War I sowed the seeds of future twentieth-century conflicts.
Materials needed for class:
  • Foner.
  • Course Reader.
  • Charged laptop.

#608 Great Depression: From Prosperity to Ruin

Read:
  • Foner 631-37 (“The Great Depression")
  • View “Crash Course U.S. History #33: The Great Depression” (14 minutes). Embedded to right.
Consider:
  • Identify the key causes of the Great Depression.
  • What principles guided President Hoover's response to the Great Depression, and how did this restrict his ability to help the American people?
Materials needed for class:
  • ​A charged laptop.

#609 Great Depression: The New Deal

Read:
  • View The New Deal: Crash Course US History #34 (15 minutes)
  • ​Read and annotate Herbert Hoover, “Roosevelt’s New Deal Would Destroy America” (1932) in the Course Reader (107-110).
  • Read and annotate Franklin Roosevelt, “Fireside Chat” (1934) in Foner, 656.
Consider:
  • Compare and contrast Hoover's and Roosevelt's visions of liberty.
Materials needed for class:
  • A charged laptop.
  • Foner.
  • Course Reader.

#610 The Authoritarian Alternative: Communism

Homework: 
Materials needed for class:
  • Printed or digital copy of the Tignor reading.
  • A charged laptop
Picture
Soviet poster featuring Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin.

#611 The Authoritarian Alternative: Fascism

Homework:
Materials needed for class:
  • Printed or digital copy of the Tignor reading.
  • A charged laptop
Picture
Japanese propaganda celebrating the Anti-Comintern Pact of 1936.