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Homework Practice for EOC: Kahn Academy – Postwar Era 1945-1980
Name: _______________________
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/civil-war-era
Instruction: Complete the assignment below and turn in by the due date. ______________
Click link Practice for your next test and take each practice test below. Keep track of your scores and record them
below. (These are pretest to help you determine which videos and content you need to focus on.)
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Postwar era ____/13
1950’s America ____/8
The Civil Rights Movement ____/13
1960’s America ____/15
1970’s America ___/15
Read the following Articles from “Postwar era, 1945-1950” and answer the
questions below.
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The GI Bill
What do you think?
What was the purpose of the GI Bill?
Why did so many believe that ex-service men needed help?
What were the key components of the Bill and how did each help a veteran?
How did the GI Bill affect the general economy of the United States?
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African Americans, women, and the GI Bill
What do you think?
Who benefited the most from the GI Bill?
Which groups were neglected by the Bill and what was the impact?
What was the lasting impact of the GI Bill?

The baby boom
How was the American economy changed by the baby-boom generation?
What were the causes of the fast population growth as a result of the boom?
What was the major impact of the baby-boom and what might be the lasting legacy of the baby-boom generation today
on the economy?

The growth of suburbia
What do you think?
Are the GI Bill benefits that financed suburban housing similar to New Deal programs, or different from them? Why?
Do you think the assembly-line techniques used to build Levittown houses were a positive or negative development
overall? Consider the impact on construction workers, families, and prices.
Why do you think so many Americans wanted to move into their own homes after World War II? Was it due to
financial reasons, messages in popular culture, or something else?

The dark side of suburbia
What do you think?
What are the effects of American "car culture"? Consider its impact on Americans' ability to get to work and to the
services they need, as well as its impact on the environment and the oil industry.
Do you think the "sameness" of the suburbs was an improvement on the "ethnic enclaves" found in the prewar period
(Little Italy in New York, for example), or was the emphasis on conformity stifling?
What was the overall impact of housing policies on African Americans during this period? Do you think housing
discrimination was a major factor in the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement?
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Start of the Cold War – The Yalta Conference and containment
What do you think?
Is "Cold War" really an appropriate name for the conflict between the US and the USSR? In what ways was the Cold War
actually a hot war?
Do you think it would have been possible for the United States and the Soviet Union to coexist peacefully in the postwar
era, or was conflict destined to arise between them?
Do you think that George F. Kennan was right in his assessment of the Soviet Union, or was he exaggerating the risk
posed by communism?
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Start of the Cold War – The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan
What do you think?
Why did the United States end its long history of isolationism after World War II? Would it have been possible for the US
to return to an isolationist foreign policy?
What are the benefits and potential pitfalls of Truman's offer to support any country trying to resist communism?
Which was more successful in combatting the spread of communism: economic aid or military force?
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Start of the Cold War – The Berlin airlift and the creation of NATO
What do you think?
Why do you think the United States was so determined to help West Berlin when it had no real interests to protect
there?
Do you think it was a good idea for the United States to join NATO? What are the potential benefits and drawbacks of
being part of a defensive alliance?
Select the videos below that you need to review and view them. Write a check
mark in the parenthesis for each one you viewed and write a one sentence
summary for those you have viewed. (!!! = More important than the others.)
Extra points on your Progress Monitoring Test for each video viewed and
summarized in one or more sentences.
!!! Origins of the Cold War (____) One Sentence Summary in blank below:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
!!!Communism (____) One Sentence Summary in blank below:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Read the following Articles from “1950’s America” and answer the questions
below.
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The Korean War
What do you think?
Was the United States wise to fight in Korea? If Truman hadn’t contained communism in Korea what might the
consequences have been?
Do you think the United States-led forces ought to have crossed into North Korea?
Who "won" the Korean War?
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The Eisenhower era
What do you think?
Why do you think President Eisenhower was so popular?
What accounted for the incredible rise in the nation’s wealth during the 1950s?
How would you characterize President Eisenhower’s domestic politics?
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Anticommunism in the 1950’s
What do you think?
Did the threat of Soviet espionage justify the reaction from HUAC and McCarthy?
What was the role of media (movies, radio, and especially television) in the rise and fall of the Red Scare?
Do you think President Eisenhower was right not to interfere in McCarthy's witch-hunt?
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Popular culture and mass media in the 1950’s
What do you think?
What can popular culture tell us about a historical time period? Are trends in music, film, and television important for
understanding an era? Why or why not?
Why do you think rock and roll became so popular?
What messages about American values were promoted by popular culture in the 1950s?
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Women in the 1950’s
What do you think?
Who benefited the most from the postwar surge in material abundance?
Were there signs of discontent with the status quo of the 1950s? What were they?
How did the imperatives of the Cold War shape gender roles and society’s expectations of women?
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Atomic fears and the arms race
What do you think?
What were the assumptions underlying the National Security Council's recommendations in NSC-68? Were those
assumptions justified?
Did civil defense films like Duck and Cover comfort or traumatize American children?
Would it have been possible to halt nuclear development, or was the creation of more and deadlier atomic bombs
unavoidable?
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The start of the Space Race
What do you think?
What effect did Soviet achievements in space have on American society and culture?
What sorts of policies were adopted in order to maintain and strengthen US scientific and technological superiority?
How were US domestic politics in the 1950s shaped by the Cold War rivalry with the Soviet Union?
Select the videos below that you need to review and view them. Write a check
mark in the parenthesis for each one you viewed and write a one sentence
summary for those you have viewed. (!!! = More important than the others.)
Extra points on your Progress Monitoring Test for each video viewed and
summarized in one or more sentences.
!!! Korean War overview (____) One Sentence Summary in blank below:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Read the following Articles from “The Civil Rights Movement” and answer the
questions below.
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Introduction to the Civil Rights Movement
What do you think?
Why did the twentieth-century Civil Rights Movement emerge?
Which of the strategies employed by civil rights activists do you think was most effective?
What do you think was the most significant achievement of the Civil Rights Movement? Did civil rights activists achieve
all of the goals of the movement?
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African American veterans and the Civil Rights Movement
What do you think?
Why do you think the Navy initially refused to identify Dorie Miller?
How do you think military service changed the lives of black Americans?
Why do you think white supremacists found black veterans so threatening?
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Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
What do you think?
How would you have reacted to segregation in the 1950s?
How do you think segregation made the United States look in the eyes of many in the larger world in the 1950s?
Are there any places in your life where you see de facto segregation present? If so, do you have ideas about what you
might do?
How might schools look today if the Supreme Court had not invalidated “separate but equal” in the Brown decision?
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Emmett Till
What do you think?
Why do you think Bryant and Milam murdered Till over such a minor incident? What does their treatment of Till tell us
about Mississippi society in this time period?
How do you think media affected the Till case? How would things have been different had there not been magazine,
newspaper, and television coverage of the funeral and trial?
Why do you think Till's murder was such an important event in the Civil Rights Movement?
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The Montgomery Bus Boycott
What do you think?
Why did the boycott succeed? Were the actions of both the citizens of Montgomery as well as those of the US Supreme
Court necessary for its success?
How do you think people around the world who looked to the United States as a beacon of freedom might have felt and
thought when they read about the boycott and the laws and practices that led to it?
What do you think led Rosa Parks to decide to take a stand against discrimination and segregation?
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“Massive Resistance” and the Little Rock Nine
What do you think?
How do you think the “Southern Manifesto,” and Governor Faubus’s deployment of the Arkansas National Guard looked
in the eyes of people outside the United States who looked to the country as a land dedicated to freedom?
When the US Supreme Court interprets the US Constitution is it sometimes, in effect, making new laws? Is such
“activism” on the part of the Supreme Court part of its job?
Would Central High School have been successfully desegregated if the federal government had not aided local African
American citizens?
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The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
What do you think?
How did the demands presented at the March on Washington reflect the evolving goals of the Civil Rights Movement?
What arguments did Dr. King make in his "I Have a Dream" speech? Why do you think the speech was so effective?
Did the March on Washington reveal a Civil Rights Movement that was united or divided?
What was the outcome of the March on Washington? Did the news media play an important role?
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The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965
What do you think?
Which provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 do you think were the most important? Why?
How do you think the events of Bloody Sunday affected the Voting Rights Act?
What do you think Lyndon Johnson meant when he said that 'There is no Negro problem . . . There is only an American
problem?"
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SNCC and CORE
What do you think?
College-age students were principal founders of both CORE and SNCC. In what ways did student voices advance the
movement for civil rights? In what ways might college-aged students’ perspectives have been limited?
What were the successes and challenges of the direct action, nonviolent protest strategy that both CORE and SNCC
employed in the early 1960s?
Why did both CORE and SNCC increasingly turn away from nonviolence by the late 1960s? Do you think this turn was a
good idea?
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Black Power
What do you think?
Was Black Power part of the Civil Rights Movement or was it opposed to the Civil Rights Movement?
How did the goals of the Black Power movement differ from those of more mainstream civil rights activists? Compare
the major demands of the Ten-Point Program with the goals of civil rights campaigns for voting rights and desegregation.
Why do you think the ideas of Black Power gained in popularity over the course of the 1960s?
Select the videos below that you need to review and view them. Write a check
mark in the parenthesis for each one you viewed and write a one sentence
summary for those you have viewed. (!!! = More important than the others.)
Extra points on your Progress Monitoring Test for each video viewed and
summarized in one or more sentences.
No Videos in this section.
Read the following Articles from “1960’s America” and answer the questions
below.
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John F. Kennedy as president
What do you think?
Why did Kennedy win the 1960 presidential election?
What were Kennedy’s greatest accomplishments? What were his most significant shortcomings?
Which do you think was more successful: Kennedy’s foreign policy or his domestic policies? Why?
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Cuban Missile Crisis
What do you think?
Why did Khrushchev decide to provide Cuba with nuclear missiles?
Were there winners and losers in the Cuban Missile Crisis? If so, who were they?
What were the positive and negative consequences of the missile crisis?
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Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) as president
What do you think?
Do you agree with Johnson’s decision to not run for re-election in 1968? Why or why not?
Which had a greater impact on poverty in America, the Great Society or the New Deal? Why?
What were Johnson’s greatest achievements? What were his biggest mistakes?
Who accomplished more for civil rights, Johnson or Kennedy?
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The Vietnam War
What do you think?
Why did the United States become involved in Vietnam?
What were the assumptions underlying the US involvement in Southeast Asia? Were they correct?
Was the war in Vietnam a civil war or a global Cold War confrontation?
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The student movement and the antiwar movement
What do you think?
Why did US public opinion turn against the Vietnam war?
What are the key arguments of the Port Huron Statement?
Do you think the news media turned more people against the Vietnam war or against the antiwar activists?
What were the long-term consequences of antiwar activism?
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Second-wave feminism
What do you think?
Do you think that second-wave feminism was a separate movement from the Civil Rights Movement, or just a different
facet of it? Why?
Compare and contrast first-wave feminism (epitomized by figures like Susan B. Anthony) with second-wave feminism
(epitomized by figures like Betty Friedan). What were the goals of each movement? To what extent, if at all, did either
movement champion the rights of poor women or minority women?
Why do you think the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) has never been ratified?
Do you think the second-wave feminist movement achieved its goals? Why or why not?

The election of Richard Nixon
What do you think?
Why do you think Richard Nixon’s campaign appealed to voters?
To what do you attribute Nixon’s victory in the 1968 election?
What were the long-term consequences of the 1968 election?
Select the videos below that you need to review and view them. Write a check
mark in the parenthesis for each one you viewed and write a one sentence
summary for those you have viewed. (!!! = More important than the others.)
Extra points on your Progress Monitoring Test for each video viewed and
summarized in one or more sentences.
!!! Bay of Pigs Invasion (____) One Sentence Summary in blank below:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
!!!!!!!!! Cuban Missile Crisis (____) One Sentence Summary in blank below:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
!!!!!!!!! Vietnam War (____) One Sentence Summary in blank below:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Read the following Articles from “1970’s America” and answer the questions
below.
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Richard Nixon as president
What do you think?
Was Vietnamization a good idea? Why or why not?
How did Nixon's approach to communist countries abroad differ from other presidents' strategies?
What effect did Watergate have on American citizens' opinion of their government?
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Watergate
What do you think?
What role did the media play in the Watergate scandal?
Why do you think Nixon didn't destroy the Oval Office tapes that incriminated him?
Do you think Nixon's impeachment and resignation was a sign that the American system of government was broken, or
was it a sign that government was working?
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Stagflation and the oil crisis
What do you think?
What caused the economic problems of the 1970s? Were they avoidable?
Since World War II, the percentage of American jobs in the service sector has grown steadily. What are the benefits and
drawbacks of a service-based economy?
How has the US dependence on oil changed since the embargo of 1973? Do you think the United States should do more
to reduce its oil consumption?
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The presidency of Jimmy Carter
What do you think?
What do you think Carter hoped to achieve with his "Crisis of Confidence" speech? Why do you think it was so poorly
received by the American public?
Carter has been compared to Herbert Hoover, another president who failed to solve an economic crisis. Do you think
that's a fair comparison? Why or why not?
How would you characterize the Carter administration’s foreign policy? Was it effective?
How did the Cold War contribute to later tensions in the Middle East?
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