Download Advanced Placement United States History

World Civilizations
Syllabus
Course Description
The curriculum of this comprehensive World History course is based on the Core
Curriculum, Power Standards and Learner Goals as dictated by the Kentucky Department
of Education. Extensive writing, analysis of text and non-text sources, in-class and
individual note-taking skills, and an ability to read quickly with comprehension and
retention is needed. The primary focus of this course is the transition of a regionally
divisive world to the interconnected global society of today. Additionally, other elements
of society will be looked at such as trends in: culture, religion, government, economics
and other elements as needed.
Course Objectives
(to reflect Kentucky Core Content)
Students will:
1. Understand the democratic principles of justice, equality, responsibility and
freedom and apply them to real-life situations.
2. Accurately describe various forms of government and analyze issues that
relate to the rights and responsibilities of citizens in a democracy.
3. Observe, analyze, and interpret human behaviors, social groupings and
institutions to better understand people and the relationships among
individuals and among groups.
4. Understand economic principles of current and past World History.
5. Recognize and understand the relationship between people and geography.
6. Understand, analyze, and interpret historical events, conditions, trends and
issues to develop historical perspective.
7. Use, interpret and apply data from primary and secondary sources.
8. Use historical data to support an argument or position.
9. Work in group settings to produce projects
.
Course Texts and Readings:
Main Texts
Elizabeth Ellis and Paul Burke. World History: The Modern Era. (Boston, Prentice
Hall, 2007).
Margaret King. Western Civilization: A Social and Cultural History. (Upper Saddle
NJ, Prentice Hall, 2000)
Supplemental Texts
Howard Spodek. The World’s History. (Upper Saddle NJ, Prentice Hall, 2001).
John P. McKay et al. A History of Western Society. (Boston, Houghton Mifflin,
1999).
John Merriman. A History of Modern Europe. (New York, Norton, 2004).
Lynn Hunt et al. The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures. (Boston,
Bedford/St. Martins, 2005).
Richard Bulliet et al. The Modern Era (Boston, Prentice Hall, 2007).
Mark Kishlansky et al. Civilization in the West (New York, Longman, 2001).
Patricia Ebrey et al. East Asia: A Cultural, Social and Political History (Boston,
Houghton Mifflin, 2006).
Cheryl Martin et al. Latin America and Its People (New York, Pearson, 2008).
Marilyn Stokstad. Art: A Brief History. Upper Saddle NJ, Prentice Hall, 2007).
Course Purpose:
The purpose of this course is two-fold:
a. To provide you with the skills and information that will allow you to meet high
school graduation requirements, and
b. To prepare you to successfully complete the World Civilizations Course at
RCSHS.
Organization:
This class will be taught as a primarily sophomore-level class, will utilize general
high school level materials but will have college-level expectations of students. This
means students will share responsibility for learning through in-class work and outside
readings, projects and reports. You will not be able to succeed in this class by merely
reading, listening to lectures, and feeding back information on a test. You will be
expected to learn to think, not just memorize.
A variety of teaching and learning strategies will be used, including but not
limited to: lecture-discussion, group and individual work, projects, presentations,
reading, writing, tests and other activities.
The course will be divided into eight units, generally corresponding to the
following time periods:
Unit I
Unit II
Unit III
Unit IV
Unit V
Unit VI
Unit VII
Unit VIII
World Religions
Ancient History
(8000 bce- 200 bce)
Classical History
(200 bce- 500 ce)
Birth of Europe to Renaissance
(500 - 1550)
Age of Exploration to Absolutism (1550 – 1750)
Revolutions and Empire
(1600 – 1914)
World in Conflict
(1914 – 1945)
Atomic Age to Present
(1945 – Present)
Unit II and III are review units that are done in a matter of days. There are no real
essential questions or major assignments other than quick assessments for these units.
They are purely to give the students a refresher on the events leading up to the real
chronological beginning of the class at Unit IV.
Within the given time-Periods, the subject matter will be loosely categorized into
political, economic, social and foreign affairs/intellectual history. As can be told by the
unit time-periods, the chronological approach will be the guiding force in the
organization of the course. However, within the chronological presentation of materials,
there will be times when a thematic approach may be utilized, particularly in relation to
such topics as:
 World Religions
 Various Literature Case Studies
 Various in-class Simulations
An attempt will be made to provide students with a syllabus for each of the eight
units.
Each syllabus will contain:
 Unit
 Readings
 Unit Outline
 Essential Questions
 Major Assignments and Assessments
 Vocabulary
However, the syllabus will not necessarily limit the content or conduct of the
class. Adjustments can and will be made depending on the needs of the class.
You will be required to take notes during class discussions, lectures, from reading
assignments and from presentations by class members and others. These notes will make
up the major portion of your notebook requirements, but more importantly will form the
basis for review for Exams.
Tests will consist of multiple-choice questions, open response questions and
document based questions (DBQ). On occasion, you will be required to interpret maps,
charts, graphs and political cartoons. Open response and DBQ’s must be written in blue
or black ink. There will be both chapter and unit exams. Unit exams will deal with all
material assigned during study of a unit (text and non-text). Unit exams will usually
consist of both multiple choice and essay questions. Chapter tests will be multiple choice
and short answer, numbering generally from 30-40 questions.
According to school policy, there will be two semester final exams. One before
Christmas Break will cover all material from the first semester and the last before the end
of school will cover all material from the second semester. There will be no
comprehensive exam.
Practically all units will have a regular assortment of worksheets, reading
excerpts, map work and vocabulary work/quizzes. It can be assumed that these will be
general assignments and thus not listed under the Major Assignments and Assessments
section.
Course Outline
Unit I
World Religions
Readings:
Various Readings from:
Alfred Andrea The Human Record (Boston, Houghton-Mifflin, 2005)
Kevin Reilly Reading in World Civilizations (New York, St. Martins, 1995)
Eugene Weber The Western Tradition (Lexington, Mass., DC Heath, 1995)
Richard Tarnas The Passion of the Western Mind (New York, Ballantine, 1991)
Merry Wiesner et al. Discovering the Global Past (Boston, Houghton-Mifflin, 2002)
World History Series
Rise of Christianity
Unit Outline:
I. Hinduism
a) Founding
b) Aryan Interpretations
II. Buddhism
a) Siddhartha Guatama
b) Modern Interpretations
III. Judaism
a) Old Testament
b) Modern Interpretations
IV. Christianity
a) New Testament
b) Catholicism
c) Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation
i) Calvin
ii) Zwingli
iii) King Henry VIII
V. Islam
a) Muhammed and the Founding
b) Modern Interpretations
VI. Case Studies in Religion
a) Crusades
b) Spanish Inquisition
c) Holocaust
Core Content:
SS-HS-2.1.1, SS-HS-2.3.1, SS-HS-5.3.1, SS-HS-5.3.4
Essential Questions:
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What late medieval religious developments paved the way for the adoption and
spread of Protestant thought?
What role did political and social factors play in the several reformations?
What were the consequences of religious divisions?
Why did the theological ideas of Martin Luther trigger political, social and
economic reactions?
What response did the Catholic Church make to the movements for reform?
Major Assignments and Assessments:
1. Portfolio Assignment: Students will have a choice on making a Poem or a
Research based paper over a topic from any of the case studies that we will be
doing at the end of the unit. They will work on / revise pieces through the date
that we get out for Christmas Break.
2. DBQ selection: students may have a DBQ from the following topic.
 Religion and Geography
 The Reformation
3. Graphic Organizer of World Religions
4. Unit Exam and Quizzes
World Religions Vocabulary
monotheistic, polytheistic, castes, brahman, reincarnation, indulgence, predestination,
sect, canonize, excommunication, sacraments, Inquisition, Holocaust, Nuremberg Laws,
genocide, Kristallnacht, Final Solution
Ancient History (8000 bce – 200 bce) Review Unit
Unit II
Readings:
Main Texts
Excerpts from: Andrea, Reilly, Weber, Tarnas, and Wiesner
Richard Hawley Women in Antiquity (London, Routledge, 1982)
Tom Jones From the Tigris to the Tiber (Belmont, CA., Wadsworth, 1989)
Unit Outline:
I. Mesopotamia
II. China
III. India
IV. Egypt
Essential Questions:
None: review unit
Major Assignments and Assessments:
DBQ selections: students may have a DBQ from the following topic
 Aztec and Inca Culture
 Confucianism
 Humans and the Environment
Unit Exam and Quizzes
Ancient History Vocabulary
(8000 bce- 200 bce)
civilization, city-state, pharaoh, hieroglyphics, ziggurats, hierarchy, theocracy,
patriarchal, Fertile Crescent, oracle bones, Mandate of Heaven, Silk Road
Unit III
Classic History
(200 bce – 500 ce) Review Unit
Readings:
Main Texts
Various Readings from: Tarnas, Andrea, Reilly, Weber, and Wiesner
Trevor Dupuy The Harper Encyclopedia of Military History (New York, Harper
Collins, 1992)
World History Series
The Punic Wars
Tom Jones From the Tigris to the Tiber
Paul Kennedy The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (New York, Random House, 1987)
Unit Outline:
I. Greece
II. Macedonia (Hellenistic Culture)
III. Rome and the Roman Empire
Essential Questions:
None- review unit
Major Assignments and Assessments:
1. Open Response: Sparta v Athens
2. Unit Exam and Quizzes
Classical History Vocabulary
(200 bce- 500 ce)
arable, acropolis, polis, direct democracy, helot, Hellenistic, republic, patricians,
plebeians, aqueducts, Appian Way, “Bread and Circuses”
Unit IV
Birth of Europe to Renaissance (500 – 1550)
Readings:
Main Texts
Various Readings from: Tarnas, Andrea, Reilly, Weber, and Weisner
Dupuy
World History Series
The Late Middle Ages
Nextext Series
The Middle Ages
The Renaissance
Frederick Golden The Song of Roland (New York, WW Norton, 1978)
Alison Weir The Wars of the Roses (New York, Ballantine, 1995)
Unit Outline:
I.
France
a. Merovingians
b. Carlovingians
i. Charlemagne and Feudalism
c. Capets to Valois
II. England
a. William I and the Norman Invasion
b. Plantagenets
c. Wars of the Roses, Lancaster and York
d. Tudors
III. HRE and Russia
a. Viking foundations
b. Mongol Hordes
IV. Byzantine Empire
a. Ottomans
b. Crusades
V. Growth of China and Japan
a. Dynasty
b. Shogun
VI. Renaissance
a) Literature Case Study: Dante’s Inferno
Core Content/Program of Studies:
SS-HS-5.3.1, SS-H-HP-S-4 a.
Essential Questions:
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What does the term Renaissance mean?
How was the Renaissance manifested in politics, government and social
organization?
What were the intellectual and artistic hallmarks of the Renaissance?
Did the Renaissance involve shifts in religious attitudes?
What developments occurred in the evolution of the nation-state?
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Major Assignments and Assessments:
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DBQ selections: students will be given a DBQ from the following topics
Patterns of Trade 100-1450
Feudal Japan and Medieval Europe
Middle Ages
2. Students will read a primary source excerpt from The Prince.
3. Unit Exam and Quizzes
Birth of Europe to Renaissance Vocabulary (500 - 1550)
feudalism, vassal, fief, manor, knight, chivalry, serf, guilds, common law, Magna Carta,
Black Death, renaissance, humanism, humanities, patron, perspective, printing press,
vernacular, secular
Unit V
Readings:
Age of Exploration to Absolutism
(1550 – 1750)
Main Texts
Various Readings from: Tarnas, Andrea, Reilly, Weber, Weisner, Dupuy, Kennedy
Nicholas Raisonovsky A History of Russia (New York, Oxford U. Press, 1984)
Unit Outline:
I. Beginnings of Our Global Age
a) The Search for Spices
b) Turbulent Centuries in Africa
c) European Footholds in South and Southeast Asia
d) Encounters in East Asia
e) Conquest of the Americas
f) Spanish and Portuguese Colonies in the Americas
g) Struggle for North America
h) The Atlantic Slave Trade
i) Effects of Global Contact
II. Age of Absolutism
a) Spanish Power Grows
b) France under Louis XIV
c) Parliament Triumphs in England
d) Rise of Austria and Prussia
e) Absolute Monarchy in Russia
III. The Enlightenment
a) Philosophy in the Age of Reason
b) Enlightenment Ideas Spread
Core Content/Program of Studies:
SS-HS-5.3.2, SS-HS-5.3.3, SS-H-HP-S-4 b. and c.
Essential Questions:
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What were the causes sand consequences of the religious wars in France, the
Netherlands, and Germany?
Who and why, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, did a relatively small
group living on the edge of the Eurasian landmass gain control of the major sea-
lanes of the world and establish political and economic hegemony on distant
continents?
 What immediate effect did overseas expansion have on Europe and on the
conquered societies?
 How and why did slave labor become the dominant form of labor organization in
the New World?
 How did the religious crises of this period affect religious faith, literary and
artistic developments, and the status of women?
 How did these forms of government differ from the feudal and dynastic
monarchies of earlier centuries?
 In what sense were these forms “modern”?
 What social and economic factors limited absolute monarchs?
 Which Western countries most clearly illustrate the new patterns of political
organization?
 Why is the seventeenth century considered the “golden age of the Netherlands”?
 Why did the basic structure of society in eastern Europe move away from that of
western Europe in the early modern period?
 How and why did the rulers of Austria, Prussia, and Russia, each in a different
social environment, manage to build powerful absolute monarchies that proved
more durable than that of Louis XIV?
 How did the absolute monarchs’ interaction with artists and architects contribute
to the splendid achievements of baroque culture?
 The world-view of medieval and early modern European society was primarily
religious and theological. This world-view was transformed during the eighteenth
century. Why did this momentous change occur?
 How did this new world-view affect the way people thought about society and
human relations?
 What impact did this new way of thinking have on political developments and
monarchial absolutism?
Major Assignments and Assessments:
1. DBQ selections: students may have a DBQ from the following selections
 Literacy and Education: 16th to 19th Century
 “Enlightened Absolutism”
2. Word Wall- Absolutism in Europe
3. Power Play Simulation
4. Unit Exam and Quizzes
Unit VI
Readings:
Main Texts
Revolutions and Empire (1600 – 1914)
Various Readings from: Andrea, Reilly, Weber, Wiesner, Dupuy, Kennedy
RR Palmer Twelve Who Ruled (Princeton, Princeton U Press, 1989)
Emmit Kennedy A Cultural History of the French Revolution (New Haven, Yale U
Press, 1989)
Alexis de Toqueville trans Stuart Gilbert The Old Regime and the French Revolution
(New York, Doubleday, 1955)
DMG Sutherland France 1789-1815 (New York, Oxford U. Press, 1986)
Ronald Suny et al. The Russian Revolution and Bolshevik Victory (Lexington, Mass.,
DC Heath, 1990)
Unit Outline:
I. Age of Revolutions
a) Birth of the American Revolution
b) The French Revolution and Napoleon
i) On the Eve of Revolution
ii) The French Revolution Unfolds
iii) The Age of Napoleon
c) The Industrial Revolution
i) Dawn of the Industrial Revolution
ii) Britain Leads the Way
iii) Social Impact of the Industrial Revolution
iv) New Ways of Thinking
d) Revolutions in Europe and Latin America
i) An Age of Ideologies
ii) Revolutions of 1830 and 1848
iii) Revolutions in Latin America
e) Life in the Industrial Age
i) The Industrial Revolution Spreads
ii) The Rise of the Cities
iii) Changing Attitudes and Values
iv) Arts in the Industrial Age
f) Nationalism Triumphs in Europe
i) Building a German Nation
ii) Germany Strengthens
iii) Unifying Italy
iv) Nationalism Threatens Old Empires
v) Russia: Reform and Reaction
g) Growth of Western Democracies
i) Democratic Reform in Britain
ii) Social and Economic Reform in Britain
iii) Division and Democracy in France
iv) Expansion of the United States
h) The New Imperialism
i) Building Overseas Empires
ii) The Partition of Africa
iii) European Claims in Muslim Regions
iv) The British take over India
v) China and New Imperialism
i) New Global Patterns
i) Japan Modernizes
ii) Imperialism in Southeast Asia and Pacific
iii) Self-Rule for Canada, Australia, and New Zealand
iv) Economic Imperialism in Latin America
Core Content/Program of Studies:
SS-HS-5.3.3, SS-HS-5.3.4, SS-H-HP-S-4 c. and d.
Essential Questions:
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What were the causes in the renewed surge of economic distress, population
growth and expansion of the eighteenth century?
What were the fundamental economic underpinnings of European society
beginning to change and what were the dimensions of these changes?
How did these changes affect people and their work?
What changes occurred in marriage and the family in the course of the eighteenth
century?
What was life like for children, and how did attitudes toward children evolve?
What did people eat, and how did changes in diet and medical care affect people’s
lives?
What were the patterns of popular religion and culture? How did these patterns
come into contact- and conflict- with the critical world-view of the educated
public and thereby widen the cultural divide between rich and poor in the era of
the Enlightenment?
What changes occurred in marriage and the family in the course of the eighteenth
century?
What was life like for children, and how did attitudes toward children evolve?
What did people eat, and how did changes in diet and medical care affect people’s
lives?
What were the patterns of popular religion and culture? How did these patterns
come into contact- and conflict- with the critical world-view of the educated
public and thereby widen the cultural divide between rich and poor in the era of
the Enlightenment?
What changes occurred in marriage and the family in the course of the eighteenth
century?
What was life like for children, and how did attitudes toward children evolve?
What did people eat, and how did changes in diet and medical care affect people’s
lives?
What caused the era of Revolution?
What ere the ideas and objectives of the men and women who rose up violently to
undo the established system?
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What were the gains and losses for privileged groups and for ordinary people in a
generation of war and upheaval?
What characterized the Industrial Revolution?
What were its origins, and how did it develop?
How did the changes it brought affect people and society in an era of continued
rapid growth?
How did thinkers develop ideas to describe and shape the transformation going on
before their eyes?
How did the artists and writers of the romantic movement also reflect and
influence changes in this era?
How did the political revolution, derailed in France and resisted by European
monarchs, eventually break out again after 1815?
Why did the revolutionary surge triumph briefly in 1848 and then fail almost
completely?
What was life like in the cities and how did it change?
What did the emergence of urban industrial society mean for rich and poor and
those in between?
How did families change as they coped with the challenges and the opportunities
of the developing urban civilization?
What changes in science and thought reflected and influenced this new
civilization?
Major Assignments and Assessments:
1.
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DBQ selections: students may have a DBQ from the following topics
Imperialism
Role of Science and Empiricism in 19th Century Europe
19th and 20th Century Socialism
French Revolution
Industrial Revolution in Great Britain
Human Rights during the French Revolution
Building of Colonial Empires
2. Students will create an informative poster on an invention of their choosing from
the Industrial Revolution.
3. Unit Exam and Quizzes
Age of Exploration to Absolutism Vocabulary
(1550 – 1750)
Moluccas, cartographer, astrolabe, caravel, Cape of Good Hope, Line of Demarcation,
Treaty of Tordesillas, circumnavigate, conquistador, viceroy, encomiendas, Middle
Passage, triangular trade, jettison, mutiny, Columbian Exchange, inflation, price
revolution, capitalism, joint stock companies, mercantilism, absolute monarch, divine
right, El Escorial, armada, Huguenots, Edict of Nantes, intendants, Versailles, levee,
balance of power, Parliament, Puritans, English Civil War, Cavaliers, Roundheads,
Commonwealth, Restoration, Glorious Revolution, constitutional monarchy, English Bill
of Rights, Enlightenment, social contract, natural rights, philosophes, salons, enlightened
despotism
Unit VII
Readings:
World in Conflict (1914 – 1945)
Main Texts
Various Readings from: Weber, Weisner, Dupuy
John Stoessinger Why Nations Go to War (New York, St. Martins, 1982)
Nextext Series
World War One
World War Two
The Holocaust
Allan Bullock Hitler (New York, Harper, 1971)
William Shirer The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (New York, Simon and Shuster,
1990)
Adolf Hitler Mein Kampf (New York, Houghton Mifflin, 1971)
Unit Outline:
I. World War I and Russian Revolutions
a) The Great War Begins
b) A New Kind of War
c) Winning the War
d) Making the Peace
e) Revolution and Civil War in Russia
II. Nationalism and Revolution Around the World
a) Struggle in Latin America
b) Nationalism in Africa and the Middle East
c) India Seeks Self Rule
d) Upheavals in China
e) Conflicting Forces in Japan
III. The Rise of Totalitarianism
a) Postwar Social Changes
b) The Western Democracies Stumble
c) Fascism in Italy
d) The Soviet Union Under Stalin
e) Hitler and the Rise of Nazi Germany
III. World War II and Its Aftermath
a) From Appeasement to War
b) The Axis Advances
c) The Allies turn the Tide
d) Victory in Europe and the Pacific
e) The End of World War II
Core Content/Program of Studies:
SS-HS-5.3.4, SS-H-HP-S-4 d.
Essential Questions:
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Why did nationalism become in one war or another an almost universal faith in
Europe and in the United States between 1850 and 1914?
Who did nationalism evolve so that it appealed not only to predominately middleclass liberals but also to the broad masses of society
How and why did Imperialism occur in the nineteenth century?
What were some of its consequences for the West?
How did Western expansion affect the rest of the world?
What caused the Great War?
How did the war lead to revolution and the fall of empires?
How and why did the war and revolutions have such enormous and destructive
consequences?
How did the years of trauma and bloodshed form elements of today’s world,
many of which people now accept and even cherish?
What did such doubts and sole-searching, during the inter-war years, mean for
Western thought, art and culture?
How did leaders deal with the political dimensions of uncertainty and try to reestablish real peace and prosperity between 1919 and 1939?
Why did those leaders fail?
What was the nature of twentieth-century dictatorship and authoritarian rule?
How did people live in the most extreme states: the Soviet Union and Nazi
Germany?
How did the rise of aggressive dictatorships result in another world war?
Major Assignments and Assessments:
1.
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DBQ selections: students may have a DBQ from the following topics
Japan and the West
Role of Treaties and Alliances in World War I
Appeal of Fascism
United States Neutrality in World War I
Did FDR know about the coming attack on Pearl Harbor
2. World War I Simulation: Treaty of Versailles
3. Students will read an excerpt from All Quiet on the Western Front.
4. Unit Exam and Quizzes
World in Conflict Vocabulary (1914 – 1945)
militarism, alliances, nationalism, Triple Alliance, Triple Entente, Alsace and Lorraine,
powder keg, Black Hand, ultimatum, blank check, mobilize, neutrality, Allies, Central
Powers, Schlieffen Plan, trench warfare, stalemate, no-man’s land, zeppelins, U-boats,
convoy, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, total war, conscription, Lusitania, propaganda,
Zimmermann Telegram, Fourteen Points, self-determination, armistice, reparations, Paris
Peace Conference, League of Nations, Treaty of Versailles, Maginot Line, KelloggBriand Pact, disarmament, Fascism, Black Shirts, totalitarianism, command economy,
collectives, kulaks, Gulag, chancellor, Nazi Party, Mein Kampf, lebensraum, Third
Reich, Gestapo, appeasement, Neutrality Acts, Axis Powers, Anschluss, Sudetenland,
Munich Conference, Nazi-Soviet Pact, blitzkrieg, Luftwaffe, Dunkirk, Vichy France, “the
blitz”, Lend-Lease Act, Atlantic Charter, “Rosie the Riveter”, D-Day, Yalta Conference,
V-E Day, Bataan Death March, island-hopping, kamikaze, Manhattan Project, United
Nations, Cold War, Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, NATO, Warsaw Pact
Unit VIII
Atomic Age to Present
(1945 – Present)
Readings:
Main Texts
Weber
Dupuy
Stoessinger
Unit Outline:
I. The Cold War
a) The Cold War Unfolds
b) The Industrialized Democracies
c) Communism Spreads in East Asia
d) War in Southeast Asia
e) End of the Cold War
II. New Nations Emerge
a) Independent Nations of South Asia
b) New Nations of Southeast Asia
c) African Nations Gain Independence
d) The Modern Middle East
III. Regional Conflicts
a) Conflicts Divide Nations
b) Struggles in Africa
c) Conflicts in the Middle East
IV. The Developing World
a) The Challenges of Development
b) Africa Seeks a Better Future
c) China and India: Two Giants of Asia
d) Latin America Builds a Democracy
V. The World Today
a) Industrialized Nations After the Cold War
b) Globalization
c) Social and Environmental Challenges
d) Security in a Dangerous World
e) Advances in Science and Technology
Core Content/Program of Studies:
SS-HS-5.3.5, SS-HS-5.3.6, SS-H-HP-S-4 e. and f.
Essential Questions:
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What were the causes of the cold war?
How and why, in spite of the cold war, did western Europe recover so
successfully from the ravages of war and Nazism?
To what extent did communist eastern Europe and the United States also
experience such a recovery?
How did political crisis strike many countries from the late 1960’s on?
Why, after a generation, did the economy shift into reverse gear, and what were
some of the social consequences of the reversal?
How did the changing lives of women interact with the second wave of the
women’s movement?
Why did efforts to reform the communist system fail and result in successful
anticommunist revolutions throughout eastern Europe?
What were the consequences of these revolutions and the end of the cold war?
How, in the 1990’s, did the different parts of a unifying Europe meet the
challenges of post-communist reconstruction, resurgent nationalism, and
economic union?
What are the prospects for Europe and Western civilization as they enter the third
millennium?
Major Assignments and Assessments:
1.
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DBQ selections: students may have a DBQ from the following topics
Why did the US drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan
15 minutes to Midnight
The Marshall Plan and Cold War Considerations
Era of Consensus
2. Unit Exam and Quizzes
Atomic Age to Present Vocabulary
(1945 – Present)
superpowers, anti-ballistic missiles (ABMs), détente, Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,
Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, containment, 38th Parallel, demilitarized zone (DMZ),
guerilla warfare, domino theory, Viet Cong, Gulf of Tonkin, Tet Offensive, Khmer
Rouge, Sputnik, glasnost, perestroika, apartheid, weapons of mass destruction (WMDs),
European Union, interdependence, outsourcing, GATT, WTO