U.S. History B is the second semester of Grade 11 United States History and Geography, built on California History-Social Science standards 11.6-11.11, the 9-12 Historical and Social Sciences Analysis Skills, and the CCSS literacy standards for history/social studies, grades 11-12.
Four units: The Great Depression and the New Deal, The Second World War, The Cold War and the Affluent Society, and Civil Rights and a Changing Nation. Students read the speeches, orders, laws and court opinions that defined the modern United States, and they follow California through each era: the Dust Bowl migrants and the Mexican Repatriation, Japanese American incarceration and the Bracero program, the aerospace boom and the Master Plan for Higher Education, Mendez v. Westminster and the Delano grape strike, Proposition 13, Silicon Valley and the immigration that has remade the state since 1965.
Sources: public-domain federal records — presidential addresses, executive orders, statutes, congressional documents, Supreme Court opinions, and WPA and Farm Security Administration photographs — and OpenStax U.S. History (CC BY 4.0) as the reference text. Copyrighted twentieth-century texts, including Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches and writings, are summarized with a pointer to where students can read them in full. Students are assessed on the quality of their historical reasoning, not on their conclusions.
Curriculum
- 4 Sections
- 20 Lessons
- Lifetime
- Unit 1: The Great Depression and the New Deal5
- 1.1Crash — Explaining the Great Depression50 mins
- 1.2Dust, Drought and Deportation — The Human Toll in the Plains and California50 mins
- 1.3Seminar — Did the New Deal Go Too Far, or Not Far Enough?50 mins
- 1.4Workshop — Labor’s Advances and Retreats, from the AFL to the UFW50 mins
- 1.5Performance Task — Did the New Deal Change the Federal Government for Good?150 mins
- Unit 2: The Second World War5
- 2.1From Neutrality to Pearl Harbor50 mins
- 2.2Strategy and Sacrifice — Fighting a Two-Ocean War50 mins
- 2.3Seminar — The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb50 mins
- 2.4Workshop — Whose Freedoms? The Home Front and Its Contradictions50 mins
- 2.5Performance Task — Moot Court: Korematsu v. United States Reheard200 mins
- Unit 3: The Cold War and the Affluent Society5
- 3.1Building a Postwar Order — The UN, Bretton Woods, the Marshall Plan and Containment50 mins
- 3.2Containment Tested — The Red Scare, Korea, Cuba, the Bomb and Vietnam50 mins
- 3.3Seminar — Who Shared the Affluent Society?50 mins
- 3.4Workshop — How the Cold War Ended, and American Interests in the Middle East50 mins
- 3.5Performance Task — Structured Academic Controversy: An Imperial Presidency?200 mins
- Unit 4: Civil Rights and a Changing Nation5
- 4.1From Dred Scott to Brown — Courts, Lawyers and the Color Line50 mins
- 4.2The Freedom Movement — Leaders, Strategies and the Laws of 1964 and 196550 mins
- 4.3Seminar — Many Movements: Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, American Indians and Women50 mins
- 4.4Workshop — A Changing Nation: Immigration, the Sunbelt, Proposition 13 and Silicon Valley50 mins
- 4.5Performance Task — Oral History: Living Memory of a Changing California250 mins
Instructor
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