With this digital collection, students will explore the idea of the Wild West and its influence on American identity in order to answer the following questions: How has the West been imagined as both America’s manifest destiny and a wild frontier? In what ways do American Indian art and literature challenge these popular narratives of the West?

How shall we judge the contributions to American society of the great financiers and industrialists at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries? In this lesson, students explore a variety of primary historical sources to uncover some of the less honorable deeds as well as the shrewd business moves and highly charitable acts of the great industrialists and financiers, men such as Andrew Carnegie, J. Pierpont Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Cornelius Vanderbilt.

This assignment could be used at any point during the American History 2 course. It would most logically fitduring the discussion of the 1920s or the 1960s.The first 20 years are grouped due to the similar roles women played.Things to discuss in your class. What is the average woman? Which women should you focus on? AfricanAmerican, White, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, northern, southern, rural, urban, poor, middle class, rich,old, or young .Due to the time frame analyzed here, this packet is focused on White and African American women. Things todiscuss. Is this packet a realistic depiction of how history views women, given that it is so heavily descriptive ofthe white woman’s experience?

 Inquiry: Who had the best plan for African Americans to achieve greater freedom and equality? (Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, or Marcus Garvey)

This inquiry uses the Industrial Age as a context for students to explore the compelling question "Is greed good?" In the Taking Informed Action sequence, students investigate the present-day issue of wealth inequality in the United States and whether or not government action on the issue would be worthwhile.

In this activity, students read an excerpt from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair and answer a series of questions. The questions are designed to guide students into a deeper analysis of the source and sharpen associated cognitive skills.

With this digital collection, students will review documents that focus on neighborhood and community life for workers such as the ones Sinclair portrays in The Jungle. Students will consider the following essential questions as they review the documents: 1. What did it mean to live in the neighborhood of the Union Stock Yard around 1900? What conditions did workers experience outside of the packing plants, in their homes and streets? 2. How did the Back of the Yards neighborhood compare to other Chicago neighborhoods at this time? In what ways was the neighborhood connected to or cut off from the rest of the city? 3. Who lived in Back of the Yards around 1900? What was the neighborhood’s demographic makeup? 4. How did researchers and reformers approach the stockyard neighborhood? What problems did they identify? What solutions did they propose? Does it matter that, like Sinclair, they came from outside the communities they wanted to change? 5. In what ways do the documents created by sociologists and urban reformers reframe or complicate Sinclair’s representation of the lives of meatpacking workers?

By examining King's famous essay in defense of nonviolent protest, along with two significant criticisms of his direct action campaign, this lesson will help students assess various alternatives for securing civil rights for black Americans in a self-governing society.

Malcolm X argued that America was too racist in its institutions and people to offer hope to blacks. In contrast with Malcolm X's black separatism, Martin Luther King, Jr. offered what he considered "the more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest" as a means of building an integrated community of blacks and whites in America. This lesson will contrast the respective aims and means of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. to evaluate the possibilities for black American progress in the 1960s.

With this digital collection, students will examine documents exploring several New Deal programs, highlighting how Chicago and Midwestern-based workers negotiated new welfare reforms. It provides a snapshot of how new agencies reshuffled family relations, mobilized immigrants, and sometimes reached across racial barriers. With a particular focus on labor and employment, these documents represent a broad range of responses to President Roosevelt’s policies, demonstrating the praise and protest elicited as policymakers established a growing welfare state. Students will consider the following essential questions as they review the documents: 1. Who benefited from New Deal labor reforms? 2. What effect did new social programs have on Chicagoans across class, racial, and ethnic divides? 3. How did the politics of the New Deal change ordinary Americans’ relationship to the federal government?

A chapter from The American Yawp open source history textbook focusing on, "The New Era."

This Educator Notebook provides information on Women’s History in North Carolina for teachers to use as a resource, either as stand-alone units, or integrated into standard curriculum. Included is research from museum curators and educators, and articles published in the Tar Heel Junior Historian magazine which are written for students in grades 4-12. Lesson plans and suggested activities complement many of the topics. Adaptable to multiple ages, they meet curriculum goals set forth by the NC Department of Public Instruction and connect to classes in national and world history, geography, economics, and the arts, and can be part of any unit of social studies. This resource's link takes you to a very short form that gives you free downloadable access to the complete PDF book.

In this lesson, students read about how the "Wobblies," the Industrial Workers of the World, organized and helped shape the modern American labor movement. A set of discussion questions is provided. In an associated activity, students form pairs to research one of the people, organizations, or events who played an important role in the labor movement at the turn of the 20th century. Group members should use library resources and the Internet to investigate their subject. They should prepare a brief presentation to the class on their subject.

In this lesson, students will learn about the Panic of 1907 and the measures Morgan used to finance and save the major banks and trust companies. Students will also practice close reading to analyze texts from the Pujo hearings, newspapers, and reactionary articles to develop an evidence-based argument about whether or not a money trust—a Morgan-led cartel—existed.

In this lesson, students will analyze primary sources to compare and contrast two views on the effectiveness of political machines.

In this activity, students examine three photographs of Floyd Burroughs and his family, all sharecroppers in Hale County, Alabama. The photos, taken in 1936 by Farm Security Administration photographer Walker Evans, paint a portrait of rural poverty. First, students examine the map, and ask the following questions: What do you notice about these photographs? What questions do you want to ask about these photographs? After discussing these questions, students learn more about the historical context of the Depression, and draw conclusions about the photographs and the photographer. (This activity is a professional development module that could be modified to serve as an activity for students.)

Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun provides a compelling and honest look into one family's aspirations to move to another Chicago neighborhood and the thunderous crash of a reality that raises questions about for whom the "American Dream" is accessible.

Students analyze photographs from Lewis Hine's collection. They then form and discuss tableaus to explore the perspectives of the photographer, his subjects, and his audience.

In this lesson, students examine political cartoons and identify the obstacles to women's political participation. Students will also study a Suffrage Fact Sheet and answer a series of questions. Students will then provide their opinion as they answer additional questions.

In this lesson, students will examine how Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Marcus Garvey developed competing visions for the future of African Americans in the early years of the 20th century. A set of discussion questions is provided. In an associated activity, students will research current African American leaders and their views on current issues. The students will write a report and give a brief oral presentation on their research.