The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Below are links to more than 80 lesson plans compiled by master teachers selected from across the United States, using primary source materials and the most authoritative resources, all under the auspices of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

Search for lesson plans by era and standard, as delineated by the National Center for History in the Schools at UCLA. Click on a specific standard to see all lesson plans in that category.

Era 1: Three Worlds Meet (Beginnings to 1620)
		Standard 1: Comparative characteristics of societies in the Americas, Western Europe, and Western Africa that increasingly interacted after 1450.
		Standard 2: How early European exploration and colonization resulted in cultural and ecological interactions among previously unconnected peoples.
Era 2: Colonization and Settlement (1585-1763)
		Standard 1: Why the Americas attracted Europeans, why they brought enslaved Africans to their colonies, and how Europeans struggled for control of North America and the Caribbean.
		Standard 2: How political, religious, and social institutions emerged in the English colonies.
		Standard 3: How the values and institutions of European economic life took root in the colonies, and how slavery reshaped European and African life in the Americas.
Era 3: Revolution and the New Nation (1754-1820s)
		Standard 1: The causes of the American Revolution, the ideas and interests involved in forging the revolutionary movement, and the reasons for the American victory.
		Standard 2: The impact of the American Revolution on politics, economy, and society.
		Standard 3: The institutions and practices of government created during the Revolution and how they were revised between 1787 and 1815 to create the foundation of the American political system based on the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Era 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
		Standard 1: United States territorial expansion between 1801 and 1861, and how it affected relations with external powers and Native Americans (including the ideology of Manifest Destiny, the nation's expansion to the Northwest, and the Mexican-American War).
		Standard 2: How the industrial revolution, increasing immigration, the rapid expansion of slavery, and the westward movement changed the lives of Americans and led toward regional tensions.
		Standard 3: The extension, restriction, and reorganization of political democracy after 1800.
		Standard 4: The source and character of cultural, religious, and social reform movements in the antebellum period, including changing gender roles and the ideas and activities of women reformers.
Era 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
		Standard 1: The causes of the Civil War .
		Standard 2: The course and character of the Civil War and its effects on the American people.
		Standard 3: How various reconstruction plans succeeded or failed.
Era 6: The Development of the Industrial United States (1870-1900)
		Standard 1: How the rise of corporations, heavy industry, and mechanized farming transformed the American people.
		Standard 2: Massive immigration after 1870 and how new social patterns, conflicts, and ideas of national unity developed amid growing cultural diversity.
		Standard 3: The rise of the American labor movement and how political issues reflected social and economic changes, including the role of state and federal governments in labor conflicts.
		Standard 4: Federal Indian policy and United States foreign policy after the Civil War.
		Standard 5 (Elementary only): The causes and nature of various movements of large groups of people into and within the United States.
Era 7: The Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930)
		Standard 1: How Progressives and others addressed problems of industrial capitalism, urbanization, and political corruption.
		Standard 2: The changing role of the United States in world affairs through World War I.
		Standard 3: How the United States changed from the end of World War I to the eve of the Great Depression.
Era 8: The Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)
		Standard 1: The causes of the Great Depression and how it affected American society.
		Standard 2: How the New Deal addressed the Great Depression, transformed American federalism, and initiated the welfare state.
		Standard 3: The causes and course of World War II, the character of the war at home and abroad, and its reshaping of the US role in world affairs.
Era 9: Postwar United States (1945 to early 1970s)
		Standards 1-3: The economic and social transformation of postwar United States, the Cold War, and domestic policies after World War II.
		Standard 4: The struggle for racial and gender equality and for the extension of civil liberties.
Era 10: Contemporary United States (1968 to the present)
		Standards 1-2: Recent developments in foreign and domestic politics; Economic, social, and cultural developments in contemporary United States.