Lesson Plan America's Role in the World: World War I to World War II World History 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 Click here to download this two-lesson unit. This unit was created in partnership with World101 from the Council on Foreign Relations .
Essay The Great Depression and World War II, 1929-1945 David M. Kennedy Economics, Government and Civics 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ Across the long arc of American history, three moments in particular have disproportionately determined the course of the Republic’s development. Each respectively distilled the experience and defined the historical legacy of a...
Essay The Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II in the American West Elliott West Economics, Government and Civics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math The Great Depression and World War II, far and away the worst economic calamity and the costliest foreign war in American history, profoundly affected every part of the United States. Changes in the West were especially obvious. From...
Essay World War II Kenneth T. Jackson World War II was the central event of the twentieth century. It involved all six major continents, all three of the great oceans on the planet, scores of countries, and billions of people. It caused 57 million deaths and unimaginable...
Essay Anti-Communism in the 1950s Wendy Wall In 1950, fewer than 50,000 Americans out of a total US population of 150 million were members of the Communist Party. Yet in the late 1940s and early 1950s, American fears of internal communist subversion reached a nearly hysterical...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Japan declares war, 1941 World History 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ On December 7, 1941, two hours after the Japanese attack on American military installations at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Japan declared war on the United States and Great Britain, marking America’s entry into World War II. The Japanese...
Spotlight on: Primary Source FDR on racial discrimination, 1942 Government and Civics 9 On June 25, 1941, almost six months before the United States’ entry into World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law Executive Order 8802, prohibiting racial discrimination by government defense contractors. The...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Victory Order of the Day, 1945 World History In March 1945 American and British forces moved eastward into Germany in large numbers, stopping at the Elbe River in mid-April in accordance with pre-negotiated agreements with the Soviet Union. The Red Army, meanwhile, had moved...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Japanese internment, 1942 Government and Civics 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ Responding to fears of Japanese spies within the United States, President Roosevelt signed an order authorizing the forced relocation and confinement of more than 110,000 Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans living in the West....