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 Human Toll of the Great Depression Steven Mintz Economics 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ After more than half a century, images of the Great Depression remain firmly etched in the American psyche—breadlines, soup kitchens, tin-can shanties and tar paper shacks known as "Hoovervilles," penniless men and women selling...
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 Civilian Conservation Corps poster, 1938 Art, Economics 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ The Civilian Conservation Corps directly addressed two of the most pressing problems during the Depression: male youth unemployment and environmental degradation. The CCC, based on a military model of everyday life, put thousands of...
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....
Spotlight on: Primary Source Photograph of a "Hooverville," 1936 Economics 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ "Hoovervilles" were temporary communities that America’s homeless created to provide shelter for themselves and their families during the Great Depression. They were so named as an insult to President Herbert Hoover, who seemed to be...
Spotlight on: Primary Source Photograph of an abandoned farm in the Dust Bowl, 1938 Art, Economics, Geography 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ When a severe drought in the early 1930s left the crops of the Great Plains stunted, the relentless winds of the plains picked up the soil and brewed up horrific, roiling storms that gave this time its name: the Dust Bowl. Thousands...