The presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. New Deal legislation. Agencies created in response to crises. Changes to programs resulting from criticism of New Deal. The effect of policies on various groups, including women and minorities. 

American mobilizes for World War II. Strategies employed on both the Pacific and European fronts. U. S. becomes arsenal of allies; residual effects of economic boom. War, the American people and their culture: minorities, women, and labor. Internment of Japanese Americans. 

Diversifying foreign policy. Confrontations with the Soviet Union. The agony of Viet Nam. The traumas of 1968: the Tet offensive, King and Kennedy assassinations, political turmoil. 

Explosion of U. S. industry after Civil War, and factors which motivate unprecedented growth. Power and wealth amassed by corporate magnates. Recruitment of labor force. Women and children in the workforce. Workers attempts to organize for better wages and working conditions. Measures used to stifle worker discontent. 

Peace Treaty (1783) with Great Britain negotiated by Richard Oswald, John Jay, and Benjamin Franklin. Uncertainties facing young country. Effects of war on new nation's people, politics, and economy. Difficulty of functioning as "nation" under Articles of Confederation. Partial resolution of controversies related to western lands, but not problem of mounting national debt. Annapolis Convention to modify Articles of Confederation fails to attract enough delegates. 

South needs support of England and France to win war; North needs to maintain status quo. North needs to win militarily; South needs to avoid defeat. Most of American West removed from fighting. Lee appointed commander of Army of Virginia; takes war into Northern territory. Union forces have parade of generals. Battles extremely costly to both sides; Lincoln uses near victory at Antietam to issue Emancipation Proclamation. Both sides resort to draft. 

Republican desire to minimize national government and encourage small town agrarian lifestyles overtaken during Jefferson's presidency by economic vitality and growth of cities, beginnings of industrialization, the Louisiana Purchase, expansion to the west. Jefferson's embargo in response to Napoleonic Wars hurts economy of northeast. Election of James Madison in 1808. Jefferson lifts embargo as he leaves office. The War of 1812. 

American policies of neutrality, isolationism, and internationalism in decades after World War I. Depression and the world order. Rise of totalitarian regimes in Europe and Asia; their expansionist ambitions. American response to war in Europe. Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. 

Immigration key to American history. Contrasting experiences of different groups. The challenges of indentured servitude; their contributions. Family groups in New England; roles within the family unit. The emergence of a slave society in North America. Upsurge in Scotch Irish and German immigration. 

Nixon, Kissinger, and the escalation of the Vietnam War. Multi-polar approach to maintaining stable relationships among major powers. Nixon Doctrine and Third World countries. Domestic policies: dismantling the Great Society, changes in the Supreme Court, troubled economy, problems with OPEC. Watergate crisis; Nixon’s resignation. 

Sectional tensions over slavery subside with the Compromise of 1850; resurface as western states seek territorial and then state status. Railroad expansion plans ignite bloodshed in Kansas and Missouri. Parties sectionalized; Whigs disappear, Republicans emerge. Lincoln-Douglas debates foreshadow future Harper's Ferry Raid convinces South they'll never be safe in the Union. Election of 1860 divides country; Abraham Lincoln wins ballot. 

Patterns of social and cultural protests in the 1960s and 1970s: the New Left, countercultures. The mobilization of minorities: Native American fight for civil rights, Latino activism, gay liberation. The new feminism. Environmentalist efforts. 

Contrast between large scale agricultural operations in South vs. small family farms and commercial operations in North. Emergence of cities; absence of rigid class differences of Europe. Distinctly American form of communities: the plantation society of the South, the tightly knit New England towns governed by town covenants. Witch trials in Salem. The Great Awakening. 

Election of 1948. Fair Deal revised. The Korean War. The crusade against subversion: Alger Hiss, the Rosenberg Case, McCarthyism. 

1863 pivotal year in determining outcome of war. Decisive battles at Vicksburg, Gettysburg, and Chattanooga. Ulysses S. Grant named Commander of Western Theater for Union after victory at Vicksburg. Material superiority of North begins to make a difference. South devastated by Sherman's march through Georgia. Grant and Meade pursue Lee in Virginia in 1864. Vastly outnumbered, Lee holds on behind fortifications at Petersburg; finally surrenders to Lee at Appomattox in April of 1865. In military terms, long war is over. 

Early human habitation of the North American continent. The civilizations of the North and South and tribal cultures. The journeys of Christopher Columbus. Exploration and exploitation of the west by the Spanish; impact on native population. Early slave trade. Biological and cultural exchanges between the Spanish and native cultures. 

Events leading to the stock market crash and Great Depression. How the Depression affects various population segments. Unemployment and relief efforts. Herbert Hoover’s attempts to alleviate the Depression. Election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt 

The controversial presidency of John Quincy Adams. Changing party politics ushers in "Age of Jackson." Struggles between the establishment and the Washington outsider. South Carolina's Nullification challenge, and Jackson's response. 

Election of Abraham Lincoln spawns secession of seven states led by South Carolina. Confederate States form provisional government before Lincoln is inaugurated, take over two southern forts. Neither side believes there will be war, but attack on Fort Sumter by Confederate forces signals beginning of conflict. Both sides mobilize quickly. Union has material advantage; Confederates win early battles. Lincoln and Union generals want to minimize damage to South so they can come back into Union. Influence of border states. Confiscation Acts address problem of captured and runaway slaves. War becomes harder with no end in sight. 

Stirrings of imperialism. Arguments for and against joining the imperial race. American interest in the Caribbean; determination to maintain hegemonic power in hemisphere. Spanish-American War and role of the press.