American Studies – Ms. Plaehn

WEEK OF MAY 14 – MAY 18 (BLUE)

Monday:  Monument Project 2012 Due!  Bring in your artist’s statement and make sure you’ve posted the four photos and artist’s statement in the album on the facebook page.

Monday Night:  Read Remini, pp. 322-336 for class on Tuesday.

WEEK OF APRIL 30 – MAY 4 (BLUE)

Monday/Tuesday Night:  Please read “Chapter 18, The Impossible Victory: Vietnam” in Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. Consider these questions:

1. Who was Ho Chi Minh? Why would the West not support him?
2. “Truman never replied.” Explain.
3. According to Zinn, who was Ngo Dinh Diem? Why was he ineffective?
4. According to Zinn, what made the National Liberation Front effective?
5.  “One day in June 1963, a Buddhist monk sat down in the public square in Saigon and set himself afire.” Explain.
6. According to Zinn, what is controversial about the Maddox incident?
7. “The Supreme Court, supposed to be the watchdog of the Constitution, was asked by a number of petitioners in the course of the Vietnam war to declare the war unconstitutional. Again and again, it refused to even consider the issue.” Explain.
8. What were “fire free zones”? What was “Operation Phoenix”? What happened in My Lai 4?
9. What is Zinn’s opinion of the Vietnam war? What is his opinion of the execution of the war by the United States?
10. According to Zinn, how is the CIA involved in the Vietnam war?
11. What was Nixon’s approach to the Vietnam war?
12. According to Zinn, in what ways did opposition to the war manifest?
13. “The capacity for independent judgement among ordinary Americans is probably best shown by the swift development of antiwar feeling among American GIs– volunteers and draftees who came mostly from lower-income groups.” Explain.
14. According to Zinn, how was the government “behind”?
15. What is the importance of the Pentagon Papers?
16. For Zinn, how was the Vietnam war a failure?

WEEK OF APRIL 23- 28 (WHITE)

Monday Night: No homework.

Tuesday Night:  Read “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in Why We Can’t Wait.

Wednesday/Thursday Night: No homework.

Friday Night:  Read this excerpt from America’s History:  Black Nationalism.  Answer these questions:

1. What were the effects of the Voting Rights Act on American politics?
2. While the Civil Rights Movement met with significant success in the writing and enforcement of laws, what problems remained unaddressed?
3. What distinguished the Nation of Islam from traditional Islam?
4. What did Malcolm X fight for?  How did his beliefs evolve?
5. What ideas are associated with “Black Power”?
6. Why did activists like Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, and Huey Newton criticize Martin Luther King?
7. What impact do you think the Decolonization of the Third World had on American Civil Rights?
8. What were the findings of the Kerner Commission?
9. How did MLK expand his vision after 1965?
10. How will the racial tension of the mid-to-late 60s affect the 1968 presidential election?

Saturday/Sunday Night:  Please read Remini, pp. 274-281 for Monday and answer the following questions:

1.  What was the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, and what event prompted it?

2.  What was the Tet Offensive?

3.  What position did Democratic candidates McCarthy and Kennedy take on the war?

4.  Why didn’t Johnson run for reelection in 1968?

5.  What two assassinations occurred in April and June of 1968?

6.  What happened at the Democratic Nominating Committee in 1968 in Chicago?

7.  What is My Lai, and what was its impact on Americans’ opinions of the war?

8.  What happened at Kent State in 1970?

9.  What were the Pentagon Papers, and what impact did they have on public opinion of the war?

WEEK OF APRIL 9 – APRIL 14 (WHITE)

Monday Night:  Complete research assignment emailed to you.  Here’s the link to the pdf of America’s Story, Chapter 25.

WEEK OF APRIL 2 – APRIL 6 (BLUE)

Monday Night:  Read “The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb.”  Test on Monday, April 9 covering the Depression, WWII, and the Harlem Renaissance.

Tuesday Night:  Work on your demo. Prepare for your Harkness on Friday.

Wednesday/Thursday Night:  Work on your demo.  Prepare for your Harkness on Friday using the questions provided.  Read the Q and A sheet on the nuclear armament of Iran.

Friday/Saturday/Sunday Night:  Study for your test.  Format:  20 mc questions, two IDs, one paired ID.

WEEK OF MARCH 26 – MARCH 31 (WHITE)

Monday Night:  Read pp. 777-785 in Paul Johnson’s A History of the American People and answer the following questions.  Be prepared for a note-free quiz.

WEEK OF MARCH 19 – MARCH 23 (BLUE)

Monday Night:  Please read the following articles: David Leonhardt’s “Lesson From a Crisis: When Trust Vanishes, Worry,” (http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20081006monday.html), and Jodie Allen’s “How a Different America Responded to the Great Depression.” (http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1810/public-opinion-great-depression-compared-with-now)

Wednesday Night:  Read The Grapes of Wrath excerpts and answer the questions on the bottom of your syllabus.

Thursday Night:  Read pp. 220-230 in Remini.  Answer the following questions.  1.  How did the balance of power shift between the executive branch and the legislative branch?  Provide an example.  2.  How did FDR attempt to shift the balance of power between the judicial branch and the executive branch?  3.  How did the legislative branch attempt to shift the balance of power between the legislative branch and the judicial branch?  4.  Provide one example of the New Deal’s attempt to REFORM the economic structure.  5.  Provide one example of the New Deal’s attempt to provide RELIEF to the unemployed.  6.  Provide one example of the New Deal’s attempt to aid FARMERS.  7.  What was the Social Security Act?  8.  What was the Wagner Act?

Friday/Saturday/Sunday Night:   1.  Write a thank you note to your assigned person for the DC trip.  Make it thoughtful..  2.  Read pp. 230 – 237 in Remini’s A Short History of the United States and be prepared for an unannounced pop quiz connected to the following questions: 

1. How did FDR respond to the beginning of World War II?
2. What was the House Committee on Un-American Activities?
3. What was the Selective Service Act?
4. What was the Lend-Lease Bill?
5. What are the Four Freedoms? The Atlantic Charter?
6. Why does Japan attack the United States?

WEEK OF FEBRUARY 20 – FEBRUARY 25 (WHITE)

Monday/Tuesday Night:  Read this excerpt: America’s History, Wrestling with Modernity.  Be prepared to answer the questions at the end of each section.  Work on your oral topic.

Wednesday/Thursday Night:  Work on your oral.  Paragraph due Monday.

WEEK OF FEBRUARY 13 – FEBRUARY 17 (BLUE)

Monday Night:  Find a quotation from Paul Johnson’s A History of the American People and a passage from Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States in which the two present interpretations of an aspect of the Gilded Age.  This can be about Robber Barons/Captains of Industry, an individual figure, the labor movement, the unions. . . . any topic contained within the reading you have completed.

Write each quote (with page number) at the top of the page.  Then elaborate on the perspectives presented. In what ways do they agree? In what ways do they disagree?  Ultimately, why do you think they disagree?

Your response, due tomorrow, should be one page (after the quotes), typed.

Tuesday Night:  Complete your resume for the Harkness tomorrow.  Prepare a brief introduction of your character.

Wednesday Night:   Read Remini, pp. 187-199.  1.  List the key reforms made by the “Progressive” government under Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.    2.  How did American foreign policy change as a result of the Spanish American War in 1898?  Be prepared to provide examples.

Thursday Night:  Read Remini, pp. 199-205.

Friday Night:  Read Remini, pp. 205-214.  Oral topic due Monday.

WEEK OF FEBRUARY 6 – FEBRUARY 11 (WHITE)

Monday Night:  No homework!  Welcome back from Winter Weekend.

Tuesday/Wednesday Thursday Night:  Due Friday:  Please read pp. 550-569 in Paul Johnson’s A History of the American People, and answer the following questions:

1. What was Andrew Carnegie’s American Dream?


2. What was Carnegie’s attitude about business?


3. How does Carnegie grow the steel industry?


4. What is Carnegie’s attitude about money?


5. “He was in no sense a robber baron.” Explain.


6. What movements did debtors back? Why?


7. What were Morgan’s two beliefs?


8. What is a trust? What did Morgan think of trusts?


9. According to Johnson, what is Morgan’s “greatest moment”?


10. Who was Samuel Gompers?


11. “That was all very well, but it meant that American labor tended to fall between two stools.” Explain.


12. How did Carnegie react to the Homestead strike?


13. What is Johnson’s opinion of Carnegie and Morgan?

 Friday and Saturday Night:  Due Monday: Please read Zinn, Chapter 11 “Robber Barons and Rebels”.  Research your character for Wednesday’s Harkness.  

WEEK OF JANUARY 30 – FEBRUARY 3 (Blue)

Monday Night:  Read “White Southerners in the Postbellum South” (handout) and write out answers to the 7 questions at the end.

Tuesday Night:  Please read pp. 155-166 in Remini’s A Short History of the United States and answer the following questions:

1. Initially, what three conditions did Johnson put on seceding states in order to return to the union?
2. Why was Thaddeus Stevens, a Radical Republican, so upset with Johnson’s initial plans?
3. What was the role of the Joint Committee of Fifteen on Reconstruction?  What were its concerns about the conditions of freedmen in the South?
4. What are the Black Codes, and how did the Radical Republicans respond to them?
5. What was the Freedmen’s Bureau?
6. What did the Civil Rights Act do?  What role did it give the national government?  Why did Andrew Johnson veto it?
7. What was the 14^th Amendment, and why was its ratification a condition for states to reenter the union?
8. What were the provisions of the Military Reconstruction Act of 1867?  List its major components.
9. What is the 15th Amendment?  What were its loopholes?
10. What efforts were made to “redeem” the South?

WEEK OF JANUARY 23 – JANUARY 28 (WHITE)

Monday Night: 

Homework: Test Saturday.   Please read Johnson, pp.485 -496 and answer the following questions:

1. 1.  What was Andersonville?
2. 2.  What role did Walt Whitman play in Union hospitals?  What was his response to the “medical disaster” he saw?
3. 3.  Why were Westerners in favor of the Union rather than the Confederacy?
4. 4.  Describe conditions in the South in 1864 and 1865
5. 5.  Why did Jefferson Davis argue for the enlisting of slaves and blacks in the South?  What does he mean when he declares, “If the Confederacy falls, there should be written on its tombstone, ‘Died of a theory.’”
6. 6.  How did Lincoln respond to the terms of the surrender at Appomattox?
7. 7.  What is the significance of John Wilkes Booth shouting “Sic semper tyrannis”?
8. 8.  How was Jefferson Davis treated after his capture, and what role did President Andrew Johnson have in this treatment?

WEEK OF JANUARY 16 – JANUARY 21 (WHITE)

Tuesday Night:  Read “What He Said There” and Lincoln’s Views on Slavery packet.  Answer the questions at the end of the reading in writing.

Thursday/Friday Night:  Please read pp. 146-154 in Remini. Answer the following:

1. Describe the intervention of England and France in the Civil War.
2. Who were the Copperheads? What was their platform
3. Describe Lincoln’s first steps at reconstruction.
4. What was the basis of Union victory in Virginia?
5. Who was Lincoln’s candidate for Vice President in the election of 1864.  Why were Radical Republicans pleased with the choice?
6. Who was the Democratic candidate for the election of 1864?
7. What is the 13th Amendment?
8. What were the terms of the Confederate surrender?

WEEK OF JANUARY 9 – JANUARY 13 (BLUE)

Monday Night:  Please read pp. 134-139 in Remini (start with “Make no mistake) and pp. 427-435 in Johnson and answer the below questions.

From Remini:

1. How does Remini describe the southern economy? Was slavery profitable?
2. How did the abolitionist movement intensify in the mid-1800’s?
3. “Every lick went where I intended. I wore my cane out completely but saved the Head which is gold.” Explain the significance of this statement.
4. What was the Dred Scott decision? How does it use the 5 Amendment to defend slavery?

From Johnson:

1.  Why did Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas want to create a new territory called Nebraska?

2.  The South wanted a southern route for the transcontinental railroad. Douglas’s plan was for a northern route.  What two proposals, then, did Douglas offer to appease the South?

3.  While Nebraska was too far north to become a productive slave state, Kansas was not.  How did abolitionists attempt to make Kansas a free state?

4.  How did slavery supporters attempt to make Kansas a slave state?

5.  What happened in Lawrence, Kansas?

6. Who was John Brown?

7.  Why did Congressman Preston Brooks attack Senator Charles Sumner?

8.  Why was the plantation system fundamentally unsound economically?

9.  What comparison does Johnson make between the  South and Third World economies today?

Tuesday Night:  Please read pp. 139-142 in Remini and pp. 442-450 in Johnson and answer the below questions.

From Remini:

1. What events in the late 1850’s infuriated southerners?
2. What happens to the Democratic party in the election of 1860?
3. Why does Lincoln win the election of 1860?
4. What is the reaction of 7 states to Lincoln’s election?
5. How does the Civil War begin?

From Johnson:

1. What is the importance of Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech?
2. What is Douglas’s take on the issue of slavery? How does Lincoln counter Douglas’ arguments? How does Lincoln destroy Douglas’s future career?
3. What is Lincoln’s message in the Cooper Union speech?
4. What events drive the Democratic party to split?
5. What were the results of the election of 1860? How might such results make 7 southern states decide to secede?
6. Explain Lincoln’s views on slavery.

WEEK OF DECEMBER 5 – DECEMBER 10 (BLUE W/ SATURDAY CLASSES)

Monday Night:  Assignment for Tuesday:  Please read pp. 119-131 (starting with “of the many economic, religious, and social reforms. . . “) in Remini’s A Short History of the United States and answer the following questions:

1. What events in 1822 and 1831 frightened the South into a more adamant defense of slavery?
2. What is the “gag resolution” and how many years was it reinstated?
3. What is Manifest Destiny?  How does the idea connect to our essential questions?
4. When was Texas admitted into the union?
5. Which part of Spanish North America did President Polk most want?
6. Why was the Mexican War often called “Mr. Polk’s War”?
7. In the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the United States gained the territory that would become which states?
8. “But the consequences of the Mexican War also brought a series of crises during the next decade that ended in secession and Civil War.”  Explain.
9. What is the Wilmot Proviso?
10. What happened in California that led to its rapid population growth and in turn expedited its petition for statehood?
11. How did the Compromise of 1850 benefit the North?
12. How did the Compromise of 1850 benefit the South?

Tuesday Night:  Read “The Intimately Oppressed” (Chapter 6) in Zinn for class on Friday.

Wednesday/Thursday Night:  Finish the Zinn reading.  Read the Cult of Domesticity packet.

Friday Night:  Study for your test.

Saturday/Sunday Night:  Please spend at least 30 minutes digging around the website http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/ –reading, listening, and looking at images. Write down at least 5 different things they learned or that moved them or that they’d like to share with the class.   Come prepared to write about and discuss what you’ve found.

WEEK OF NOVEMBER 14 – NOVEMBER 19 (WHITE)

Monday and Tuesday Night:  Work on your research paper.  Complete draft due in class on Wednesday.

Wednesday and Thursday Night:  Work on your research paper.  Make revisions based on the peer review.  Aim to have the content of your argument set by the time class meets on Friday.

Friday Night:  Win the state championship!  Go Blues!

Saturday/Sunday Night:  Finish your research paper.

WEEK OF NOVEMBER 7 – NOVEMBER 11 (BLUE)

Monday Night:  A.  Working thesis due in Ms. Plaehn’s class on Tuesday.  Must be type-written.  Must present an argument.  Must not present a list.  Use the Bowdoin College guide as a resource.  B.  For WEDNESDAY,  please read pp. 78-94 in Remini’s A Short History of the United States and answer the below questions:

1. What was the “American System”?
2. “It was a wholly new approach to governmental operations in that the central government, not the states, was expected to provide the kind of leadership that would advance the interests of the entire nation.” Please explain.
3. What did John Quincy Adams accomplish as Secretary of State?
4. How did Andrew Jackson’s actions lead to the acquisition of Florida?
5. What was the Missouri Compromise of 1820? Who worked this agreement out?
6. What was the Monroe Doctrine?
7. How does the rise of the working class affect politics?
8. Why was the Election of 1824 problematic? What was the “corrupt bargain”?
9. What marked the end of the “Era of Good Feelings”?
10. How did the issue of tariffs cause regional tensions?
11. What was the Tariff of Abominations? The “Exposition and Protest”? How does Calhoun’s document relate to Madison’s “Virginia Resolution” and Jefferson’s “Kentucky Resolution”?
12. Who wins the Election of 1828?

Tuesday Night:   Please read pp. 78-94 in Remini’s A Short History of the United States and answer questions 1-12 (above).

Wednesday Night:  Revised thesis, opening paragraph, and chunk outline due in class on Thursday.

Thursday Night:  Start writing your research paper!

Friday/Saturday/Sunday Night:  Please read pp. 95-105 in Remini’s A Short History of the United States, and answer the below questions:

1.Why did so many people come to see Jackson’s inauguration?  2.According to Remini, how did everything about politics change during the Jacksonian era?  3.What was Jackson’s agenda during his presidency?  4.What was significant about the Webster/Hayne debate? How are Jackson and Calhoun’s perspectives different?  5.What was the Tariff of 1832? What was the Ordinance of Nullification? How did Jackson respond?  6.What was the Tariff of 1833? Why did South Carolina nullify the Force Bill?

WEEK OF NOVEMBER 3 – NOVEMBER 5 (BLUE/WHITE)

Thursday Night:  Complete at least one page of research from at least one good source.  Be prepared to show your full page of notes (or commensurate amount of notecards) in class on Friday.

Friday Night:   Complete at least one page of research from at least one good source.  Be prepared to show your full page of notes (or commensurate amount of notecards) in class on Saturday.

Saturday/Sunday Night:  Complete at least one page of research from at least one good source.  Be prepared to show your full page of notes (or commensurate amount of notecards) in class on Monday.  Initial thesis statement due Tuesday.

WEEK OF OCTOBER 24 – OCTOBER 28 (BLUE)

Monday Night:  Oral Paragraph, question, and annotated bibliography due Tuesday.  You must bring in TWO copies, and you must submit on time.

Tuesday Night:  Johnson reading, TBA

Wednesday and Thursday Night:  Orals!  Bring a third copy of your paragraph and question and a copy of your document to your oral.

Friday – Wednesday Night:  Use this opportunity to watch the John Adams miniseries.

WEEK OF OCTOBER 17 – OCTOBER 22 (WHITE)

Monday and Tuesday Night:  Finish Birth of the Republic.  Organize your notes for the 40-minute 50-point history test on Saturday.

CHAPTER 10 QUESTIONS

1. How/Why did the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in May 1787 come about?
2. What is Beard’s theory about the Founding Fathers?  Does Morgan agree?
3. Why was the task of the Convention urgent?
4. What was Randolph’s plan?  What was Paterson’s plan?  Which was adopted?
5. What were the 2 major compromises of the Convention?
6. How much power was left to the states?
7. Why do you think the Preamble of the Constitution starts “We the People” and not “We the States”?
8. What is a republic?

 CHAPTER 11 QUESTIONS

1. What were some arguments presented by opponents of the Constitution?
2. What, according to Madison, is dangerous about a majority?
3. Who are the Federalists?  The anti-federalists?
4. Why does Delaware’s license plate read, “The First State”?
5. Why was Virginia’s decision to ratify so important?
6. What is Morgan’s meaning when he concludes, “The bulwark still stands, and in spite of halts and pauses along the way the exploration still goes on.  As long as any man remains less free than another, it cannot honorably cease.”

Wednesday and Thursday Night:   Test Saturday.  Please read pp. 184-195 in Johnson.  Answer the following:

1. Read the paragraph at the bottom of 185 and top of 186 twice.  It’s very very important. How does Madison arrange for the federal government to have sovereignty over the state governments?
2. Why did Alexander Hamilton believe that lawyers “formed a natural ruling elite and ought to form the bedrock of public life”?
3. What was the Connecticut Compromise?
4. In what three ways did the Convention handle the issue of slavery?
5. What is the Federalist (also known as The Federalist Papers)?  Why are they important?
6. Provide two arguments presented by the anti-Federalists.
7. When compared to the Federalists, what were the weaknesses of the anti-Federalists?

WEEK OF OCTOBER 10 – OCTOBER 14 (BLUE)

Monday Night:  Research your Revolution Harkness character.  Start writing the resume (due Wednesday).  Read Chapters 6, 7, and 8 for class on Friday.  (See questions below).

Tuesday Night:  Finish and edit the resume for your Harkness character.  Prepare you thoughts for the Harkness on Wednesday.  Read chapters 6, 7, and 8 for class on Friday.  (See questions below).

Wednesday and Thursday Night:  Read chapters 6, 7, and 8 of Birth of the Republic.

CHAPTER 6 QUESTIONS

1. Why did defeating England seem possible to the patriots?
2. According to Morgan, “The Revolution…became a people’s war…”  How did this happen?  Why is it important?
3. How efficient and effective were the British generals?
4. Why was Saratoga “a turning point” in the Revolutionary War?
5. What alliance did the French and Americans enter?  How did the French assist the American war effort?  Why would she assist the Americans?
6. What “separate peace” did the Americans negotiate with Britain?

CHAPTER 7 QUESTIONS

1. Why did the colonists believe a written constitution was important?

2. What innovation did John Adams propose to limit the power of the legislature?

3.  How did different states handle the question of slavery?  What impact did the Revolution have?

CHAPTER 8 QUESTIONS

1. According to Morgan, how was our Revolution different?  What elements of a nation existed prior to 1776?
2. What force was most responsible for the growing nationality in the colonies prior to the Declaration of Independence?
3. What problems arose in the forming of a new national government?  How did the Continental Congress behave during the war?  Why?
4. How powerful was the federal government under the Articles of Confederation?  How much power was left to the state governments?
5. Why did Maryland refuse to ratify the Articles of Confederation?

WEEK OF OCTOBER 4- OCTOBER 8 (WHITE)

Tuesday Night:  Read Johnson, pp. 134-138.

Wednesday/Thursday Night:  Read “Lexington Green” and Chapters 1 and 2 in Edmund Morgan’s Birth of the Republic.

CHAPTER 1 QUESTIONS

1.  Why are the Americans on Lexington Green on April 19, 1775?

2.  What did James Otis think of the unity of the colonies in 1765?

3.  What factors helped the colonies unify under one government two decades later?

4.  According to Morgan, why was ownership of property so important?

5.  How well did the British government enforce her laws?

6.  How did the colonists associate Parliament (especially the House of Commons) with the colonial assemblies?    7.  How did the colonists view the relationship between Parliament and the King?                                         8.  Was their view flawed?  Evaluate the relationship between “the Americans and the Empire.”

CHAPTER 2 QUESTIONS

1. How was the Sugar Act “the first great challenge of the Revolutionary period?”
2. Why was property so important to Englishmen (i.e. citizens of the British Empire)?
3. How did the colonies object to the Sugar Act?  What arguments did they make?
4. How did the colonies object to the Stamp Act?  What methods did they use?  What arguments did they make?
5. How did the Stamp Act Congress distinguish the power to tax from the power to legislate?
6. Were the colonists’ arguments and methods successful?  Why or why not?

Friday Night:  Read Chapters 3 and 4 in Birth of the Republic.  Answer the following: 

CHAPTER 3 QUESTIONS

1. Why does Parliament repeal the Stamp Act? 
2. What role does Benjamin Franklin play in this repeal? What does he tell Parliament about colonists’ sentiments? 
3. What is the Declaratory Act?  Why is it so vague?
4. What are the Townshend Acts?

 CHAPTER 4 QUESTIONS

Explain the significance of the following statements: 

1. “The more the Americans insisted on the distinction, the more determined the members of Parliament became to teach them that they could not set limits on Parliament’s right to tax them.”

2. “Why, at precisely this moment, when the danger had departed, should England decide that they needed a standing army to protect them?”

3. “It might be necessary to look beyond Parliament’s right to tax and inquire into the limits of its right to legislate too.”

4. “But the mob was conspicuous by its absence.”

5. “When the shooting stopped, three Bostonians were dead and eight wounded, two of them mortally.  No shots were fired at the soldiers.”

6. “The Americans still felt most strongly the danger to their liberties from Parliamentary taxation, but they were learning to extend their inquiries to Parliamentary legislation too.”

7. “But in exercising our new insight we sometimes attribute to the men of previous ages an extraordinary simplemindedness and demand of them a standard of righteousness which only an angel or a fanatic could meet.”

8. “People did not like Thomas Hutchinson.”

9. “This was the creation by the Boston town meeting on November 2, 1772, of a Committee of Correspondence.”

10. “Instead, they concluded that Boston was martyred because it stood foremost in defense of colonial rights, and they took up collections and showered the beleaguered city with provisions.”

WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 26 – SEPTEMBER 30 (BLUE)

Monday Night:  Review/Read pp. 15-30 in Remini’s A Short History of the United States.

1. Fill in the colonies chart.
2. How were the New England, Middle, and Southern colonies different?   Jot down characteristics of each?
3. What common characteristics did all 13 colonies have?
4. What was mercantilism, and how did Parliament attempt to enforce it?
5. What is “salutary neglect”?
6. What were the causes of the French and Indian War?  What were the results?
7. What was the Plan of Union?  Why was it rejected by Parliament?

Tuesday Night:  Read “Drawing the Color Line” (Chapter 2) in Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States.  Answer the following:  1.  “There is not a country in world history in which racism has been more important, for so long a time, as the United States.” Explain Zinn’s assertion.  2.  How does Zinn describe the origins of slavery in America?  3.  How does Zinn take the perspective of the victims?  4. What are the differences between slavery in Africa and slavery in America?  5.   How did slaves resist their oppression?  Does Zinn believe that slave population was “made submissive by their condition”?  6.  How does Zinn describe the system used to control slaves?  7.  To end the chapter, Zinn discusses “a class consciousness, a class fear.” What is important about it? How did it affect colonial society and slavery?  8.  Does Zinn believe racism is inherent in humans or that it is built by culture?  Explain your response.

Wednesday and Thursday Night:  Read Johnson, pp. 121-127 (stop at “George Grenville, now in charge of British policy. . . ).

1. Describe Washington’s background.
2. Describe Washington’s demeanor.
3. Describe Washington’s education.
4. How/why did Washington end up in the Ohio Valley?
5. How did Washington’s actions instigate the Seven Years War?
6. Why was Britain bound to win the Seven Years War?  (Give 3)
7. Geographically, why did the colonies fear France?
8. Politcally, why did the colonies fear France?  Why was Britain preferable?
9. How did William Pitt change the British strategy in the war?
10. In the big picture, what was the effect of the Peace of Paris in 1763?
11. Compare the British leadership to the colonial leadership during the Revolutionaryera.
12. What was the Proclamation of 1763? Why did it enrage the colonists?
13. Washington’s original hope had been to rise through the ranks of the British military.  Why couldn’t he do so?
14. Compare the tax burden on the average Englishman and the average colonist.

WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 19 – SEPTEMBER 24 (WHITE)

Monday Night:  Assignment due Tuesday Read pp. 45-55 (start with “Winthrop emerges. . .” and end with the section break on 55) in Johnson and answer the following questions:

1. What was Winthrop’s view of liberty? If one was given liberty by God’s grace, what was his duty?
2. What role does the American frontier and its vast size play in the success of the Massachusetts Bay Colony?
3. Who was Roger Williams?  What was his view of the Native Americans?
4. Who established the colony of Rhode Island?  On what principles was it established?  (in regards to Native Americans and in regards to religion)
5. What did Anne Hutchinson teach, and why did people find it inspiring/upsetting?
6. What happened to Anne Hutchinson once she was banished from Massachusetts Bay?
7. How do the Puritan colonies differ from Jamestown?  Why, according to Johnson, were they so successful?
8. In the final paragraph of your reading, Johnson discusses reasons why the Puritan vision was unable to last?  What changes occurred which made undermined this vision?  (List THREE).

Tuesday Night:  Read the handout on the history of New England.

Monday Night: Read  Johnson, pp. 17-22 (Begin with “A further exploration”). Answer the following:

1. One goal of the Roanoke expedition was to build a permanent plantation.  (Hence, the women and children).  What were Captain Simon Fernandez’s aims?
2. Who is Virginia Dare?
3. Why did Governor John White return to England, and whom did he leave behind?
4. Why wasn’t White able to return to Roanoke?
5. When did White return to Roanoke?  How much time had passed since his departure?
6. What did White discover when he returned?  What clues did he discover as to the colony’s whereabouts?  What conjecture does Johnson offer as to the fate of the Roanoke colonists?
7. According to Sir Francis Bacon, why did Roanoke colony fail? (two reasons)
8. Why does A. L. Rowse consider the failure of Roanoke to be a blessing in disguise?
9. Pages 20-21 discuss England’s belief that it had replaced the Jews as the Elect Nation.  Discuss this belief.
10. What emerged as the “leading principle of English colonization” (22)?
11. What is “human offal”?  How were the colonies to solve this social problem?

Wednesday Night:  Please read “Fear and Love in the Virginia Colony” by Adam Goodheart (handout)

1. How does John Smith arrive in Virginia? How does he leave?
2. What is important about Smith’s writings?
3. What does Smith think about himself?
4. Why is this essay called “Fear and Love in the Virginia Colony”?  Find the reference and be specific.  

Thursday Night:  Please read pp. 13-18 in Remini and pp. 28-38 in Johnson and answer the below questions:

1. How were the Pilgrims different from the Virginians?
2. What was so important about the Mayflower Compact?
3. Who was William Bradford?
4. Johnson calls Winthrop “the first great American.” Do you agree?
5. What is the difference between the Pilgrims and the Puritans?
6. How was the New England land generous to the Puritans?
7. How does Johnson relate Bill Clinton to King James I?

WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 5 – 10 (WHITE)

Monday Night:  

A.  Read “Perspectives on Columbus” and be prepared to discuss the excerpts in class.

B. Read pp. 1-9 in Remini’s A Short History of the United States and answer the following:

1.  What role did the crusades play in the discovery of the New World? 

2.  “Capitalism, Protestantism, and the nation-states ruled by ambitions sovereigns combined to bring about modern Europe” (5).  Explain. 

3.  What is the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)?

4.  Where did the name “America” come from and who dubbed it?

5.  “Most important was the position of the Roman Catholic Church. Like Spain, the church and state were intricately entwined, each serving the other to the advantage of both” (8).  What does Remini mean?

C.  Red House response due Wednesday.

D.  Study for U.S. map quiz (50 states, 13 colonies, AP students need to know seceding states in 1861).

Tuesday Night:

1. Red House response due Wednesday.

2. Study for U.S. map quiz (50 states, 13 colonies, AP students need to know seceding states in 1861).

Wednesday/Thursday Night:

1.  Read Chapter 1 in Zinn’s  A People’s History of the United States and prepare for Friday’s Harkness.

2. Study for U.S. map quiz (50 states, 13 colonies, AP students need to know seceding states in 1861).

Friday Night:

1. Study for U.S. map quiz (50 states, 13 colonies, AP students need to know seceding states in 1861).

2.  An editor has asked you to write a 250 word entry in a history textbook about Christopher Columbus.  Write it.

Saturday/Sunday/Monday Night: Read  Johnson, pp. 17-22 (Begin with “A further exploration”). Answer the following:

1. One goal of the Roanoke expedition was to build a permanent plantation.  (Hence, the women and children).  What were Captain Simon Fernandez’s aims?
2. Who is Virginia Dare?
3. Why did Governor John White return to England, and whom did he leave behind?
4. Why wasn’t White able to return to Roanoke?
5. When did White return to Roanoke?  How much time had passed since his departure?
6. What did White discover when he returned?  What clues did he discover as to the colony’s whereabouts?  What conjecture does Johnson offer as to the fate of the Roanoke colonists?
7. According to Sir Francis Bacon, why did Roanoke colony fail? (two reasons)
8. Why does A. L. Rowse consider the failure of Roanoke to be a blessing in disguise?
9. Pages 20-21 discuss England’s belief that it had replaced the Jews as the Elect Nation.  Discuss this belief.
10. What emerged as the “leading principle of English colonization” (22)?
11. What is “human offal”?  How were the colonies to solve this social problem?