Course Content
Lesson Plans
The American Nation: A History of the United States ©2000
by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes
Focus Lesson 23
Chapter 29: "The American Century"
AP* Course Description
- Truman and the Cold War
- Postwar domestic adjustments
- The Taft-Hartley Act
- Civil rights and the election of 1948
- Containment in Europe and the Middle East
- Truman Doctrine
- Marshall Plan
- Berlin crisis
- NATO
- Revolution in China
- Limited war: Korea, MacArthur
- Eisenhower and Modern Republicanism
- Domestic frustrations; McCarthyism
- Civil rights movement
- The Warren Court and Brown v. Board of Education
- John Foster Dulles's foreign policy
- Crisis in Southeast Asia
- Massive retaliation
- Nationalism in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America
- Space race
Key Components
- Instructor's Manual: pp. 280–291
- Study Guide, Vol. II: pp. 215–235
- Test Bank: pp. 487–503
Key Web Sites
Given the changing nature of the Internet, you may wish to preview these sites. Check the Online Companion Web site for updated links to U.S. history sites.
- The History Net: Personal Experiences of the Korean War
- Korean War Project
- The History Net: Alger Hiss Spy?
- CNN Perspectives: Cold War
Key Words and Terms
- closed shop
- massive resistance
- defensive perimeter
- creeping socialism
- peaceful coexistence
- containment
- "all deliberate speed"
- Communist-front organization
- Marshall Plan
- Warsaw Pact
- Sputnik
- SEATO
- McCarran Internal Security Act
- Dennis v. United States
- Chiang Kai-shek
- J. Strom Thurmond
- Whittaker Chambers
- Adlai Stevenson
- Joseph McCarthy
- Orval Faubus
- Fulgencio Batista
- Warren Court
- Gamal Abdel Nasser
- Yalu River
- cooling-off period
- Iron Curtain
- statute of limitations
- massive retaliation
- summit conference
- Truman Doctrine
- U-2 reconnaissance plane
- GI Bill of Rights
- NATO
- Loyalty Review Board
- 17th Parallel
- Eisenhower Doctrine
- Brown v. Board of Education
- Dr. Benjamin Spock
- Mao Tse-tung
- Dixiecrats
- Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
- Millard Tydings
- J. Robert Oppenheimer
- Ngo Dinh Diem
- Earl Warren
- Fidel Castro
- General Douglas MacArthur
- Alger Hiss
Suggested Pacing
With only a short time before the AP* test, allow one week to teach this chapter. A thematic approach may be helpful in presenting the material in a limited amount of time.
Test Strategy
Linking information from different periods is important in developing an understanding of the concepts. This ability to make connections is an important skill that students need to showcase in their essays on the AP* exam. Linkages demonstrate an advanced placement level of understanding of the content. For example, students should be able to connect the civil rights activities of the 1950s with those of the 1940s, early 1900s, and the late-nineteenth century.
Key Concepts
- Truman presidency
At the end of World War II, the United States faced two major problems: demobilization and reconversion. Truman's efforts to return the nation to peacetime were met with resistance by a coalition of conservative Northern Republicans and Southern Democrats. As a result, Congress began attempting to dismantle the New Deal. The Taft-Hartley Act, which amended the Wagner Act and which Truman heatedly opposed, is one example of this coalition's work. - Containment
Truman changed the nature of U.S. foreign policy toward the Soviet Union. Whereas Roosevelt used diplomacy, Truman adopted the policy of containment. According to this theory, the Soviet Union and its newly acquired satellite nations would implode over time from the weight of economic and political problems. In hindsight, Truman proved correct. Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles took it one step further with their policy of massive retaliation and Dulles's articulation of "brinksmanship."
Summing Up Student Understanding
Have students make a postwar timeline. Divide the class into small groups and assign each group a year from 1944 to 1960. Ask them to list all the major events—political, economic, and social—that occurred in that year. They should refer to as many chapters from the text as necessary to be sure they have included all major events. Either have students work on butcher paper to hang around the room or on sheets of notepaper to be collected and copied for each student. This timeline then becomes a teaching and review tool for the AP* exam.
You might also have students make timelines for each decade of the twentieth century for review. These timelines should help them make connections among events backwards and forwards through time.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
You might also find these additional readings useful in developing students' background knowledge or for DBQ activities:
- American Issues: Vol. II Since 1865, edited by Unger and Tomes—Chapters 11 and 12
- The Power of Words: Vol. II From 1865, edited by Breen—Chapter 10
- American Experiences: Vol. II From 1877, edited by Roberts and Olson (secondary source readings)—Part Six