Crossroads: Middle School Curriculum
Lesson Plan#:  CC-0093
 

UNIT VIII: "Waves of Reform" ca. 1800s to 1921

Content and Understandings:  

1. The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were a time of Populist and Progressive reform that exposed corruption, revitalized political institutions, regulated industry and commerce, attempted to cure social ills, extended political rights, and protected natural resources.

 2. The United States asserted itself into a new leadership position in the world.

 3. This new role raised several questions:

 

- Should the United States become an imperial nation? - What relationship should the United States have with its Western Hemisphere neighbors? - Should the United States be formally bound to world affairs in the League of Nations?

Teacher's Rationale:

 Many of the reforms discussed in Unit VIII can be traced back to the problems and challenges facing the United States that were introduced in Unit VII. Students should see the relationship between, for instance, the rise of industry and its subsequent regulation, the influx of immigrants and the subsequent need to provide them with support, the creation of a segregated South and the subsequent search for civil rights, and the peopling of the West and the subsequent call for conservation. The Populist and Progressive movements were the models of this national wave of reform.

 Students should notice that many of these reforms still affect them today. When they eat inspected meat, when they buy cosmetics, or when they enjoy a trip to a national park they are involved in the results of this period of reform.

 Meanwhile, the United States searched for the meaning of its expanding relationship with the rest of the world. Students should see the debates over imperialism and world leadership as struggles to define that relationship.

 Again in this unit, students are called upon to be active participants in the study of history. They use and interpret primary resources such as documents and political cartoons, and they use the skills of evaluation and justifications on essay and chart assignments.

 

Table of Contents:

Question/ Problem 1 : What were the political, economic, and social reforms that shaped America?

Question/Problem 2 : How did America become an imperial nation?

Question/Problem 3 : How did the United States exert its influence as a world power?