U.S. History

Welcome to U.S. History with Steve!

To get an overview of U.S. History (starting with the colonies), please view this 10-minute movie as soon as possible.

PART ONE of your assignment for Wednesday is to write down your impressions of the movie, as well as any questions you have after watching it. I'd like you to focus on what's missing -- what do you consider part of "U.S. History" that was absent from the overview? Also, after watching the video, what questions do you have? You should write a minimum of one typed page.

One impression I had, after watching this video, was that women seemed to be absent from the historical record. It's almost as though, according to this summary of U.S. History, women don't exist. One question I have is: who were some of the more influential women in U.S. History, and how has the role of women changed over time?

According to this 10-minute overview, the nation seems to be all about wars and conquest of territory. There's also very little information about the US after WWII and how it has become somewhat of an empire, with troops based in Japan, Germany, Iraq, the Philippines, etc...

This clip seems to imply that America is just the 48 continental states, plus Alaska and Hawaii. But America, especially after World War II (1939-45), has a much bigger footprint than just the physical 48 states -- it's a global player with a global presence, and American culture (what IS American culture, anyway?) has spread all over the world through our music, movies, and TV shows.

A little over sixty years ago, in 1945, after Japan, Germany and Italy were defeated at the end of WWII, the US left thousands of troops in Europe and Asia, and occupied huge amounts of territory around the world. The rebuilding of Europe via the Marshall Plan is something we will look at in some depth later in this course.

I would really like to find a map showing where US bases were at the end of WWII... can any of you find such a map???

Anyway, to make the point about the US as an empire, here's where US bases are located today, or at least as of 2003.

Click on the map below to make it bigger:

source: http://www.ppu.org.uk/pm/usbases.html

There has been some criticism -- particularly since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 -- that the United States is too powerful (can a nation ever be too powerful?) and is creating an empire.

If you have time and interest, you might want to listen to this NPR story about U.S. Imperialism. The NPR piece is optional.

To review: your assignment for Wednesday is to:

Write a one page (minimum) response to the 10-minute video

• What surprised you?
• What do you think is missing?
• What questions do you have after viewing the video?

Please bring your typewritten response with you to class on Wednesday.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FOR AN OVERVIEW OF US HISTORY

You may also want to look at a nice timeline of U.S. History from the same site where I got the 10-minute overview map video.

And here's a fun 3-minute cartoon by the Animaniacs showing the first 42 presidents (the cartoon was made before the 2000 election of George W. Bush).

Did you know that the U.S. Mint, starting in 2007, will be minting new dollar coins with the presidents on them? a fun way to learn the presidents, I guess...

On an unconnected but fun tangent, here's a 2-minute video of the Nations of the World by Yakko Warner of the Animaniacs.

Here is an audio recording of FDR's first fireside chat.

Here are more recordings

And here's the text of many of his "fireside chats".

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This PBS Website about the U.S. -Mexican War might be of interest.

Here's a basic explanation of why the Civil War started.

Here is a collection of great resources about the Civil War from a course at Dartmouth College.

And here's a reading of the Gettysburg Address from NPR.

Here's a link to the Presidential Election of 1860.

Click on the map and take a look at how the country divided.