Mrs. Ruland's Advanced Placement United States History Class

Unit 13 Study Guide

Unit 13 — Postwar America: At Home and Abroad, 1945—

Facts to Know

Chapter 28 — Cold War Politics, McCarthyism, and Civil Rights, 1945-1961

1. The domestic policies of the Truman and Eisenhower administrations.
2. The issues involved in and the results of the elections from 1946 through 1960.
3. The anticommunist hysteria of the postwar years, and how Americans responded to the perceived threats of communism between 1945 and 1960.
4. The civil rights movement in the fifteen years following World War II.
5. The causes and consequences of the consensus that emerged in the United States during the 1950s.
   

Chapter 29 — The Cold War Era, 1945-1991

1. The causes, characteristics, and consequesnces of the Cold War.
2. Soviet-American relations between 1945 and 1950, and the policies of the Truman administration.
3. The evolution of Cold War diplomacy from the Truman Doctrine to the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.
4. Diplomatic events in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia between 1945 and 1991.
5. The various approaches to diplomatic affairs that each presidential administration took from Truman to George Bush.
   

Chapter 30 — American Society During the Postwar Boom, 1945-1970

1. The causes and consequences of the postwar baby boom, the changes in the American family, the evolving concept of motherhood, and the new place youth held in society.
2. The causes of the economic boom after 1945, the influence of affluence on American society, and the role of groups that did not benefit directly from economic expansion.
3. The concentration of industry during the 1950s and 1960, the place of labor in the economic boom, and the trends within the agricultural sector
4. The growth of the suburbs and the development of the suburban culture, the emergence of the megalopolis, and the growing importance of the Sunbelt.
5. New attitudes toward education, religion, and sex.
   

Chapter 31 — Contesting Nationalism and Revolution: The Third World and the Vietnam Warm 1945-1989

1. The emergence of the so-called Third World and the role developing nations played in the Cold War.
2. The strategic doctrines of the presidents from Dwight Eisenhower to Ronald Reagan and how each administration tried to implement its policies.
3. The causes, characteristics, and consequences of America's involvement in Vietnam.
4. American policy in the Middle East and Africa, and the results of that policy.
5. America's policy in Latin America, with special emphasis on the perceived threats of communism in the region.
   

Chapter 32 — Reform and Conflict: A Turbulent Era, 1961-1974

1. The presidential terms of John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, the domestic policies of each administration, and the successes and failures of each President.
2. The civil rights movement of the 1960s, and the role of African Americans, political leaders, and the Supreme Court.
3. The violence of the era, including assassinations, riots, and demonstrations that characterized the period.
4. The role of feminists, gay activists, the New Left, and the counterculture in defining culture between 1961 and 1974.
5. The administration of Richard Nixon; his domestic policies and his electoral strategies; and the events of Watergate and Nixon'x resignation from office.
   

Chapter 33 — A Turn to the Right, 1974-1989

1. The problems that Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter faced and their efforts to deal with those difficulties.
2. The election of 1980, and the reasons for Ronald Reagan's successful bid for the presidency.
3. The Reagan administration, with special attention to his economic and domestic policies and the results of his programs.
4. The place of minorities, women, labor, and the poor in American society under Reagan, and the changing social climate these groups faced in the 1980s.
5. Reagan's declining influence in his second term, and the candidates and issues of the 1988 election.
   

Chapter 34 — A New Century Beckons: America and the World in the 1990s

1. The domestic policies of the Bush administration.
2. The foreign policy of the Bush administration.
3. The issues and nature of the 1992 election campaign.
4. The domestic agenda of the Clinton administration.
5. The intermational concerns President Clinton faced.
   

Quizzes

• Textbook Quiz — chapter 28     chapter 29     chapter 30     chapter 31     chapter 32     chapter 33  
• Mrs. Pojer's Quizzes
  • Truman and the Beginning of the Cold War A   B  C
  • Eisenhower and the New Modern Republicanism  A    B    C
  • Society in the 1950s A   B  
  • Kennedy's New Frontier  A    B   
  • Johnson's Great Society A   B  C
  • The Turbulent 1960s  A    B    C
  • Nixon and the Imerial Presidency A   B  C
  • The Ford and Carter Years  A  
  • Ronald Reagan and the New Conservatism A   B  C
  • George Bush and the New World Order  A   
  • The Clinton Administration A   B  
  • America Since 1970  A    B   

Documents

• Father Knows Best (1954)
• Truman Doctrine (1947)
• John Kerry Questions a War Gone Wrong (1971)
• Support for the Contras (1984)
• Voting Literacy Test (1965)
• Watts Riots (1965)
• Challenger: An Accident Rooted in History (1986)
• Events in Waco: House Judiciary Committee Investigation (1993)
• Country of Origin and Year of Entry into the U.S. (1997)

Study Aids

• Mrs. Ruland's Notes
  • Fact Sheet on Vietnam
• From Revolution to Reconstruction - An Outline of American History
  • Chapter Eleven: Postwar America
  • Chapter Twelve: Decades of Change
  • Chapter Thirteen: Toward the 21st Century
• Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Modules on Major Topics
  • Postwar America
  • The Timultuous 1960s
  • The Vietnam War
  • America at the End of the 20th Century
  • September 11th
• Digital History
  • Guided Readings
    • Postwar America: 1945-1960
    • America in Ferment: The Tumultuous 1960s
    • Vietnam War
    • The Past Quarter Century: Years of Crisis - Years of Triumph
  • Explorations
    • Learn About the Postwar Era
    • Learn About the Tumultuous 1960s
    • Learn About the Vietnam War
    • Learn About America at the End of the Twentieth Century
    • Learn About September 11
  • Lessons
    • Origins of the Cold War
    • Tumultuous 1960s
  • Timeline
    • Landmarks in Immigration History
• Professor Stanley K. Schultz' lecture notes (University of Wisconsin)
  • From New Deal to Fair Deal: New Deal or Same Suffle
  • The Coils of the Cold War
  • The Cold War and the 1950s: The Affluent Society
  • Eisenhower and Kennedy
  • Civil Rights in an Uncivil Society
  • The Almost Great Society: The 1960s
  • The Asian Connection: Road to Vietnam
  • The Twilight of Liberalism: The Nixon Years
  • America Sinking through a Watergate
  • Hitchhiker's Guide to American History V
  • Hitchhiker's Guide to American History VI
• George Burson, Aspen CO
  • The Cold War
  • U.S. Domestic Politics: 1945-1968
  • The Vietnam War
  • The United States Since 1968
• Academic American History, Henry J. Sage, Northern Virginia Community College
  • Post World War 2 America, 1945-1976
• Timeline- 1901 to 1950 (Mr. Wood, Murray HS, Murray UT)
• Timeline- 1951 to 1994 (Mr. Wood, Murray HS, Murray UT)
• Mr. Feldmeth - Polytechnic School, Pasadena CA
  • Origins of the Cold War - outline
  • Key Events in the Korean War - chart
  • Key Events in the American Civil Rights Movement - chart
  • The Tumultuous 1960s - outline
  • The Vietnam War - chart
  • A Chronology of the Watergate Crisis - chart
• Presidential Election Data (David Leip) — 1948    1952    1956    1960    1964     1968    1972    1976    1980    1984     1988    1992    1996    2000    2004
• Cram Sheet (Renata Melamud)
  • Harding through Truman
  • Eisenhower through Reagan
• Crossroads
  • "Leader of the Free World" 1945-1975
  • "A Nation in a Quandary" 1975—
• Divining America: Religion and the National Culture
  • The American Jewish Experience: Antisemitism and Assimilation
  • The Christian Right
  • Islam in America: From African Slaves to Malcolm X
  • Religion in Post World War II America
  • Religious Liberalism and the Modern Crisis of Faith
  • The Rise of Fundamentalism
  • Roman Catholics and the American Mainstream in the 20th Century

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Last updated July 14, 2009

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