Honors American History
Unit 7:  Modern America

Reading Schedule
In preparation
for class on…	Read…	Identify…	
Terms in bold print should be identified using the “CaDRES” format (if appropriate).	
Tuesday
May 14	Chap 26 – Sec 3
The Television Age	•	How did television change American politics, culture, and society?
•	Describe other technological changes of the 1950s
•	baby boom (see also p. 825)
•	suburbanization, Levittown, Sunbelt
•	Interstate Highway System
•	rock ‘n’ roll	
Friday
May 17	Chap 27 – Sec 3
The Great Society	•	Michael Harrington’s The Other America
•	War on Poverty
•	Election of 1964
•	Summarize key elements of Johnson’s “Great Society” program
•	Medicare/Medicaid	
Monday
May 20	Chap 30 – Sec 3
Culture and Counterculture	•	counterculture
•	Free Speech Movement at Cal-Berkeley
•	hippie culture
•	How did the counterculture influence American attitudes, art, and music?	
Tuesday
May 21	Chap 31 – Secs 1 & 2
The Nixon Years and Watergate	•	Describe some of the ways in which Nixon’s policies and views were conservative and some in which they were rather liberal
•	détente
•	Nixon’s visit to China
•	Summarize the American economy in the 1970s, including the oil embargo, inflation, and unemployment rates
•	Watergate scandal, Nixon’s resignation	
Wednesday
May 22	Chap 32 – Secs 1 & 2
The Reagan Years	•	Election of 1980
•	New Right
•	supply-side economics
•	How was Reagan’s approach to the Soviet Union and the Cold War different from the era of détente?
•	defense spending, Strategic Defense Initiative or “Star Wars”
•	Mikhail Gorbachev, decline of Soviet Union	
Friday, May 24 – Unit 7 Test (Modern America)	

Essay Questions
You will be expected to answer several of these questions in essay form on the unit test, in class, and/or at home.

•	Analyze the ways in which television changed American politics, culture, and society.  How did television contribute to a conformist culture in the 1950s?

•	Analyze the effect of each of the following on American politics, economics, and society/culture.
o	the movement from the “Rustbelt” to the “Sunbelt”
o	the movement from the cities to the suburbs

•	Compare and contrast American society and culture in the 1950s and the 1960s.

•	Analyze how Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” programs attempted to address problems in each of the following areas.
o	poverty and urban life
o	civil rights
o	environmental issues

•	To what extent did Ronald Reagan’s presidency alter government policy in each of the following areas?
o	the federal budget (both tax policy and spending)
o	business and labor
o	foreign policy