Social Studies - United States History II
Lesson Plans

U.S. II Strand 6: ANOTHER GLOBAL CONFLICT AND THE BEGINNINGS OF THE COLD WAR

(Ca. 1930-1950) Possible Guiding Questions to Consider:

• How did decisions that leaders made during World War II change the rules of warfare?
• What arguments were made for employing the tactics of "total war"?
• How do local conflicts escalate to become global conflicts?
• What were the interests and primary objectives of the U.S. in entering into World War II?
• How was the impact of World War II reflected in the culture of the United States home front?
• How did the events of World War II set the stage for the Cold War?
• How did the United States seek to halt the spread of communism in Europe?

U.S. II Standard 6.2:

Students will use primary sources to describe the impact of World War II on the home front and the long-term social changes that resulted from the war, such as the baby boom, women in the workplace, and teenage culture.

• African-American Soldiers in World War I: The 92nd and 93rd Divisions
  Late in 1917, the War Department created two all-black infantry divisions. The 93rd Infantry Division received unanimous praise for its performance in combat, fighting as part of France's 4th Army. In this lesson, students combine their research in a variety of sources, including firsthand accounts, to develop a hypothesis evaluating contradictory statements about the performance of the 92nd Infantry Division in World War I.
• Beyond Rosie the Riveter: Women's Contributions During World War II
  This resource gives an overview of women's efforts on the homefront during WWII including social, political, and economic efforts.
• Building Suburbia: Highways and Housing in Postwar America
  This lesson highlights the changing relationship between the city center and the suburb in the postwar decades, especially in the 1950s. Students will look at the legislation leading up to and including the Federal Highway Act of 1956. They will also examine documents about the history of Levittown, the most famous and most important of the postwar suburban planned developments.
• Children on the Homefront
  Resource to help students learn about how children were involved in the war effort in the 1940s. Includes propaganda posters with students creating their own. Some patriotic songs are provided that were taught in schools and look at ways to compare contributions during the war to modern times.
• Topaz
  Topaz is the story of the thousands of San Francisco Bay Area Japanese who were separated from their property, livelihoods and constitutional rights, removed from their homes and shipped to a windswept stretch of Utah's roughest rangeland. There, for more than three years, these men, women and children were forced to call row after row of tarpaper barracks "home." This was Topaz, a War Relocation camp near Delta, Utah, which overnight became the fifth largest city in the state.

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http://www.uen.org - in partnership with Utah State Board of Education (USBE) and Utah System of Higher Education (USHE).  Send questions or comments to USBE Specialist - Robert  Austin and see the Social Studies website. For general questions about Utah's Core Standards contact the Director - Jennifer  Throndsen.

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