History

Course summary

YEAR 1 UNIT ONE - students learn about the United States from 1865-1920. This unit continues logically from the GCSE in-depth study on the American West. Some of the key issues are: • The weaknesses of the US Government following the American Civil War • Politics and Corruption in the Gilded Age • Social, regional and ethnic division, with particular reference to the position of African-Americans • Economic growth and the rise of corporation • The dominance of laissez-faire economics and the ending of the Frontier • The limits of foreign policy and continuing isolationism • The reaction against Big Business • Progressivism, populism and Wilson’s New Freedom • The rise of American economic and industrial dominance • Mass immigration, urbanization and the position of African-Americans • Engagement in foreign policy—imperialism and the First World War • The USA by 1920: Economic power, social and ethnic divisions, political reaction and renewed isolationism