Culture and the Arts in American History
The American Dream and the Gospel of Wealth
Students read excerpts from Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack, Horatio Alger's Ragged Dick or Street Life in New York (1868), P. T. Barnum, Thorstein Veblen, Andrew Carnegie, and Nathanael West to understand American values as they progressed from eighteenth-century values of frugality and hard work to the increasingly urban mid-nineteenth century values of luck, pluck, and self-help as the path to success. Students evaluate the writings for positive and negative interpretations of the "gospel of wealth."
72 p. Grades 9–12
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[NH127-LA6] $16.95 Reproducible
In the Aftermath of War: Cultural Clashes of the Twenties
Through a variety of primary sources, including literary excerpts, advertisements, and trial transcripts, students learn about the fundamental changes in the 1920s that transformed the United States. Tensions between urban and rural populations, and between native-born and immigrant Americans, are explored through lessons on Prohibition, the Sacco and Vanzetti trial, and the Scopes "monkey" trial.; 86 p. Grades 9–12
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[NH131-LA6] $16.95 Reproducible
World's Fairs and the Dawning of "The American Century"
Co-Published with the Organization of American Historians
The unit examines the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago through a variety of primary sources, including guidebooks, pamphlets, speeches, cartoons, and newspaper accounts of the fairs. Materials in this unit are designed to help students consider the role the World's Fair movement played in reconstructing the American "national" culture after the Civil War, the extent to which the fairs encouraged both American technological progress and an attitude of cultural superiority, and the relationship between the fairs and the growing interest in American overseas expansion. 79 p. Grades 9–12
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[NH162-LA6] $16.95 Reproducible
The Harlem Renaissance
Through a variety of documents, art work, poems and music, students will study the evolution of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and its role in defining African American cultural identity in the rapidly changing world of the early twentieth century. 60 p. Grades 9–12
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[NH138-LA6] $16.95 Reproducible
The Great Depression and the Arts
Co-Published with the Organization of American Historians
Lessons explore the film script of The Plow that Broke the Plains, a New Deal documentary on the drought and Dust Bowl; John Steinbeck's The Harvest Gypsies on the condition of migrant workers; John Ford's classic movie The Grapes of Wrath based on Steinbeck's popular novel; and the New Deal's "Living Newspaper" plays Power and One-Third of a Nation promoting New Deal programs. Through excerpts from witnesses called before the House Un-American Activities Committee examining allegations that the Federal Theatre Project used government funds to produce propaganda plays and promote socialist programs, students assess the degree to which government agencies used the arts to propagandize New Deal Programs and are challenged to debate issues relating to government's role in supporting the arts. 79 p. Grades 9–12
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[NH151-LA6] $16.95 Reproducible
Commemorative Sculpture in the United States
Co-Published with the Organization of American Historians
This unit helps students see and understand the importance of commemorative public sculpture in the United States and explain how certain major themes in United States history have been commemorated. The unit begins with an examination of why we commemorate and focuses on several public memorials including the Minuteman Statue at Concord, the Memorial to Union and Confederate soldiers, and the Lincoln Memorial. The unit brings into focus how our democratic principles are embodied in public sculpture and monuments through a wide range and variety of images of individuals from across the United States. 76 p. Grades 8 –12
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[NH161-LA6] $16.95 Reproducible
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