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1889 – 1920 Modernizing America This unit is broken into four sections: Modern Womanhood, Fighting for Social Reform, Woman Suffrage, and Xenophobia and Racism. Each section includes primary source materials and life stories that bring that aspect of the era to life. The sections are not mutually exclusive and intentionally overlap. America at the turn of the century was chaotic. Social reformers debated suffrage. College-educated women promoted racist, nativist policies. Young immigrants juggled long work hours with voluntary political activism. Housewives fought for influence outside the home while vehemently defending their role as the nation’s caretakers. Modernizing America truly comes to life when materials from multiple sections are examined together.
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1866 - 1904 Industry and Empire Industry and Empire, 1866–1904 is divided into three sections that allow you to consider the many ways in which women contributed to and were influenced by societal changes during this time. Labor and Industry explores how women of different races, classes, and national origins were influenced by industrialization and urbanization. Expansion and Empire considers the effects of westward expansion and American imperialism on Indigenous women and settlers. Fighting for Equality focuses on the contributions of women to end inequalities in American society.
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1832 - 1877 A Nation Divided A Nation Divided, 1832–1877 provides resources to allow you to easily discover and teach the history of the Civil War—from the early formation of abolitionist groups to the end of Reconstruction—through the lens of women’s history. The unit contains three sections: Antebellum, which examines the activities of women in the United States from 1832 through the eve of the war; Civil War, which covers the activities of women in the Union, Confederacy, border states, and territories; and Reconstruction, which focuses on how women responded to and were affected by the major social and political changes that swept the nation after the war ended.
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1820 - 1869 Expansions and Inequalities In most histories of the United States, the mid-19th century is dominated by the narrative of the Civil War. . .These decades also proved to be a critical period in the history of American womanhood. . . Expansions and Inequalities, 1830–1869, provides resources to allow you to explore the complicated and fascinating history of this period. The unit contains three sections: Westward Expansion, Industry and Immigration, and Politics and Society. The questions surrounding slavery and freedom as well as the events of the Civil War and Reconstruction appear throughout, but you’ll find a more thorough examination of all these topics in A Nation Divided: 1832–1877.
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1776 - 1831 Building a New Nation 1820 - 1869 Expansions and Inequalities Building a New Nation, 1776–1831 provides resources to allow you to easily explore all the ways women contributed to [what became the U.S. during] the Federal period. The unit contains three sections: Navigating the New Government, which explores women’s relationships with the new federal and state governments; “American” Woman, which covers the ways women contributed to the formation of a uniquely American identity; and Early Expansion, which focuses on how women responded to and were affected by the major social and political changes of the United States’s geographic expansion."
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1692 – 1783
Settler Colonialism and the American Revolution [This unit] provides resources to allow you to easily discover the history of these eighteenth-century women and integrate them into your lesson plans. We’ve organized the unit into two sections—Settler Colonialism, which examines the lives of women in colonies across North America, and the American Revolution, which focuses in on women’s experiences in the struggle for independence. The resources in each module illustrate the experiences of a wide range of women across race, gender, age, social, and economic spectrums.
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1492 – 1734 Early Encounters From website: "The early colonial era is roughly defined as beginning with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas in 1492 and ending in the early 1700s. The European colonization of the Americas changed the world forever, connecting continents that had little interaction before. For the European empires that settled on this side of the Atlantic, the colonies brought some hardship but plenty of opportunity for trade and wealth. But the Indigenous communities across North and South America faced horrendous impacts on their population and lifestyles, as did the enslaved Africans who were forcibly taken to work in the European settlements in the Americas."
