TAHPDX: History Topics

Founding & Expansion of the Nation:

Jeffersonian Visions

This topic focuses attention on Thomas Jefferson's "empire of liberty." After achieving independence, the new nation faced fundamental questions about national expansion. The search for answers lay behind the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, debates over the legitimacy of the Louisiana Purchase, political agitation in the new settlements, and about a nation’s ideal size.

The Louisiana Purchase

France's unexpected offer to sell the entire Louisiana Territory was a windfall for the U.S. as it doubled the nation's size with a stroke of a pen. Jefferson’s decision to purchase the Territory was a decisive step in the nation’s expansion, spurred massive westward migration, resulted in native displacement and set the stage for the acquisition of the Southwest and the Oregon Country.

Boundaries of the Nation

At the beginning of the 19th century, Americans were unsure of the future extent of their nation. Some leaders anticipated a vast continental empire, and others a set of sister republics with strong ties to the United States. In the Northwest, the question was the future of the Oregon Country and the contest between British and American interests. Political and economic rivalries played out in the early communities of Portland and Champoeg (site of the first government in Oregon).

Claiming the Land

The national land survey system that laid a great checkerboard over the American landscape from the Appalachians to the Pacific Ocean facilitated the westward movement of agricultural settlement. In Oregon, American settlers arrived well before the federal surveyors. Congress responded with the Donation Land Claims system. Oregon Land records help to reconstruct early settlement patterns and study the ways that early residents responded and adapted.

America Becomes a Pacific Nation

The United States became a Pacific power in the years around 1900. It annexed Hawaii and part of Samoa, built the Panama Canal, and acquired the Philippines. Theodore Roosevelt's mediation in the Russo-Japanese War earned him a Nobel Peace Prize. These actions laid the basis for an ongoing American presence that has involved three Pacific-Asian wars, a permanent military presence in the western Pacific, and vastly expanded trade with Asian nations.

Growth & Conservation in the 20th Century

The celebration of the first Earth Day in 1970 marked an era of environmental legislation which addressed growing concerns about the impacts of growth on the open spaces of the West.  In the Pacific Northwest, the key figure was Tom McCall who presided over steps to protect beaches and farm land from suburban sprawl. A quarter century later, Oregon was the site for key Supreme Court cases which addressed balance of public interests and private property rights.

Oregon Country & Oregon Statehood

There was nothing preordained about the “Oregon” that Congress admitted as the nation’s 33rd state in 1859.  The decision to draw a particular set of boundaries along the vast northwestern territory of North America was the result of a complex interplay of geography, economics, technology, and international politics.  The transition from settlement frontier to a U.S. state can be understood and framed by partisan conflict and the values that different Oregonians carried westward.  This topic emphasizes both the historical geography of the Northwest and the competing political and cultural values that mirrored the entire nation.

Citizenship & Civil Rights:

Free Soil and Slavery Expansion

The central political issue of the mid-19th century was the future of slavery – both its future as a southern labor system and its spread across the continent as territories became states. The single most troublesome issue that eventually led Americans to civil war was whether new states would be open to slavery or not. The Oregon political landscape and community mirrored the national ambiguity. Though admitted to the union as a "free state" it nonetheless embedded anti-black clauses in its 1859 Constitution.

Enlarging Citizenship: Understanding a Multi-Racial Nation

Submerged beneath the volatile problem of black slavery were several issues of citizenship that evolved fitfully throughout the 19th century.  These included the widening of the franchise for white males, the role of women in politics, the economy, and society, and the relationship of Indians as individuals and nations. Students and teachers can use these events to understand the evolution of inclusion and exclusion and nation-building in American society.

Indian Reorganization Act of 1934

Unlike the institution of slavery, whites encountered the native peoples of America as free, culturally grounded, and in that sense uncomfortably equal to themselves. Questions arose: should Indians be treated like a conquered people or like sovereign nations within a nation? The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 represents a rare attempt to rectify, on Indian terms, injustices of the past that harmed native peoples.  By understanding the importance of this act and tracing how previous legislation (Dawes Act), court cases and the reservation system framed the White-Indian debates, teachers and students will gain an understanding of the complexities of dealing with “nations within nations.”

A New Industrial Nation: Freedom & Rights for Workers

The last quarter of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th were difficult, exciting, and dynamic years of economic transition, from a largely agrarian economy to a largely industrialized one. The result was a reform movement - that responded to social and political unrest - and the rise of labor unions. This topic explores the attempts to deal through law, social action, and oftentimes conflict inequities in the workplace and the society in general.

Japanese Internment

Franklin Roosevelt’s decision to evacuate Japanese-Americans and Japanese aliens following the outbreak of war remains one of the most controversial acts affecting civil liberties in American history.  Many were convinced that the Japanese among them represented a "fifth column" ripe for espionage and sabotage.  This topic will explore the many interpretations of FDR’s motives, from the perspectives of 1942 and historians today, and immerse themselves in the abundant documents from local and national sources that vividly illustrate the state of mind of a nation at war.

School Integration & Civil Rights

One of the most important decisions of the 20th century concerning race was the one made by President Eisenhower to insert the federal government into the racial politics of Little Rock, Arkansas in 1958.  When nine black students attempted to integrate Little Rock’s Central High School the President sent in the 82nd Airborne and federalized the Arkansas National Guard.  Through study of this topic teachers will learn about the arc of influence a key decision may travel over time, how leadership can affect events, and the chronic struggle over equality in American life.

Immigration & Nationality Act of 1965: Making of Modern Society

This topic examines the ways in which the ideas and imperatives of the Cold War and the Great Society combined in legislation that fundamentally changed U.S. immigration policy—and the composition of the American population. The new immigration law abolished a quota system favoring immigrants from Western Europe and opened the doors to the Mediterranean, Latin America, and Asia. This profoundly changed social, political and economic relationships within the U.S.

Property Rights & Eminent Domain

The City of New London, CT, condemned the waterfront home owned by Suzette Kelo, proposing to use the power of eminent domain to transfer her property to a private owner to facilitate economic redevelopment. The Kelo case allows teachers and students to explore issues about private property and the public good. We also examine the decisions surrounding Oregon’s unique system of land use planning and the landmark series of property rights referendums in the early twenty-first century.

1861: Civil War (Year of Decision)

Early in 1861 Robert E. Lee turned down an offer to head the U.S. Army, yet eventually became the leading Confederate general. Even in far-away Oregon the Civil War splintered the powerful Democratic Party and set communities against each other. Two great issues had been left unsettled at the Constitutional Convention two generations before: the extent of states’ rights and the future of slavery.  But these were also questions for individuals who had to decide which side to take during the war - or whether to fight at all.

The Monroe Doctrine

President Monroe’s warning, in his pivotal address on December 2, 1823, to the great powers of Europe to stay out of the new world was a brazen gesture.  Behind it, however, was a broad calculus of the power relationships among those nations. Reviewing the Monroe Doctrine allows us to examine closely the main currents of thought on the young nation’s view of its role in the western hemisphere and the world.

WWII: The Home Front

World War II had enormous impacts on American society and national economic growth. The location of defense spending jump-started the development of the future Sunbelt. The huge demand for defense workers altered gender roles and brought racial and ethnic tensions to the fore. The mobilization of science laid the groundwork for the powerful alliance of industry, government, and higher education. By examining the experiences of war workers, teachers and students can understand the ways in which that experience still shapes the character of communities today.

The Decision to Build and Drop the Atomic Bomb

In the history of technology, no decision has been comparable in consequences to the United States’ choice to build and eventually drop the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Teachers and students will glimpse the agony of the leadership role generated by the decision to unleash the most terrible weapon in the history of warfare.  They will also study the discrepancy between current historians’ views of the necessity of the bomb and the values of the day in which it was used.

Negotiating Conflict: The Vietnam War

The antiwar movement of the 1960s and ‘70s, directed against the war in Vietnam, was a watershed in the nation’s life.  With its solidly middle class character and famous political independence, the battle in Oregon between Senators McCarthy and Kennedy was a microcosm of the battle for the soul of the nation.  Students can use this clash to understand how the political process worked in a severe crisis and the tensions in the state and the nation that threatened to rip apart the social fabric.

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Major Eras in U.S. History:

The Salem Witch Trials

In 1692, Salem was a small New England village, but soon became a boiling cauldron of superstition and deadly accusations when a number of young women initiated a community-wide panic around the supposed presence of witches.  The facts of the Salem witchcraft story are not in dispute, but historians have debated the proper interpretive light in which to examine this strange episode.  Was it an isolated example of mass hysteria or was it a social phenomenon with economic implications?  By examining the story of Salem’s witches, teachers and students can learn how historians employ various tools and techniques to ferret out historical truths.

The Great Depression

One of the great accomplishments of the federal government during the 1930s was to jump-start the full incorporation of the South and West into the national economy after the crash of the stock market and banking system. The public works programs of the 1930s helped these regions move toward economic maturity and laid the groundwork for the postwar rise of the Sunbelt. The great Columbia River dams, irrigation projects, and rural electrification transformed the rural economy, and Columbia River hydropower facilitated the industrial boom of World War II.

The Great Fear: McCarthyism

In the period running from 1947 to 1956, a “Great Fear” gripped citizens of the U.S.  Spurred by the threat of Soviet aggression during the Cold War, Senator Joseph McCarthy dominated the nation’s headlines as a tireless crusader for vigilance against Communists. Teachers and students can explore the complexities and ambiguities of an episode that arrayed those who vigorously pursued the nation’s safety and security against those more concerned with preserving the rights and freedoms of every individual.

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