1. Modern US History
1945-Present

2. 1930s and 40s: Post-War Boom Air Conditioning units in homes Baby Boom
Population of the South increases
Baby Boom
Levittown
The first American subdivision
Radios in most homes
TVs in many homes
Americans want their news

3. 1930s and 40s: Post-War Boom Jackie Robinson & MLB
Truman integrates the US military
Had been black regiments and white regiments

4. 1950s: Cold War gets Hot Cold War heats up Space Race
Churchhill states, “America at this moment, stands at the summit of the world.”
Continued fight against communism
Space Race
Sputnik
US encourages Math and Science education
Neil Armstrong walks on the moon
Brown v Board of Education
Continued civil rights conflicts
TVs in most homes
Rock and Roll baby!!!

5. Cold War Heats Up Communists Democracies
Stalin/Khruschev: Soviet Union
Castro: Cuba
Zedong: China
Ho Chi Minh: Vietnam
Democracies
Truman: US
Kennedy: US
Nixon: US
Reagan: US

6. Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro Bay of Pigs Cuban Missile Crisis
Communist leader
Allied with Soviet Union
Bay of Pigs
Cuban exiles sent to overthrow Castro
Complete disaster
Cuban Missile Crisis
Russian missiles on Cuba
Brink of War

7. Cold War Arms Race

8. 1960s: Progress, Assassinations, and Civil Rights
TV’s influence on American culture
Kennedy/Nixon debates
Civil Rights movement
Continued struggle with Jim Crow
African Americans want equal rights
Crusades for freedom
Freedom Rides
Civil rights activists rode buses on interstates to the South to protest segregated buses
Sit-Ins
Blacks would purposefully enter all white establishments and refuse to leave
Violent and non-violent protests

10. 1960s: Progress, Assassinations, and Civil Rights
Civil Rights
Environment
Martin Luther King
Letter From a Birmingham Jail
Defends his plans for non-violent resistance
Modeled his method of protest from Ghandi
I Had a Dream Speech
Urges Americans to “Make real the promises of democracy.”
Tells of a world in which divisions by color no longer exist
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*For the first time citizens became aware of issues related to preserving the environment *Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” -documented the detrimental effects of the use of pesticides on the environment -encouraged gov’t intervention -Led to Earth Day -Led to the EPA *Environmental Protection Agency

12. 1960s: Progress, Assassinations, and Civil Rights
Civil Rights Act 1964
Voting Rights Act 1965

13. 1960s: Progress, Assassinations, and Civil Rights
The Warren Court
Supreme Court had a liberal majority
Expansion of federal gov’t power
Many landmark decisions regarding civil liberties and civil rights
Expansion of rights of the individual
Miranda v Arizona
Brown v BOE
JFK’s assassination
JFK had plans for monumental civil rights legislation
Assassinated Nov 1963 in Dallas, TX
Johnson picked up where JFK left off

14. 1960s: Progress, Assassinations, and Civil Rights
Johnson’s Great Society
War on Poverty
Medicare
Cesar Chavez
United Farm Workers

15. 1960s: Progress, Assassinations, and Civil Rights
National Organization of Women (NOW)
Anti-War protesters

16. 1960s: Progress, Assassinations, and Civil Rights
1968
MLK Assassination
RFK Assassination
Democratic National Convention
Vietnam War protesters
Democratic candidates split over Vietnam
Stay and fight? Bring troops home? Hotly debated!
Fights broke out on the convention floor
Led to a weakening of the Democratic party

17. 1960s: Progress, Assassinations, and Civil Rights
Conservative Movement
Reaction to the liberal changes of the late 1950s and early 1960s
Republican nominee 1964: Barry Goldwater
Republican nominee 1968: Richard Nixon

18. 1970s: Goodbye Vietnam, A sneaky president, and the Middle East heats up
Nixon Opens China
Watergate Scandal
President Ford

19. 1970s: Important Legislation
Roe v Wade
Abortion legal
Right to privacy
Right to end pregnancy
Regents of the University of California v Bakke
Affirmative Action
Quotas for college admission

20. 1970s: Goodbye Vietnam, A sneaky president, and the Middle East heats up
Jimmy Carter
Tension in the Middle East
Camp David Accords
Iran
Iranian Hostage Crisis
Iranian Revolution

22. 1980s: Cold War Cools, the US Economy
Reagan
Reagonomics
“Trickle down economics”
Huge tax cuts, esp for business
Money would trickle down to
Lower classes
Iran Contra
Collapse of the Soviet Union
“Good” relationship with Gorbechav
Supported Russian attempts at reforming the economy
Perestroika

23. 1990s: Balancing the Budget, Impeachment, Trade
Clinton
NAFTA
Impeachment
Acquittal

24. 2000s: Who is the President?, 9/11, and the War on Terror
Bush
2000 Election
9/11
War on Terror
Afghanistan
Taliban
Osama Bin Laden
Al Qaeda
Iraq
Weapons of Mass Destruction
Ending the Saddam Hussein regime