Interactive
Digital History

Digital History: United States Timeline

For Students 9th - 10th
Explores U.S. history starting in 1590 showing the events that occurred in the country over someone's life span. Move the meter at the bottom to get information about each time period.
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Digital History

Digital History: The Emergence of New Ideas About Personal Liberties

For Students 9th - 10th
American colonists expected to have "English rights" as supported by the Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights. See how these rights were applied in the trial of John Peter Zenger, whose acquittal reflected the right of freedom of...
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Digital History

Digital History: The Growth of the American Economy

For Students 9th - 10th
A brief look at why the American economy boomed across the country after the War of 1812. Read about the industrialization, expansion of transportation, and improved farming techniques.
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Digital History

Digital History: Early Industrialization

For Students 9th - 10th
Advances in technology affected manufacturing in the North and farming in the South. Read about how America turned from a country where most products were made in the home to an economic power that used factory production.
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Digital History

Digital History: Prosperity: Fact or Myth [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
Find the reasons for the booming economy in the United States in the 1920s. Can the seeds for the Great Depression be seen in the fruit of the economy? [pdf]
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Digital History

Digital History: Paper Money and Shays' Rebellion [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
A very good explantion of the frustration and desperation felt by farmers not only in Massachusttetts but throughout the new United States as states attempted to collect taxes in order to pay off war debts. Daniel Shays and his men were...
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Digital History

Digital History: Vietnamization [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
Richard Nixon claimed to have a secret plan to end the Vietnam War when he was campaigning for president in 1968. See what that secret plan was and read about how it extended the war by another four years and galvanized anti-war...
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Digital History

Digital History: The Tet Offensive [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
Read about the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War and the resulting escalation of American troops committed to the war. This led to increased American protest against the war, and President Johnson's decision not to run for re-election....
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Digital History

Digital History: Conservative Policies and Presidents [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
Starting in 1920 the United States had three presidents who followed conservative policies. Read about their policies, and determine whether they made the U.S. a more economically sound country. [pdf]
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Digital History

Digital History: New Deal Programs [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
Here's an exercise in which students use data provided about possible New Deal programs and lets them decide which are economically feasible and helpful as a way to address the Great Depression. Use the provided chart to keep track of...
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Digital History

Digital History: The Farmer and the Depression [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
One of the first laws passed in Franklin Roosevelt's first hundred days was the Agricultural Adjustment Act. Read about how it helped farmers in crisis. and how it was the forerunner of the federal farm program in existence today. [pdf]
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Digital History

Digital History: The African American as Sharecropper [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
After reading about the system of sharecropping or tenant farming for the African American in the South, look at poverty statistics for African Americans vs. whites between 1960 and 1990. Is there a corelation between the sharecropping...
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Digital History

Digital History: Rockefeller's Millions [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
With the discovery of oil in Pennsylvania in the mid 1800s brought a boom to the economy. Read about the beginning of the oil industry, and particularly, John D. Rockefeller's role in it. See how his control of many parts of the...
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Digital History

Digital History: The Transformation of the Rural Countryside

For Students 9th - 10th
Read about the household industries that provided work and hard currency for farm families in the early 1800s. Find out why these industries declined within 30 years.
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Digital History

Digital History: American Transcendentalism

For Students 9th - 10th
A detailed look at the philosophy behind American Transcendalism, and a discussion of many of those who practiced it.
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Digital History

Digital History: What Caused the Depression [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
Look at the factors that led to the Great Depression.The site begins with a narrative about a toy company that went bankrupt which highlights some causes of the Depression, and discusses the flow of goods and services through an economy....
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Digital History

Digital History: Popular Culture During the Great Depression

For Students 9th - 10th
A great description of the tension in popular culture during the Great Depression with a focus on tradition abutting modernism in the arts and architecture. Read about the new comic book and radio superheroes, and commonality in American...
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Digital History

Digital History: Jobs Programs

For Students 9th - 10th
The major aspect of the Great Depression was the rampant unemployment. Read about the many jobs programs that were part of the New Deal that provided employment for millions of needy Americans.
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Digital History

Digital History: Why It Happened

For Students 9th - 10th
How did a country with such a booming economy in the 1920s sink into economic disaster in the 1930s? Prosperity was just an illusion. See the many causes of the Great Depression, and find out how all the signs were missed or disregarded.
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Digital History

Digital History: Articles of Confederation

For Students 9th - 10th
A good look at the government under the Articles of Confederation. See what powers the central government had, the powers of the state governments, and discover the problems that ensued.
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Digital History

Digital History: Amending the Constitution

For Students 9th - 10th
The Constitution can be amended, but it is tough to do. Read about the routes that can be taken to add amendments and look at some of the amendments that have succeeded.
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Digital History

Digital History: Why Has the Constitution Survived?

For Students 9th - 10th
Has the U.S. Constitution survived partly because it is so brief? See how the Constitution has changed through judicial interpretation, but stays remarkably the same.
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Digital History

Digital History: Defining the Presidency

For Students 9th - 10th
George Washington, as the first president, molded the office in a way that served as a model for later leaders. Read about the precedents he set forth
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Digital History

Digital History: Alexander Hamilton's Financial Program

For Students 9th - 10th
Young Alexander Hamilton was the first Secretary of the Treasury. Read about his ideas for reducing the huge national debt, and see how his views of the nation and national government were so different from Thomas Jefferson's.