U.S. History

In your opinion, should the government help the Nation’s poor?

How do you feel about congress recently extending jobless benefits to the nations’ 200,000 unemployed, costing taxpayers $18 billion dollars? Are these jobless benefits “humane and necessary” or counterproductive?

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President Obama has announced today that he plans to severely cut spending on NASA’s manned mission to the moon.

Do you agree with this decision or not? Is the space race a good use of money? what are some of the advantages/disadvantages?

Dropping the Atomic Bomb: Was it the Right Decision?
More than half a century later people still continue to debate what some historians have called the most important event of the 20th century: President Truman’s order to drop the atomic bomb on Japan.

a) Did this decision shorten the war and save lives on both sides, or was it prompted by Truman’s political agenda and a needless act of aggression on citizens?
b) Armed with all of the knowledge that Truman and his advisers had, how would you have ended the war in the Pacific?

If you were a historian advising Pres. Obama, what key lessons of the New Deal would you want
him to understand? What worked well in the New Deal and what didn’t?

Answer both questions 1 & 2 using your book chpt. 7, google searches, and our worksheets from class.

1. Would you have been an imperialist or  anti-imperialist?

Suppose you are an American citizen at the turn of the century, fresh off the Spanish-American war. Support your stance by arguing about the advantages/disadvantages of acquiring new lands. Keep in mind America’s future as a world power and the consequences of land acquisition.

2. Is America still an imperialist power?

Think of the United States role in the world today. In what ways (economically, socially, politically, militarily, etc.) America is or is not an imperial power.

Pretend you are either an immigrant coming to America, or a native citizen opposing the influx of immigrants at the turn of the 20th century.
Use your opinion, class notes and chpt 6 section 1 to discuss what your hopes are for yourself and/or the country.