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Critical Issues and Simulations Units in American History

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These lesson plans were written by Tom Ladenburg, a high school history teacher from 1958-2005, most recently in Brookline, Massachusetts. He has served as Department Chairperson in three different schools, presented over 30 workshops, received a host of teaching awards, and has written or co-authored nine books, He spent a year as a Lucretia Crocker Fellow in Massachusetts and another year at Education Development Center. Most of his work has been in the field of American History; the units available at this website are the products of his 47 year teaching career. Recently he has written a series of lesson-chapters in US History which are refinements of these units. He is married to Muriel Ladenburg and is the father of two and the grandfather of four.

These units are in PDF format. You can download an entire unit or individual lessons.

Unit I. The events leading to the American revolution (downland entire unit)

Unit II. Writing the US Constitution (downland entire unit)

Unit III. The Federalist Era (downland entire unit)

Unit IV. Slavery in America (downland entire unit)

Unit V. Events Leading to the Civil War (downland entire unit)

Unit VI. Reconstruction after the Civil War (downland entire unit)

Unit VII. Business Regulation, Case Study: Standard Oil (downland entire unit)

Unit VIII. American Foreign Policy, 1898-1920 (downland entire unit)

Unit IX. The Prosperity and the Depression Decades (downland entire unit)

Unit X. Part I. From the Hot War to the Cold W Part II. China, Korea and McCarthyism Unit X. From the Hot War to the Cold Wa (downland entire unit)

Unit XI. African-Americans in the Land of Equality (downland entire unit)

Unit XII. American in Indochina (downland entire unit)

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