- The Free Speech Movement
Berkeley 1964: Campus policies banning political and religious meetings are being challenged. The administration's controversial responses only expanded the scope and intensity of the protest. The victory won in the name of free speech reverberated across campuses nationwide. With this lesson, students revisit those times, focusing especially on the experiences and words of the movement's charismatic leader, Mario Savio, and explore what may have been if he had not emerged as a prominent spokesman.
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- The Gorbachev Coup
On August 18, 1991, Soviet hard-liners launched a coup d'état against Soviet Secretary General Gorbachev. With no significant military support and public opinion overwhelming against it, the coup failed in just two days. Here, students review the defining moment that ultimately led to the final dissolution of the Soviet Union (and the political ruin of Gorbachev as well), and consider just how different the world would be if it had been successful.
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- Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression
Widely blamed for the Depression, President Herbert Hoover was defeated soundly by Franklin Roosevelt in his reelection bid, ushering in an era of vigorous economic action under the New Deal. In this Defining Moment, students take a closer look at Hoover's political philosophy, the causes of the Depression, and the hypothetical consequences of a 1932 Hoover victory.
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- The Iran-Contra Affair
The secret program to divert proceeds from an Iranian arms-for-hostages deal to anti-Communist forces in Nicaragua may have been innovative, but to many, it was at odds with the federal law forbidding any type of support for the Contra forces. Drawing on primary sources from all viewpoints, students will analyze the national debate over Iran-Contra, including how it exemplified a conflict between the rule of law and expedience in the name of security, as well as discuss what may have happened had the weapons sale to Iran not been made public.
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- The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
In this Defining Moment, students take leading roles in recreating one of the most talked about events in American political history—the Lincoln-Douglas debates from the 1858 U.S. Senate election in Illinois. Analyze Stephen Douglas' Freeport Doctrine, which held that territories had a right to include or exclude slavery, which outweighed the Federal Supreme Court ruling.
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- The Mexican-American War
What were the catalysts for the war between the United States and Mexico? How did the American victory—which resulted in gaining over half of Mexico's territory—impact the nation? What if the United States had been defeated? These questions are at the heart of this Defining Moment lesson on the Mexican-American War of 1846.
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- The Monroe Doctrine
On December 2, 1823, President James Monroe delivered his annual message to Congress—and established a foreign policy precedent that reverberated well into the 20th century. This lesson looks at the development and consequences of the doctrine that sought to prevent European powers from colonizing or interfering with newly independent states in the Western Hemisphere.
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- New York Dutch
This Defining Moment looks at the experiences of the 17th-century colony established by the Dutch West Indies Company, in what is now New York City, from its beginnings to the onset of the American Revolution. Students can explore life in the colony under the military-like rule of Peter Stuyvesant, examine its role as a valued pawn in the imperial conflicts between the Netherlands and Great Britain, and speculate on what would have happened if Stuyvesant had resisted the British siege in 1664 instead of surrendering.
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- Peaceful Settlements?
In exploring the Pequot War (1636-1637), the first extended armed conflict between Native Americans and European colonies, students will analyze the issues that fueled the war, including clashes over property ownership, legal rights, and religious differences, and will get a larger sense of the relationship between tribes and settlers in pre-Revolutionary America.
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- The Prohibition Era
The 18th Amendment outlawing alcohol was one of the most radical federal laws ever enacted in the United States. This Defining Moment charts the major turning points within the country's ratification of Prohibition and explores its impact on American life up to its repeal. Students look at possible ways the amendment could have been defeated and consider how 1920s America would have looked without the ban on alcohol.
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