Section Euro HG du Lycée Ferry, Versailles

HISTORY: THE USA AND THE WORLD (1945-2003)

How did the USA build its relation to the world after WW2 ?

I) The aftermath of war and the birth of a full power

1) Some American sources to measure the power of the USA in the 1940s

Group work: a) The American occupation of Japan (1945-1952)

                    b) An iconic superhero: Captain America

                    c) US Advertisement

2) A full power is born

II) A new born power facing the USSR (1947-1970s)

1) Two ideological and opposite models

2) The fear of the Red threat in the USA: McCarthyism, a liberty killer policy ?

3) On the edge of a 3rd World War ? The Cuban missile crisis (1962)

4) The 1970s: A time of doubts and moral crisis

** Movie: extract from Apocalypse Now, Francis Coppola, 1979**

** Lecture at University **

III) The USA from Reagan to GWBush: "America is back", America is a "hyperpower", America is attacked.

1) The Reagan's Policy: "America is back" in the 1980s

2) A new world order around the only hyperpower in the 1990s

3) A strong Anti-Americanism across the world which questions the power (2001-2003): From the World Trade Center to Abu Ghraib jail.

                                                                      ***