Posted on by AR

100 questions from the historian

[Note: this is part of our annual Guest Writer Series. Meet guest writer #7.]

I have thought a great deal on what we are and are not teaching in US History. Since I spent a lifetime educating both college and high school students I thought that perhaps it was time to educate the masses. In my classes, there were always facts/dates. I once asked when the War for Independence began and then made the case for 1622 when the Virginia House of Burgesses announced they were going to tax themselves and not the Parliament — made them think. My classes were filled with what students labeled “infomercials” — things to know but not be tested on.

So here are a ‘few’ questions I have asked including some “landmark” decisions which have had an impact on the lives of citizens almost from the beginning of what we know as the United States. I always include the Declaration of Independence; we read through the entire thing — analyzing/discussing/debating. Hoping the following spurs an interest in “googling” answers you may and may not know…

  1. Do you know the reasons behind America’s intervention into Vietnam?
  2. Why does the Speaker invite the President to address the nation in a Joint Session of Congress?
  3. Why does the President “knock” on the closed House Chamber doors to be announced requesting permission to enter?
  4. What is the reason behind the Presidential Records Act? What does it say?
  5. What is the reason behind “impeachment”? (Go back to Colonial New York and the Royal Governor during the reign of Queen Anne.)
  6. How are classified documents declassified?
  7. Can a sitting president repeal any amendment? (In 2016, it was claimed that Secretary Clinton could.)
  8. How does an amendment get added to the Constitution?
  9. What are the reasons for the Bill of Rights? (BOR)
  10. What are the Articles of Confederation? 
  11. What is the National Archives?
  12. When the British burned down the Library of Congress, who replaced the books lost?
  13. When did John Adams and Thomas Jefferson die? 
  14. When was the Secret Service created? 
  15. What 2 West Point graduates, besties and roommates, rode from the west (i.e. California) to fight on opposite sides at Gettysburg?
  16. How was Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address received?
  17. What was the Trail of Tears?
  18. What was the Nullification Act?
  19. What stopped the slave trade in DC, and what year was the trade stopped?
  20. Who was Medgar Evers?
  21. What was the March in Selma about?
  22. What is the National Institute of Health?
  23. What are the first 5 freedoms covered by the First Amendment? Why were they included?
  24. Why is one cabinet member not permitted to attend any State of the Union (SOTU) or a Joint Session of Congress?  
  25. The Second Amendment has its roots in Colonial America; why was it added to the BOR?
  26. Why were the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed?
  27. When did all male schools like Washington & Lee and The University of Virginia admit women? And our military academies?
  28. When did women get the right to vote, and what president reluctantly signed it into law?
  29. What was the Oregon Trail? 
  30. The state laws in Louisiana are based on _______. Why?
  31. Most western states’ laws are based on _______. Why?
  32. The original 13 states and most of the states east of the Mississippi laws are based on _______. Why?
  33. What is Juneteenth? 
  34. What and when was the Tulsa Massacre?
  35. What were the reasons behind Wounded Knee?
  36. Why did the Southern States decide to leave the Union? (1860-1865)
  37. What is The Gilded Age?
  38. Why does industrialization come to the north over the south? 
  39. What were the Lincoln-Douglass debates, and why was it a forgone conclusion that Douglass would win? 
  40. What were the fireside chats? 
  41. Why and when was NATO formed? What is the importance of Article 5?
  42. What events led to America’s going to fight in The Great War?
  43. Why was America reluctant to get involved in the upheavals in Europe and Japan in the 1940’s?
  44. What was the root cause of the Spanish-American War?
  45. What was the root cause(s) of the War with Mexico? 
  46. What is the Monroe Doctrine? What is the Truman Doctrine?
  47. Who were  Thomas Paine, John Marshall, Sandra-Day O’Connor and Thurgood Marshall, and why are they important?
  48. What was Iran-Contra about, and why does the Reagan Administration side with them?
  49. What was Desert Storm? 
  50. What was the root cause of 9/11, and who was president on that day in 2001?
  51. Who was John McCain?
  52. What illness did JFK have, and how did he injure his back? 
  53. Can you name the 5 declared wars America has fought? Who actually declares war?
  54. What is a “police action”? (International)
  55. What is a ‘banana republic” and where are they located? 
  56. What was the Six-Day War?
  57. What was the Suez Canal upheaval about? (1956)
  58. What is the debt ceiling, and when did it become partisan? Why has it become such a big deal since WW1?
  59. What was the Albany Congress? What were the Townshend Acts?
  60. What is the actual “line of succession”?
  61. What does the entire Declaration of Independence say? (DOI)
  62. Why do the 13 colonies declare independence from Great Britain?
  63. What does freedom of speech mean? 
  64. What event turned George III from his earlier siding with the 13?
  65. Who were the men who died at the Alamo? 
  66. Why are the mascots of the following named as such: UVA-Cavaliers, Tennessee-Volunteers, and Texas-Longhorns?
  67. Why does the UP (Upper Peninsula) belong to Michigan?
  68. Why is Toledo in Ohio and not Michigan?
  69. Who was Maya Angelou? Who is Toni Morrison? And what is each famous for writing?
  70. Who is Toni Morrison, and what is she famous for writing? 
  71. Who was Alex Haley, and why was his book “Roots” such a turning point in American and TV history in 1977?
  72. How long did M*A*S*H last on TV, and why was it considered trailblazing? 
  73. What was the impact when UTEP defeated the University of Kentucky for the NCAA 🏀 Championship in 1966?
  74. Why are the following films believed to be game changers: “Glory,” “The Color Purple,” “Schindler’s List,” “Philadelphia,”’ “Brokeback Mountain,” and “The Godfather” (all 3 parts)?
  75. Who was Francis Marion? 
  76. Who was Sitting Bull? 
  77. Who was Chief Joseph, and what is his famous quote? 
  78. What does it take for a bill to become a law?
  79. Why is the power of the purse in the hands of The House of Representatives? 
  80. How many votes does it take to pass a bill in both Houses? 
  81. What is “gerrymandering,” and what does it do? 
  82. Should we continue to have the Electoral College or does it preserve the voting rights of small states?
  83. How many total years can a president serve? (Think LBJ more than a single answer.) 
  84. Who is the President Pro-Tempore of the Senate? (4th in line in succession) 
  85. What is the line of presidential succession? And do you know who they are?
  86. If you graduate from Harvard Law and want to move to Texas to practice law, can you and what hoops would you have to jump through?
  87. If wars are and have been fought over land/power/hate, how many wars have been fought for love? 
  88. What were the Salem Witch Trials really about? 
  89. What is Arthur Miller’s classic “The Crucible’ set in Salem of the 1600s really about? 
  90. What is McCarthyism (not Kevin), and what was the HUAC (aka the House Un-American Activities Committee)?
  91. What was the New Deal? 
  92. What are the qualifications for the SCOTUS and lesser courts? 
  93. Does the Preamble to the Constitution include the word “God”?
  94. What was the 3/5ths Compromise and the Great Compromise?
  95. When was “under God” added to the Pledge of Allegiance and why?
  96. What groundbreaking Broadway musical focused on civil rights/equal rights/Vietnam War while letting in the “sunshine”?
  97. Who was Cesar Chavez, Gloria Steinem and the Chicago 7?
  98. Who authorized the Clean Air and Water Act in the 1970’s?
  99. Why do the Brits drive on the wrong side of the road? 

And…

  1. Can you name the Commonwealth States? And why are they  Commonwealth States? 

Also, some landmark court cases to learn from (see www.Oyez.org to learn more about each case):

  1. Chisholm v. Georgia (1793)
  2. Marbury v. Madison (1803)
  3. Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee (1816)
  4. McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
  5. Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
  6. Jones v. VanZandt (1847)
  7. Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)
  8. Schenectady v. United States (1917)
  9. Korematsu v. US (1944)
  10. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)
  11. Mapp v. Ohio (1961)
  12. Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)
  13. NYTimes v. Sullivan (1964) 
  14. Miranda v. Arizona (1966)
  15. Loving v. Virginia (1967)
  16. Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969)
  17. Roe v. Wade (1973; overturned in Dobbs v Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization in 2022)
  18. US v. Nixon (1974)
  19. Bush v. Gore (2000)
  20. Moore v. Harper (2023) 

Always learning and asking questions…

Respectfully…

JBR