Edexcel AS History Student Unit Guide: Unit 1 Pursuing Life and Liberty: Equality in the USA, 1945-68 (Option D5)

Summary:
Student Unit Guides are perfect for revision. Each guide is written by an examiner and explains the unit requirements, summarises the relevant unit content and includes a series of specimen questions and answers.

There are three sections to each guide:

Introduction - includes advice on how to use the guide, an explanation of the skills being tested by the assessment objectives, an outline of the unit or module and, depending on the unit, suggestions for how to revise effectively and prepare for the examination questions.

Content Guidance - provides an examiner's overview of the module's key terms and concepts and identifies opportunities to exhibit the skills required by the unit. It is designed to help students to structure their revision and make them aware of the concepts they need to understand the exam and how they might analyse and evaluate topics.

Question and Answers - sample questions and with graded answers which have been carefully written to reflect the style of the unit. All responses are accompanied by commentaries which highlight their respective strengths and weaknesses, giving students an insight into the mind of the examiner.

• A revision guide specifically written to meet the requirements of the unit
  

• Written by an examiner with commentary on key points and concepts 
  

• Features specimen questions and answers, together with examiner's comments
  

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Section 1: The social and economic position of black citizens in the USA, 1945-55
The position of black Americans in 1945
President Truman and civil rights
Early campaigns
The NAACP's education campaigns
Slow progress
Exam focus
Section 2: Martin Luther King and peaceful protest, 1955-68
The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Little Rock campaign
The Greensboro sit-ins and the Freedon Rides
From Albany to Birmingham
The March on Washington and the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Voting rights, 1957-65
King's Northern campaigns
Opposition to civil rights
Key players: King, Kennedy and Johnson
The achievements of peaceful protest, 1955-68
Exam focus
Section 3: Black Power and the use of violence
Malcolm X
The radicalism of SNCC and CORE
The Black Panthers
SNCC, 1966-68
The achievements of Black Power
Exam focus
Section 4: The changing economic and social environment of the 1960s
Mass Culture
Counterculture and anti-war movement
Feminism
Hispanic Americans
Native Americans
Exam focus
Timeline
Glossary
Answers

About the Author(s):
Robin Bunce is a bye fellow at St Edmund's College in Cambridge and a senior examiner in history.