US History

Alternative Viewpoints from Various HistoriansPresented by Mr. Silva

Works Cited

Titles

Gordon, John Steele. An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power. 1. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2004. Print.

Loewen, James W. Lies My Teacher Told Me. 1. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2007. Print.

Rakove, Jack. Revolutionaries. 1. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2010. Print.

Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States. 5th (2003). New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1980. Print.

Summaries

Gordon's book offers various perspectives on why we have become a strong economic power

Loewen's book clearly stirs up some controversy. Of course, I would not lie to you ;). I've told you that I only know a fraction of American history in the beginning of this course. This book examines some of the juicy details most textbooks leave out. If it gets you to read, well, I've done my job.

Rakove demonstrates that most nations have been founded by Revolution. Clearly, the United States was no exception. The purpose of the book is to expand on some of the lives of revolutionaries that shaped our country and our thinking and how they impact us today.

We study about George Washington, admire the wisdom and intelligence of Benjamin Franklin, the excellent speaking abilities of John Adams, and admire the skills of Thomas Jefferson to stir people's imaginations with written words. But we forget that at least 90% of revolutionary America was populated by common people, such as farmers, who, although literate were disinterested in “natural rights” and “freedom”. This book is the story of those “common people” and how their thinking expanded as America grew.

Instructions

The purpose of this video is to offer an alternate perspective of American history from various sources.

Observe how I have highlighted important facts. This is how you should summarize future texts.

Look for yellow words. These are important words to help expand your vocab. Use your computer's thesaurus to help you find the meaning of each of these words you see. I will direct you on how to use this function.

Watch carefully for assignments!! Please enjoy and learn something!!

Racism

Analysis: “There is not a country in World History in which racism has been more important, for so long a time, as the United States. And the problem of the 'color line', as W.E.B. Du Bois put it, is still with us.” (Zinn).

Evaluation: This issue has more to do with the relationship between whites and blacks than between whites and other ethnic groups, and this is justifiably true in that there is proof that whites have profoundly affected black culture and visa versa.

American racism begins with the “systematic” reduction of the Native American tribes then accelerates to the point where the first African Slaves began to be incorporated into the Southern Colonial economy.

The source of American racism is unclear, but three main reasons emerge to “justify” it: religion, economy, social classes.

Although Europe had its own class system, non-white peoples were excluded from the society because non-whites were viewed as inferior.

Those first migrants to the New World (the Americas) brought with them these viewpoints and exerted their values upon natives and blacks often through force of arms.

Specific Examples

J. Saunders Redding, a black writer, had this to say about early slave ships:

Sails furled, flag drooping at her rounded stern, she rode the tide in from the sea. She was a strange ship indeed, by all accounts, a frightening ship, a ship of mystery. Whether she was a trader, privateer, or man-of-war, no one knows. Through her bulwards a blackmouthed cannon yawned. The flag she flew was Dutch. Her crew a motley one. Her port of call was an English settlement, Jamestown, in the colony of Virginia. She came, traded, and shortly afterwords was gone. Probably no ship in modern history has carried a more portentous freight. Her cargo? Twenty slaves.

Analysis: Virginia had a geography that made it difficult to extract resources from the land. It was tough on European settlers to scrape a living together. Redding wrote during the 1600s. Virginia was still a fledgling colony, then. It is important to note that 1600s' Virginia was in its early stages of development. Colonists looked to survive, initially, not profit.

Evaluation: Slavery and interaction with the natives planted the seeds for revolution in the British North American colonies. To have slavery was to go against everything that Britain stood for, for she had ridded herself of the evils of slavery nearly 200 years prior to the United States. This proves that preserving a way of life justified revolution. Reacting to pressures of living in North America demonstrated that slavery was essential.

Further Evaluation: Whites dealt with blacks differently than they dealt with Indians. The writings displayed clearly how whites viewed natives and Africans. In Morgan's statement, one can see that white colonists had a certain admiration for Native Americans that they tried to hide behind a veneer of jealousy and aggression. From Redding's perspective as a black man, one gets a sense of foreboding that the institution of slavery was an institution that was going to stay in America for many years. Redding would have never imagined that it would last for 200 years. In Zinn's chapter called “Drawing the Color Line”, he gives details on the sentiment of the slaves. It seemed Africans and natives were drawn together by their mutual predicament. Escaped slaves often fraternized with native tribes. Zinn does not argue this directly, but perhaps the American Revolution was not caused by the whites, but by the non-whites. They worked the hardest to see the American Revolution be successful, and yet, received nothing from it. In fact, one could argue that for the hundred years between the American Revolution and the Civil War, conditions for non-whites worsened...

Edmund Morgan in his book, American Slavery, American Freedom, described why Virginians were so eager to become slave masters:

If you were a colonist, you knew you had superior technology in comparison to the Indians'. You knew you were civilized, and they were savages... But your superior technology proved insufficient at extracting anything. The Indians, who kept to themselves, laughed at your superior methods and lived from the land more abundantly and with less labor than you did... And when your people deserted your settlement in order to live with them, it was too much... So you killed the Indians, tortured them, burned their villages, burned their cornfields. It proved your superiority, in spite of your failures. And you gave similar treatment to any of your own people who succumbed to their savage ways of life. But you still did not grow much corn.

Images

Unit 1: Immigrants to Revolutionaries

15th-21st Centuries: Europeans the New World

Spain-Portugal, France, England, Russia populate North and South America

Push Factors: Overpopulation, governing policy, economic competition, lack of food and resources.

Pull Factors: economic opportunity, less competition, possible food abundance and resource abundance

15th Century Military Garrisons

16th Century “An American Aristocracy”

17th Century Indentured Servants

18th Century Rise of Slavery in North America

19th Century Newcomers Divide a Nation

20th Century The Pains of Urbanization

21st Century A Maxed Out Human System

Group 1

Topic The Federalist Era, Jeffersonian

Democracy, National Growing Pains, Toward a National Economy, Jacksonian Democracy,

the Making of the Middle-Class

Themes: Racism

Women's Rights

Economic Growth

Stabilizing Government Thesis:

No other country in the history of the world has been shaped in such a way as the United States, through violent revolution, reaction, and reform.

Dating back to its prehistoric past, America has been established through four building blocks of civilization, which are: racism, women's rights, economic growth, and stabilizing government.

Group 1 Ch. 5-10

How did the British justify their refusal to withdraw from their northwestern posts? (142) “The British justified holding on to these positions by citing the failure of Americans to live up to some of the terms of the peace treaty.

The United States had agreed not to impede British creditors seeking to collect on prewar debts and to “earnestly recommend” that the states restore confiscated Tory property. The reason why, according to your book, that the British remained, or more specifically could remain was the fact that many states were not unified on many British- related issues. In the early United States, there was a clear disconnect between the state and national governments, which was illustrated in this issue.

How did the American leaders model their government? What did they base it on? (145-151) The misconception in American history is that we based our government on the Greek Democratic model. This is not the case.

Democracy, as Benjamin Franklin once said, is like 2 foxes and 1 chicken deciding what to eat for dinner. The early leaders needed a model that was effective, so they picked the Roman Republic. Dr. Rakove of Stanford University stated that the Constitution should be known as an “organism” that constantly evolves and changes. Its early architects were clearly procrastinators, leaving out chief issues such as women's rights and the institution of slavery (Murakami). Congress, in contrast to the British Parliament, “reflects” the entire populace, not “represents” it (Rakove).

Political parties, how were they built? (159-160) Your book contrasts with the general opinion that it was Adams and Jefferson that differed in perspectives. It was really Hamilton

and Jefferson that disagreed. Washington limited partisanship, which meant that political parties could form. (“Party” in this case doesn't mean dancing and fun; it means that a group of people, usually men, gathering together and agreeing and supporting an ideology.) The criticism with political parties, which began, as your book said, in the 1790s, is that people who are affiliated with those parties become lost in those ideologies of their party and they forget about their true purpose as politicians: to serve their nation. Just like today's political structure, the minority party made it incredibly difficult for the majority party to create policies. The “Republicans”, as they were called, evolved into what we recognize today as the Democratic Party. The “Federalists” would settle on John Adams for their Presidential successor to Washington. The book stated that Alexander Hamilton would have been the better candidate, but as US Treasurer, he had been favorable to the British, especially over the issue of the French Revolution, which was beginning in Europe during the mid-1790s. Great Britain was still “Enemy #1”. Hamilton wanted the Federalists to select Pinckney as the Presidential candidate, because he felt he could not “control” Adams, who as you know, was a polished politician. Under Adams, the United States really began to take shape. (165-170) Federalist contributions consisted of essentially building the United States, or as your book said, the “machinery” of the United States. The regime that followed the Federalists, the Republicans (not related to today's Republicans), ran the country using that machinery and built on the success that the Federalists had.

Group 1: Ch. 5-10

US Government branches and the shaping of powers, formation of the Supreme Court

You learned that our government has three branches: executive, legislative and judiciary. In the court case, Marbury vs. Madison, Chief Justice John Marshall defined the Supreme Court's role. Jefferson tried to entice Marshall, who had little law experience, by having Congress give the Supreme Court the ability to issue writ of mandamus (an extraordinary writ (order) commanding an official to perform a ministerial act that the law recognizes as an absolute duty and not a matter for the official's discretion; used only when all other judicial remedies fail). Marshall saw what was happening, said that Congress could not control the courts, sacrificed, Marbury's plea in order to establish the court's place in the national government.

War of 1812, everything about it

Early women's rights

After women gained their right to vote, their role as activists lessened somewhat because they received what they were looking for.

Jacksonian Democracy (everything)

Jackson's viewed the role of the President as a representative and spokesperson of the people.

Jackson believed that no independent nation should exist within another; when it came to creating policies to deal with the Native Americans, he addressed the issue with this mindset.

Fredrick Douglass believed full economic, political and social equality for blacks was required.

Lucretia Mott said, “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created equal,” to open her Declaration of Sentiments in 1848

Manifest Destiny was used to describe America as a melting pot of immigrants.

The public reaction to the Compromise of 1850 consisted of mass meetings throughout the country held to support it.

Issues in Designing a Constitution

Factions: Groups want certain things for example slavery, economic freedoms, religious freedom, protection.

Solution: You can't please everyone!! The solution is to therefore allow the Constitution to “adapt” or “be adapted” to fit the times. This is what it means when the government Amends the Constitution.

Solution #2: Procrastination! Why solve a problem today that you can leave for tomorrow's leaders?

Solution #3: How do you solve the conflict between “freedom” and “liberty”? Define them in your own words and prepare to discuss them in class.

Solution #4: What type of government should replace the Parliamentary System in the US? Constitutional leaders resurrected an older form of government: the Republic. We are not a democracy, although we have certain components like a democracy. A republic serves the US better because its government then looks out for the people it protects. Congress is then a “reflection” not a representation of the population as a whole.

Perspectives of the Wealthy Elite

Specific Example:

Washington: The people who are insurgents have never paid any, or but very little taxes. But they see the weakness of government; they feel at once their own poverty, compared with the opulent, and their own force, and they are determined to make use of the latter, in order to remedy the former. Their creed is “That the property of the United States has been protected from the confiscations of Britain by the joint exertions of all, and therefore ought to be the common property of all. And he that attempts opposition to this creed is an enemy to equity and justice and ought to be swept from off the face of the Earth.

Madison/Hamilton, Federalist Paper #63: “A 'well-constructed' Senate is 'sometimes necessary as a defense to the people against their own temporary errors and delusions' because 'there are particular moments in public affairs when the people, stimulated by some irregular passion, or some illicit advantage, or misled by the artful misrepresentations of interested men, may call for measures which they themselves will afterwords be the most ready to lament and condemn.” (Zinn)

Analysis: These thoughts contributed to the formation of the

Constitution, which was essentially built to bridge southern slaveholding interests with moneyed interests of the north. To justify it further, Congress wrote the Bill of Rights to paint an image of the Central government as a defender of the people's liberties: to speak, to publish, to worship, to petition, to assemble, to be tried fairly, to be secure at home aganst official intrusion.

Evaluation: When you look at a source like the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence to get a first-hand account of America at that point in its history to use in your papers or your projects, you need to ask yourself the question, “What were these two documents trying to accomplish and were they fair in going about doing it?” About the Forefathers, you should ask yourself if they “were wise and just men trying to achieve a good balance?” Maybe, if you chose to do so to improve your own analysis and evaluation sections in your writings, in reading the two documents, you may find that the Forefathers “in fact did not want a balance, except one which kept things as they were, a balance among the dominant forces at the time. Most assuredly, elitist men like Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, and Hamilton, to name a few, did not seek balance between slaves and their masters, propertyless and property holders, Indians and whites. Perhaps what would have brought greater “balance” to early America was to incorporate the group that history most often neglects: women. (Zinn).

Women

Throughout history, women have remained anonymous while men have attained countless accolades for advancing human civilization. Is this fair? Absolutely not. Who mothers men to their greatest potential but mothers? While some societies in the world were and still are highly matriarchal, why did, why does the American society, one that is supposed to be progressive, neglect women? In the post-Revolutionary Era, it seems that their characteristics became a convenience for men, who could use, exploit, and cherish someone who was at the same time a servant, sex mate, companion, and bearer-teacher-warden of his children. Yes. Women do have a larger role in history as the core of the family. It seemed that nonwhite cultures, for the most part were matriarchal until the whites came and altered their views. Whatever the case may be, the American woman has had as many trials and tribulations as any ethnic minority.

Although the British, against all odds, lost in their struggle against the Americans, women were exposed to new trains of thought by the ordeal. The French Revolution captured many European hearts and minds, especially the women. One in particular, a British woman by the name of Mary Wollstonecraft had this to say in response to the conservative opponent of the French Revolution, Edmund Burke: I wish to persuade women to endeavor to acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them that soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness, and that those beings who are only the objects of pity and that kind of love...will soon become objects of contempt... I wish to show that the first object of laudable ambition is to obtain a character as a human being regardless of the distinction of sex.

Analysis: It is important to demonstrate how and why women thought the way they did at the time. History has been unfair and unkind to women, when perhaps one can argue that without a certain degree of femininity, human culture in general would not have been cultivated and refined. Wollstonecraft spoke against Burke because Burke had said: “a woman is but an animal, and an animal not of the highest order”. Women of the educated aristocracy spoke and thought as Wollstonecraft did. It seemed as though women who were of high social status were confined to certain duties as child-bearers and child-rearers. By the 1800s, an industrial age had dawned in America. In 1813, one woman wrote: “The idea of soon giving birth to my third child and the consequent duties I shall be called to discharge distresses me so I feel I should sink”. This thought, however, undermined the trend of the times. The despondency of the thought was lightened by the thought that something important was given to women to do: to instill a sense of moral values in her children of self-restraint and advancement through individual excellence rather than common action. Such thoughts were mere stepping stones. Women began their venture as agents of social change in the industrial realm. Not all women were aristocrats. Some had to work. For 37.5 cents/day, the work that women did was laborious, life taxing and unfair. Women learned the art of striking and began to use it effectively.

Women

For women without status, life was difficult, but it was far more compelling. In a factory in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1834, a young woman was fired from her job. In response, the other girls left their looms. Six years later, across various New England cities, strikes became more militant and violent. Women broke into factories armed with sticks and stones and stopped the looms. Catherine Beecher, a woman reformer of that time wrote: Let me now present the facts I learned by observation and inquiry on the spot. I was there in mid-winter, and every morning I was awakened at 5 by the bells calling to labor. The time allowed for dressing and breakfast was so short as many told me, that both were performed hurriedly, and then the work at the mill was begun by lamplight, and prosecuted without remission until 12, in standing position . Then a half an hour allowed only for dinner, from which the time for going on the clock and returning was deducted. Then back to the mills, to work until 7 o'clock...it must be remembered that all oil lamps, together with 40-80 persons, are exhausting the healthful principle of the air...and where the air is loaded with particles of cotton thrown from thousands of cards, spindles, and looms.

Evaluation: Upperclass women clearly had time to think, to discuss, to cultivate their thoughts. But lower class women had no choice but to “do”, to act.

Instructions: Choose 3 out of the following 4 essay prompts. Write 50 sentence (3 page minimum) essays for each question you've chosen using the format you have been given. The Question that you have left out will become your “stretch” question during the seminar. Support your argument with evidence from primary documents. Cite according to MLA specifications. Use your own individual evidence to support your argument and to enhance your analysis and evaluation. Format as the writingworkshop3.ppt requires. We will have a Socratic Seminar two weeks following your retreat. PREPARE WELL.

Compare and contrast the lifestyles and thinking of upperclass women to lower class women.

Describe in detail how and why women impacted American History. Select 3 primary sources to use as evidence to form 3 body paragraphs.

Were they incorporated or did they incorporate themselves?

Compare this information to the sections about women's rights in your text. You may even refer to your exam if you wish. What concession was granted to women that made them cease their role as social activists somewhat?

Unit 2: A Nation Divided

Unconstitutional Constitution

State's Rights vs. Federal Government

Industry vs Agriculture

Slave states vs. Free States

Group 2: Ch. 12-16

Topic: Expansion and Slavery, the Sections Go Their Way, the Coming of the Civil War, the War to Save the Union

Themes: Racism

Women's Rights

Economic Growth

Stabilizing Government

Slavery was an issue that had been put off by national government leaders for a hundred years prior to the Civil War. One man decided to address the issue of slavery: Abraham Lincoln. His family continued to meet difficult times characterized by the loss of Lincoln's biological mother. Although Lincoln's father found a new wife, and she supported Lincoln's interest in education, Lincoln decided that he was not suited to farming. So he ran away to Illinois to seek out a path as a lawyer, which would then lead him into politics. From Congressman to Illinois governor to President, Lincoln had a storied career in politics.

Zinn analyzed how Lincoln's view of slavery changed according to his path to the Presidency. From the following two speeches, can you tell how close Lincoln was to winning?

Choice 1: “Let us discard all this quibbling about this man and the other man, this race and the other race being inferior, and therefore they must be placed in an inferior position. Let us discard all these thing and unite as one people throughout this land, until we shall once more stand up declaring that all men are created equal.”

Choice 2: “I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about the social and political equality of the white and black races (applause); that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with the white people... And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.

Group 2: Ch. 12-16

As a social institution, slavery in the United States varied among the individual landowners because it was difficult to generalize about it.

On the eve of the Civil War, 15% of American manufacturing was done in the South.

The Supreme Court ruled the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional in the Dred Scott decision.

The Free Soil Party stood for keeping slavery out of the territories but also allowing for it to remain where it already existed.

Lincoln viewed secession as a rejection of democracy.

1 million troops were not killed in the Civil War.

The 15th Amendment was easily subverted in the South by literacy tests.

By the end of 1875, the 3 southern states still under Republican control were not Mississippi, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Group 3: Ch. 18-24

Progressive Era, WWI Progress or Not?

Themes: Racism

Women's Rights

Economic Growth

Stabilizing Government

The Progressive Era spanned from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of WWI. The Civil War, Lincoln's assassination, the emancipation of the slaves, and women's rights movements reshaped the country and shifted our history in a new and different direction. Imagine that you are living in a nation where you are trying to incorporate different ideas, different customs, and various cultural outlooks to form a single ideology that is somewhat separate from what your nation's founders originally intended. That was what America was like after the Civil War. The chaos of the war left vast space for improvement. Businesses and corporations serviced areas of the market that were clearly unrecognized or unrealized prior to the war. Shaving and barbershops, for example, as men began to look more professional, became popular. Government took interest in cities as metropolitan areas and industrial centers by sanctioning the construction of skyscrapers, apartment buildings and public transportation systems. It was in the Progressive Era that ineptitudes left by the original makers of our government were resolved, yet civil rights would not be fully resolved politically for 100 years more.

As far as the role of the Presidents, you should understand by now that what Presidents could say and actually do changed, pretty drastically, since George Washington in the 1790s. Those that drafted the Constitution, mainly Madison, Jefferson, and Hamilton, believed that government authority should reside in the assembly, more correctly known as the Congress or House of Representatives. Authority was centered in the Presidency in the early years of America because Washington ran his Cabinet, or his advisory board, much like he did his army. But he liked to refer to the wisdom of his advisors, such as his Vice President, John Adams, his Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, and his Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, in order to find solutions to problems that early America faced.

Group 3: Ch. 18-24

The theory of evolution by natural selection which helped Americans justify their exploitation of others was the work of Charles Darwin.

In the late 19th Century, wealth power and influence were increasingly concentrated among the largest financiers.

One of the causes which eventually led to restriction on immigration was the fears of Social Darwinists that immigrants would undermine American “racial purity”.

Walter Camp played a major role in establishing football as a major sport while James Naismith invented the game of basketball.

According to German educator Johann Fredrich Herbart, good teaching called for psychological insight and imagination.

The effects of Darwinism were apparent in the philosophy of Pragmatism, which stated that all truths are constantly evolving and can be judged only by their concrete results.

Historians commonly date the Progressive Era from the end of the Civil War through WWI.

Many of the middle-class were attracted to progressive reforms because they felt their ambitions and sense of importance were undermined by the giant corporations

Americans after the Civil War gave little thought to foreign affairs.

The “Open Door” policy attempted to preserve chances for American businesses to enter the markets of China.

President Wilson's basic approach to foreign relations was that he wanted to spread the gospel of American democracy to enlighten the unfortunate and the ignorant.

The Great War was caused by the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne by a Serbian nationalist.

Progressives (Continued from right column of slide 12.) No President since Washington wielded that much authority.

Perhaps we can say that Washington was justified in having that much control over the national government because he was both a tone and trend setter. No President has exemplified the role of that position since Washington, with the exception of Abraham Lincoln, whose role as President was described in more detail in Chapters 12-16. Progressive Presidents were different, however.

Historians would say that no President during the Progressive Era would have labeled himself as “progressive” with the exception of one President Theodore Roosevelt. That is how history works. History is as much a science as biology, chemistry, and physics. In class you have been experimenting with history and developing your ideas and these ideas have been expressed in your thesis statements in your essays. And you are improving and getting stronger even if you don't feel you are...

About the so-called Progressives. T. Roosevelt (text 586-595) thought differently than most leaders did during his time. If you looked at TR's career, you'd see that he did pretty much everything with his life. In fact, take a moment to go look up TR's biography. In summary, TR was a soldier in the US Military during the Spanish-American War, went on safaris of various kinds, but finally, when he became President, one of his most significant contributions was establishing the Yellowstone National Park. This demonstrated his contrasting viewpoints in that on one hand, TR was a hunter, while on the other he was interested preserving natural life and history.

So what was a Progressive? Progressivism, according to your text (573-575), was rooted in a popular movement to end political corruption. It also played a part in regulating and controlling big business. Failures of the Interstate Commerce Act to end railroad abuses of the Sherman Antitrust Act to check the growth of large corporations became increasingly apparent after1900. Women played a large role in progressivism. I do not want you to think of progressivism as just a side-note as an era that connected the Civil War to World War 1. It was an important time in our history that even effects people's perspectives in today's society. And there was no one who embodied Progressivism like TR. There was a great fear in America during the 1870s-early 1900s about the monopolies. Perhaps this was more of a fear from the government's perspective. Think about it, imagine if you were trying to govern your country and you had to commission a road to be built to connect two cities. That would be pretty essential right? So if there was only one road-building company the only bid you would be able to arrange would be for that one company. When you have two or more road surfacing companies, you would actually drive down costs. When TR was President he had to contend with an essential industry, the fuel industry, particularly coal. Coal was used to fuel trains, machinery and other essential components of the American economy.

Group 4: Ch. 25-29

Themes: Racism

Women's Rights

Economic Growth

Stabilizing Government

After winning the right to vote most women of the 1920s lost interest in agitating for change.

During the 1920s, American sports were extraordinarily popular.

Immediately after the Great War, Americans were retreating into isolationism.

The weakest element in the American economy, and one of the factors that contributed to the Great Depression was agriculture.

By the day of FDR's inauguration, in 1933, banking operations had been suspended in 4/5 of the states.

Your text describes the philosophy of the New Deal as lacking any consistent ideological base.

Roosevelt's greatest accomplishment as a wartime leader was his ability to inspire people with a sense of purpose.

Immediately after Pearl Harbor, American and British strategists decided to concentrate first against Germany.

1944 GI Bill of Rights gave veterans subsidies for education or opening a small business.

The Marshall Plan provided for massive economic assistance in Europe.

Group 5: Ch. 30-33

Themes: Racism

Women's Rights

Economic Growth

Stabilizing Government

Bus boycotts, lunch counter sit-ins and “freedom rides” were all attempts to promote racial integration.

After withdrawal from Vietnam, Nixon's main domestic goal was strengthening the power of the presidency over Congress.

A major trend after WW2 was that Americans traveled more often in this golden age of the automobile.

American society during the 1960s was characterized by affluence and social fragmentation.

President Carter claimed that his most important concern in foreign affairs was to defend basic human rights.

According to your text, after the war in the Persian Gulf, President George H. W. Bush was criticized because he did not capture Baghdad and crush the Iraqi Army. Domestically, Bush failed to live up to his “no new taxes” pledge because mounting war expenses forced him to raise taxes. This prompted a drop in Bush's public appeal and also led to a distrust of the Republican Party.

Clinton's most important initiative was a failed attempt to reform the health insurance system. However, under Clinton, in a lot of ways, our role as a police power of the globe was questioned because Clinton reduced military spending and troop numbers stationed in worldwide locations. As a result, there were events like the Bosnia-Hertzegovnia incident.

Conclusion

Themes:

Transitions from WWII to the Modern Era: Cold War

Terrorism as the New Global Threat

Economic Downturn and Weathering the Storm

Clinton's Presidency left personal questions about the office, the Lewinski Scandal, as well as the handling of the policy in the Middle East led voters to look elsewhere.

George W. Bush won the Presidency in 2000. Knowing the pedigree of the Bush family, and that the country wanted to break away from the association of the Clinton Administration, by avoiding Al Gore, the former Vice President.

The Bush Presidency is still too fresh for history to have taken note of what it did for the country. Did it fail? That's unknown. Did it succeed? That's unknown. What is known is that Bush's election precipitated the events that took place on September 11th, 2001.

The terroristic organization, known long before 9/11, as Al Quaeda, formulated the attack on the World Trade Center. New government organizations such as the Department of Homeland Security were established to prevent attacks on the scale of 9/11.

The economy teetered on edge until the ending of the Bush Presidency. When Obama took over, problems within the economic structure that had been hidden previously were revealed. Whether one believes that the economic straits that the United States is in was caused by the Bush Administration or some other force, the fact of the matter is was that the United States as a country was mismanage.

Conclusion 2