AMH Exam 1

What were the two bills that Andrew vetoed and what did they do?

1. Civil Rights Bill of 1866-It defined all persons born in the United States as citizens and spelled out rights they were to enjoy without regard to race. 2. Extended the life of the Freedmen's Bureau, which had originally been established for only one year.

Race and US imperialism: What is the connection between race and Imperialism?

But many others saw these new territories as signs that the United States had come of age, and it was the duty of Americans to spread the light of civilization and democracy to the "backward" people of the world. Convinced of the superiority of people of Anglo-Saxon descent, these Americans saw it as the "white man's burden" (a phrase taken from a poem by the author and imperialist booster Rudyard Kipling) to govern and somehow uplift the people of Latin America and the Pacific—whether they wanted it or not. Others protested that imperialism would include people of "inferior" races in the American body politic. If it wasn't American, it was frowned upon.

Christian Fundamentalism: who were they and what did they want?

Christian Fundamentalism: Anti-modernist Protestant movement started in the early twentieth century that proclaimed the literal truth of the Bible; the name came from The Fundamentals, published by conservative leaders. -Many evangelical Protestants felt threatened by the decline of traditional values and the increased visibility of Catholicism and Judaism because of immigration. They also resented the growing presence within mainstream Protestant denominations of "modernists" who sought to integrate science and religion and adapt Christianity to the new secular culture. -Convinced that the literal truth of the Bible formed the basis of Christian belief, fundamentalists launched a campaign to rid Protestant denominations of modernism and to combat the new individual freedoms that seemed to contradict traditional morality. -Their most flamboyant apostle was Billy Sunday. -Prohibition, which fundamentalists strongly supported, succeeded in reducing the consumption of alcohol as well as public drunkenness and drink-related diseases.The greatest expansion of national authority since Reconstruction, it raised major questions of local rights, individual freedom, and the wisdom of attempting to impose religious and moral values on the entire society through legislation. These developments reinforced fundamentalists' identification of urban life and modern notions of freedom with immorality and a decline of Christian liberty.

Robber Barons vs. Captains of Industry: who were they and why did people both praise and criticize them?

Gilded Age industrial figures who inspired both admiration, for their economic leadership and innovation, and hostility and fear, due to their unscrupulous business methods, repressive labor practices, and unprecedented economic control over entire industries.Most rose from modest backgrounds and seemed examples of how inventive genius and business sense enabled Americans to seize opportunities for success. -Carnegie set out to establish a steel company that incorporated vertical integration. -Vertical integration:controlled every phase of the business from raw materials to transportation, manufacturing, and distribution. -John D. Rockefeller rose to dominate the oil industry with Horizontal integration. -Horizontal integration: a corporation acquires or merges with its competitors.

Cities in the Progressive Era: know about how they changed and why they were the focus of activism.

It was the city that became the focus of Progressive politics and of a new mass-consumer society. The United States counted twenty-one cities whose population exceeded 100,000 in 1910, the largest of them New York, with 4.7 million residents. The twenty-three square miles of Manhattan Island were home to over 2 million people, more than lived in thirty-three of the states. Fully a quarter of them inhabited the Lower East Side, an immigrant neighborhood more densely populated than Bombay or Calcutta in India.

Strikes: be able to discuss some of the key strikes, goals, and their significance.

Key Strikes: -Chicago Hay Market Affair: On May 3, 1886, four strikers were killed by police when they attempted to prevent strikebreakers from entering the factory. The next day, a rally was held in Haymarket Square to protest the killings. Near the end of the speeches, someone threw a bomb into the crowd, killing a policeman. -The Great Pullman Strike

Liberalism: How did the meaning of Liberalism change?

Roosevelt adeptly appealed to traditional values in support of new policies. He gave the term "liberalism" its modern meaning. In the nineteenth century, liberalism had been a shorthand for limited government and free-market economics. Roosevelt consciously chose to employ it to describe a large, active, socially conscious state. It now referred to active efforts by the national government to modernize and regulate the market economy and to uplift less fortunate members of society.

The Great Railroad Strike: what was it and what was its significance?

The Great Railroad strike of 1877 was the first national labor walkout where workers protesting a pay cut paralyzed rail traffic in much of the country, militia units tried to force them back to work. Workers responded to the killing by the militia by burning the city's railroad yards, destroying millions of dollars in property. What was its significance? The strike revealed both a strong sense of solidarity among workers and the close ties between the Republican Party and the new class of industrialists.

Freedmen's Bureau: What was it and what did it do?

The The Freedmen Bureau was a 'refugee program' that failed to complete its purpose in: 1. Trying to establish a "labor system" in the South between the planters who wanted a labor system that was close to slavery as possible and former slaves demanding economic autonomy and access to land. 2. Bureau agents were supposed to establish schools, provide aid to the poor and aged, settle disputes between whites and blacks and among the freed people, assuming control of hospitals, and secure for former slaves and white Unionists equal treatment before the courts. 3. Greatly helped with education.

Populism: who were the populists and what were some of the main complaints of farmers?

The populists (originally called the Farmer's Alliance that later called themselves into the 'populist party' when involved with politics and opened themselves up to "all producing classes") believe had gone wrong in America originally began with their declining economic needs and putting a halt on the control that powerful corporates had on the government. Farmer's at this time were finding themselves in debt due to a number of reasons such as low prices on their products because of surplus, the sharecropping system, high cargo rates charged by railroad companies, and outrageous interest rates from bankers. Solutions created by the Alliance included shared financial institutions such as modern-day credit unions or proposing that the federal government would establish warehouses where farmers could store crops until they were sold. As stated before, the ideals were alike with only a few slight differences, but had the overall same essence of keeping a focus on the federal government to regulate themselves in the public interest, suchlike with modern technologies. In context, according to the Omaha Platform, the Populist Party focused on certain problems and solutions; for example, graduated income tax, direct election of U.S. senators, secret ballot box, the eight-hour day, government control on currency namely bimetallism, and so on and so forth.

Espionage Act

This law, passed after the United States entered WWI, imposed sentences of up to twenty years on anyone found guilty of aiding the enemy, obstructing recruitment of soldiers, or encouraging disloyalty. It allowed the postmaster general to remove from the mail any materials that incited treason or insurrection.

World War I: why did it start and why did some Americans not want to join the fighting

What began it? -In June 1914, a Serbian nationalist assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire, in Sarajevo.In the aftermath of the assassination, Austria-Hungary, the major power in eastern Europe, declared war on Serbia. Within a little more than a month, because of the European powers' interlocking military alliances, Britain, France, Russia, and Japan (the Allies) found themselves at war with the Central Powers—Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman empire. German forces quickly overran Belgium and part of northern France. The war then settled into a prolonged stalemate, with bloody, indecisive battles succeeding one another. British spies intercepted and made public the Zimmermann Telegram, a message by German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann calling on Mexico to join in a coming war against the United States, and until the spring of 1918 did American forces arrive in Europe in large numbers. -Why did some Americans not want to join the fighting? *Wilson defeated Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes partly because he seemed to promise not to send American soldiers to Europe. *British-Americans sided with their nation of origin, as did many other Americans who associated Great Britain with liberty. *On the other hand, German-Americans identified with Germany. *Irish-Americans bitterly opposed any aid to the British, a sentiment reinforced in 1916 when authorities in London suppressed the Easter Rebellion. *Immigrants from the Russian empire, especially Jews, had no desire to see the United States aid the czar's regime. *Many feminists, pacifists, and social reformers, moreover, had become convinced that peace was essential to further efforts to enhance social justice at home. They lobbied vigorously against American involvement. So did large numbers of religious leaders, who viewed war as a barbaric throwback to a less Christian era.

The United States became a world power, how so?

-In the Spanish-American War of 1898 US defeats Spain and signs a treaty acquiring Guam, Philippines, and Puerto Rico. -America occupies now-independent Cuba allowing the US to intervene. -In 1893 American sugar plantation owners organize a coup in Hawii, overthrowing Queen Liliuokalani pushing for US to annex it.

Details to remember about the Populist Party...

1. In some southern states, the Populists made remarkable efforts to unite black and white small farmers on a common political and economic program because many white Populists were landowning farmers while most blacks were tenants and agricultural laborers. 2. In 1891, it tried to organize a strike of cotton pickers on plantations in South Carolina, Arkansas, and Texas. 3.Democrats fight off Populists with same rhetoric was during Reconstruction and use violence to attack them and disenfranchise supporters.

Kansas Exodus

A migration by some 40,000-60,000 blacks to Kansas to escape the oppressive environment of the New South.

Why did socialist ideas begin to emerge in the American people?

The Cooperative Commonwealth, the first book to popularize socialist ideas for an American audience. 1848 Karl Marx published The Communist Manifesto, and some workers were interested in socialism. Socialism—the belief that private control of economic enterprises should be replaced by public ownership in order to ensure a fairer distribution of the benefits of the wealth produced.

15th Amendment & Black Voting: What was the 15th Amendment? What were some victories of Black Voting?

The Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibited the federal and state governments from denying any citizen the right to vote because of race. Bitterly opposed by the Democratic Party, it was ratified in 1870. What were some victories of Black Voting? 1. A newly empowered national state and the idea of a national citizenry enjoying equality before the law. 2. African-Americans were represented at every level of government.In 1870 there was the first black senator.

Plessy vs. Ferguson: what was the significance of this court case?

The Fourteenth Amendment, the Court insisted, prohibited unequal treatment by state authorities, not private businesses. In 1896, in the landmark decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, the Court gave its approval to state laws requiring separate facilities for blacks and whites. U.S. Supreme Court decision supporting the legality of Jim Crow laws that permitted or required "separate but equal" facilities for blacks and whites. Arguing that segregated facilities did not discriminate so long as they were "separate but equal."

Jim Crow: what was it and how did it work?

• FL: "The schools for white children and the schools for negro children shall be conducted separately." • MS: "The marriage of a white person with a negro or mulatto or person shall have one-eighth or more of negro blood, shall be unlawful and void." • LA: "The board of trustees shall...maintain a seperate building...on separate ground for the admission, care, instruction, and support of all blind persons of the colore or black race."

How was administration under Andrew?

1. Johnson offered a pardon (which restored political and property rights, except for slaves) to nearly all white southerners who took an oath of allegiance to the Union. 2. Johnson also appointed provisional governors and ordered them to call state conventions, elected by whites alone, that would establish loyal governments in the South. He granted the new governments a free hand in managing local affairs 3. By and large, white voters returned prominent Confederates and members of the old elite to power.

Sharecropping

A new system that emerged in different regions of the South where it allowed for a blacks' desire for land and planters' demand for labor discipline. The system allowed each black family to rent a part of a plantation, with the crop divided between worker and owner at the end of the year.

Social and economic effects of the Great Depression: what were some key early result?

Effects: 1. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the road in search of work. 2. Thousands of families, evicted from their homes, moved into ramshackle shantytowns, dubbed Hoovervilles, that sprang up in parks and on abandoned land. 3. Cities quickly spent the little money they had available for poor relief. 4. The Depression actually reversed the long-standing movement of population from farms to cities. Many Americans left cities to try to grow food for their families. 5. The American suicide rate rose to the highest level in the nation's history and the birthrate fell to the lowest. 6. The image of big business, carefully cultivated during the 1920s, collapsed as congressional investigations revealed massive irregularities committed by bankers and stockbrokers. 7. Many Americans reacted to the Depression with resignation or blamed themselves for economic misfortune. Others responded with protests that were at first spontaneous and uncoordinated, because disciplined leadership had been decimated during the 1920s. 8. Only the minuscule Communist Party seemed able to give a political focus to the anger and despair.

Railroads and Industry: what were they key industries of the Gilded Age and why were railroads so significant?

The key industries of the Gilded Age were: -Railroads -Technological Inventions: *Electronic telegraph *telephone *typewriter *handheld camera *the phonograph *lightbulb *motion picture *a system for generating and distributing electric power. Railroads were so significant because: 1. It opened vast new areas to commercial farming and creating a truly national market for manufactured goods. Fun Facts about railroads: 1. Spurred by private investment and massive grants of land and money by federal, state, and local governments. 2. The railroads reorganized time itself.

Immigrants: who were the immigrants of the early 20th century and why did they come?

-Rural southern and eastern Europe and large parts of Asia were regions marked by widespread poverty and illiteracy, burdensome taxation, and declining economies. -Political turmoil at home, like the revolution that engulfed Mexico after 1911, also inspired emigration. Not all of these immigrants could be classified as "free laborers," however. -Large numbers of Chinese, Mexican, and Italian migrants, including many who came to the United States, were bound to long-term contracts with labor agents, who then provided the workers to American employers. But all the areas attracting immigrants were frontiers—agricultural, mining, or industrial—with expanding job opportunities. -Most European immigrants to the United States entered through Ellis Island. Located in New York Harbor, this became in 1892 the nation's main facility for processing immigrants. Millions of Americans today trace their ancestry to an immigrant who passed through Ellis Island. The less fortunate, only about 2 percent of total arrivals, who failed a medical examination or were judged to be anarchists, prostitutes, or in other ways undesirable, were sent home. -Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882: Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act which barred Chinese from immigrating to the United States

What was happening in the US during WW1?

1. The combination of women's patriotic service and widespread outrage over the mistreatment of Paul and her fellow prisoners pushed the administration toward full-fledged support for woman suffrage. In 1920, the long struggle ended with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment barring states from using sex as a qualification for the suffrage. The United States became the twenty-seventh country to allow women to vote. 2. Prohibition, a movement inherited from the nineteenth century that had gained new strength and militancy in Progressive America, finally achieved national success during the war. In December 1917, Congress passed the Eighteenth Amendment, prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor. It was ratified by the states in 1919 and went into effect at the beginning of 1920.

The failure of Populism in the South opened the door for the full imposition of a new racial order. Especially for blacks, what were they?

By the turn of the century, most of the great plantations had fallen to pieces, and many blacks acquired land and took up self-sufficient farming. In most of the Lower South, however, African-Americans owned a smaller percentage of the land in 1900 than they had at the end of Reconstruction.In southern cities, the network of institutions created after the Civil War—schools and colleges, churches, businesses, women's clubs, and the like—served as the foundation for increasingly diverse black urban communities. They supported the growth of a black middle class, mostly professionals like teachers and physicians, or businessmen like undertakers and shopkeepers serving the needs of black customers. But the labor market was rigidly divided along racial lines. Black men were excluded from supervisory positions in factories and workshops and white-collar jobs such as clerks in offices. A higher percentage of black women than white worked for wages, but mainly as domestic servants. They could not find employment among the growing numbers of secretaries, typists, and department store clerks.

How did Andrew Johnson react to the now free slaves when in power?

Johnson wanted to reconcile the North and South using limited punishment and have everything return to 'normal' Normal meant back to slavery. Because no land distribution took place, the vast majority of rural freed people remained poor and without property during Reconstruction. African- Americans, Johnson believed, had no role to play in Reconstruction

Redeemers: who were they? What political party did they represent?

Post civil war Democratic leaders (white southern politicians) who supposedly saved or redeemed the south from northern republican corruption and black rule. Why? Because between intimidation and emerging discriminatory voting laws, fewer black men voted, which allowed white Democrats to take control of state governments in the south, and returned white Democratic congressional delegations to Washington.

Atlanta Compromise

Speech to the Cotton States and International Exposition in 1895 by educator Booker T. Washington, the leading black spokesman of the day; black scholar W. E. B. Du Bois gave the speech its derisive name and criticized Washington for encouraging blacks to accommodate segregation and disenfranchisement.

What was the difference in labor reaction between the North and the South?

The North kept on with their central definition of freedom and labor. But the South, wanted the free slaves back at work and hopefully because they are free now, they would be more productive like Northern workers. Pretty much, froze blacks back to work on plantations but as employees with very few rights.

The Socialist Presence in the Progressive Era

-Founded in 1901, the Socialist Party brought together surviving late-nineteenth-century radicals, such as Populists and followers of Edward Bellamy, with a portion of the labor movement. -The party called for immediate reforms such as free college education, legislation to improve the condition of laborers, and, as an ultimate goal, democratic control over the economy through public ownership of railroads and factories. -By 1912, the Socialist Party claimed 150,000 dues-paying members, published hundreds of newspapers, enjoyed substantial support in the American Federation of Labor, and had elected scores of local officials. -Spreading the socialist gospel or linking it to ideals of equality, self-government, and freedom than Eugene V. Debs, the railroad union leader who, had been jailed during the Pullman Strike of 1894.

Roosevelt Corollary and Dollar Diplomacy

-Roosevelt's 1904 extension of the Monroe Doctrine, stating that the United States has the right to protect its economic interests in South And Central America by using military force (the United States could intervene militarily to prevent interference from European powers in the Western Hemisphere) -Roosevelt's successor, William Howard Taft, emphasized economic investment and loans from American banks, rather than direct military intervention, as the best way to spread American influence. As a result, his foreign policy became known as Dollar Diplomacy.

Feminism: what did the movement advocate and how did they try to reach their goals? (During the Progressive Era)

-The new visibility of women in urban public places indicated that traditional gender roles were changing dramatically in Progressive America. -As the Triangle fire revealed, more and more women were working for wages. Black women still worked primarily as domestics or in southern cotton fields. Immigrant women were largely confined to low-paying factory employment. But for native-born white women, the kinds of jobs available expanded enormously. -Women faced special limitations on their economic freedom, including wage discrimination and exclusion from many jobs. -Feminism's forthright attack on traditional rules of sexual behavior added a new dimension to the idea of personal freedom. The Feminist Alliance. -In the nineteenth century, the right to "control one's body" generally meant the ability to refuse sexual advances, including those of a woman's husband. Now, it suggested the ability to enjoy an active sexual life without necessarily bearing children. -By forthrightly challenging the laws banning contraceptive information and devices, Margaret Sanger, placed the birth-control movement at the heart of the new feminism. -Membership in the National American Woman Suffrage Association grew from 13,000 in 1893 to more than 2 million by 1917. The group campaigned throughout the country for the right to vote. -The West also led the way in women holding public office. -The movement increasingly focused its attention on securing a national constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote.

Labor's Great Upheaval: what were workers doing and why?

-Workers were striking and producing violent confrontations between workers and the local police. Why? -Workers demanded recognition of the International Longshoremen's Association and an end to the hated "shape up" system in which they had to gather en masse each day to wait for work assignments. -Better wages -They included an end to employers' arbitrary power in the workplace, and basic civil liberties for workers, including the rights to picket, distribute literature, and meet to discuss their grievances. All these goals required union recognition. EXAMPLES: San Francisco General Strike of longshoremen; Minneapolis truck drivers defeat wealthy Citizen's Alliance; Toledo autoworkers

Social stratification: what was society like during 'The Twenties 1920-1932'?

1. A widespread acceptance of going into debt to purchase consumer goods had replaced the values of thrift and self denial, central to nineteenth-century notions of upstanding character. 2. At the beginning of 1929, the share of national income of the wealthiest 5 percent of American families exceeded that of the bottom 60 percent. 3. A majority of families had no savings, and an estimated 40 percent of the population remained in poverty, unable to participate in the flourishing consumer economy. 4. At the end of the decade, 75 percent of American households still did not own a washing machine, and 60 percent had no radio. 5. In 1929, 1 percent of the nation's banks controlled half of its financial resources. 6. Most of the small auto companies that had existed earlier in the century had fallen by the wayside for example: General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler now controlled four-fifths of the industry. 7. Nor did farmers share in the decade's prosperity. 8.

Economy and Consumption: what were general economic and consumption trends during 'The Twenties 1920-1932'?

1. After a sharp postwar recession that lasted into 1922, the 1920s was a decade of prosperity. Productivity and economic output rose dramatically as new industries—chemicals, aviation, electronics—flourished and older ones like food processing and the manufacture of household appliances adopted Henry Ford's moving assembly line. 2. The automobile was the backbone of economic growth. The automobile industry stimulated the expansion of steel, rubber, and oil production, road construction, and other sectors of the economy. It promoted tourism and the growth of suburbs (already, some commuters were driving to work). 3. The dollar replaced the British pound as the most important currency of international trade. 4. American multinational corporations extended their sway throughout the world. Example: Fordlandia/ General Electric/ International Telephone and Telegraph/ International Business Machines (IBM)/ American oil companies built new refineries overseas/ American companies took control of raw materials abroad, from rubber in Liberia to oil in Venezuela. 5. Frequently purchased on credit through new installment buying plans, they rapidly altered daily life. Telephones made communication easier. Vacuum cleaners, washing machines, and refrigerators transformed work in the home and reduced the demand for domestic servants. 6. Americans spent more and more of their income on leisure activities like vacations, movies, and sporting events. 7. Radios and phonographs brought mass entertainment into Americans' living rooms. Famous celebrities: Enrico Caruso, Charlie Chaplin, Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, and aviator Charles Lindbergh. 8. The Image of Business: Hollywood films spread images of "the American way of life" across the globe.

The Southerns feel the pain after the Civil War, why?

1. They must now submit to Northern demands. 2. Affected all classes of southerners. -Nearly 260,000 men died for the Confederacy -Destruction of work animals, farm buildings, and machinery ensured that economic revival would be slow and painful -Many lost not only their slaves but also their life savings. -For the first time found themselves compelled to do physical labor

Sedition Act

1918 law that made it illegal to speak or create printed statements to criticize the government 407

The Scopes Trial

1925 trial of John Scopes, Tennessee teacher accused of violating state law prohibiting teaching of the theory of evolution; it became a nationally celebrated confrontation between religious fundamentalism and civil liberties.

Muckraking

A form of journalism, in vogue in the early twentieth century, devoted to exposing misconduct by government, business, and individual politicians. Writing that exposed corruption and abuses in politics, business, meatpacking, child labor, and more, primarily in the first decade of the twentieth century; included popular books and magazine articles that spurred public interest in reform.

Conservation: what were the conservation movement's goals?

A progressive reform movement focused on the preservation and sustainable management of the nation's natural resources. It was under Theodore Roosevelt that the movement became a concerted federal policy. Roosevelt moved to preserve parts of the natural environment from economic exploitation. Ordered that millions of acres be set aside as wildlife preserves and encouraged Congress to create new national parks. The creation of parks like Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Glacier required the removal of Indians who hunted and fished there as well as the reintroduction of animals that had previously disappeared. City dwellers who visited the national parks did not realize that these were to a considerable extent artificially created and managed environments, not primordial nature. In some ways, conservation was a typical Progressive reform. Manned by experts, the government could stand above political and economic battles, serving the public good while preventing "special interests" from causing irreparable damage to the environment. The aim was less to end the economic utilization of natural resources than to develop responsible, scientific plans for their use. Pinchot halted timber companies' reckless assault on the nation's forests. Conservation also reflected the Progressive thrust toward efficiency and control—in this case, control of nature itself. In the view of Progressive conservationists, the West's scarcest resource—water—cried out for regulation. Governments at all levels moved to control the power of western rivers, building dams and irrigation projects to regularize their flow, prevent waste, and provide water for large-scale agriculture and urban development.

Equal Rights Amendment

Amendment to guarantee equal rights for women, introduced in 1923 but not passed by Congress until 1972; it failed to be ratified by the states. equal access to employment, education, and all the other opportunities of citizens.

American Civil Liberties Union

An organization formed during the Red Scare to protect free speech rights. Organization founded during World War Ⅰ to protest the suppression of freedom of expression in wartime; played a major role in court cases that achieved judicial recognition of Americans' civil liberties.

Black Codes: What did they say? What behaviors did they regulate?

Black Codes were laws passed by the NEW SOUTHERN governments that attempted to regulate the lives of the former slaves. What did it legalize? 1. legalized marriage 2.ownership of property 3. limited access to the courts. What did it regulate? 1. rights to testify against whites 2. rights to serve on juries or in state militias 3. right to vote 4. those who failed to sign yearly labor contracts could be arrested and hired out to white landowners 5. states limited the occupations open to blacks and barred them from acquiring land 6. judges could assign black children to work for their former owners without the consent of the parents.

Causes of the Great Depression: why did it start?

Causes: 1. Also known as Black Tuesday, a stock market panic in 1929 that resulted in the loss of more than $10 billion in market value (worth approximately ten times more today). One among many causes of the Great Depression. 2. Southern California and Florida experienced frenzied real-estate speculation and then spectacular busts, with banks failing, land remaining undeveloped, and mortgages foreclosed. 3. The highly unequal distribution of income and the prolonged depression in farm regions reduced American purchasing power. 4. Sales of new autos and household consumer goods stagnated after 1926. 5. European demand for American goods also declined, partly because industry there had recovered from wartime destruction. 6. Bank failures small and large 7. Consumer economy produced too much for people who didn't make enough (overproduction vs. low wages)

How did Congress come against the opposition of Reconstruction?

Congress adopted three Enforcement Acts, outlawing terrorist societies and allowing the president to use the army against them.

Flappers: who were they and what changed about feminism?

Flappers: Young women of the 1920s whose rebellion against prewar standards of femininity included wearing shorter dresses, bobbing their hair, dancing to jazz music, driving cars, smoking cigarettes, and indulging in illegal drinking and gambling. -Women are working in larger numbers and have more money though they are still paid less or stuck in certain jobs (gender stratification of workforce) -The new freedom, however, was available only during one phase of a woman's life. Once she married, women were expected to seek freedom within the confines of the home, finding "liberation," according to the advertisements, in the use of new labor-saving appliances. -Feminists split on whether women needed equal rights and right to work or a feminism built on motherhood -Black feminists argued that 15th amendment should become a campaign of the movement, but many whites saw it as unimportant

Disenfranchisement (Depriving a person or persons of the right to vote; in the United States, exclusionary policies were used to deny groups, especially African-Americans and women, their voting rights.) what were some of the ways black people were disenfranchised?

For nearly a generation after the end of Reconstruction, despite fraud and violence, black southerners continued to cast ballots. Between 1890 and 1906, every southern state enacted laws or constitutional provisions meant to eliminate the black vote. 14th Amendment set provisions for reducing a state's power if they disenfranchised, but it was not used. Southern legislatures drafted laws that on paper appeared color-blind but that were actually designed to end black voting, such as: 1. the poll tax (a fee that each citizen had to pay in order to retain the right to vote) 2. literacy tests 3. the requirement that a prospective voter demonstrate to election officials an "understanding" of the state constitution 4. Six southern states also adopted a grandfather clause, exempting from the new requirements descendants of persons eligible to vote before the Civil War (when only whites, of course, could cast ballots in the South). FUN FACT: In some states hundreds of thousands of poor whites also disenfranchised and measures tried eliminate voting for immigrants.

What was the 14th amendment?

Granted citizenship to freed slaves. In a compromise between the radical and moderate positions on black suffrage, the amendment did not grant blacks the right to vote. But it did provide that if a state denied the vote to any group of men, that state's representation in Congress would be reduced. In addition, you can not serve in government if you were a confederate official. Obviously Southern States oppose. Later on Congress, over Andrew's veto, does the Reconstruction act, and he is furious so Andrew almost got impeached but didn't and Ulysses S. Grant became president.

Opponents of Reconstruction: which groups and organizations opposed Reconstruciton and why?

Groups and organizations that opposed Reconstruction: -The South's traditional leaders—planters, merchants, and Democratic politicians -White Southerners -Ku Klux Klan, which in effect served as a military arm of the Democratic Party in the South Why: -The most basic reason for opposition to Reconstruction, however, was that most white southerners could not accept the idea of former slaves voting, holding office, and enjoying equality before the law -The rising taxes needed to pay for schools and other new public facilities and to assist railroad development were another cause of opposition to Reconstruction -the aim of preventing blacks from voting and destroying the organization of the Republican Party by assassinating local leaders and public officials.

Huey Long & Father Coughlin: who were these voices of protest?

Huey Long: Driven by intense ambition and the desire to help uplift the state's "common people," Long won election as governor in 1928 and in 1930 took a seat in the U.S. Senate. Program offered by Huey Long as an alternative to the New Deal. The program proposed to confiscate large personal fortunes, which would be used to guarantee every poor family a cash grant of $5,000 and every worker an annual income of $2,500. It also promised to provide pensions, reduce working hours, and pay veterans' bonuses and ensured a college education to every qualified student. Father Coughlin: "radio priest" attracted millions of listeners with weekly broadcasts attacking Wall Street bankers and greedy capitalists, and calling for government ownership of key industries as a way of combating the Depression. Initially a strong supporter of FDR, Coughlin became increasingly critical of the president for what he considered the failure of the New Deal to promote social justice. His crusade would later shift to anti-Semitism and support for European fascism.

1892 Election: know the populists role and impact in this election.

In 1892, populist elect three governors, 15 members of congress, and win some states in the presidential election (mostly in West) creating a huge dent in the Republican party. James B. Weaver and James G. Field won 8.5% of the popular vote and carried four Western states, becoming the first third party since the end of the American Civil War to win electoral votes.

Freedmen: What did former slaves want after Civil War? Be able to provide and explain several examples.

In general slaves, wanted to demonstrate they're liberation that was not associated with slavery; for example travel, acquiring guns, etc. To be specific: 1. Black institutions that had existed before the war, (black family, free blacks' churches and schools, secret slave church) strengthened, expanded, and were free from white supervision. 2. Stabilization of family life: Former slaves made remarkable efforts to locate loved ones from whom they had been separated under slavery. 3. Blacks abandoned white-controlled religious institutions to create churches of their own. The church was big during reconstruction-it became social and political where gathering were held and black ministers came to play a major role in politics. 4. Desired education in order to to read the Bible, prepare for the economic marketplace, and opportunity, in politics imagine first black college was created. 5. Political freedom: the right to vote. 6. Freedom was associated with landownership. On the land they would develop independent communities free of white control. Autonomy (self government)

First New Deal: what are some key programs and the overall focus?

New Deal: Franklin D. Roosevelt's campaign promise, in his speech to the Democratic National Convention of 1932, to combat the Great Depression with a "new deal for the American people"; the phrase became a catchword for his ambitious plan of economic programs. Key Programs: 1. Emergency Banking Act: Passed in 1933, the First New Deal measure that provided for reopening the banks under strict conditions and took the United States of the gold standard. 2. The Glass-Steagall Act: barred commercial banks from becoming involved in the buying and selling of stocks. 3. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC): a government system that insured the accounts of individual depositors. 4. National Industrial Recovery Act 1933 law passed on the last of the Hundred Days; it created public-works jobs through the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and established a system of self-regulation for industry through the National Recovery Administration, which was ruled unconstitutional in 1935. 5. National Recovery Administration (NRA) Controversial federal agency created in 1933 that brought together business and labor leaders to create "codes of fair competition" and "fair labor" policies, including a national minimum wage. 6. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC): 1933 New Deal public work relief program that provided outdoor manual work for unemployed men, rebuilding infrastructure and implementing conservation programs. The program cut the unemployment rate, particularly among young men. 7. Public Works Administration: A New Deal agency that contracted with private construction companies to build roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, and other public facilities. 8. Tennessee Valley Authority: Administrative body created in 1933 to control flooding in the Tennessee River valley, provide work for the region's unemployed, and produce inexpensive electric power for the region. 9. Agriculture Adjustment Act: New Deal legislation passed in 1933 to improve agricultural prices by limiting market supplies; declared unconstitutional in United States v. Butler (1936). 10. Federal Housing Administration: A government agency created during the New Deal to guarantee mortgages, allowing lenders to offer long-term (usually thirty-year) loans with low down payments (usually 10 percent of the asking price). The FHA seldom underwrote loans in racially mixed or minority neighborhoods.

Social Security Act: what did it do and what kind of change did it represent?

Social Security Act: 1935 law that created the Social Security system with provisions for a retirement pension, unemployment insurance, disability insurance, and public assistance (welfare). It created a system of unemployment insurance, old age pensions, and aid to the disabled, the elderly poor, and families with dependent children. What was new: What was new, however, was that in the name of economic security, the American government would now supervise not simply temporary relief but a permanent system of social insurance. Social Security represented a dramatic departure from the traditional functions of government. The Second New Deal transformed the relationship between the federal government and American citizens. Before the 1930s, national political debate often revolved around the question of whether the federal government should intervene in the economy. After the New Deal, debate rested on how it should intervene.

What was the Second New Deal?

Spurred by the failure of his initial policies to pull the country out of the Depression and the growing popular clamor for greater economic equality, and buoyed by Democratic gains in the midterm elections of 1934, Roosevelt in 1935 launched the Second New Deal. The first had focused on economic recovery. The emphasis of the second was economic security—a guarantee that Americans would be protected against unemployment and poverty. Key Programs: 1. Rural Electrification Agency (REA) to bring electric power to homes that lacked it—80 percent of farms were still without electricity in 1934—in part to enable more Americans to purchase household appliances. 2. Works Progress Administration (WPA) : Part of the Second New Deal; it provided jobs for millions of the unemployed on construction and arts projects. 3. Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act of 1935): Law that established the National Labor Relations Board and facilitated unionization by regulating employment and bargaining practices. 4. Social Security Act: 1935 law that created the Social Security system with provisions for a retirement pension, unemployment insurance, disability insurance, and public assistance (welfare).

Segregation: what was segregation and what kinds of institutions were segregated?

States reacted to the Plessy decision by passing laws mandating racial segregation in every aspect of southern life, from schools to hospitals, waiting rooms, toilets, and cemeteries. Some states forbade taxi drivers to carry members of different races at the same time. Facilities for blacks were either nonexistent or markedly inferior. The point was not so much to keep the races apart as to ensure that when they came into contact with each other, whether in politics, labor relations, or social life, whites held the upper hand.

End of First New Deal and Results

Supreme Court declares NRA and the AAA unconstitutional, said NRA had too much power that federal government not allowed. Programs provide some direct relief, some jobs, and spurred some economic growth, but did not end Depression.

AFL vs IWW: how were these two labor unions different? What goals did each one have?

The AFL mainly represented the most privileged American workers—skilled industrial and craft laborers, nearly all of them white, male, and native-born. In 1905, a group of unionists who rejected the AFL's exclusionary policies formed the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Part trade union, part advocate of a workers' revolution that would seize the means of production and abolish the state, the IWW made solidarity its guiding principle, extending "a fraternal hand to every wageworker, no matter what his religion, fatherland, or trade." The organization sought to mobilize those excluded from the AFL—the immigrant factory labor force, migrant timber and agricultural workers, women, blacks, and even the despised Chinese on the West Coast. The IWW's most prominent leader was William "Big Bill" Haywood, who had worked in western mines as a youth. Dubbed by critics "the most dangerous man in America," Haywood became a national figure in 1906 when he was kidnapped and spirited off to Idaho, accused of instigating the murder of a former anti-union governor. Defended by labor lawyer Clarence Darrow, Haywood was found not guilty.

The Panama Canal: why did Theodore Roosevelt take it?

The reason behind it is, Roosevelt had long been a proponent of American naval development. He was convinced that a canal would facilitate the movement of naval and commercial vessels between the two oceans. History: In 1903, when Colombia, of which Panama was a part, refused to cede land for the project, Roosevelt helped to set in motion an uprising by conspirators led by Philippe Bunau-Varilla, a representative of the Panama Canal Company. An American gunboat prevented the Colombian army from suppressing the rebellion. Upon establishing Panama's independence, Bunau-Varilla signed a treaty giving the United States both the right to construct and operate a canal and sovereignty over the Panama Canal Zone, a tenmile-wide strip of land through which the route would run.

Spanish-American War: How did this start the era of US Imperialism?

The victorious United States, on the other hand, emerged from the war a world power with far-flung overseas possessions and a new stake in international politics that would soon lead it to play a determining role in the affairs of Europe and the rest of the globe.

Major Themes: Why did they call it the Gilded Age? What was the relationship between wealth and inequality?

They called it the Gilded Age because the term refers to the time period being glittering on the surface but corrupt underneath referring not only to the remarkable expansion of the economy in this period but also to the corruption caused by corporate dominance of politics and to the oppressive treatment of those left behind in the scramble for wealth. This Age shows the rapid expansion of factory production, mining, and railroad construction in all parts of the country except the South signaling the transition from Lincoln's America to a mature industrial society. What was the relationship between wealth and inequality? Urbanization (population in a city increases) explodes and cities are heavily segregated according to class because workers now develop a sense of class identity. By the turn of the century, advanced economics taught that wages were determined by the iron law of supply and demand and that wealth rightly flowed not to those who worked the hardest but to men with business skills and access to money.

The Congress Industrial Organizations/ The Rise of CIO

Umbrella organization of semiskilled industrial unions, formed in 1935 as the Committee for Industrial Organization and renamed in 1938. Create the United Auto Workers, United Steel Workers, and involved United Mine Workers. Push a politics of raising the standard of living for the working class and more democracy on the job with seniority, grievance procedures, and rules employers must follow. Violent strikes and factory occupations against Ford, Chrysler, and GM

Populist Party Platform: what did the platform say was wrong with America and how did the populists propose to fix it?

What the Platform said was wrong with America: -to restore democracy and economic opportunity -beginning with their declining economic needs and putting a halt on the control that powerful corporates had on the government. -break the Democratic Party's stranglehold on power in the South, some white Populists insisted that black and white farmers shared common grievances and could unite for common goals.Populist solutions on how to propose to fix it: -the direct election of U.S. senators -government control of the currency -a graduated income tax -a system of low-cost public financing to enable farmers to market their crops -recognition of the right of workers to form labor unions -ownership of the railroads to guarantee farmers inexpensive access to markets for their crops

Progressivism: what does the term mean and encapsulate?

What the term means and encapsulates: -The word "Progressive" came into common use around 1910 as a way of describing a broad, loosely defined political movement of individuals and groups who hoped to bring about significant change in American social and political life. -Progressives included forward-looking businessmen who realized that workers must be accorded a voice in economic decision making, and labor activists bent on empowering industrial workers. -Other major contributors to Progressivism were members of female reform organizations who hoped to protect women and children from exploitation, social scientists who believed that academic research would help to solve social problems, and members of an anxious middle class who feared that their status was threatened by the rise of big business. -Known as a time of social reform and of competing movements to improve or fix society -Questions include industrial freedom, women's rights, government efficiency, conservation, immigration and Americanization -Broad-based reform movement, 1900-1917, that sought governmental action in solving problems in many areas of American life, including education, public health, the economy, the environment, labor, transportation, and politics.

Social Darwinism: what was the concept and who did it benefit?

What was the concept? The idea of the natural superiority of some groups to others reemerged in the vocabulary of modern science to explain the success and failure of individuals and social classes. Who did it benefit? The wealthy. Especially misguided, in this view, were efforts to uplift those at the bottom of the social order, such as laws regulating conditions of work or public assistance to the poor. To the poor, it showed a failure to advance in society was widely thought to indicate a lack of character, an absence of self-reliance and determination in the face of adversity. And, according to Darwinism workers (the poor) should practice personal economy, keep out of debt, and educate their children in the principles of the marketplace, not look to the government for aid

Knights of Labor: who were they, what did they want, and who could join?

Who were they and who could join? The first group to try to organize unskilled workers as well as skilled ones, women alongside men, and blacks as well as whites (excluded Asian immigrants on the West Coast) and involved millions of workers in strikes, boycotts, political action, and educational and social activities. Labor raised the question whether meaningful freedom could exist in a situation of extreme economic inequality. What did they do? Put forward a wide array of programs: from the eight-hour day to public employment in hard times, currency reform, anarchism, socialism, and the creation of a vaguely defined "cooperative commonwealth."