Hist 252 Final (Miller)

Bank "Holiday"

- 1933 - Franklin D. Roosevelt closed the banks from March 6th - 10th to prevent depositors from bankrupting the banking system by withdrawing all their money - Congress met to discuss legislation - Created a great sense of relief for the public

Truman Doctrine

- 1947 - Truman was trying to sell to Congress and Americans to get them on board with sending money to Greece by creating the Truman Doctrine. First established after Britain no longer could afford to provide anti-communist aid to Greece and Turkey, it pledged to provide U.S. military and economic aid to any nation threatened by communism. "It should be the policy of the US to help others from outside forces". Wanted to help pro-capitalist.

Marshall Plan

- 1948 - US program for the reconstruction of post WWII Europe through massive aid to former enemy nations as well as allies; proposed by George Marshall (secretary of state) in 1947. The plan was to send 12 billion dollars to help fix Europe after the war and secure capitalism. For Europeans it meant they had housing and clothes. Part of the aid had to be used to buy American products to help the US economy. America also sent help to W. Germany and Stalin saw this as the US trying to restore the enemy.

NSC-68

- 1950 - Secret message written by a Cold War hawk- someone who wants an aggressive foreign policy. Claimed the USSR aimed to assert its "absolute authority over the rest of the world" and the US would be "subverted and destroyed" by the USSR. The USSR was actually more concerned with defending itself from a revitalized Germany. This doctrine called for a massive mobilization of public consent and economic resources to maintain US "superpower status". The document pushed for a large buildup of the U.S military. It allowed the U.S to quickly build up its military for the Korean conflict.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

- 1951 - 1953 - A married couple who passed info on the US to the USSR. Ethel's brother David worked on the Manhattan Project and passed information to Ethel. They went on trial in 1951 and they wouldn't confess. They were executed in 1953.

Election of 1980

- 1980 - Jimmy Carter vs. Ronald Reagan. Carter sought to promote human rights through foreign policy but he was more unpopular than Nixon during Watergate. Reagan approached his campaign by wanting to restore American to its golden age of the 50s. "let's make America great again"

Reaganomics

- 1981 - Tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans (supply-side economics) and deregulation. The federal economic policies of the Reagan administration, elected in 1981. These policies combined a fiscal policy, supply-side tax cuts, and domestic budget cutting. Their goal was to reduce the size of the federal government and stimulate economic growth. Wanted to roll back government and social spending. The Laffer Curve helped shape reaganomics. Cutting taxes to raise revenue. More money at the top gives government more money to improve technology and social aspects. Tax cuts to the affluent, money to reinvest economically = economic growth. The wealthy people would move their money so they wouldn't get taxed and it led to the failure of this policy. The poorest people suffered the most.

Civillian Conservation Corps

- 1933 - Employed approximately 3 million men (ages 18-25) to work on projects that benefitted the public: planting trees, building levees, and improving national parks - Men kept 20-25% of money earned, the rest was send back their family

The First New Deal

- 1933 - 1935 - Series of federal programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted in the United States during the 1930s in response to the Great Depression - Some of these federal programs made from the New Deal included the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps), the CWA (Civil Works Administration), the FSA (Farm Security Administration), the NIRA (National Industrial Recovery Act), and the SSA (Social Security Administration). These programs included support for the farmers, the unemployed, the youth, and the elderly, as well as the new constraints and safeguards on the banking industry and changes to the monetary system

Wagner Act (National Labor Relations)

- 1935 - Reestablished the NIRA provision for collective bargaining - Prohibited unfair labor practices such as threatening workers, firing union members, and interfering with union organizing - Set up the NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD (NLRB) to hear testimony about unfair practices and to hold elections to find out if workers wanted union representation

Works Progress Administration (including the federal arts projects)

- 1935-1943 - Spent $11 billion to give jobs to more than 8 million workers, most of them unskilled - 850 airports built - 651,000 miles road were constructed or repaired more than 125,000 public buildings put up - Women made more than 300 million garments for the needy - Employed many professionals who wrote guides to cities - Employed many professionals who collected historical slave narratives - Painted murals on school walls and other public buildings - Performed in theatre troupes around the country

Lend-Lease Act

- 1941 - Permitted the US to lend or lease arms and other supplies to the Allies, signifying increasing likelihood of American involvement in WWII. FDR urged Congress to pass this act which authorized military aid so long as countries promised somehow to return it all after the war. - Sum of $5 billion was lent to Congress; money went to 38 different countries

Executive Order 9066

- 1942 - Ten weeks after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 - Authorized the removal of any or all people from military areas "as deemed necessary or desirable." The military in turn defined the entire West Coast, home to the majority of Americans of Japanese ancestry or citizenship, as a military area. By June, more than 110,000 Japanese Americans were relocated to remote internment camps built by the U.S. military in scattered locations around the country

Berkeley Free Speech Movement

- 1964 - 1965 - Students insisted that the university administration lift a ban on on-campus political activities and acknowledge the students right to free speech and academic freedom. At the time school administration acted more as parents to the students. College students wanted classes that pertained to the real world. They demanded smaller class sizes, new majors and closer educational experiences with professors.

Iran-Contra Affair

- 1985-1987 - In 1984, Congress banned military aid to Contras fighting the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. In 1985, Reagan secretly authorized the sale of arms to Iran (who was involved with Iraq) in order to release of a number of American hostages held by Islamic groups in the Middle East. In 1987, a Middle Eastern newspaper leaked the story. Eleven members of the administration were convicted of perjury or destroying documents and pleaded guilty. Reagan denied all knowledge of the illegal proceedings, but the Iran-Contra Affair undermined confidence that he controlled his own administration.

Deindustrialization

- Late 1900's - Term describing the decline of manufacturing in old industrial areas in the late twentieth century as companies shifted production to low-wage centers in the South and west or in other countries. American manufacturers searched for cheaper laborers to meet quota. Industries going out of business.

Anti-bussing Conflicts

- Late 1970's - Residents of the tightly knit Irish-American community of South Boston demonstrated violently against a busing plan decreed by a local judge. One of the most bitter fights took place in Boston. "The Soiling of the Old Glory" (1976) was a picture that captured one of the violent protests going on. During the protest a black lawyer was attacked and almost impaled by a flag pole.

Reagan and Gorbachev

- Late 1980's - In Reagan second term, he softened his anticommunist rhetoric and established good relations with the Soviet leader Gorbachev. Gorbachev came power in 1985 and wanted reform the Soviet's repressive political system and reinvigorating its economy. Because the USSR had fallen behind the US in the production and distribution of consumer goods, they relied on imports. Gorbachev realized that a change could be made without reducing the country's military budget. Reagan and Gorbachev has a series of talks between 1985-1987 that made more progress on arms control than in the entire postwar period and included an agreement to eliminate intermediate and short range nuclear missiles in Europe. In 1988, Gorbachev started pulling troops out of Afghanistan. Reagan left office with much of the hostilities between the countries diminished.

Fascism

A totalitarian philosophy of government that glorifies the state and nation and assigns to the state control over every aspect of national life. The name was first used by the party started by Benito Mussolini, who ruled Italy from 1922 until the Italian defeat in World War II. However, it has also been applied to similar ideologies in other countries, ex: to National Socialism in Germany and to the regime of Francisco Franco in Spain. A dictator holds a lot of power and civil liberties do not exist. There were some fascist supporters in America and some saw it as a threat to Jim Crow

Election of 1968 and Nixon's "Southern Strategy"

- 1968 - There was a 3rd independent candidate, Wallace, who was committed to racial segregation. When Nixon found out that he had a lot of support he created a "Wallace clone" who was his VP, Spiro Agnew. His Southern Strategy consisted of 2 things: 1) Agnew would copy Wallace and openly criticize activists to gain support from voters. 2) He had a coded language that appealed to conservative white southerners. Nixon claimed he would be the law and order and would crack down on the activist and protesters.

Stagflation

- 1970's - Slow economic growth occurring simultaneously with high rates of inflation - High Oil Prices, Inflation, Unemployment, Recession

Swann v. Charlotte

- 1971 - Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, system in which approximately 14,000 black students attended schools that were either totally black or more than 99 percent black. - Lower courts had experimented with a number of possible solutions when the case reached the Supreme Court. - Result: no more rigid guidelines could be established concerning busing of students to particular schools.

Watergate

- 1972 - Washington office and apartment complex that lent its name to the 1972-1974 scandal of the Nixon administration; when his knowledge of the break-in at Watergate and subsequent cover-up were revealed, Nixon resigned the presidency under the threat of impeachment. Watergate led to a growing distrustment with the government. Historian Bruce Schollman argued that Watergate furthered Nixon's agenda. In order to have liberalism flourish you need trust in the government but Watergate made people not trust them and eroded 60s liberalism.

Proposition 13 and the "tax revolt"

- 1978 - Prop 13 lowered property taxes, and made it so the government had to get a 2/3 majority to raise the taxes in CA. It slashed property taxes and forced painful cuts in government services; this "tax revolt" reflected the growing anti-big government, anti-welfare sentiment that Reagan capitalized on during his presidential campaign. It was opposed by both republican and democratic leadership but it appealed to both party's homeowner voters. Prop 13 was the "match that lit the new rights fire" in CA. Republicans wanted to create an anti-tax politics/rhetoric.

Jerry Falwell and the Religious Right

- 1979 - Coined the term "the moral majority". A political organization of the United States which had an agenda of evangelical Christian-oriented political lobbying. Formed by Jerry Falwell. Organization made up of conservative Christian political action committees which campaigned on issues its personnel believed were important to maintaining its Christian conception of moral law. This group pressured for legislation that would ban abortion, social welfare, women's rights and ban the states' acceptance of homosexuality.

Strategic Defense Initiative

- 1983 - Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative, based on developing a space-based system to intercept and destroy enemy missiles. This idea was not remotely possible technologically and if deployed it would violate the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972, but appealed Reagan's reassert America's worldwide power. But the renewed arms race and his casual talk of winning a nuclear was caused widespread alarm at home and abroad.

Social Security Act

- August 14, 1935 - Committee chaired by Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins - 3 major parts: - Old-age insurance for retirees 65 or older and their spouses (supplemental retirement plan) with 1/2 of funds coming from the worker and 1/2 from the employer - Unemployment compensation system - funded by a federal tax on employers but administered at the state level with initial payments ranging from $15-$18/week - Aid to families with dependent children and people with disabilities - aid paid for by federal funds made available to the states (not a total pension system or complete welfare system, it did provide substantial benefit to millions of Americans)

Gulf of Tonkin Incident and Resolution

- August 1964 - Two U.S. destroyers stationed in the Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam radioed that they had been fired upon by North Vietnamese forces - On August 7, 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing President Johnson to take any measures he believed were necessary to retaliate and to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia

Bracero Program

- August 4th 1942 - Agreement with the Mexican government to recruit temporary Mexican agricultural workers to the United States to make up for wartime labor shortages in the Far West. The program persisted until 1964, by when it had sponsored 4.5 million border crossings.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

- December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956 - Sparked by Rosa Park's arrest in 1955, for refusing to surrender her seat to a white passenger. A successful year long boycott protesting segregation on city busses led by MLK.

Pearl Harbor

- December 7th, 1941 - Surprise military strike by the Japanese against the United States in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii - Over 2,000 killed - Led to the U.S.'s involvement into WWII

Jeanne Kirkpatrick and the Reagan Doctrine

- Early 1980's - Reagan abandoned the Carter administration's emphasis on human rights and embraced the ideas of Jeane Kirkpatrick. In 1979 Kirkpatrick, a neoconservative writer, wrote that the US should oppose "totalitarian" communist but assist "authoritarian" noncommunist regimes. She became the American ambassador to the United Nations, and the US made more alliances with anticommunist governments like Chile and South Africa. The administration poured funds to countries who committed abuses against their citizens.

Executive Order 8802 and the F.E.P.C

- Enacted on June 25, 1941 - Eliminate racial discrimination in the U.S. defense industry and was an important step toward ending it in federal government employment practices overall. - The executive order did not establish full employment equality, but it did establish a Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC).

How did the Cold War shape Kennedy's campaign in 1960?

- Extremely Anti-Communist - Wanted to improve on Eisenhower's administration - Hard work and persistence could win the Cold War

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

- Founded 1960 - The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee - Was one of the most important organizations of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s

Election of 1932

- Herbert Hoover (Republican) against FDR (Democrat) in election of 1932 - The 1932 presidential election brought a sweeping victory for Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt and profound changes in the role of government. - First of 5 successive Democratic presidential wins

Civil Rights Act

- 1964 - Law that outlawed discrimination in public accommodations (movies, hotels, restaurants) and employment (on the basis of religion, national origin, race and sex). It helped contribute to a growing black middle class and gender roles became more fluid. Johnson knew that many whites opposed the new law and would vote for the Republican party in the next election.

Manhattan Project, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the atomic bombs

- 1942, August 6th and August 9, 1945 - Code name for the American commission established in 1942 develop the atomic bomb. The first experimental bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945, in the desert of New Mexico. Atomic bombs were then dropped on two cities in Japan in hopes of bringing the war to an end: Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. When FDR dies, Truman had to take over the project that he had no prior knowledge of. Truman believed more Americans would die if the war continued. They used it to end the war swiftly, no debate on using it and costed a billion dollars. They hoped it would make the Soviet Union more compliant for post war regulations.

G.I. Bill (1944)

- 1944 - FDR wanted veterans to have security, a social safety net to help them advance after the war. It established a number of programs. It gave educational support for the honorably discharged (they could apply to college and get costs paid for/ those who take advantage of this benefit good get socio economic gain), small business loans, farm loans, medical care, home loans.

Post-WWII suburbanization

- 1945 - - It became more expensive to live in urban apartments than post war suburbs. Some Suburban developers would not sell to certain buyers (single women, blacks, Mexicans). Religious/racial covenant specifications in a deed banned land from certain people (Jews). Suburbanization led to more racially segregated nation. Single family detached houses were only under the VA and FHA. Urban renewal destroyed people's homes and made them find housing elsewhere. Cities were faced with economic crisis because of taxes raising in suburbs.

Mendez v. Westminster

- 1946 - 1947 - Background: Five Mexican-American fathers (Thomas Estrada, William Guzman, Gonzalo Mendez, Frank Palomino, and Lorenzo Ramirez) challenged the practice of school segregation in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, in Los Angeles. They claimed that their children, along with 5000 other children of "Mexican" ancestry, were victims of unconstitutional discrimination by being forced to attend separate "schools for Mexicans" in the Westminster, Garden Grove, Santa Ana, and El Modena school districts of Orange County. - Ruling: the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in an en banc decision, held that the forced segregation of Mexican American students into separate "Mexican schools" was unconstitutional and unlawful

George Kennan and "containment"

- 1947 - George Kennan was a foreign policy maker. In 1947 he wrote the longest telegram called Kennan's "containment theory". Foreign officer who formulated the "containment doctrine" which stated that Russia was relentlessly expansionary, cautious and the flow of the soviet power could be stemmed by firm and vigilant containment. Soviets and Russians are expansionist, but the US can use economic power and nonmilitary means to contain them. This based the American foreign policy for centuries.

Margaret Chase Smith

- 1950's - A Maine Republican Senator who accused McCarthy of destroying American values in her Declaration of Conscience to the Senate, speaking about his deplorable actions and his campaign to destroy basic American principles. - She slandered him for working through "congressional immunity" to reduce the government to a forum of hatred and secret, where one man would kill another's reputation just to save himself. - Appealed to fellow senators in order to follow a Declaration of Conscience against McCarthyism tactics

Joseph McCarthy, the Wheeling Speech, and McCarthyism

- 1950's - Joseph McCarthy grew up in an Irish American Family. He was very ambitious and did whatever it took to get ahead. "Tail gunner Joe". When running for reelection in 1950s he needed an issue to take up (domestic anti communist). He used anticommunist views to draw up more attention to himself and build up his lagging career. McCarthy, in a speech at Wheeling, West Virginia, mounted an attack on Truman's foreign policy agenda by charging that the State Department and its Secretary, Dean Acheson, harbored "traitorous" Communists. There is some dispute about the number of Communists McCarthy claimed to have known about. Though advance copies of this speech distributed to the press record the number as 205, McCarthy quickly revised this claim. Both in a letter he wrote to President Truman the next day and in an "official" transcript of the speech that McCarthy submitted to the Congressional Record ten days later he uses the number 57. Although McCarthy displayed this list of names both in Wheeling and then later on the Senate floor, he never made the list public. McCarthyism is domestic anticommunism or the red scare. A campaign against alleged communists in the US government and other institutions carried out under Senator Joseph McCarthy in the period 1950-1954.

Brown v. Board of Education

- 1954 - Ended segregation in public schools. Brown decision conventionally understood to end the Plessy decision. A year after the Brown decision progress stalled. It taught activists that it would take more than talented lawyers to end Jim Crow. As a cold war case, in order to look good Truman had to get rid of Jim Crow because it tarnished the US reputation.

Allen Ginsburg, "Howl"

- 1956 - The Beats were a group of writers and artists of the 1950s who rejected work ethic, consumer culture of the suburban middle class, and the militarization of the American life by the Cold War. They instead celebrated impulsive action, immediate pleasure (often enhanced by drugs) and sexual experiences. Allen was a Beat and write the poem "Howl" in 1955 as a protest against materialism and conformism. He wrote of American life through the image of Moloch, an idol in the Bible to whom parents sacrificed their children. In the poem, Moloch was a symbol of militaristic, materialistic society that stifled spontaneity and human feeling.

V. P. Nixon and the "Kitchen Debate"

- 1959 - Nixon visited the USSR where they had an exhibit for a modern day American house on display. Both leaders got into a debate about standards of living while at the kitchen. Nixon said the US was mostly homeowners (60%), had a higher standard of living, and women could clean easier because of the new appliances. Khrushchev said the USSR's standard of living was also high but the women had more opportunities.

The Counterculture

- 1960's - The hippie movement involved recreational drugs, sex before marriage, a new style of clothes and language (fowl). In the late 60s the counter culture becomes more popular.

Women Strike for Peace

- 1961 - 50,000 women in 60 cities protested the testing of nuclear weapons - Women organized through PTA and religious groups worked to end the atomic testing in the atmosphere. It showed how the worries of atomic weapons made the women come together.

Korematsu v. U.S. (including Justice Jackson's opinion, VoF)

- In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order forcing many West Coast Japanese and Japanese Americans into internment camps. -In 1944, Fred Korematsu, was a Japanese American living in California who, after being ordered into a Japanese internment camp, refused to leave his city. - Korematsu claimed that the Executive Order 9066 violated his personal rights as specified by the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution and 5th Amendments - Supreme Court Decision: ruled 6-3 against Korematsu and upheld that the order was constitutional and legal - Justice Jackson's opinion: Jackson admitted that ultimately, in times of war, the military would likely maintain the power to arrest citizens -- and that, possessing no executive power, there was little the judicial branch could do to stop it. - However, a report issued by Congress in 1983 declared that the decision had been "overruled in the court of history," and the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 contained a formal apology -- as well as provisions for monetary reparations -- to the Japanese Americans interned during the war. - President Bill Clinton awarded Fred Korematsu the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

*The Bonus Army

- Jobless World War I veterans and their families who wanted immediate payment of a pension bonus that had been promised for 1945 - Starting arriving in May 1932 - They were paid in 1945 - 20,000 participated - They stayed in abandoned buildings across from the Capital and a massive Hooverville across the Potomac River - Hoover helped them by giving them cots, tents, and food - His advisors did not agree with that because they thought it would encourage them to stay - They were driven out of DC because Hoover ordered MacArthur (army chief) to remove them. - Instead he used his troops, bayonets, and tear gas to remove them. Hooverville was burned down and one veteran was killed.

Neutrality Acts

- Laws passed in 1935, 1936, 1937, and 1939 to limit U.S. involvement in future wars. They were based on the widespread disillusionment with World War I in the early 1930s and the belief that the United States had been drawn into the war through loans and trade with the Allies. - 1st Act (1935): gave president the power to prohibit the U.S. shops from carrying U.S. made arms to countries at war. - 2nd Act (1936): banned loads/credits to countries at war; set no trade limit on materials useful for war. - 3rd Act (1937): prohibited exportation of munitions to opposing forces in Spain; permitted nations at war to buy goods other than arms from the U.S. with their own cash and carried out with their own boats. - 4th Act (1937): authorized U.S. president to determine what could/couldn't be bought and paid for on delivery. - 5th Act (1939): president authorized "cash + carry" of arms and munitions to countries at war; president specifies which areas were combat zones thus U.S. citizens and shops could not travel there.

Voting Rights Act

- March 1965 - Authorized federal protection of the right to vote and permitted federal enforcement of minority voting rights in individual counties, mostly in the South. Johnson backed the act because he was eager to make rights legal. He wanted to build on the New Deal. Also at this time the activists were engaging in high risk activism. The Selma to Montgomery March was done to draw out the extremist and force the federal government to do something about it. 2 important things: 1) It banned exclusionary measures (literacy tests, grandfather clause) 2) Required the federal government to send officials into states to register voters (would go to places with the lowest amount of voters). Before this legislation 20% of blacks could vote, after 60% of blacks could

Agricultural Adjustment Act

- May 1933 - Part of the "first" New Deal program - Program for reducing crop production, stop producing surplus of goods, and stop the decline of farm prices - Declared unconstitutional in 1936

Iranian Hostage Crisis

- November 4, 1979 - The 444 days in which American embassy workers were held captive by Iranian revolutionaries after young Muslim fundamentalists overthrew the oppressive regime of the American-backed shah, forcing him into exile. These revolutionaries triggered an energy crisis by cutting off Iranian oil. The crisis began when revolutionaries stormed the American embassy, demanding that the United States return the shah to Iran for trial (shah went into the US for a medical procedure). The episode was marked by botched diplomacy and failed rescue attempts by the Carter Administration. After permanently damaging relations between the two countries, the crisis ended with the hostage's release the day Ronald Reagan became president.

OPEC Embargo

- October 1973 - Dependency on foreign oil and rising prices in 1973-1974. Cut off supply of oil as protest of U.S. support of Israel, The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that placed an embargo on oil sold to Israel's supporters. Caused worldwide oil shortage. Before the embargo it costed $3 a barrel, after it was $33. Gas had to be rationed and automobile owners could only buy gas on certain days.

Pentagon Papers

- Published by The New York Times in 1971 - Classified information on the US errors in war were made public by Daniel Ellsburg in 1971. The accounts went against what was said to the public. These Pentagon Papers revealed that the government had kept information about the war from Congress and the public

Students for a Democratic Society, The Port Huron Statement

- The Port Huron Statement (1962) - Adopted by 60 students determined not to be a "silent generation," it was a broad critique of American society and called for more genuine human relationships - Formed the "Students for a Democratic Society" envisioning a nonviolent youth movement transforming the US into a "participatory democracy" as an end to materialism, militarism, and racism

What homefront changes unfolded during World War II? What were the key elements of Justice Robert Jackson's dissenting opinion in the Korematsu case?

50 million American men registered for the draft. The army exemplified how the war united American society in new ways. The military service threw together Americans from every region and walk of life, and almost every racial and ethnic background (African Americans continued to serve in segregated units). WWII also transformed the role of the national government. FDR created federal agencies like the War Production Board, the War Manpower Commission, and the Office of Price Administration to regulate the allocation of labor, control the shipping industry, establish manufacturing quotas, and fix wages, prices and rents. The government built housing for war workers and forced civilian industries to retool for war production. Americans marveled at the achievements of wartime manufacturing. Tons of aircraft, armored vehicles, and trucks rolled off of American assembly lines and entirely new products were created to replace natural resources controlled by Japan. Organized labor repeatedly described WWII as a crusade from freedom that would expand economic and political democracy at home and abroad and win for unions a major voice in politics and industrial management. Women were encouraged to work and filled jobs that were vacated by men.

What were American responses to the atomic bombs and the atomic age, 1945-1948?

At first they responded with relief but then felt dread that they might someday be affected by atomic weapons. In 1945-1948 Americans supported control of atomic weapons.

Were Americans equally isolationist regarding a potential war against Germany and one against Japan? Why or why not?

In the 1930s Japan was increasingly expansionist. Japanese imperialism in Asia. In 1939 Germany invades Poland. Americans understood fascism was on the rise. Most Americans were isolationists but public opinion polls showed they supported a war against Japan. FDR was more concerned with fascism and was less concerned with a war a Japan because it would drain US resources.

What factors contributed to the growing middle-class in that decade? What were the origins and effects of post-W.W.II suburbanization?

It became more expensive to live in an urban apartment than post war suburbs. Homeownership was a ticket to the middle class. With the Federal Housing Administration implementing a 10% down payment and 30 year mortgage, it made it more affordable for Americans to buy a house. The effect of suburbanization was more racial segregation. Some suburban developers would not sell to certain buyers (single women, blacks, Mexicans). Religious/racial covenant specifications in a deed banned land from certain people (Jews). Redlining, the practice of determining parts of an area where people of high risk lived wouldn't get hired. Cities were faced with economic crisis because of taxes raising in suburbs.

*American responses to international events of the 1930s were mixed. What was "isolationism" and why did some Americans support it in the 1930s?

Many Americans in the 1930s supported a policy of isolationism because they did not want the US to be pulled into another war in the way that the country had (they felt) been pulled into World War I. Many Americans felt that WWI had really not been any of America's business. They felt that the country had been pulled into the war because of the demands of businesses that had trade ties with the Allied Powers in Europe. Because of this, they wanted policies that would avoid this sort of problem happening again. They got their wish when Congress passed the Neutrality Acts of the '30s. Overall, then, Americans during this time supported isolationism because they did not want to be drawn into more destructive wars that were not really any of the US's business.

Why did civil rights advocacy gain momentum during and especially after World War II

Numerous factors energized the civil rights movement after World War II. The postwar economic boom improved job opportunities for blacks, and higher incomes resulted in rising college enrollments for African Americans and increasing donations to civil rights organizations. The mass media, including fledgling television, publicized civil rights activism. Furthermore, television broadcasts displayed the material prosperity enjoyed by middle-class whites, feeding African Americans' desires for a better standard of living. The "double victory campaign" to defeat fascism abroad and Jim Crow at home. The Executive Order 8802 banned discrimination in federal defense industries and Fair Employment Practices commission. The Holocaust showed that racism extremes can be dangerous. The Cold War help civil rights advocacy because Jim crow was ruining the US reputation so they had to do something about it. This helped influence the decision of Brown vs. Board.

What role did Regan play in the Cold War's acceleration and in its end?

Reagan accelerated Cold war by coming up with the Strategic Defense initiative which fueled the arms race. He helped bring it to an end by negotiating with Gorbachev that made more progress on arms control than in the entire postwar period and included an agreement to eliminate intermediate and short range nuclear missiles in Europe.

What economic and social changes are associated with the Reagan presidencies?

Reagan made taxes go down for the wealthiest Americans and cut back on environmental protection and workplace safety rules. His idea of Reaganomics assumed that cutting taxes would inspire Americans at all income levels to work harder, since they would keep more of their money that they earned. All of his policies combined with deindustrialization resulted in growing economic inequality.

What were some of the legacies of the Reagan Era?

Reagan's presidency revealed the contradictions at the heart of the modern conservatism. The Reagan revolution undermined the values and institutions of conservatives held. In order to discourage reliance on government handouts by rewarding honest work and business initiative, Reagan's policies enriched the corporate take overs and investors in stock market while leaving plant closings, job losses, and devastated communities. Deindustrialization threatened local traditions or family stability, insecurity about employment and the relentless downward pressure on wages. The widening gap between right and poor undermined a sense of common national purpose. The Iran-Contra scandal and enormous deficits the government had accumulated made Reagan leave with a bad rep.

What did it largely entail and how and why did civil rights mobilization change over time in the 1950s and 1960s? How did the Cold War shape civil rights advocacy?

The Civil rights advocacy dealt with activists taking more risks with their protesting. Groups like SNCC were doing things in public to confront leadership.

What significant roles did the United States play as part of the Allied effort? Why did President Truman use the atomic bombs in Japan?

The development and use of Atomic bombs played a huge role in the Allies winning the war. The major involvement of American troops in D-Day helped defeat the German troops at Normandy beach.

What were the roots of the Conservative resurgence?

The election of 1980 ended with Ronald Reagan winning presidency. "The Soiling of Old Glory" showed some Americans violent reactions to integrated schools with busing. Roe v. Wade- right to an abortion. The pill became available to all women in 70s and helped fuel the sexual revolution. In 1973 it became understood that being gay is not a psychological problem. Jerry Falwell gained supported for his idea of the "religious right" that called for an end to social welfare, abortion, women's rights, and gay liberation. Americans felt the government had grown too much. Proposition 13 was passed, lowered property taxes, and made it so the government had to get a 2/3 majority to raise taxes in CA.

The historian Bruce Schulman understands the complex decade of the 1970s as one in which Americans experienced a variety of "shocks." What were these and why were these significant?

There were 3 types of shocks: political, economic and empire. The political shocks 1) US war in Vietnam: secret bombing of Cambodia (1970). 2) The Pentagon Papers (1971) classified information on the US errors in war were made public. 3) Watergate (1972-74). The economic shocks 1) the OPEC embargo (1973-74). 2) deindustrialization 3) stagflation. The empire shocks 1) Vietnam conflicts ends with communism prevailing. 2) The Iranian hostage crisis. 3) Nicaraguan revolution. These events rattled the Americans.