Thursday, 12 May 2016

Exam Practice

1) Discuss the Battle of Midway.
2) Discuss island-hopping as a strategy
3) What was the Manhattan Project. Who headed it up.
4) Discuss D-Day. What was it?
5) Why did the U.S. use atomic weapons on Japan? What cities were bombed?
6) Who were the Axis Powers? Who were the Allied Powers?
7) List and explain three causes of the Depression
8) Discuss the 1st New Deal and outline three programs that came out of it
9) Discuss the 2nd New Deal and outline two programs that came out of it
10) Who were FDR's critics and what did they criticize.
11) What were the Fireside Chats?
12) Discuss three reasons the U.S. entered into World War I
13) Discuss three points of Wilson's 14 points.
14) What were some positive outcomes of World War I
15) What were some negative outcomes of World War I
16) Why did the U.S. enter the Spanish-American War (besides the sinking of the Maine)?
17) How did the War make the U.S. an imperial power?
18) Discuss Theodore Roosevelt's importance as President. What did he do?

Essay: 7.3 Global conflicts over resources, territories and ideologies renewed debates over the nation’s values and its role in the world, while simultaneously propelling the United States into a dominant international military, political, cultural, and economic position.

Wednesday, 11 May 2016

Period 7 - Review

Today - I'm going to put you in groups and have you address the following

1) Six degrees of Separation - 1898 to August 6, 1945. How did we go from an isolated country to an international military presence.

Create an outline for the following:

7.3 Global conflicts over resources, territories and ideologies renewed debates over the nation’s values and its role in the world, while simultaneously propelling the United States into a dominant international military, political, cultural, and economic position.

Monday, 9 May 2016

Some things you should know for the Final

Thursday, 5 May 2016

Thursday and Friday

Thursday - Students should spend 15 minutes finishing up their Great Depression projects. Then begin reading chapter 34 on World War II.

Friday - Students should continue to read chapter 34 and answer the study questions below.

CHAPTER 34: AMERICA IN WORLD WAR TWO
1. What military strategy did FDR favor? Winning Asia or Europe?
2. What was America's first major challenge when the war began?
3. What was the reaction of most ethnic groups in America to WWII?
4. Why were Japanese-Americans placed in concentration camps in WWII?
5. Which was the most prominent union to go on strike during WWII?
6. Why did most women leave the workforce after WWII?
7. What was the impact of WWII on African-American culture in America?
8. Why did the northward migration of African-Americans occur during WWII?
9. What was FDR's policies towards native Americans during WWII?
10. What happened to the national debt during WWII?
11. What battle turned the tide of Japanese advancement in the Pacific?
12. What was the US strategy for the war in the Pacific?
13. The conquest of which island made air raids over the Japanese mainland possible?
14. What battle in Europe was the end of Nazi advancement?
15. Why did the Allies postpone opening a second front until 1944?
16. What was a criticism of the unconditional surrender policy?
17. What was the importance of the Postdam? Casablanca? Teheran?
18. Who headed the D-Day invasion?
19. What was the main reason why FDR won election in 1944?
20. What was the focus of the 1944 democratic convention?
21. What was the primary reason the United States used the atomic bombs in Japan?

Wednesday, 4 May 2016

The Great Depression

So - today we are going to go over the multiple choice answers, and then I'm going to break you up into groups to discuss the following topics. You job is to make an outline to present to the class:

1) The causes of the Depression and Herbert Hoover
2) FDR and the 1st New Deal
3) The 2nd New Deal
4) FDR's critics
5) The end of the Depression

If we have time, I will give you some notes on World War II (or WWII). Tomorrow we will start WWII. Please bring your textbooks.

Thursday, 28 April 2016

Thursday

Today - we are going to finish reading the packet that we started on Monday or Tuesday.

Then, I will give you some time to work on the multiple choice, soaptone, or edpuzzle.

On Monday, we will move on to the Great Depression and then World War II.

Tuesday, 26 April 2016

Wilson's 14 Points

So today we are going to read and soaptone Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points.

Then - EDPUZZLE.

For multiple choice questions go HERE

For concepts go HERE

For Woodrow Wilson's 14 Points go HERE

SOAP the Document: Making Primary Source Documents
Come Clean!

Source

Who wrote the document?

What is the author’s background/point of view?

Whose point of view, given the topic, is
missing?

Do you consider the source a reliable one on this topic? Why/why not?

Occasion

When was the document written?

What does the date of the document tell you about its content?

What other historical events were going on during this time?

Audience

To whom is the author writing?

What type of document is this (diary entry, personal letter, public speech,
etc.)?

Does the private/public nature of the document inform you about its content
(is the author sharing private thoughts, making a public pronouncement,
etc.)?

Purpose
Why was the document written? What is the purpose of the document?

What is the document saying?

Tone

What is the attitude of the speaker?

Thursday, 21 April 2016

Thursday

Today - we are going to look over your Spanish American War blogs and then read a hand packet that should reinforce what you did yesterday.

Note - homework, finish the packet and do the multiple choice questions!

Tomorrow, we are moving on!

Wednesday, 20 April 2016

Spanish American War

Today - you are going to research the Spanish-American War and post your findings on your website.

Some we sites that I want you to use include: http://www.smplanet.com/teaching/imperialism/#SAW2

and http://loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/intro.html

What to POST ON YOUR BLOG:

1) What was the Spanish-American War? When did it happen? Why did it happen?
2) What incident set off the war?
3) Find a map of the war (post it)
4) Who was President. Did the President want the war? If not who did and why?
5) What area/land etc. did the U.S. acquire at the end of the war?
6) How did this make the U.S. an Imperialistic country (look up the term imperial)?
7) How did Teddy Roosevelt fit into this war? What did he do?
8) Give some reactions both positive and negative about the war (from the time period).
9) Read the primary sources below and give me your reaction to them.

Reading 7

First. In the cause of humanity and to put an end to the barbarities, bloodshed, starvation, and horrible miseries now existing there [in Cuba], and which the parties to the conflict are either unable or unwilling to stop or mitigate....

Second. We owe it to our citizens in Cuba to afford them that protection and indemnity for life and property....

Third. The right to intervene may be justified by the very serious injury to the commerce, trade, and business of our people and by the wanton destruction of property and devastation of the island.

President McKinley's call for war against Spain, 1898

Reading 8

When next I realized that the Philippines had dropped into our laps I confess I did not know what to do with them....I walked the floor of the White House night after night until midnight; and I am not ashamed to tell you, gentlemen, that I went down on my knees and prayed Almighty God for light and guidance....And one night late it came to me this way....
(1) that we could not give them back to Spain--that would be cowardly and dishonorable;
(2) That we could not turn them over to France or Germany--our commercial rivals in the Orient--that would be bad business and discreditable;
(3) That we could not leave them to themselves--they were unfit for self-government--and they would soon have anarchy and misrule worse than Spain's war;
(4) That there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them as our fellow men for whom Christ also died.

President McKinley on the Philippines

Tuesday, 19 April 2016

Unit 7

UNIT 7: 1890-1945 – The American Pageant chapters 27-35; Don’t Know Much About History pages 285-398

Content: An increasingly pluralistic United States faced profound domestic and global challenges, debated the proper degree of government activism, and sought to define its international role. Includes: The formation of the Industrial Workers of the World and the AFL; industrialization and technology, mass production and mass consumerism, the radio and the movies; WWI; Harlem Renaissance; The Great Depression and the New Deal, and WWII.

Key Concepts:

7.1: Government, political and social organizations struggled to address the effects of large-scale industrialization, economic uncertainty, and related social changes such as urbanization and mass migration.

7.2: A revolution in communications and transportation technology helped to create a new mess culture and spread of “modern” values and ideas, even as cultural conflict between groups increased under the pressure of migration, world wars, and economic distress.

7.3 Global conflicts over resources, territories and ideologies renewed debates over the nation’s values and its role in the world, while simultaneously propelling the United States into a dominant international military, political, cultural, and economic position.

Activities:

History Logs – notes and short responses to reading assignments.

Primary Source Analysis: Early 1900s new transportation advertisements; 1920s advertisements; Espionage Act of 1917; Sedition Act of 1917; Eugene Deb’s Speech Condemning Espionage Ace and Sedition Act; The Zimmermann Note; FDR’s 1^stInaugural Address; Roosevelt’s Court Packing Plan; FDR’s Day of Infamy Speech; Truman’s The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb; New Deal political cartoons (pro and con), graph showing economic cycles during the Great Depression and WWII.

Viewpoints: Japanese internment during WWII?

DBQ Deconstruction: DBQ on how the different policies of FDR and Hoover toward the proper role of government reflected five decades of debates about citizenship, economic rights, and the public good. Be sure to indicate how specific policies reflect the global economic crisis of the 1930s.

Students will write an essay comparing Wilson’s Neutrality document to George Washington’s, and discuss the changes, if any, in the context in which U.S. foreign policy was made.

Unit Test – Multiple Choice Questions; Short Response Questions; DBQ and Long Question: To what extent were the policies of the New Deal a distinct turning point in U.S. History, and to what extent were they merely an extension of Progressive Era policy goals? Confine your answer to the programs/policies that addressed the specific needs of American workers.

During this unit students will discuss possible answers to the following essential questions:

Identity: How did the continuing debates over immigration and assimilation reflect changing ideals of national and ethnic identity? How did class identities change in this period?

Work, Exchange, and Technology: How did movements for political and economic reform take shape in this period, and how effective were they in achieving their goals?

Peopling: Why did public attitudes towards immigration become negative during this time period? Why did opposition emerge to various reform programs?

Politics and Power: How did reformist ideals change and reformers took them up in different time periods? Why did opposition emerge to various reform programs?

America in the World: Why did U.S. leaders decide to become involved in global conflicts such as the Spanish American War, World War I, and World War II? How did debates over interventions reflect public views of America’s role in the world?

Environment and Geography: Why did reformers seek for the government to wrest control of the environment and national resources from commercial interests?

Ideas, Beliefs, and Cultures: How did “modern” cultural values evolve in response to developments in technology? How did debates over the role of women in American public life reflect changing social realities?

Unit 7

UNIT 7: 1890-1945 – The American Pageant chapters 27-35; Don’t Know Much About History pages 285-398

Key Concepts:

Activities:

History Logs – notes and short responses to reading assignments.

Viewpoints: Japanese internment during WWII?

Students will write an essay comparing Wilson’s Neutrality document to George Washington’s, and discuss the changes, if any, in the context in which U.S. foreign policy was made.

During this unit students will discuss possible answers to the following essential questions:

Identity: How did the continuing debates over immigration and assimilation reflect changing ideals of national and ethnic identity? How did class identities change in this period?

Work, Exchange, and Technology: How did movements for political and economic reform take shape in this period, and how effective were they in achieving their goals?

Peopling: Why did public attitudes towards immigration become negative during this time period? Why did opposition emerge to various reform programs?

Politics and Power: How did reformist ideals change and reformers took them up in different time periods? Why did opposition emerge to various reform programs?

Environment and Geography: Why did reformers seek for the government to wrest control of the environment and national resources from commercial interests?

Monday, 18 April 2016

Essays

Work on writing your Unit essays. Tomorrow we will start Unit #7 1890-1945.

6.1 Students will be able to analysis and discuss how the rise of big business in the United States encouraged massive migrations and urbanization, sparked government and popular efforts to reshape the U.S. economy and environment, and renewed debates over U.S. national identity.

Thursday, 14 April 2016

Unit Essay Due on TUESDAY

6.1 Students will be able to analysis and discuss how the rise of big business in the United States encouraged massive migrations and urbanization, sparked government and popular efforts to reshape the U.S. economy and environment, and renewed debates over U.S. national identity.

Wednesday, 13 April 2016

Chapter 26

Okay - so we will be going through chapter 26 relatively fast. I will be breaking you up into groups. Your group will be responsible for a summary of the section. A list of notes that you can give the class (as far as a handout) and a list of five review questions. You should also have at least two visuals. You can present the information in any fashion that you see fit. We will go over these on Friday.

Remember, you take home unit essays (Unit Objective question) is due on Tuesday.

Group 1 - "The Clash of Cultures on the Plains" and "Bellowing Herds of Bison"
Group 2 - "The End of the Trail" and "Beef Bonanzas and the Long Drive"
Group 3 - "The Farmer's Frontier" "The Far West Comes of Age" and "The Fading Frontier"
Group 4 - "The Farm becomes a Factory" "Deflation Dooms Debtor" "Unhappy Farmers"
Group 5 "The Farmers take their Stand" "Prelude to Populism" and "Coxey's Army and the Pullman"

We will read the opening paragraph together today and hopefully look at the last three sections as a class on Friday or Monday.

Chapter 26 - The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution

I. The Clash of Cultures on the Plains

After the Civil War, the Great West was still relatively untamed,
wild, full of Indians, bison, and wildlife, and sparsely populated by a
few Mormons and Mexicans.
As the White settlers began to populate the Great West, the
Indians, caught in the middle, increasingly turned against each other,
were infected with White man’s diseases, and stuck battling to
hunt the few remaining bison that were still ranging around.
- The Sioux, displaced by Chippewas from the their ancestral lands at
  the headwaters of the Mississippi in the late 1700s, expanded at the
  expense of the Crows, Kiowas, and Pawnees, and justified their actions
  by reasoning that White men had done the same thing to them.
  - The Indians had become great riders, hunters, and fighters ever since the Spanish had introduced the horse to them.
The federal government tried to pacify the Indians by signing
treaties at Fort Laramie in 1851 and Fort Atkinson in 1853 with the
chiefs of the tribes. However, the U.S. failed to understand that such
“tribes” and “chiefs” didn’t necessarily
represent groups of people in Indian culture, and that in most cases,
Native Americans didn’t recognize authorities outside of their
families.
In the 1860s, the U.S. government intensified its efforts by
herding Indians into still smaller and smaller reservations (like the
Dakota Territory).
- Indians were often promised that they wouldn’t be bothered
  further after moving out of their ancestral lands, and often, Indian
  agents were corrupt and pawned off shoddy food and products to their
  own fellow Indians.
- White men often disregarded treaties, though, and frequently swindled the Indians.
In frustration, many Native American tribes fought back. A slew of
Indian vs. White skirmishes emerged between roughly 1864 to 1890 in the
so-called “Indian Wars.”
- After the Civil War, the U.S. Army’s new mission
  became—go clear Indians out of the West for White settlers to
  move in.
- Many times though, the Indians were better equipped than the
  federal troops sent to quell their revolts because arrows could be
  fired more rapidly than a muzzle-loaded rifle. Invention of the Colt
  .45 revolver (six-shooter) and Winchester repeating rifle changed this.
- Generals Sherman, Sheridan, and Custer (at Little Bighorn) all battled Indians.

II. Receding Native Population

Violence reigned supreme in Indian-White relations.
- In 1864, at Sand Creek, Colorado, Colonel J.M. Chivington’s
  militia massacred some four hundred Indians in cold blood—Indians
  who had thought they had been promised immunity and Indians who were
  peaceful and harmless.
- In 1866, a Sioux war party ambushed Captain William J.
  Fetterman’s command of 81 soldiers and civilians who were
  constructing the Bozeman Trail to the Montana goldfields, leaving no
  survivors.
  - This massacre was one of the few Indian victories, as another treaty at Fort Laramie was signed two years later.
Colonel Custer found gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota
(sacred Sioux land), and hordes of gold-seekers invaded the Sioux
reservation in search of gold, causing Sitting Bull and the Sioux to go
on the warpath, completely decimating Custer’s Seventh Calvary at
Little Big Horn in the process.
- The reinforcements that arrived later brutally hunted down the
  Indians who had attacked, including their leader, Sitting Bull (he
  escaped).
The Nez Percé Indians also revolted when gold seekers made
the government shrink their reservation by 90%, and after a tortuous
battle, Chief Joseph finally surrendered his band after a long trek
across the Continental Divide toward Canada. He buried his hatchet and
gave his famous speech saying, “From where the sun now stands I
will fight no more forever.”
The most difficult to subdue were the Apache tribes of Arizona and
New Mexico, led by Geronimo, but even they finally surrendered after
being pushed to Mexico, and afterwards, they became successful farmers.
The Indians were subdued due to (1) the railroad, which cut through
the heart of the West, (2) the White man’s diseases, (3) the
extermination of the buffalo, (4) wars, and (5) the loss of their land
to White settlement.

III. Bellowing Herds of Bison

In the early days, tens of millions of bison dotted the American
prairie, and by the end of the Civil War, there were still 15 million
buffalo grazing, but it was the eruption of the railroad that really
started the buffalo massacre.
- Many people killed buffalo for their meat, their skins, or their
  tongues, but many people either killed the bison for sport or killed
  them, took only one small part of their bodies (like the tongue) and
  just left the rest of the carcass to rot.
By 1885, fewer than 1,000 buffalo were left, and the species was in
danger of extinction. Those left were mostly in Yellowstone National
Park.

IV. The End of the Trail

Sympathy for the Indians finally materialized in the 1880s, helped
in part by Helen Hunt Jackson’s book A Century of Dishonor and
her novel Ramona.
- Humanitarians wanted to kindly help Indians “walk the White
  man’s road” while the hard-liners stuck to their
  “kill ‘em all” beliefs, and no one cared much for the
  traditional Indian heritage and culture.
Often, zealous White missionaries would force Indians to convert,
and in 1884, they helped urge the government to outlaw the sacred Sun
Dance, called the Ghost Dance by Whites. It was a festival that Whites
thought was the war-drum beating.
- At the Battle of Wounded Knee, the “Ghost Dance” was
  brutally stamped out by U.S. troops, who killed women and children as
  well. This battle marks the end of the Indian Wars as by then the
  Indians were all either on reservations or dead.
The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 dissolved the legal entities of all
tribes, but if the Indians behaved the way Whites wanted them to behave
(become farmers on reservations), they could receive full U.S.
citizenship in 25 years (full citizenship to all Indians was granted in
1924). Ironically, an immigrant from a foreign nation could become a
citizen much, much faster than a native-born Native American.
- Reservation land not allotted to Indians under the act was sold to railroads.
- In 1879, the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania was founded to
  teach Native American children how to behave like Whites, completely
  erasing their culture.
- The Dawes Act struck forcefully at the Indians, and by 1900 they
  had lost half the land than they had held 20 years before. This plan
  would outline U.S. policy toward Indians until the 1934 Indian
  Reorganization Act which helped the Indian population rebound and grow.

V. Mining: From Dishpan to Ore Breaker

Gold was discovered in California in the late 1840s, and in 1858,
the same happened at Pike’s Peak in Colorado.
“Fifty-Niners” flocked out there, but within a month or
two, the gold had run out.
The Comstock Lode in Nevada was discovered in 1859, and a fantastic
amount of gold and silver worth more than $340 million was mined.
Smaller “lucky strikes” also drew money-lovers to
Montana, Idaho, and other western states. Anarchy in these outposts
seemed to rule, but in the end, what was left were usually ghost towns.
After the surface gold was found, ore-breaking machinery was
brought in to break the gold-bearing quartz (which was very expensive
to do).
Women found new rights in these Western lands however, gaining
suffrage in Wyoming (1869) (the first place for women to vote), Utah
(1870), Colorado (1893) and Idaho (1896).
Mining also added to the folklore and American literature (Bret Harte & Mark Twain).

VI. Beef Bonanzas and the Long Drive

As cities back east boomed in the latter half of the nineteenth century, the demand for food and meat increased sharply.
The problem of marketing meat profitably to the public market and
cities was solved by the new transcontinental railroads. Cattle could
now be shipped to the stockyards under “beef barons” like
the Swifts and Armours.
- The meat-packaging industry thus sprang up.
The “Long Drive” emerged to become a spectacular feeder
of the slaughterhouses, as Texas cowboys herded cattle across desolate
land to railroad terminals in Kansas.
- Dodge City, Abilene, Ogallala, and Cheyenne became favorite stopovers.
  - At Dodge City Wyatt Earp and in Abilene, Marshal James B. Hickok maintained order.
The railroads made the cattle herding business prosper, but it also
destroyed it, for the railroads also brought sheepherders and
homesteaders who built barbed-wire, invented by Samuel Glidden, fences
that erased the open-range days of the long cattle drives.
- Also, blizzards in the winter of 1886-87 left dazed cattle starving and freezing.
Breeders learned to fence their ranches and to organize (i.e. the Wyoming Stock-Growers’ Association).
- The legends of the cowboys were made here at this time, but lived on in American lore.

VII. The Farmers’ Frontier

The Homestead Act of 1862 allowed folks to get as much as 160 acres
of land in return for living on it for five years, improving it, and
paying a nominal fee of about $30.00. Or, it allowed folks to get land
after only six month’s residence for $1.25 an acre.
- Before, the U.S. government had sold land for revenue, but now, it was giving it away.
- This act led half a million families to buy land and settle out
  West, but it often turned out to be a cruel hoax because in the dry
  Great Plains, 160 acres was rarely enough for a family to earn a living
  and survive. And often, families were forced to give up their
  homesteads before the five years were up, since droughts, bad land, and
  lack of necessities forced them out.
- However, fraud was spawned by the Homestead Act, since almost ten
  times as much land ended up in the hands of land-grabbing promoters
  than in the hands of real farmers. Sometimes these cheats would not
  even live on the land, but say that they’d erected a
  “twelve by fourteen” dwelling—which later turned out
  to be twelve by fourteen inches!
Taming Western Deserts
- Railroads such as the Northern Pacific helped develop the
  agricultural West, a place where, after the tough, horse-trodden lands
  had been plowed and watered, proved to be surprisingly fertile.
- Due to higher wheat prices resulting from crop failures around the
  world, more people rashly pushed further westward, past the 100th
  meridian (which is also the magic 20-inch per year rainfall line),
  where it was difficult to grow crops.
  - Here, as warned by geologist John Wesley Powell, so little rain
    fell that successful farming could only be attained by massive
    irrigation.
  - To counteract the lack of water (and a six year drought in the
    1880s), farmers developed the technique of “dry farming,”
    or using shallow cultivation methods to plant and farm, but over time,
    this method created a finely pulverized surface soil that contributed
    to the notorious “Dust Bowl” several decades later.
- A Russian species of wheat—tough and resistant to
  drought—was brought in and grew all over the Great Plains, while
  other plants were chosen in favor of corn.
- Huge federally financed irrigation projects soon caused the
  “Great American Desert” to bloom, and dams that tamed the
  Missouri and Columbia Rivers helped water the land.

VIII. The Far West Comes of Age

The Great West experienced a population surge, as many people moved onto the frontier.
New states like Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, and Wyoming were admitted into the Union.
- Not until 1896 was Utah allowed into the Union, and by the 20th
  century, only Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona remained as territories.
- In Oklahoma, the U.S. government made available land that had
  formerly belonged to the Native Americans, and thousands of
  “Sooners” jumped the boundary line and illegally went into
  Oklahoma, often forcing U.S. troops to evict them.
- On April 22, 1889, Oklahoma was legally opened, and 18 years later, in 1907, Oklahoma became the “Sooner State.”
In 1890, for the first time, the U.S. census announced that a frontier was no longer discernible.
The “closing” of the frontier inspired the Turner Thesis, which stated that America needed a frontier.
At first, the public didn’t seem to notice that there was no
longer a frontier, but later, they began to realize that the land was
not infinite, and concern led to the first national park being opened,
Yellowstone, founded in 1872, followed by Yosemite and Sequoia (1890).

IX. The Fading Frontier

The frontier was a state of mind and a symbol of opportunity.
The “safety valve theory” stated that the frontier was
like a safety valve for folks who, when it became too crowded in their
area, could simply pack up and leave, moving West.
- Actually, few city-dwellers left the cities for the West, since
  they didn’t know how to farm; the West increasingly became less
  and less a land of opportunity for farms, but still was good for hard
  laborers and ranchers.
- Still, free acreage did lure a host of immigrant farmers to the
  West—farmers that probably wouldn’t have come to the West
  had the land not been cheap—and the lure of the West may have led
  to city employers raising wages to keep workers in the cities.
It seems that the cities, not the West, were the safety valves, as
busted farmers and fortune seekers made Chicago and San Francisco into
large cities.
Of hundreds of years, Americans had expanded west, and it was in
the trans-Mississippi west that the Indians made their last stand,
where Anglo culture collided with Hispanic culture, and where America
faced Asia.
The life that we live today is one that those pioneers dreamed of,
and the life that they lived is one of which we can only dream.

X. The Farm Becomes a Factory

Farmers were now increasingly producing single “cash”
crops, since they could then concentrate their efforts, make profits,
and buy manufactured goods from mail order companies, such as the Aaron
Montgomery Ward catalogue (first sent in 1872) or from Sears.
Large-scale farmers tried banking, railroading, and manufacturing,
but new inventions in farming, such as a steam engine that could pull a
plow, seeder, or harrow, the new twine binder, and the combined
reaper-thresher sped up harvesting and lowered the number of people
needed to farm.
- Farmers, though, were inclined to blame banks and railroads for their losses rather than their own shortcomings.
The mechanization of agriculture led to enormous farms, such as
those in the Minnesota-North Dakota area and the Central Valley of
California.
- Henry George described the state as a country of plantations and estates.
- California vegetables and fruits, raised by ill-paid Mexican workers, made handsome profits when sold to the East.

XI. Deflation Dooms the Debtor

In the 1880s, when world markets rebounded, produced more crops,
and forced prices down, the farmers in America were the ones that found
ruin.
Paying back debts was especially difficult in this deflation-filled
time during which there was simply not enough money to go around for
everyone. Less money in circulation was called
“contraction.”
Farmers operated year after year on losses and lived off their fat
as best they could, but thousands of homesteads fell to mortgages and
foreclosures, and farm tenancy rather than farm ownership was
increasing.
The fall of the farmers in the late 1800s was similar to the fall
of the South and its “King Cotton” during the Civil War:
depending solely on one crop was good in good times but disastrous
during less prosperous times.

XII. Unhappy Farmers

In the late 1880s and early 1890s, droughts, grasshopper plagues,
and searing heat waves made the toiling farmers miserable and poor.
City, state, and federal governments added to this by gouging the
farmers, ripping them off by making them pay painful taxes when they
could least afford to do so.
The railroads (by fixing freight prices), the middlemen (by taking
huge cuts in profits), and the various harvester, barbed wire, and
fertilizer trusts all harassed farmers.
In 1890, one half of the U.S. population still consisted of farmers, but they were hopelessly disorganized.

XIII. The Farmers Take Their Stand

In the Greenback movement after the Civil War, agrarian unrest had flared forth as well.
In 1867, the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, better
known as The Grange, was founded by Oliver H. Kelley to improve the
lives of isolated farmers through social, educational, and fraternal
activities.
- Eventually, it spread to claim over 800,000 members in 1875, and
  the Grange changed its goals to include the improvement of the
  collective plight of the farmer.
- The Grangers found most success in the upper Mississippi Valley,
  and eventually, they managed to get Congress to pass a set of
  regulations known as the Granger Laws, but afterwards, their influence
  faded.
The Greenback Labor Party also attracted farmers, and in 1878, the
Greenback Laborites polled over a million votes and elected 14 members
of Congress.
- In 1880, the Greenbackers ran General James B. Weaver, a Civil War general, but he only polled 3% of the popular vote.

XIV. Prelude to Populism

The Farmers’ Alliance, founded in the late 1870s, was another
coalition of farmers seeking to overthrow the chains from the banks and
railroads that bound them.
- However, its programs only aimed at those who owned their own land,
  thereby ignoring the tenant farmers, and it purposely excluded Blacks.
- The Alliance members agreed on the (1) nationalization of
  railroads, (2) the abolition of national banks, (3) a graduated income
  tax, and (4) a new federal sub-treasury for farmers.
Populists were led by Ignatius Donnelly from Minnesota and Mary
Elizabeth Lease, both of whom spoke eloquently and attacked those that
hurt farmers (banks, railroads, etc.).
The Alliance was still not to be brushed aside, and in the coming
decade, they would combine into a new People’s Party (AKA, the
Populist Party) to launch a new attack on the northeastern citadels of
power.

XV. Coxey’s Army and the Pullman Strike

The Panic of 1893 fueled the passion of the Populists. Many disgruntled unemployed fled to D.C. calling for change.
- Most famous of these people was “General” Jacob Coxey.
  “Coxey’s Army” marched on Washington with scores of
  followers and many newspaper reporters. They called for:
  - relieving unemployment by an inflationary government public works program.
  - an issuance of $500 million in legal tender notes.
- The march fizzled out when they were arrested for walking on the grass.
The Pullman Strike in Chicago, led by Eugene Debs, was more dramatic.
- Debs helped organize the workers of the Pullman Palace Car Company.
- The company was hit hard by the depression and cut wages by about 1/3.
- Workers struck, sometimes violently.
- U.S. Attorney General Richard Olney called in federal troops to
  break up the strike. His rationale: the strike was interfering with the
  transit of U.S. mail.
- Debs went to prison for 6 months and turned into the leading Socialist in America.

XVI. Golden McKinley and Silver Bryan

McKinley
- The leading Republican candidate in 1896 was William McKinley, a
  respectable and friendly former Civil War major who had served many
  years in Congress representing his native Ohio.
- McKinley was the making of another Ohioan, Marcus Alonzo Hanna, who
  financially and politically supported the candidate through his
  political years.
- McKinley was a conservative in business, preferring to leaves
  things alone, and his platform was for the gold standard, even though
  he personally was not.
  - His platform also called for a gold-silver
    bimetallism—provided that all the other nations in the world did
    the same, which was not bound to happen.
Bryan
- The Democrats were in disarray and unable to come up with a
  candidate, until William Jennings Bryan, the “Boy Orator of the
  Platte,” came to their rescue.
- At the 1896 Democratic Convention in Chicago, Bryan delivered a
  movingly passionate speech in favor of free silver. In this
  “Cross of Gold Speech” he created a sensation and won the
  nomination for the Democratic ticket the next day.
  - The Democratic ticket called for unlimited coinage of silver with
    the ratio of 16 silver ounces worth as much as one ounce of gold.
  - Democrats who would not stand for this left the party.
- Some Democrats charged that they’d stolen the Populist ideas,
  and during the Election of 1896, it was essentially the
  “Demo-Pop” party.

XVII. Class Conflict: Plowholders Versus Bondholders

McKinley won decisively, getting 271 electoral votes, mostly from
the populous East and upper Midwest, as opposed to Bryan’s 176,
mostly from the South and the West.
This election was perhaps the most important since the elections
involving Abraham Lincoln, for it was the first to seemingly pit the
privileged against the underprivileged, and it resulted in a victory
for big business and big cities.
Thus, the Election of 1896 could be called the “gold vs.
silver” election. And, put to the vote, it was clear then that
Americans were going with gold.
Also in the election, the Middle Class preserved their comfortable
way of life while the Republicans seized control of the White House of
16 more years.

XVIII. Republican Standpattism Enthroned

When McKinley took office in 1897, he was calm and conservative, working well with his party and avoiding major confrontations.
The Dingley Tariff Bill was passed to replace the Wilson-Gorman law
and raise more revenue, raising the tariff level to whopping 46.5
percent.

Next week we will move into American Imperialism.

Monday, 11 April 2016

Chapter 25

Today we need to finish reading chapter 25.

Take home test will be due next Monday.

The March of the Mind

Know: William James

34. Describe some of the intellectual achievements of the late 1800’s.

The Appeal of the Press

Know: Joseph Pulitzer, William Randolph Hearst, Yellow Journalism

35. How did the ability to produce newspapers inexpensively change their content?

Apostles of Reform

Know: Edwin L. Godkin, Henry George, Edward Bellamy

36. How did writers in the 1870's and 1880's try to address the problems of their time?

Postwar Writing

Know: Dime novels, Horatio Alger, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson

37. Did the trends in writing after the Civil War make it a good period for literature? Explain.

Literary Landmarks

Know: Kate Chopin, Mark Twain, Bret Harte, William Dean Howells, Stephen Crane, Henry James, Jack London, Frank Norris, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Charles W. Chestnut, Theodore Dreiser.

38. What did many writers in the late 1800's have in common?

The New Morality

Know: Victoria Woodhull, Anthony Comstock

39. What evidence demonstrated a battle raging over sexual morality?

Families and Women in the City

Know: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, National Women Suffrage Association, Ida B. Wells

40. What changes were occurring in the women's rights movement?

Prohibition of Alcohol and Social Progress

Know: Women's Christian Temperance Union, Carrie Nation, Anti-Saloon League, 18th Amendment, Clara Barton

41. What social causes were women (and many men) involved in the late 1800's?

Artistic Triumphs

Know: James Whistler, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, George Inness, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Metropolitan Opera House, Henry H. Richardson, Columbian Exposition

42. Why is this section titled "artistic triumphs?"

The Business of Amusement

Know: Vaudeville, P.T. Barnum, Buffalo Bill Cody, Annie Oakley, James Naismith

43. What forms of recreation became popular from 1870 to 1900?

Wednesday, 6 April 2016

Remember Take Home Test Question

Remember to include the following

1) Thesis Statement
2) Generalization or claims that back up your thesis
3-4) Specifics that back up your generalizations or claims
5) Historical Causation
6) Conclusion

6.1 Students will be able to analysis and discuss how the rise of big business in the United States encouraged massive migrations and urbanization, sparked government and popular efforts to reshape the U.S. economy and environment, and renewed debates over U.S. national identity.

Monday, 4 April 2016

Monday

Today we are going to go over chapter 24 and create quizlets (please don't just find a quizlet and adopt it).

For those of you who will be gone this week you need to answer questions 23 -33.

The Urban Frontier

Know: Louis Sullivan, Walking Cities, Department Stores, Tenements

23. What factors led to the growth of cities in the second half of the 1800's?

The New Immigration

24. How were the new immigrants different from the old immigrants?

Southern Europe Uprooted

25. Why did the new immigrants come to America in such large numbers?

Makers of America: The Italians

Know: Birds of Passage, padrone

26. How did Italian immigrants live their lives in America?

Reactions to the New Immigration

Know: Political Bosses, Social Gospel, Jane Addams, Hull House, Settlement houses, Lillian Wald, Florence Kelley

27. How did political bosses help immigrants?

Narrowing the Welcome Mat

Know: Nativists, Anglo-Saxon, American Protective Association, Statue of Liberty

28. In 1886, what was ironic about the words inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty?

Churches Confront the Urban Challenge

Know: Dwight Lyman Moody, Cardinal Gibbons, Salvation Army, Mary Baker Eddy, YMCA

29. What role did religion play in helping the urban poor?

Darwin Disrupts the Churches

Know: Charles Darwin, Origin of the Species, Fundamentalists, Modernists, Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll,

30. What effect did the theory of evolution have on Christian churches?

The Lust for Learning

Know: Normal Schools, Kindergarten, Chautauqua

31. What advances took place in education in the years following the Civil War?

Booker T. Washington and Education for Black People

Know: Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee Institute, Accomodationist, George Washington Carver, W.E.B. Du Bois, NAACP

32. Explain the differences in belief between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois.

The Hallowed Halls of Ivy

Know: Vassar, Howard, Morrill Act, Land Grant Colleges, Hatch Act

33. What factors allowed the number of college students to dramatically increase?