History Final Essays

What motivated Franklin Roosevelt and how did his New Deal unfold? How revolutionary, transformative, or successful was the New Deal in American history?

First New Deal:

Baking reforms (Emergency Baking act)

Job creation with CCC (civilian conservation corps) and PWA (public works admin)

Formed AAA (Agricultural adjustment act)

NRA (National recovery administration)

Second:

Labor rights (Wagner Act = legalizing unions/strikes)

Social welfare (Social security act = pensions/unemployment insurance)

Wealth redistribution (Revenue act = higher taxes on rich)

WPA (Works progress admin = employment to millions)

Redefined government’s role, from limited to active economic intervention

Created safety net, labor revolutions, etc. Didn’t fully end depression

How did the United States become involved in World War II, and how did its participation affect the nation domestically and how did it determine the outcome of the fighting?

Getting involved:

Neutrality Acts (cash and carry)

Pearl Harbor

D-day

Land/Lease

Domestically:

Women worked a lot, so more ammunition for women’s rights, Rosie the riveter

Order 9066, Japanese internment camps

Double V Campaign (supporting defeat of axis powers by also treating African Americans equally)

Demonstrated US as superpower

In what ways did the government grow and contribute to a post-World War II economic boom, and how did this activism affect American life?

Interstate highway act = 25B towards 41000 miles of roads, boosting tourism, suburbs, etc

Keynesian economics (aggregate demand to stimulate employment and economic growth.)

Development of middle class (New deal labor protection, GI Bill benefits, postwar industrial growth) Homeowning, college educated, suburban families with disposable income

Levittowns

GI Bill (passed out after WWII to veterans, giving them housing etc)

Baby boom

Wagner act 1935: Labor unions? Gave right to unionize, strike, etc.

What caused the Cold War and how did these tensions manifest in American post-war foreign policy?

Tensions:

Spheres of influence (One tried to spread democracy while the other communism) Yalta and Potsdam conferences

Truman doctrine, pledged aid to any countries against communism

GSC#68

Marshall plan: Rebuilt western Europe, preventing soviet influence

Berlin Blockade

Berlin airlift (15-month operation (June 1948 - May 1949) in which Western Allies, primarily the U.S. and U.K., delivered essential supplies to West Berlin by air after the Soviet Union blockaded land and water routes into the city)

Solidifying NATO

Domestic effect:

McCarthyism (Red scare)

Blacklists (Hollywood Ten)

Space Race

How and to what degree did the nonviolent civil rights movement after World War II succeed in expanding minority rights?

Brown v. Board, overturned separate but equal

Montgomery bus boycott (Dream vs Rosa Parks!!)

MLK

Selma’s Bloody sunday: British soldiers shot and killed unarmed protesters galvanized the Civil Rights Movement and led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Voting Rights Act: Outlaw discriminatory voting practices and ensure that all citizens, regardless of race or ethnic identity, had equal access to the ballot box.

However, it was still lacking as an economic and social disparity persisted until today

March on WASHINGTON! I HAVE A DREAM!

How and why did faith in government begin to erode by the 1970s?

Kenn state massacre (protests to the draft)

Tet offensive

Watergate (exposed by Washington Post), Nixon’s corruption (rigging votes) and Pentagon papers revealed corruption in the Vietnam war like Lyndon B. Johnson and Operation Menu

Stagflation (OPEC oil embargo) led to worsened trust

Rise of conservatism (The government is the problem message)

Over the last 150 years, how have Americans regarded their government? How and why did public faith in the federal government ebb and flow, and how has this faith shaped the American experience?

Americans alternate between demanding strong govt and fearing its power, shaping policy swings.

Highs: New Deal, WWII, early Cold War, Great Society

Lows: Reconstruction’s end, Gilded Age corruption, Vietnam/Watergate, post-9/11 wars

Recon: Freedmen bureau, backlash (KKK, black codes), govt tried to expand rights but didn’t enforce

P&P: Regulation of railroads (Interstate commerce act) and banks. Antitrust laws (Sherman act) and food safety. Trust in govt fixing corruption.

IR: Laissez faire (good!) but others want labor protections, with strikes, when govt sided with businesses.

WWI: Espionage act jailed dissenters. Red scare/palmer raids eroded trust postwar.

R20s: Pro business, revenue act of 1926. Corruption scandals ran rampant.

GD: Hoover failure

ND: FDR fireside chats, Social security act, CCC WPA, still inequality

WWII: Unity, war bonds, Manhattan project

Liberalism: Medicare, Civil rights act, peak trust

Cold War: Containment, erosion of trust from Vietnam and pentagon/watergate

War on terror: Post 9/11 surge with Patriot act and Iraq war. Declining trust still, with NSA spying revelations and Iran-contra incident.