2nd Semester
US History: 1865-Present – “Watershed” Period/Turning Point
Civil War: massive in all ways, changed the USA
- “Old Republic” gone (Founding Fathers), New Modern USA in (Abraham Lincoln & Republicans are the architects)
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
- George Santayana, 1905, philosopher [not a historian]
Condemned – has a negative connotation
We need to remember the bad along with the good.
However, the quote’s not talking about history? Was written about progress, experience, behavior, evolution. Progress depends on retaining stuff (retentiveness).
- History ≠ Past
- Change ≠ Progress
Often used as a justification for learning history. [Argument from fear]
- “If you don’t learn history, something bad will happen”
1959 à William Shirer, journalist, used Santayana’s quote as an epigraph.
- The Rise & Fall of the 3rd Reich [WW2]
Andrew Johnson becomes 17th president after Lincoln’s assassination.
- Racist southerner, hated slavery. Unpopular.
- He is THE President, with all the power. Not a temporary/figurehead president.
o Has all of the executive power as if he had been the one elected.
- 1st President to be impeached.
o House of Representatives decides to impeach or not
o Senate decides if he’s guilty/innocent in a trial
§ Johnson was not convicted (by 1 vote)
o Congress can only impeach on criminal charges.
§ Must have reason to impeach further than just not liking them.
Hamilton’s vision for the US wins.
- Huge/strong economy, military, and federal government.
- US: global (super)power in the 20th century.
End of Civil War: Triumph of Republican/Lincolnian Democracy.
- No slavery
- Republican motto: Free Soil, Labor, Men
13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments
§ 1st Amendments that increased power of the Federal Government.
§ 13th Amendment: Abolished Slavery
§ 14th Amendment: All people have equal protection of law
· Due process
§ 15th Amendment: Black (male) citizenship.
Civil War Firsts:
- 1st National Currency
o All money is now standard
o All money is now valid in all US states
o Value is backed by the US government.
- 1st income taxes
o Connects the people to their government
§ You have a stake in your government.
- Homestead Act
o Free government land (in the West)
o 160 acres à improve it for 5 years.
- Land Grant College Act (1862)
o Created state universities
o More Americans get access to higher education.
1865-1877 – “Reconstruction”
1865-1899 – “Redemption”
- Reestablishment of white supremacy / control in the former CSA.
1850-20th century – 2nd Industrial Revolution
1870-1910 – “Gilded” Age
$ generated by Industrial Revolution (for some)
★ Age of Corporation Capitalism – 1870-Present
1776 John Hancock – net worth: $350,000 [wealthiest man]
1910 Andrew Carnegie (US Steel) – $300,000 a month
Corporate Capitalism: dominate US economy, change/affect the life of every American, every branch of government, every business, etc.
- Dominates US economy
- Generates enormous wealth
- Personal fortunes
- Incredible poverty
- Gap between wealthiest and poorest is huge
Coincided w/ Urbanization in the USA.
Pre-Industrial Society: Land = Wealth
Industrial Society: Factories/mines/warehouses/labs/assembly lines/massive agriculture = Wealth
1600s – Joint Stock Companies
- Individuals buy shares (stocks) in company
o Investment
- Costs are spread out
- More $ invested, greater the reward
Scale gets much larger
1870-1910 – Corporation Capitalism
Standard Oil – John D. Rockefeller
Oil Found in: PA, OH, TX, Midwest, CA, AK
US Steel: Andrew Carnegie
Produce steel at large volume for low cost
JP Morgan Bank: JP Morgan
- Nose
Ford Motors
- Henry Ford
o Did NOT invent the assembly line
§ Used it
Ford Model T (car)
- Reliable
- Inexpensive
- High off ground
- Easily repaired
Wheel on left side (first one?)
Tires – need rubber
- Rubber comes from rubber trees
o Rubber trees only grow in South America and Southeast Asia
The 1 thing that the US could not provide/supply
1920s – Ford buys a large part of Brazil, calls it “Fordlandia”
*Most/All Americans are vulnerable to “Business Cycle.”
- Growth/Recession
- “boom”/bust
- National/International Markets
(not tested on this) – US Economy Lowlights
1893 – depression
1907 – crash of 1907
1929-1940 – stock market crash/ ‘Great Depression’
1970s decline
1987 stock market crash – no depression
2000 – Dot com bubble burst
2008 – Global Financial Meltdown
Railroads – United the States
Reconstruction (1865-1877)
- Rebuilding the South
- Reunifying the country
Success: US reunified/slavery destroyed
No confederate leader was ever prosecuted for treason
- Mistake?
- Failure : for Black Americans
During early reconstruction
1500 Black officeholders in South
US House of Representatives/Senate
- Blanche Bruce – senator of Mississippi, 1875-1881.
- Not another Black senator until 1967.
- After 1877, Reduced to “2nd class” citizens
“Nothing but Freedom”
After 1877, who’s going to enforce it? – no one
- Brutal backlash/oppression by white Southerners.
- Segregation/denial of rights/violence/murder of Black Americans
§ (lynching)
- Persist for next century
Redemption (1877-1901) – Triumph (c. 1901)
- Restoration of white supremacy and Democratic power in the South.
- “Redeemers” (Old Confederates)
- “Jim Crow” Laws
o Discriminatory laws
§ “Poll Tax”
§ Literacy Test
§ Grandfather Clause
o Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
§ Domestic terrorists
“Lost Cause” myth
- Myths are not fact, but they ARE both powerful and enduring
- Confederate States of America fought the Civil War for heroic, noble, and just reasons.
o For states’ rights
o For freedom
o For democracy
Lost Cause during
- Reconstruction/Redemption
- 1950s/1960s Civil Rights movement
1896 : Plessy v. Ferguson
- Ruled that segregation was constitutional.
“Separate but equal”
- Stands until 1954, Brown v. Board of Education
o Overturned
Board of Education – Topeka, Kansas
Response of Black leaders (to segregation/racism/Jim Crow laws, etc)
- Divided/not a united front
- Booker Toliver Washington
o Compromise and accommodate with this environment
o Hated segregation
§ Don’t challenge white supremacy/segregation directly
§ “Go Slow” approach à eventually, you will have integration/equality.
o Founded the Tuskegee Institution (HBCU, land grant college)
§ Train young men – vocational education
· Economic stability/wealth – nurses /teachers /mechanics /farmers
o “Cast down your bucket where you are”
Up From Slavery – 1901 book
1895 – Atlanta Exposition Speech
George Washington Carver – peanuts
- W.E.B. Du Bois
o 1868-1963
o Co-founder of NAACP
o Souls of Black Folk (1903) book
§ “Double consciousness” of Black Americans
· Major theme of Du Bois
· Identity divided because of race
· He feels his “two-ness”
*** Integration and equality can’t wait ***
o “Talented Tenth”
§ Black leadership class who was highly educated/motivated (top 10%) would lead Black Americans against segregation/Jim Crow laws/white supremacy.
§ Ceaseless agitation until change happens.
- Martin Luther King Jr.
- Malcolm X
- Marcus Garvey (1920s)
o “Back to Africa” movement
Phrenology – studying the patters on someone’s skull to learn about their personality/who they are.
Sara Hale – 1850s/1860s
- The Women’s Record
Great Men of History?
o Their mothers
Thanksgiving as national holiday
“Mary Had a Little Lamb”
Betty Friedan – The Feminine Mystique (book)
Biggest employment of women
- Domestic servants
- Nurses
- Teachers – lower school
- Sales – department stores
o Consumers/shopping as leisure
- Garment workers
- Computers
All were low pay
Every regulation about workplace history is written in blood.
Men
- Rational/tough/muscular/intellectual
- The builders of civilization
- Less endowed with morality and compassion (said by science)
o Good thing
- World of business/politics/military/industry
o Morality/compassion seen as a weakness
1859 à Charles Darwin
- Origin of Species (book)
o Evolution Through Natural Selection
- “Survival of the fittest” - Herbert Spencer
o “Social Darwinism” – evolution through natural selection applies to human societies and civilizations as well
§ Men HAD to be ruthless, hard, predatory to survive.
· Work outside the home
· Come back to your “haven”
Protestant/Catholic churches fear that Christianity was getting “feminized”
- “Muscular Christianity” movement
o YMCA
§ Beginning of the connection between sports & religion
o Patriotism
o Discipline
- Luther Gulick – popularized volleyball and basketball
o Went to college campuses – looked for star athletes and got them to “testify” for Christ.
§ Prayers in locker room
- Amos Alonzo Stagg – went to Yale, majored in religion, baseball/football player
o Head coach (football) university of Chicago for 40 years
o “Christianize football”
§ Prayers/dedicating game/performance to Jesus /sportsmanship/make the sport safe
19th/20th century – football was a blood sport
Frank Butterworth (enucleated, scraped his eye out) by Bert Waters
The Bloodbath at Hampden Court
- Theodore Roosevelt (Teddy)
o Most popular figure of Muscular Christianity
Book: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
Literary Example of Muscular Christianity:
Ben-Hur, A Tale of the Christ – Lew Wallace, published 1880
- Adventure novel with heavy religious overtones
Quiz 5:
1892 – Murder Trial of Lizzie Borden
- All differences between sexes on display
o They decide the verdict of the trial
o Lizzie had motive and opportunity, and had no alibi
o Defense: couldn’t have killed her parents because she’s a girl
o Weak/frail/delicate woman, encouraged to cry/faint
o Found not guilty
o Inherited house/property/$
Religion in America in late 19th/early 20th century
- US is not a Christian nation; however, it is predominantly/mainly Christian.
- US has no national religion.
- US was not founded on Judeo-Christian values/teachings/beliefs.
- Dominant religion USA: Christianity (Divinity of Jesus)
o Protestant Christianity
o Catholicism (Roman Catholicism) (form of Christianity)
o Judaism – grow w/ immigration in 19th century
Religion in USA moves in “cycles” – (not precise/predictable)
- Certain periods: Surges of religious activity
- Other periods: not so much
Times Good = religious activity decreases
Times Bad (Crisis/Upheaval/Uncertainty) = religious activity increases
Wartime and its Aftermath - Highest religious activity
o Aftermath of Civil War (800,000 deaths)
§ Massive surge in religious activity
§ Countermovement against organized religion, spiritualism, paranormal [Free Thought Movement]
· Atheists/Agnostics
§ Robert Ingersoll , “The Great Agnostic”
Turn to faith for Reason, Help, Comfort, Hope, Healing
Heaven (Eternal Life)/A Better Place
- Still “here”
Spirit Photography
Declaration of Independence has no mention of Jesus/Christianity
- “Nature’s God”
- “Creator”
- “Divine Providence”
US Constitution – Article VI, Amendment I,
- Both exclusionary of religion
- NO religious tests, NO national Church, NO prohibition of religion freedom
- Treaty of Tripoli – USA is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.
American Religious History/Immigration
- Protestant Christianity still dominates, but immigration alters religious landscape of America.
o Catholics : Ireland, Italy, Spain
§ Ireland 1840s-1850s due to the Potato Famine (1 million Irish immigrants)
o Jews : Germany, Poland, Russia
Success Story
- Absorb/accommodate wide diversity of immigrants
- No religious wars
US tradition – Separation of church and state/religion and government.
American Religion does change and evolve.
- 1600s : Puritan God : hard/angry/severe/Judge – all justice, no mercy
o “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” sermon by Jonathan Edwards
o Wilderness/dangers/unknown – Puritan God reflected this
- 1800s/1900s : God/Jesus : friends/companions, comfort/guidance/help, tender/merciful
o Needed Muscular Christianity
o Civilized/tamed/known world – Modern God reflects this
Social Gospel – use Christianity to help solve society’s problems/public good
- What Would Jesus Do?
- W.C.T.U. – largest women’s reform movement – women trying to ban alcohol.
Prosperity Gospel – wealth/health/beauty are signs of God’s blessing/God’s favor
- Poor/ugly = your fault, sinner or lazy
Temple University founded by Russell Conwell
- Sermon: “Acres of Diamonds”
o God wants you to be rich and is giving you these acres of diamonds, but if you don’t take them then that’s your fault.
- Carrie Nation – large woman, would smash up bars/saloons.
1920 – “Prohibition” (until 1933)
Women’s Vote
o Last of “Reconstruction”
Largest impact on American Religion (Protestant Christianity) was Darwinism (evolution through Natural Selection) (1855)
- Darwinism splits American Christians. [Science is in conflict with Religion]
o Evidence in fossil record
o Science : Earth is much older than we realize
- Liberal Christians: let’s accommodate religion to science
o Genesis creation story not to be taken literally
- Conservative Christians: always go with faith/word of God
o “Fundamentals” of Christianity
Science/Archaeology/literacy damaged religion in late 19th century.
American Catholics:
- Minority in Protestant USA
1884 : Baltimore Conference
- Set up parallel Catholic education system
American Jews:
- Reform : Isaac M. Wise, said integration into American society was the key to success
o Lose old rituals and practices
o Moved the Sabbath to Sunday.
- Conservative : Keep old rituals and practices
Mormonism (LDS)
- Upstate New York religion
- Joseph Smith / Angel Moroni
- Brigham Young – leads Mormons west to Utah
- Polygamy – 1896, Mormons give up polygamy and get statehood for Utah
Jehovah’s Witnesses
- 1880s, Charles Russell
- They thought the world would end: 1914
o What happened instead was World War 1
Christian Science
- Mary Baker Eddy
o Denied existence of material world
§ “it’s all in your head”
American Progress (1872)
- John Gast
o Artist
§ Geo Crofutt requested the “Star of Empire” on her forehead.
USA – Power
o Economic Power
o Military Power
o Political Power
- Enormous amount of territory
o N. American “lower 48” states
§ Northern Mexico became the United States
§ Various Tribes – killed/scattered/destruction of culture
o Alaska
o Hawaii – hundreds of Pacific islands
o Philippines (until 1946, colony of US)
o 800 military bases around the world – 1 million US service members
- Powerful Central Government (D.C.)
Empire? Is the US an empire?
US late 19th century – Continental Power
Early 20th century – World Power – 1917, US intervention into “Great War”
Mid 20th century-Present – Global Superpower
Critical Ingredient for an empire is Power
For most of history, empire is a fact of life for most people.
Every empire had slavery.
US is born on a continent full of empires
Spain/Portugal/French/British/Russia/Aztecs/Iroquois/Incas (18th century)
Late 19th century: “New Imperialism” Europe taking over most of Africa and Asia.
(colonies)
US: Gets Alaska, Hawaii, Pacific Islands, Cuba [doing the same thing]
- Finishing up North America
20th century: “The American Century”
USA has a mission to lead- the world
o Idea of a “mission” was new to us.
- Continental Empire, kept expanding – expansion made the US powerful, wealthy, and democratic.
- The Frontier – kept opening new markets (Corporate Capitalism)
o 1890: Frontier is closed/gone.
§ 1893: Triggers an economic depression