Chapter 19: Immigration, Urbanization, and the Transformation of Popular Culture and Everyday Life, 1860-1900

During this chapter, it explained the increasing population growth in the cities. The cities thrived with more live and diversity; poor and rich classes lived in the cities during the 1830's. Each class started having their own culture within their own society during this Victorian age. I found it interesting how the middle class played roles for each gender. The men in the middle class had to work while the women had to be intellectually cultured with each other. It made sense that they would to portray a role in their society and they wanted to more cultured and connected by new traditions. Education started becoming a major priority by the 1900. Universities started becoming the collegiate landscape and medical education was improving a lot. I find this part intriguing; with my major being a nursing/biology, I like how education started improving in the medical field because it would be more efficient each time. I like how everything was improving over time and this was the time for innovation. Inverting to different ideas was coping into different matters and over time was still the recreation and similar ideas with different beliefs.

Quote responses

“Work thus belongs to the vocation of every person; indeed, man expresses and fulfills himself by working.” (CA 6, p. 443 ).

  A man expresses himself by working by showing his passion, care, and commitment for what he is doing. There is a lot of time and devotion that is shown into this, and it's carefully thought out to what happened to be known as different explanations each day. Shown in the passion of the Sisters of Notre Dame, they opened the high school knowing they were giving free education to girls that desired the thirst for knowledge, which later became a private school. The nuns are one of the many reasons why the school still exists, by their hard work and core value.

“A workman’s wages should be sufficient to enable him to support himself, his wife and his children.” (CA 8, p. 445 ).
 Though the ideal wage for a working man would be able to support himself and his family, it's hard for some of the average working men to do so. Minimum wage is not even enough for them to support themselves, let alone feed other mouths. Though the working man could not do it on one job alone, he would either find multiple jobs or have his children and wife finding jobs too which contributes for more desperation looking for jobs in the working field. More people looking for hire are able to add more to society. 


“Political parties should foster whatever they judge necessary for the common good. But they should never prefer their own advantage over this same common good.” (GS 75, p.218).
Political Parties are based on ideas and promises that could be changed. Most political stands are based on the common good and would be able to change ideas that have different standpoints. They never change their own preference. The whole time, it was major contradictions, but these promises helped the industrialization by having these corporations built to improve America.

Chapter 18: The Rise of Industrial America

   This was the time that railroads boomed in corporate finance and started expanding. As the railroads started expanding, more money was put into the corporate finance and how they would have more of a different type of relationship based with the small plant owners. Small plant owners did not appreciate that this corporate landowners would take over the small land, and tried to look over the government for help. Other problems came with the railroad industry booming and the character of the industry changed. In the chapter, they talked about 6 features that dominated the manufacturing world during the Civil War. The first one was the exploitation of a vast variety of technology in transportation, communication, and factories. The second was the exploiting of coal deposits as a source of cheap energy. The third was the demand for workers who could be easily taken advantage of. The fourth was the constant pressure on firms to compete tooth-and-nail by cutting costs and prices. The fifth was the huge drop in prices. The sixth was the fail for supply in money to keep the productivity.
 All these were huge factors that played in the industry role, and I feel without these factors, we wouldn't be as advanced in our technology we are in today's society. We have came a long way so the industrial railroad, and we developed the same concept and ideas, but we have a more advance take on things, and how they would come about. It happened to be different in so many ways, and how everything is perceived is different by looking at different statures to come by. I was surprised to know that in one of the six features, the exploiting of coal is a source of cheap energy. Exploitation and being conscious of what is bad and good for the Earth was starting with the coal as cheap energy. I think we started being more subconscious to what we will consider as good fuel.

Chapter 17: The Trans-Mississippi West, 1860-1900

The Trans-Mississipi West river, which was considered the Great Plains of the river. It happened to be one of the most agricultural places. Different Indian tribes lived in the area and used the Buffalo as their agricultural economy, food source, and everything else that comes along with it. This war went on with the Indians and the settlers. Sadly, I feel this is the expansion of the Trail of Tears, and I didn't understand why they needed to have different settlers settling into the native tribes land when they were there in the first place.
Settlers weren't the only thing that was spreading. Mormonism was spreading along the coastal regions where they would have different types of religion. It happened to be one of the most contradictory and how it would be one of the famous religions until it happened to die out.

Chapter 16: The Crisis of Reconstruction

In this chapter, it explains the after math after the Civil War. The nation needed and faced some serious reconstruction. This process took a lot faster than everyone thought it would. Everyone thought it would be a slow process, and there would be no room to make it. One of the major things that they faced was the Impact of Emancipation. As soon as slaves got liberty, this meant mobility. Some were able to move away from plantations all together, others moved into what they thought would be different. Others would be move out of the state to go find lost family members. Sadly, the reunification never worked out so well. They would have different of severe labor and working for free would be different stories. It happened to be one of the major works to why slavery didn't work.

Chapter 15:Crucible in Freedom: Civil War

     In my opinion, the Civil War was one of the most conflicting times for America. It was the North and South against each other trying to divide and conquering land by settling economic and religious issues. Neither the North or South were ready for the war; they did not have a strong leader to guide them and they claimed Abe Lincoln was the last one to do that for them. During the first two years of the war, both sides would have to overcome these deficiencies, raise and supply large armies, and fund for their own war. It was not fair to the citizen for I feel that the less they were prepared, people wouldn't know the outcome for this war. In my opinion, was the war even worth it? Yes both sides had their contradictions but they would have their moments. It would be more beneficial if they planned out the war before hand and can see what they needed during the time duration.

    Also during this chapter, both sides began to print paper money. Lincoln decides to sign into a law which was an illegal tender act. Authorizing the issue $150,000,000 in paper(greenbacks). It happened to be one of the many things that would show the different ways of what the Civil War should have been. The way they recruited soldiers for was an informal democratic way that put much more stress in the Civil War. Lives that could have been spared weren't, and there weren't enough volunteers for the Civil War itself.

Chapter 14: From Compromise to Secession

For this section, I chose the Kansas-Nebraska Act. We talked about it briefly during class in our groups but it basically was the people wanting to govern themselves. Having their own sovereignty and wanting to govern the territory. Their main plan was to expand railroads into the Midwest to the Pacific, and open boundless opportunities for growth. It helped expand the idea of manifest destiny and how it would be more of a different substantial area to the Missouri Compromise. Missouri used to be a slave state. Douglas helped the bill be passed so they were able to govern themselves and have their own rules and ideas and not be abides by the union. "Two sources of potential conflict loomed. First, some southerners advocated a southern-based Pacific route rather than a midwestern one." (321, Concise 7th Edition, Boyer)
They also wanted to expand further down the road of the Louisiana Purchase. In my opinion they should have taken a hold of Nebraska so that they could be part of the union. If they wanted sovereignty, are they enough to make commitment and laws on their own? I didn't understand why they would want to divide Nebraska in half. It made more sense for them to keep them together and have them decide rules as a whole.

Chapter 13: Immigration, Expansion, and Sectional Conflict

    In this chapter, nativism plays a huge part in all these three sections the chapter goes over. The meaning of nativism is the sense of pride and social conflict that they had between these new immigrants coming over from Europe. The ego of the "natives" or the pilgrims I should say that looked over the land first looked down upon immigrants and treat them lowly which forced them to work minimum wage and start from the lowest class. I can only imagine it was hard for immigrants to find stable jobs to provide for themselves along with their family. Thinking that life would get easier in America also played to the American Dream, thinking life socially, economically, and even religiously would be easier than being in Europe.
 During the 1840's the majority of the immigrants that flew to America were the Germans and Irish. What intrigued me the most was the hostile competition for the working fields. The Irish were hostile towards blacks and abolitionists for their free labor work force and vice-versa for the blacks towards the Irish for their desperation for work and cheap minimum wage. It was even surprising to hear that religion also played a part of the desperation for the work force. Anti-Catholicism started spreading due to the fear of American-Protestants looking for cheap labor.
    One last section I wanted to mention was the Manifest Destiny. The destiny to expand westward all the way to excess. Manifest is to set it and to make it real. It was the dream and goal to expand America to find more gold, land, agriculture, raise up economical factors and have everyone take apart of this goal. Immigrants, natives, etc. The goal was to help move west ward.

Chapter 12: The Old & South Slavery

  During this chapter, we had a group lecture discussing all the different aspects of slavery. From social roles, to trade, to how plantation sights worked, and how slavery was treated from the South from the North. In the South, people were more focused on plantation and cash crops. The major one export is cotton which brought wealth and more demand for work labor. What I found surprising was that the masters would only have around 20 slaves for their plantations; only 1% would have a plantation of 100 slaves. I refer back to movies like Purple Rain, where there would be hundreds of slaves working the field.
 In the chapter, they also discussed the social groups of the white people in the South. In many ways, their system also ranks by the divisions of their work force. Meaning it would rank from plantation mistresses, to small slaveholders, and to the Yeomen which were the lower class who wandered from place to place. Like everyone else, I automatically assumed that all white people during this time owned a plantation home full of slaves. When the chapter mentioned Yeomen, I was intrigued to know that there were some white people who had it worse than the slaves in most cases. Having to be dealt with as "white trash" of the colony. The whole white class system, starting with the mistresses all have their own faults and in their group. For example, the plantation mistresses couldn't stand was seeing the mulatto(offspring of their husband's infidelity). It was harsh enough they would have to be isolated on their own and having to deal with the loneliness, but to see their children's offspring could be the hardest part because I can only imagine the betrayal and embarrassment they would have to deal with.