Chapter 30: Turning Inward: Society and Politics from Ford to BushSociety, Politics, and World Events from Ford to Reagan, 1974-1989

During this chapter, we discussed how after the turning decade of the Hippie Era, President Reagan took over and took drastic measures with the country. He made the country more conservative by bringing back the traditions of the US. He did this by cutting taxes, putting more money into the military funds, and being able to have each and every different cuts for this favor. President Reagan decided to do this( to change the ways of the President) because of the way Nixon decided to run the country during the time. This was a turning point because all the young people during the 60's that were publicly concerned with the government funds became more self-absorbed. This changed the favor of what it would be more of a voodoo economics. It was a trickle down theory such a hoarding the economy. I'm glad we learned during this era and I found it interesting how it was a flip of a turn the decade changed. It shows how much power the president has and the way the government was turning and things were moving faster.

Views of the US from different countries

If you ask different countries of what they think of the US, you will get different opinions, ideas of what the US stands for; such as: freedom, equality, no corrupt government, and a great economy. During our class discussion, we learned about different countries such as Vietnam, South Africa, and China that don't have the same privileges as us. The government is over controlling their citizens and when think of the US, they think of the freedom and free of dictatorship. We knew that there were these kind of injustices going in other countries, but hearing it from my fellow classmates blew my mind. This made me think back of my homeland, and how my cousins talk very highly about the US. As we all know, a huge typhoon wiped out half of the islands in the Philippines. My cousins and my uncles house roof was blown off, and now they are in a safety house. They said the first ones to help out with the typhoon was the US first ones to send help, food, and the Red Cross teamed up to send all the goods. When I asked my uncle what he thought of this act, I could hear him choking up because he could not express how grateful he was that someone outside the Philippines is helping them through this tragedy. The typhoon was overwhelming for Filipinos, and since US were one of the first ones to rescue them, their admiration and love for the US has grown even more.
 When you look at the Philippines, they definitely converted to the Western culture. Media, even politics have adopted the styles for the US, and most citizens hope they can come here and live the American Dream.
 The American Dream seemed to be the theme through most of the countries, and makes you start to appreciate the US, and how diverse we are with our citizens, yet give everyone the same chance of equality.


HERE IS A LINK THAT SHOWS THE US HELPING THE PHILIPPINES DURING THE TYPHOON:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/09/world/asia/philippines-typhoon-us-assistance/

Chapter 29: Time of Upheaval

 This has been my favorite chapter we read by far because of the era it covers: The Hippie Era. This was during the 60's and early 70's where it was known as the experimental decade as well. Liberal rights, freedom, etc. was being put into question and the main theme during this era was equal rights for everyone. For everyone to conform into unity, and question higher authorities. This was raised by the Vietnam War during the presidential era of Nixon.
During the time, college students were the activists and the ones calling the shot. They felt as if they had the right to what they wanted their future to look like, how their education is suppose to be, and how stated their opinion. More movements went on, and took non-violent activist protests kept going on. This definitely included methods like sit-ins or streaking. It happens to be one of the most violent working career is when policemen shot, aimed and fired killing six people during this peaceful protest. This was the time the nation saw the corruption in the government and young adults all over the country boycotted school and finals because of this massacre.
It took awhile for people to realize what was coming around of the world, and it makes me question how come we can't bring back to these times again? I think about how our economy and our government is right now and we are actually in a good place with our economy, politics, etc. There truly is no need to start a revolution, and we aren't in any war, and there is no true segregation other than gay marriage. Even with gay marriage people are more open to the idea of homosexuality being able to have the right to marry.

Civil Rights Movement in the 21st Century

The present day civil rights are much different than the civil rights movement that happened in the 1960's. We are now starting to expand equality to everyone, not just from a racial standpoint, but from gender, and sexual preferences. I'm referring to gay marriage, and whether is is right for them to legalize the right to marry each other. People wonder why this is even considered politics because it's based on an opinion base. If we look back at the 1960's, it was the same concept as well. We weren't giving African-Americans the same rights as every human being. Both gays and african-americans had to endure discrimination and prejudice and having to fight for the rights as human beings. Down below is a link that will represent and tell about the rights for gay marriage

http://gaymarriage.procon.org/

Civil Rights Primary Source

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X46XuWzpFgA

^^ For the primary sources, I chose one of the most controversial events during this decade. I chose the Little Rock Nine which is still seen as one of the biggest desegregation during the time. These nine African-American students had to deal with major death threats and discrimination. This video shows a clip of what these students have to endure or suffer.

The second one is the Hippie Movement. It shows that it would have different types of movements during the time of peace and love. This one is from the Huffington Post


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/15/haight-ashbury-in-the-1960s_n_1967664.html

Chapter 28: The Turbulent SixtiesLiberal Era, 1960-1968

This chapter particularly intrigued me due to the fact that these were known as the Liberal Sixties. John F. Kennedy became president and it seemed his influence brought an uplifting movement and in hopes that we can keep changing the world, and fight for the equality of everyone. Going through the chapter and seeing all the people who fought for liberty rights, I was disappointed in finding out that Martin Luther King Jr. was only briefly mentioned in the chapter. I remember growing up and each year when it was the MLK weekend, we would have to have a project, paper, speech, or some kind of recognition for Martin Luther King Jr. for he was one of our nation's treasure. He was one of the first to expose the deep violent extremism of racism in the South. I love how this movement particularly happened during this decade, and with all the liberal movements that were happening during this time, there was a better economy flow. John F. Kennedy mainly focused on foreign policy and founded the National Peace Corps in 1961. Despite Kennedy's efforts to make peace, there was still tension going on between the US and the Soviet Union. They planned to make force launch missiles, and the US panicked forcing them to back down. They did when we promised to never invade Cuba. I read this part of the chapter over and over again because I did not understand why with all attempts, we could not send the particular chapter over. It became such a mission to the fact that we weren't able to have peace, when that was all we were fighting for. Kennedy was focused on foreign policy he sent out troops to help fight the war in Southern Vietnam; sadly this didn't was Vietnam's vote and in 1969; John F. Kennedy was assasinated.
Too many historical events happened during this decade and this was one of the highlight's of our nation: this decade. Though it was a tragedy that John F. Kennedy was assassinated, it sure was well made when they were to find out who the judgement of that was. It will never be an open problem but I'm sure that his death made an impact on people. Seeing that yes, he faced dilemmas just as any president, but wanted to change this nation for the better.

Chapter 27: America at Midcentury

This chapter goes in great depth of the post war and how everything started coming into place for America. I particularly enjoyed this chapter because we finally start to see the build up and how they built America from the ground up. It happened to be one of the most major conflicts of the US. One of the major laws that helped pass for veterans to help out their families. The major laws that was created was the Brettan Law agreement which created the IMF, GATT, and the World Bank; secured US dominance in world finance. We hoped that there would be more of a different kind of substantial moments in US History, and we wanted to make the best of every situation for the US and we were growing as a country.
Booming prosperities happened during this time in the 1950's. What I truly loved is how the government sponsored scientific research and scientific technologies were discovered and business was booming like crazy. During this time, it happened to be one of the most successful, and technological things. The prosperity of American woman have grown and they were able to become more independent. Most were able to become teachers, or librarians, or nurses and college education was being more approved for women. The 1950's was definitely a turning point for America.

Chapter 25: Americans and a World in CrisisWaging Global War, 19339-1945

During this chapter, US was truly going through a crisis. Not financially, but through the abuse of their citizens. What I found particularly devastating in this chapter was the Japanese Internment Camps. This was during the time of World War II where we were in war with Japan, and the President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized these internment camps, and anyone behind the Japanese ethnic background would have to be sent away to these camps. It showed there would be more of a difference in what they would have to do. In many ways, there are so many different aspects to this controversy. Sadly, they had their properties taken away and their cherished belongings. People had to grow up their lives in these concentration camps. Sadly, they lost most of their property, and were able to have most of their life guarded.
All the rumors such as xenophobia where it was the fear of foreigners, and McCarthyism, which was the fear of communism. All these fears and phobias came up during WWII only because of all the fears of being attacked. It never made sense to why they wanted to have these reasons, but there were questions to why they were having trials. It seems to me that there were able to have reasoning behind it, but there reasons weren't broad, and was just on biased stand points. That's the one thing I did not enjoy reading about this chapter.

Chapter 24: The Great Crash, Depression, and the New Deal, 1929-1939

This chapter particularly talks about the Great Depression. This started when the stock market crashed on "Black Thursday". The significance of this date will always be remembered as the start of the Great Depression. This hears about the national feed and in the nation's crisis, it has always been one of the most tragic events to hit US. Jobs and unemployment went down to 25% where people had to look to others for their bank such as neighbors, church, and other family members to help pay the rent. Lost homes was one of the biggest statements out there. Either the house was overvalued or there would be a housing problem and the families are forced to leave their homes. Sadly the world bank did not have the cash for the citizens to meet their ends, and a lot of for closure went on during this time.
After Roosevelt became President, he did everything he could to strengthen the world's banks. What surprised me was how long the Great Depression took to finally get over, and makes me realize how much we have overcame that time since then. I'm thankful we are not in the same position and we have came up with a system so the US wouldn't have to go through something like the Great Depression again.

Chapter 23: The 1920s: Coping with Change

  My favorite Era, the Roaring Twenties; where parties, and the culture of jazz and luxury came about in the culture aspect. The consumption of booze, jazz, and how urban the cities were getting started a new era. Flappers were the symbolism of these kinds of parties, and promoted the wealth of the rich through their high class societies and urban lifestyle. For me, personally I took this particular chapter into fascination because of the glitz and glamor during this Prosperity Decade.
  By this time, the Progressive spirit has died, except in one aspect which was the Progressive Party in 1924, but died shortly after. Though there was a bit of a postwar recession, that didn't stop from new inventions and lavished advertising which drove the economy forward. This is when media started finally getting huge, through the radio, newspaper, etc. I found this interesting due to their post war dilemma, and still found ways to have the economy flowing again. These were obviously no longer the hardship times, but rather a new way to start moving forward and having the sense of ownership of the US again.

Chapter 21: The Progressive Era, 1900-1917

During the corporation boom, flocks of immigrants came over to the US to work in these harsh working industries. Most of these immigrants came from Eastern Europe and were often in overcrowded cities and which made things worse. I found this sad that they had to work in such harsh conditions when they only came to America to make a better living for themselves and their families. Though the wages of these grew, the average man couldn't make enough labor to support his wife and kids. This is why also during the early 1900's, there were a lot of children working along side their folks as well to help with the family income.
  The Progressive Era was in high anticipation because of the diverse array of reform activities of some emphasizing that would need to have the different array of activities to continue their acts. It showed that each time, there would be more of a different continuing acts and they would need to be more of a overall free for all act. Progressives focused on different aspects for the economy, and would try to focus on problems such as child labor, etc. What intrigued me is the fact that child labor was still being passed on, and that there wouldn't be in any harms way if they only addressed the issue properly. Child Labor is so dangerous, and there should be an age limit to what age they are allowed to start working in the factories.

Chapter 20: Politics and Expansion in an Industrializing Age, 1877-1900

    There was a high vote in participation, and trying to win the approval of political parties. Sadly, these political parties focused on economic growth and expanding the railroad rather than addressing the consequences during this part of the industrialization. The platforms these political parties stand for, would always focus on the positive rather than the negative. This has been the campaigning strategy since the early days of America, and though every political campaign would need to talk about how they can approve the US, it's also better to address the negative in my opinion as well. It shows that there would be more than enough of a high participation in what they can play to be the name game.
  Another part of the chapter that I found interesting was even though all these high stakes between the north and south was going on, no one wanted to focus on the real problem, which was the social consequence of industrialization. It took too long for people to realize and address the issue and focused on trying to strengthen every other part of this growth. It never mattered to what the voice had to say, but rather on how it would be more of an every day kind of thing.
  Money was in short supply today after realizing how precious and valuable the silver was. They would anticipate more funds to come, but there weren't enough people for it to go around and practice these kinds of habits. They stopped making silver coins and expanded the paper money instead. I found this interesting because currency is the only thing that keeps the economy flowing, and the fact that they used all their valuables says something. I'm glad they started expanding paper money rather keep using the silver instead.

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.