1.

During the Reconstruction era, there was a big divide in the black community that played

a big role in the changes that blacks in the South experienced socially and economically. Blacks that were educated or skilled tradesmen were actually doing rather well for themselves during this time. They were able to become politicians for the first time and represent themselves in government, but those that were recently freed slaves did not have the same education to help them get through this period of time. According to Ciment (2007), With most blacks emerging from slavery illiterate and ignorant of the larger world, freed persons often turned to more experienced men among the free black elite of Civil War days (p. 100). This assistance allowed even recently freed men the chance to understand the political arena and run for office. Racial tensions were still high among those that felt blacks were lesser than their white counterparts. Self-help centers, schools, and churches were building built by those individuals that had the money to fund these projects. The communities were able to band together to help the community become stronger as each person worked with each other. By building these places, they are enriching their communities beyond what was available to them as slaves. References Ciment, J. (2007). Atlas of African-American history (Rev. ed.). New York: Facts On File.

2.

The purpose of the Native American reservation was there to remove the Native

Americans from the nicer areas that were sought by the white settlers to the area. They were also to contain them to a certain area to help prevent the tensions that were occurring between the Native Americans and those coming into their areas. The bloody attacks that had been occurring

between the tribes and the settlers took a big toll. According to Olson and Beal (2010), Unaccustomed to a sedentary life, many Native Americans vegetated in a state of humiliated despondency. Native Americans became wards of the state, dependent on food shipments from the government (p. 196). The reservation discouraged Native American culture in that it was frowned upon for them to practice their own rites and rituals, including being able to hunt on their normal hunting grounds. Some reservations were nowhere near where they used to be able to hunt for their own food. Christian missionaries came in to help convert the Native Americans to Christianity while schools were opened to teach the children English and the ways of the white men going so far as only allowing them to have Christian names rather their own native name. They were looking to rehabilitate the Natives to help them to assimilate into the culture of the white man.

References Olson, J. S., & Beal, H. O. (2010). The ethnic dimension in American history (4th ed.). Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell.

3.

The Rise of Consumer Society in both the Upper and Middle classes started as they were

able to afford more and more frivolous items. As the amount of expendable money they had to spend rose, the production of goods also went up. During this same time period, the population

growth did not match the growth of industry because of the amount of money that both the Upper and Middle classes had. The Upper class was usually comprised of old money that they had inherited from previous generations hard work. While the Middle class was usually comprised of merchants and other working class individuals that are starting to grow wealthy enough that they are able to purchase the items that had been considered luxuries in the past that only the Upper class could afford. According to Henretta, Brody and Dumenil (2007), Buy now and pay later, said the ads, and millions did. By 1927, two-thirds of American cars were financed through monthly payments, and consumer lending grew to $7 billion a year the tenthlargest business in the United States (p. 713-714). This method of using credit to pay for goods that have been luxuries in the past, but now are considered necessities by those that feel they must have them, such as an electric vacuum, toaster oven or car. Of course, the consumerism trend is one that has not gone out of style. References Henretta, J. A., Brody, D., & Dumenil, L. (2007). America's History (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Bedford/st Martins.

4.

The rise of professional sports was that it was a great way for the masses of individuals to

forget their problems for an afternoon while watching their favorite team play in the Gilded Age. This was something that could give them pleasure while focusing on how their particular team was doing when their lives might not be as great as they would like. Sports provided them with an outlet for their upset, such as when their team lost to a rival, or happiness, such as winning a big game. This was something that they could talk about and debate without thinking of the life that they led. Capitalism was evident within sports in America in the way that owners went

about getting money from the fans. For instance, In this way, Robison owned every aspect of the supply chain necessary to watch a baseball game. His Cleveland Spider patrons would take the trolley to the ballgames, buy his tickets and then take his trolleys home (Carlucci, 2011, para. 10). Today fans are still paying a large amount of money if they want to be season ticket holders or own team merchandise that shows their team pride. These owners were able to also take advantage of the players with their contracts, which caused the first players union to form to prevent this in the future. References Carlucci, C. D. (2011). Baseball in America, Part II: Gilded Bats and Balls. Bleacher Report . Retrieved April 17, 2012, from http://bleacherreport.com/articles/516919-baseball-inamerica-part-ii-gilded-bats-and-balls

5.

Eugene V. Debs had started his political career as a Democrat but switched his affiliation

to the Socialist Party of America. The objectives and political philosophies he advocated a more cooperative system, such as Socialism, over the current system of Capitalism. He felt that workers rights should be protected, and unions should be strengthened to protect their members. He did not feel that violence was the right way to achieve their goals in this matter, unlike some other left-wing political groups. He was also against the United States joining the war during World War I. After a speech he made regarding how he felt that the war stemmed from competition where he criticized the current government, he was arrested and sent to the Atlanta Penitentiary for ten years. In the 1912 Presidential election, Eugene V. Debs ran with running mate, Emil Seidel, for the office of President against four other contenders. According to Most

historians consider Debs 1912 presidential campaign to have been a high point of the Socialist movement in America (p. xxix). Woodrow Wilson would take the presidency that year, but Debs and Seidel did manage to take 6% of the vote which was more than any other Socialist candidate was ever able to do in the United States. References Debs, E. V., & Constantine, J. R. (1995). Gentle rebel: letters of Eugene V. Debs. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

6.

The muckrakers were investigative journalists that were willing to dig deep to give their

readers the information that they want. The term muckrakers came from the fact that they are focused getting into the dirt and muck of a story to report the whole truth about an issue. These journalists were interested in getting the true story behind true stories, such as child labor, wages, labor issues, meat industry, working conditions, pollution, monopolies, medicines and even scandals. According to Bausum (2007), Readers hungered for probing stories that shocked and challenged them. As a result, not only did investigative reporting suit the times politically, it made good business sense too (p. 31). The papers printed these stories because they were very popular with their readers and the more sensational a story was, the more papers would be sold. The contributions that they made were that they opened their readers eyes to plights that they might not have been really aware of before. These individuals may have had a general idea of what was going on with these issues, but did not realize how serious this may have been. The impact that these contributions had on the Progressive movement at large is that reforms and

changes were insisted upon because the public were aware and wanting a change to be made in these areas. References Bausum, A. (2007). Muckrakers: how Ida Tarbell, Upton Sinclair, and Lincoln Steffens helped expose scandal, inspire reform, and invent investigative journalism. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic.

7.

The reason why some people were attracted to the Communist party during the 1930s

was the Great Depression. Some individuals felt that this showed that Capitalism had failed and was not an effective economic system. They believed that Communism may be the right party to join because it offered something different than the currently scheme. Also, black Americans and the unemployed were attracted to the Communist party as it offered opportunities to them. According to Ottanelli (2001), The Communist party took a different approach: it emphasized mass action, organized resistance against evictions, marches, and pickets on city relief bureaus to demand aid and to protest discrimination in the allocation of relief (p. 37). With the amount of people suffering at this time and the Communist party supporting efforts for everyone to find relief, it can be understandable why they were more attractive than the current system in place that was being bogged down by the amount of unemployed individuals that needed help. The positions that the party supported at the time was that the United States should support Stalin, the working class would rise up because of economic hardship and that Communism would take over. References

Ottanelli, F. M. (1991). The Communist Party of the United States: from the depression to World War 2.. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

8.

The automobile made a lot of changes in America geographically and socially.

Addressing geographically, it was able to travel a lot further than individuals were able to travel by horse and buggy and was more convenient than travelling by a train. With an automobile, individuals were able to travel at their own pace to the area that they wished to go without having to rely on anyone elses timetables. As time has gone by, when towns and structures are built, they no longer need to be practically on top of each other because walking and riding horses were no longer the primary forms of transportation. Automobiles made it possible for towns to be planned in a more spread out fashion. Also, a big geographic change because of the advent of the automobile is the roads that have been built tying geographic areas together throughout every country and into other countries. The changes that have occurred socially from automobiles being invented is that it continued to show the haves from the have nots as when the automobile was first invented as it was not readily affordable to all classes of individuals. According to Since early motor vehicles usually cost several thousand dollars, a few social critics dismissed them as expensive toys, appalling manifestations of conspicuous consumption by the very rich (p. 25). This was a huge divide in the social classes, and even today, not everyone can afford to own a car, although some families have several. References Lewis, D. L., & Goldstein, L. (1983). The Automobile and American culture. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

9.

Joseph McCarthy is probably one of the most hated men in American history because of

his accusations that there were plenty of hidden communists located in the government and other high offices. He was a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin that started what is called the red scare and McCarthyism in that Americans had a huge fear of communism because of the Cold War and fears of a nuclear strike by the Soviet Union. He believed that finding these hidden communists would help to protect the country. Anti-communism sentiment was high in the country, so he was very well known for the actions that he was taken to find these potential spies and communist sympathizers wherever they may be hidden. The only problem was that he was unable to substantiate many of the claims that he made which was his downfall. He had a big impact on civil liberties in that he went all out to try to find these communists by basically spying on American citizens and infringing on their rights when it came to trying to find the truth in his mind. According to PBS.org (2006), In all, three hundred and twenty artists were blacklisted, and for many of them this meant the end of exceptional and promising careers (para. 2). His era of influence was ended by the fact that he went after Army officials without any results coming from this along with the tactics that he used to try to root out these hidden communists that he purported to be everywhere. This ended in his censure by the U.S. Senate. References Arthur Miller - McCarthyism | American Masters. (2006, August 23). PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Retrieved April 21, 2012, from http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/arthur-miller/mccarthyism/484/

10.

After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and entered in World War II, Japanese

Americans were labeled as enemy aliens because of their heritage. They were then taken away from their homes by the coast and other areas and moved more internally into the country into internment camps. Of course, they were not treated in the same fashion as the Jews were being treated by the Germans, but their rights were not respected. For instance, it was being depicted that the Japanese were being treated fairly in this move, but classified advertisements told a different story of lands, homes and businesses given up for fire-sale prices (Boswell and McConaghy, 1996, para. 5). This affected civil liberties in that some Americans believe that what was being done to them was necessary because they could be providing Japan with information as traitors and that war time changed the rights that individuals had, while others believed their rights were being trampled. I certainly believe that it was a violation of rights rather than an action that was necessary to national security. If this effort was really necessary for national security, then there would have been internment camps for Americans with German ancestry. The fact that we were initially at war with Germany, but no such camps were created for these citizens leads me to this opinion. It seems to be more from fear of a culture that can be very different from what most Americans were familiar with along with jealousy that hardworking Japanese Americans were successful in their endeavors despite racial tension and discrimination they faced. Any potential Japanese spies or terrorists should have been handled on a case by case basis rather than just labeling a whole race of individuals at enemies to the state.

References Boswell, S., & McConaghy, L. (1996). Abundant Dreams Diverted. The Seattle Times. Retrieved April 21, 2012, from http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/special/centennial/june/internment.html

11.

In 1959, Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries were able to take over the government in

Cuba that had previously been friendly with the United States government. Castro believed that the Americans did not have Cubas interests at heart and were really using Cuba as a colony. He began to cut all ties that he could with the Americans. To make matters worse between the United States and Cuba, Castro had ties to communism, and in the following few years, Cuba and the Soviet Union became closer allies. This prompted a plan in the United States which culminated in the Bay of Pigs, where 1,400 Cuban exiles were transported back to Cuba to the Bay of Pigs by the United States after being trained and given equipment by the United States. Five days previous to this, President Kennedy denied that any intervention would take place in Cuba. This potential uprising did not take off and was quickly put out by Castros government, leaving the United States and Cuba still at odds. This incident and others prompted Castro to work with current Soviet leader, Khrushchev in giving Cuba protection, which lead to Khrushchev wanting to send missiles. The Soviets would have the benefits of bringing another country into their fold while having a very close strategic position to the United States through this maneuver. According to Dobbs (2009), In secrecy, while insisting that they would never contemplate such a thing, the Soviet leaders had installed surface-to-surface nuclear missiles on Cuba, less than a hundred miles from American shores (p. 4). In 1962, the installations were discovered by the CIA. President Kennedys move to block the missiles from arriving was by

quarantining Cuba to prevent the Soviet ships from being able to dock. Then the United States and the Soviets began to come to a compromise on the Cuban Missile Crisis. This called for the missiles to be dismantled and sent back to the Soviet Union lessening the fear of an attack from Cuba. References Dobbs, M. (2009). One minute to midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the brink of nuclear war. New York: Vintage Books.

12.

Prior to his presidency, Lyndon B. Johnson was not involved with the Civil Rights

Movement at all. This was because he was from a southern state that had specific views on the ways that white and black Americans should be treated in that whites were superior to blacks. According to Smith (2003): Although an avid supporter of FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT and the NEW DEAL, Johnson coming from Texas, the largest of the SOUTHERN STATES, was ambivalent about CIVIL RIGHTS, since it was difficult for a supporter of civil rights to win statewide office in Texas. (p. 191) At this time, he understood that if he were to become a supporter for civil rights, he would have a very hard time getting into office where he could make any positive changes for poor individuals, white and black. Once he became president after John F. Kennedy was assassinated he continued on his fight for civil rights equality. President Johnson was willing to allow weaker

measures to pass because, at least, they had gotten something passed into law that would promote equality. This could then be built upon to continue going in the right direction for racial equality. His motives were that he wanted to be able to make changes that he would not have been able to have any impact on if he were to have openly supported the Civil Rights Movement from the start of his career. References Smith, R. C. (2003). Encyclopedia of African American politics. New York, NY: Facts On File.

13.

There were several events that led to the Watergate crisis in that President Richard Nixon

ordered more domestic surveillance by the CIA, FBI and other intelligence agencies, but then later declined this order. A man named, Daniel Ellsberg, who was a former defense analyst releases what is called The Pentagon Papers, which contains secret information on the Vietnam War. In order to try to discredit him, a secretive arm of the government gets his files from his physiatrists office after a burglary. The following year a break-in at the Waterhouse Hotel by a team of five men, including one CIA agent and a GOP security aid, is discovered as they are trying to bug the office of the Democratic National Committee. Later evidence that the President or his reelection staff may have been in on this, including a check for President Nixons reelection campaign, is linked to the break-in. In President Nixons efforts to be reelected, he allowed a lot of political espionage on his behalf to go on. He maintained his innocence, but resigned because he could not or would not produce the presidential tapes that would help to clear up the gap in time that was missing. According to Genovese (1999), It was unusual in presidential history because for the first time the president himself was deeply involved in the

crimes of his administration (p. 3). His attempted cover-up was really what ended his presidency. A big consequence of this scandal is that many of the American people do not feel that they are able to trust the government. References Genovese, M. A. (1999). The Watergate crisis. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.

14.

The fall of the communist bloc in Eastern Europe, including the Soviet Union was a very

big deal as the United States had been fighting against the concept of communism for years in the Cold War. One of the main developments of the 1980s that contributed to this fall would be the actions of Mikhail Gorbachev. He was more of a reformer in that he did not follow the hard line of communism that previous Soviet Union leaders had which allowed for change in the region to occur. According to the U.S. Department of State, Gorbachev abandoned the Brezhnev Doctrine-- the Soviet Union's policy of intervening with military force, if necessary, to preserve communist rule in the region (para. 3). This inaction to use military might allowed other nations in the region to reform their current communistic governments. Poland, Hungry, Czechoslovakia, and Germany were all able to see change because there was not a fear that the Soviet troops would invade to keep the current regime in place. One of the biggest signs that changes were really occurring and were here to stay was during the 1980s when the Berlin Wall was torn down on November 9th, 1989 because the East German government withdrew all of the travel restrictions between East and West Germany. This eventually led to a united Germany in 1990.

References Fall of Communism. (n.d.). U.S. Department of State. Retrieved April 22, 2012, from future.state.gov/when/timeline/1969_detente/fall_of_communism.html

15.

It can be easy to say that every American President has left their mark on American

History. The president that I believe left the boldest mark on American History after Andrew Johnsons presidency is Theodore Roosevelt who served from 1901-1909. There are several reasons why I have chosen Theodore Roosevelt above all other presidents including his private contributions as a war hero before his presidency, antitrust efforts, construction of the Panama Canal, conservation efforts and thrusting American into the arena of world politics. Given a Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for negotiating various peace treaties and a Medal of Honor awarded to him after his death in 2001 for his actions during the Spanish-American War. Having a president that has been willing to give up his life for his country is very attractive to voters. I think that it means that this individual is truly invested in his country, not that individuals without military experience are any less qualified to be president. In Theodore Roosevelts case, he proved himself to be a leader and motivator of men during the battles he was a part of, just as latter in his life he proved that he understands how important peace can be. He was thrust into his presidency as he was voted in as the Vice President for President McKinley who was assassinated at the Pan-American Exposition in New York. His antitrust efforts still have impact today because companies are unable to monopolize the markets. This

has a huge effect even today as the government tries to keep businesses from buying each other up to form a large conglomerate that could take over the market. Of course, the construction of the Panama Canal was not completed singlehandedly by Theodore Roosevelt, but he played a major role in ensuring that this project went through. He understood that there needed to be a quicker and safer passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans than around Cape Horn. This certainly played a big role in transportation and shipping at a time where air travel was not the way that most individuals travelled. Even today, it plays a role in a nautical sense. As a big game hunter and naturalist, he was instrumental in conversation. He helped to protect lands in the West that hold the national forests, put land aside for the public to enjoy, and promoted irrigation projects. This is vital to what our country is today because, without these safeguards in place, these areas could have been destroyed rather than kept in their natural beauty that we can still enjoy today. Theodore Roosevelt believed that the United States of America should be strong at home while being able to be a national power abroad. According to Beschloss and Sidey (2009), He won the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the Russo-Japanese War, reached a Gentleman's Agreement on immigration with Japan, and sent the Great White Fleet on a goodwill tour of the world (para. 11). For good or ill, he helped to set us on the path we are currently on when dealing with world politics. Not everyone agrees that we should use the might of the United States to help, or as some may see it interfere, with other nations in their quests to become better. A little over a hundred years ago, Theodore Roosevelt achieved a great deal during his eight years of presidency that has left a big mark on the country that we know today.

References

Beschloss, M., & Sidey, H. (2009). Theodore Roosevelt. The White House. Retrieved April 22, 2012, from http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/theodoreroosevelt