Spring Semester Review Lecture
Urban Boomtime (1872-1910)
Gilded Age, political machines
Industrial Growth
Monopolies, pools & trusts
New inventions
Problems with crime, disease, overcrowding, working conditions
Early labor unions
Massive Immigration
Old immigrants
New immigrants
Making the crossing & Ellis Island
Racism, xenophobia, and anti-immigrant legislation
Progressives
attack political corruption, poor working conditions, child labor, purity of food & drugs
Muckrakers and the yellow press
Roosevelt: trust busting, nat’l parks, some support for labor
Direct primary, referendum, initiative
Temperance Movement: 18th Amend
Women’s suffrage (started in 1840’s): 19th Amendment
Racism: BT Washington, WEB DuBois
U.S. Imperialism (1890-1920)
Hawaii & the Open Door Policy
Spanish American War (Cuba & the Philippines)
Panama Canal & Roosevelt Corollary in Latin America
Intervention in Mexico vs. Pancho Villa
World War I
Outbreak of war and isolationism
New weapons and trench warfare
Lusitania & Zimmerman Telegram
Mobilizing for war
propaganda and silencing opposition
U.S. Swings the tide
The 14 Points & the League of Nations
The Twenties Roar
Racial tension, the Red Scare, Sacco & Vanzetti
Clash between rural & urban
Boom for Business, Bust for the farmers
The Jazz Age: prohibition and the liberation of America
New Marketing and consumerism
More Roar
New celebrities, athletes & entertainers
The car, radio, & movies bring America closer together
Speculation in the stock & real estate markets - Gatsby, get rich quick
Depression sets in
Market crash & bank failure
GNP plummets, unemployment skyrockets
Hoover stays hands off
Bonus Army, Hoovervilles, Dust Bowl
FDR & the First New Deal
Long, Coughlin, Townsend; Fascism & Communism
Second New Deal
World War II
German & Japanese Aggression
U.S. Neutrality – Lend/Lease
Pearl Harbor – enter the war
Pacific Theater (carriers, island hopping, subs, etc.)
European Theater (Africa, D-Day, Bulge, etc.)
Homefront: rationing, women to work, propaganda, etc.
More WWII & Start of Cold War
Atomic Bomb
Peace Settlement at Yalta
Division of Germany, Berlin Airlift, Marshall Plan
China goes Comm., Russia gets Bomb
Korean War (support south vs. north & China)
Nifty Fifties
GI Bill – education, loans, etc.
Suburbs – affordable housing, white flight, conformity, malls
Television, birth of Rock & Roll
McCarthyism – fear of communism, conformity
postwar spending boom˘ economic prosperity
Civil Rights Movement
Abolition – DuBois, Washington
WWII – segregated army, Randolph
Jackie Robinson, Emmett Till
Brown vs. Board˘
Little Rock1955- Montgomery Bus Boycott
Early 1960’s: Sit Ins, Freedom Riders, March on Wash, Birmingham, Miss Summer
Riots & increased militancy in late 1960’s
Cold War into the 1960’s
1957: Sputnik, 1960: U2, 1961: Bay of Pigs, 1962: Cuban Missile Crisis
Kennedy’s New Frontier & Johnson’s Great Society – United States Empire?
escalation in Vietnam, pacification, Tet
New Left: SDS, Chicago 7, etc.
extensions of CRM: women, American Indians, etc.)
Counterculture
Late 1960’s-Early 1970’s
Nixon, New Federalism & the Silent Majority
Burger Court: Busing, Roe, Miranda
Vietnamization, Cambodia, & Escalated protest against the war
Visits to China & the USSR
Agencies: OSHA, EPA, EEOC
Watergate: break in, cover up, investigation, hearings, resignation
The 1970’s
Energy Crisis, oil embargo
Ford: Pardon, Inflation, lack of confidence
Carter: stagflation, peace in ME, hostage crisis, malaise
Rust Belt
Culture: Disco, self awareness
environmental issues
Afghanistan, grain, Olympics
The 1980’s
Reagan: cold warrior, arms buildup, tax relief, faith in America
Reaganomics: supply side, good for the wealthy, bad for the inner city
corporate raiding
Savings & Loan crisis, Iran Contra scandal
Conservative ideology (guns, abortion, ERA, school prayer, etc.)
Possible Essays
Discuss the connections between changing technology, war, and the American economy between 1914 and 1995.
Trace the path of the United States from isolationist nation in the late 1800’s to the most powerful nation on the world in 2003. Be sure to outline the key events & people who made this happen.
Discuss the process by which the United States has come closer to living out it’s mission statement of "all men are created equal".