American History Lecture Fourteen
From Conservapedia
NOTE THIS CHANGE IN THE SCHEDULE: THERE WILL BE NO CLASS ON JAN. 8th. THE FINAL EXAM WILL BE IN CLASS ON JAN. 15th.
We completed the course material last week, and this final lecture prepares you for the final exam, which will consist of about 50 questions with a time limit of about 45 minutes. This closed-book exam covers the entire course, but the second half (after Reconstruction) will be weighted twice as much as the first half (up until and through Reconstruction). One question will be identical to a question on the midterm. No points will be deducted for wrong answers. The make-up of the exam will roughly be:
- Political history: 35% (politicians, legislation, court decisions)
- Foreign policy: 15% (Wars, dealings with foreign countries)
- Economic history: 20% (money, jobs, business, trade)
- Social history: 20% (reform movements, religion, racism, immigration)
- Intellectual and cultural history: 10% (books, media, conformity, hippies, etc.)
How to prepare? I know what I would do. I'd memorize the information in the lectures and event lists. I would take some lectures or the event lists with me when I'm riding in the car, waiting in line, IM'ing on the internet (actually, I rarely "IM"), etc. Each day I would learn a little more. By the day of the exam, I would be able to say this: there is almost nothing someone can ask me about American history that I do not know, or at least have an idea how to figure out.
Ultimately, the score is yours. Ultimately your success is up to you. Try your best.
There are between 360 and 370 events in each of the two event lists. But also keep a perspective on the "big picture." Learn the details about the French and Indian War, but also be sure to know who won the war. Good history preparation requires constantly asking yourself questions: do you know who was president in that year, do you know what the culture was like, do know what the political parties were then and what they stood for, do you know which foreign countries were friendly and which ones were not, etc.?
If the total of about 730 terms in the two event lists seems like too many to learn, then consider this: some students memorize the entire dictionary of tens of thousands of words in order to try to win the national spelling bee. Quiz yourself while you are in the car. Quiz yourself while you are waiting to be picked up. Quiz yourself instead of watching television. Ask your mom to quiz you, and she will be amazed at what you know.
Ted Williams became the best hitter ever in baseball (excluding those who use steroids!) by devoting all of his interest and attention to it. He developed a love for the art of hitting a baseball. He studied every aspect of it in his drive to be the best. Find a way to motivate yourself in a similar manner about American history, and you will do remarkably well.
A Very Brief History of America
Alexis de Tocqueville was an aristocratic Frenchman who was homeschooled. He came to America when he was 25 years old, in 1831, and wrote a two-volume study of what he saw, entitled Democracy in America. His insightful observations continue to be cited to this day. His two fundamental conclusions were that in America (1) the majority is considered to be "right" and (2) every individual is the "only lawful judge" of his own interests. Those two principles conflict with each other to this day. Which matters most in America, the majority or the individual? De Tocqueville also had other insights: our high level of faith in America, our reliance on family, and our way of life on the frontier. At the time the United States was the world's greatest democratic form of government. We still are.
How would you describe America today? Prosperous. A land of opportunity. We still have among the highest level of faith of any country in the world. We are also among the highest in prayer and church attendance. We have been the most powerful country in the world for nearly 100 years, and we are still growing stronger relative to other nations. But we are also facing "the enemy within" as much as enemies from foreign nations.
Understand that history is a series of struggles. For example, consider the Federalist Party versus the Democratic-Republican Party. What happened to the Federalist Party? It collapsed near the end of the War of 1812, because the Federalist Party was pro-British. What happened to the Democratic-Republican Party? It collapsed because it had no reason to exist after the Federalist Party collapsed!
Appreciate the economic cycles of our nation. Every 20 or so years there is an economic crisis: 1773. 1797. 1819. 1837. 1857. 1873. 1893. 1907. 1929-1941. 1979. 1991. 2008. How would you know those years without memorizing them? Note that the crisis occurs about every 20 years, and usually the president at the time does not win reelection.
Understand the natural expansion of our nation. There were 13 colonies when we won our independence in 1783, plus the "northwest" territories of the Ohio River Valley and Michigan. Vermont was added as a state in 1791. Kentucky joined in 1792; Tennessee in 1796; and Ohio in 1803. What happened next? The Louisiana Purchase added massive new territory. Louisiana itself was added as a state in 1812. The population expanded westward, and the concept of "Manifest Destiny" took hold.
More territory was acquired in 1848. How? It was due to the Mexican War (Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo). Was California added as a state immediately? No, it took the Compromise of 1850. California was state number 31 in being admitted.
Kansas was the 34th state to join the Union when it was admitted in 1861. Remember all the controversy about that? What was the next state to be added? West Virginia in 1863, as it split from Virginia due to the Civil War. By 1896, Utah was the 45th state to join, after it gave up its practice of allowing a man to marry more than one wife (polygamy).
Only five states joined in the 1900s. Who can name them? Oklahoma (which has many large Indian settlements from the Trail of Tears) was added in 1907. New Mexico and Arizona were added in 1912. And then Alaska and Hawaii joined the United States in 1959.
Our nation's population has grown enormously. In 1790 which state had the largest population? Virginia (including West Virginia): 748,000 people. Second? Massachusetts: 475,000 (including Maine). Third? Pennsylvania: 434,000. Fourth? North Carolina: 394,000. The biggest city? Philadelphia (42,000 people). But by 1820 New York had surpassed Philadelphia in population.
Here is how the entire U.S. population has grown:
1790: 4M (M=million)
1850: 23M
1900: 75M
1950: 151M
1990: 250M
2008: 300M
Transportation improved over time. In 1817, how long do you think it took for freight to travel from Cincinnati to New York City? A total of 52 days was required. How would you have traveled it? Take the Ohio River to Pittsburgh, then by wagon to Philadelphia, and then by wagon and river to New York City. Now, how long would the same trip take in 1845? Only 28 days: by canal across Ohio to Lake Erie, then the Erie Canal to the Hudson River, which flows to New York City.
Then how long would that shipment take in 1860? Only 6-8 days, using the Erie Railroad and connecting lines. How long would it take today? Only one day by truck over federal highways, like Route 80.
But the addition of new states to the United States does not tell the whole story of the American territory. What else needs to be told? Imperialism is a controversial part of our history from late 1893 (when we installed an American to run Hawaii) through 1914 (when we completed the Panama Canal). The presidents most responsible for imperialism were William McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt (who also established the national park system and engaged in "trust-busting" actions to break up large business monopolies).
Our imperialism included our invasion of Cuba to liberate it (while retaining Guantanamo Bay), and our acquisition of the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam from Spain at the end of the Spanish-American War. The U.S. Senate ratified the Treaty of Paris in a close vote at the end of the war to allow this. Arguments for imperialism in the Philippines include these: the U.S. has a civilizing mission and the Philippines gave us important strategic advantage. If we withdrew, foreign powers would acquire it. Arguments against imperialism were these: Democrats and populists said it was contrary to American principles of self-government, the Monroe Doctrine, and traditional U.S. "isolationism", a slightly pejorative term for the view that we should focus on America first.
Part of imperialism was the building of the Panama Canal based on the Jay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty in 1903. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter pushed through the Senate a treaty to return the Canal territory to the ownership of Panama. A Republican senator from New Jersey, Clifford Chase, supported the return of the Canal to Panama; public outrage caused his remarkable defeat by an obscure conservative opponent in the Republican primary in 1978. Now, due to the giveaway, the Panama Canal is operated by ... Communist China!
After Jimmy Carter's one term as president (1977-81), Ronald Reagan served as president for two very successful terms (1981-89). His successor in office was his Vice President, George H.W. Bush (the father of the current President Bush), who was able to serve only one term before losing reelection, from 1989-93. This repeated how the previously popular presidents of George Washington and Andrew Jackson were followed in office for only one term by their Vice President. In all three cases, economic problems plagued the term of service of the former Vice President. John Adams, Martin Van Buren and George H.W. Bush all were unpopular partly due to a downturn in the economy during their presidency, and none were reelected.
Democracy (without a constitution) started in Ancient Greece hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. By 1776 many countries were already implementing the principles of democracy, but without constitutions. Britain had an elected parliament, and so did France. The American Revolution was motivated partly by economics, partly by religion, and partly by philosophical principles, and its result was the Constitution (including the Bill of Rights) that protected individual freedom, private property and a republican form of government. Today the U.S. Constitution is the longest governing document of its kind in the world.
James Madison, in advocating ratification of the Constitution in the Federalist Papers, admitted that democracies were short-lived and that a single faction or special interest could obtain tyrannical control in a democracy. But he observed that the Constitution established a republic rather than a democracy, and the large size of our republic would protect us against any single issue or individual obtaining control of our country.
For over 200 years the Constitution has worked splendidly in preventing tyranny and preserving liberty. Injustices and flaws have arisen, but the Constitution has provided the means to address and attempt to correct them. Will our nation last another 200 years?
Key Term List After Reconstruction
Here are the key terms after Reconstruction (Lecture 8 contains the key terms before and through Reconstruction). The bolded terms are the most important.
| Transatlantic Cable | "Peace without Victory" | McCarren Internal Security Act |
| Seward Purchase of Alaska | Jones Act | Joseph McCarthy |
| Tariff Issue | Zimmermann telegram | Edward R. Murrow |
| Exodusters | Selective Service Act | Korean War |
| The Grange/Oliver Kelley | Espionage Act | General Douglas MacArthur |
| Elizabeth Cady Stanton | World War I | McCarren-Walter Immigration & Nationality Act |
| Chataugua Movement | Lever Act | Dwight D. Eisenhower |
| Chief Joseph/Nez Perce | Trading with the Enemy Act | Earl Warren |
| Bessemer Process | Bolsheviks | SEATO |
| Munn v. Illinois | Sedition Act | Brown v. Board of Education |
| Workingmen's Party | Fourteen Points | AFL-CIO |
| Edison/Light bulb | National War Labor board | Montgomery Bus Boycott |
| Bland-Allison Act | Overman Act | Beat Culture |
| Standard Oil Trust | Schenck v. U.S. | Eisenhower Doctrine |
| Booker T. Washington | Abrams v. U.S. | Domino Theory |
| James Garfield | Debs v. U.S. | Mutual Assured Destruction |
| Stalwarts | Treaty of Versailles | NASA |
| Chester Arthur | Prohibition supporters | Landum-Griffin Act |
| Pendleton Act | 19th Amendment | Fidel Castro |
| Civil Service Commission | How the Other Half Lives | U-2 |
| Helen Hunt Jackson | Adkins v. Children's Hospital | Sputnik |
| Chinese Exclusion Act | Wright Brothers Flight | John F. Kennedy |
| Civil Rights Cases | Niagara Movement/NAACP | OPEC |
| Brooklyn Bridge | DuBois compared to Washington | Sit-ins |
| James Blaine | "Big" Bill Haywood | Alliance for Progress |
| Mugwumps | Henry Ford | Bay of Pigs |
| Grover Cleveland | United Negro Improvement Ass'n | Berlin Wall |
| American Federation of Labor (AFL) | 18th Amendment | Peace corps |
| Haymarket Square riot | Volstead Act | Freedom Rides |
| Yick Wo v. Hopkins | Great American authors wrote ... | Project Apollo |
| Interstate Commerce Act | Tin Pan Alley | Vietnam |
| Dawes Act | William Faulkner | Engel v. Vitale |
| Jane Addams/Hull house | Eugene O'Neill | Baker v. Carr |
| Williamsport, Pennsylvania | Harlem Renaissance | The Other America |
| Benjamin Harrison | Sacco and Vanzetti | The Feminine Mystique |
| US Census Bureau declares... | radio, Television | National Organization For Women |
| Sherman Antitrust Act | Warren G. Harding | Students for a Democratic Soc'y |
| John Sherman | Federal Highway Act | James Meredith/Univ. of Mississ. |
| Sherman Silver Purchase Act | Washington Naval Conference | Cuban Missile Crisis |
| McKinley Tariff | Immigration 1890-1917 | Gideon v. Wainwright |
| Alfred Thayer Mahan | Emergency Quota Act | Martin Luther King Jr. |
| Homestead Strike | Fordney McCumber Act | South Christian Leadership Conference |
| Frederick Jackson Turner | Calvin Coolidge | Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee |
| Panic of 1893 | Coolidge's view on strikes | Black Panthers |
| Queen Liliuokalani | National Origins Act | March on Washington |
| National Municipal League | Scopes "Monkey" Trial | Office of Economic Opportunity |
| Coxey's Army | Charles Lindbergh | Civil Rights Act of 1964 |
| Wilson-Gorman Tariff | Great Mississippi Flood | Escobedo v. Illinois |
| Eugene V. Debs | Kellogg-Briand Pact (or Treaty) | Free Speech Movement |
| Pollack v. Farmers Loan & Trust | Herbert Hoover | Gulf of Tonkin Resolution |
| Atlanta Exposition/Compromise | Stock Market Crash | Lyndon Johnson |
| U.S. v. Knight Co. | Hawley-Smoot Tariff | Voting Rights Act |
| In re Debs | Causes of the Great Depression | "Great Society" |
| Condition to admit Utah as State | Reconstruction Finance Corp. | Medicare and Medicaid |
| Plessy v. Ferguson | Bonus March | Elementary & Secondary & High Educ. Acts |
| William Jennings Bryan | Franklin Delano Roosevelt | Dept. of Urban Housing and Dev't |
| "Cross of Gold Speech" | New Deal | Miranda v. Arizona |
| Populist Party/Platform | "Hundred Days" | Thurgood Marshall |
| Populist Party high point | Emergency Banking Act | Tet Offensive |
| Populist Party ended because | Civilian Conservation Corps | Paris Peace Talks |
| William McKinley | Agricultural Adjustment Act | Robert F. Kennedy (brother of JFK) |
| Spanish American War | Federal Emergency Relief Act | Democratic National Convention - 1968 |
| De Lome Letter | Tennessee Valley Act | Chicago Seven |
| U.S.S. Maine | Farm-Credit Act | EPA |
| Rough Riders | Glass-Steagall Banking Act | Roe v. Wade |
| Joseph Pulitzer | National Industrial Recovery Act | Richard Nixon |
| "Yellow Journalism" | 21st Amendment | Apollo 11 |
| Teller Amendment | Good Neighbor Policy | War Powers Act |
| Commander George Dewey | Federal housing Authority | New York Times v. U.S. |
| Treaty of Paris | Gold Reserve Act | Furman v. Georgia |
| Open Door Policy | Securities and Exchange Act | Henry Kissinger |
| Foraker Act | Works Progress Administration | "Vietnamization" |
| Boxer Rebellion | National Housing Act | Strategic Arms Limit Treaty (SALT) |
| Platt Amendment | Schecter Poultry v. U.S. | Committee to Reelect the President |
| Theodore Roosevelt | Wagner Act | Watergate |
| Hay-Pauncefote Treaty | Social Security Act | Spiro Agnew |
| Venezuela boundary dispute | Congress of Indust. Organ. (CIO) | Saturday Night Massacre |
| Newlands Reclamation Act | Fair Labor Standards Act | Nixon Resigns |
| The Philippines | Trade Agreements Act | Gerald Ford |
| Women's Trade Union League | Neutrality Act | Jimmy Carter |
| Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty | Pennsylvania Turnpike | Panama Canal Treaty |
| Northern Securities Co. v. U.S. | Selective Training and Service Act | Camp David Accords |
| Russo-Japanese War | Four Freedoms | Black Codes |
| Lochner v. New York | Lend-Lease Act | Three Mile Island |
| Hepburn Act | Atlantic Charter | Salt-II |
| The Jungle | U-Boats | Iran Hostage Crisis |
| Meat Inspection Act | Pearl Harbor | Equal Rights Amendment |
| Pure Food and Drug Act | D-Day | Ronald Reagan |
| Muckrakers | Casablanca Conference | Reaganomics |
| Treaty of Portsmouth | Holocaust | women Supreme Court Justices |
| Taft-Katsura Agreement | CORE | Iran-Contra Scandal |
| Susan B. Anthony | "Voice of America" | Star Wars |
| Gentlemen's Agt. re: Japan | Teheran Conference | George Bush Sr. |
| Root-Takhira Agreement | Yalta Conference | Persian Gulf War |
| Muller v. Oregon | Potsdam Conference | Americans with Disabilities Act |
| Paine-Aldrich Tariff | Manhattan Project | Budget Plan of 1990 |
| Mann-Elkins Act | Harry S. Truman | Clarence Thomas |
| Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire | Hiroshima, Nagasaki | Bill Clinton |
| Progressive Movement | Korematsu v. U.S. | "Don't Ask, Don't tell" |
| William Howard Taft | Servicemen's readjustment Act | Health Care Reform |
| Progressive (Bull moose) Party | Bretton Woods/World Bank | World Trade Center Bombing |
| Woodrow Wilson | Dumbarton Oaks/United Nations | Brady Bill |
| Underwood Tariff | Full Employment Act | Bombing of the Federal Building |
| Dillingham Commission | Loyalty Boards | NAFTA |
| 17th Amendment | Taft-Hartley Act | World Trade Organization |
| 16th Amendment | Truman Doctrine | Monica Lewinsky |
| Federal Reserve Act | George Kennan/Containment | Columbine High School |
| Triple Alliance | National Security Act/Council | Dot-Com Boom |
| Triple Entente | Marshall Plan | Bush v. Gore |
| Archduke Ferdinand | Jackie Robinson | George W. Bush |
| Clayton-Antitrust Act | Organization of American States | 9/11 terrorist attacks |
| Federal Trade Commission Act | Central Intelligence Agency | Patriot Act of 2001 |
| Guinn v. U.S. | "Iron Curtain" | No Child Left Behind Act |
| Lusitania | North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) | War on Terrorism |
| National Defense Act | Youngstown Sheet & Tube Case | Invasion of Afghanistan |
| Federal Farm Loan Act | House Un-American Activities Committee | Invasion of Iraq |
| Sussex Pledge | Whittaker Chambers/Alger Hiss | homeschooling now mainstream |
| Urban League | Ethel and Julius Rosenberg | How will you shape history? (think about it) |
