Questions: "F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Age of Excess"

For this reading, please print out the text and take notes in the margins so that we can have a discussion. If you want to go green, take computer reading notes.

Questions: Pivotal Decades

Hello, ladies. Please read the entire excerpt from Pivotal Decades (link under Assignments), and be prepared to write about what made 1919 such a significant year in American History.

Review Sheet

Click here and get it while it's hot!

Begin Test Review

Girls,

I've decided to take out the last assignment. So we finish content with the reading on the Progressive Era. Please begin reviewing, and also consider the meaning of this phrase:

"Hamiltonian means for Jeffersonian Ends."

Questions: 638-650

FYC:

1. What is Progressivism? Where did it come from? What are the major ideas behind the Progressive movement?
2. Who were the muckrakers? Give some examples.
3. From the section "Political Progressivism," what were some of the things that reformers pushed for in politics?
4. What was Teddy Roosevelt's Square Deal?
5. What were the Elkins and Hepburn Acts?
6. What were the Meat Inspection and Food and Drug Acts?

Reading: 494-497, 554-555

Your reading over the weekend is very short, so I will not post specific reading questions. That does not, however, imply that I won't quiz you. Do your reading, plain and simple.

Questions: 545-551

FYC:

1. What did the federal government do to help assimilate the new immigrants into American society?
2. How did city politicians benefit from the new wave of immigrants?
3. What is the "social gospel"?
4. Who was Jane Addams, and what were settlement houses?
5. What did the nativists blame the new immigrants for, and what other ways did they discriminate against the immigrants?

Questions: 539-545

The Brooklyn Bridge, 1903 (Shorpy)

FYC:

1. What American cities in 1890 had populations of more than a million?
2. What technologies allowed cities to grow "up and out" in the Industrial Era?
3. What drew people to the big city? Details, please.
4. Describe a typical dumbbell tenement.
5. Describe the New Immigrants of the Gilded Age.
6. What were the contributing factors behind the New Immigration? What "pushed" and what "pulled" the stream of immigration? ("Southern Europe Uprooted" to "Reactions...")

Questions: 528-537

FYC:

1. From pages 528-530: How was America changed, politically and socially, by rising industrialization?
2. What is a labor union? Why did they increase after the Civil War?
3. How did corporations combat and resist labor unions?
4. Name two labor unions and their similarities and differences?
5. What was the Haymarket Square episode?

Questions: 520-528

FYC:

1. In addition to the rise of railroads, what other factors fueled postwar economic growth in the US?
2. What is vertical integration? What is horizontal integration?
3. What is the Bessemer process?
4. Who was Andrew Carnegie?
5. Who was J.P. Morgan?
6. Who was John D. Rockefeller?
7. What is Social Darwinism?
8. What was the Sherman Anti-Trust Act?

Richard White on the Railroads

Have a listen:

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/11/137497772/how-trains-railroaded-the-american-economy

The Rise of Railroads

Girls, make sure to keep your Frederick Jackson Turner handouts, and bring them with you to class. We will cover it first thing. Now, on to your reading questions:

1. Approximately how many miles of railway had been laid in the United States by 1900? (Round up.)
2. Describe the relationship between the railroads and the US Government. Was it mutually beneficial? How?
3. How did US Congress use wartime arguments to lay the foundation for a transcontinental railroad?
4. When did the Central and Union Pacific railways meet in Ogden, Utah, marking the completion of the Transcontinental railroad?
5. ID: Cornelius Vanderbilt
6. What does it mean to say that the railroads were the first "big-business" in the US? Provide details.
7. What affect did the railroads have on time zones?
8. Describe the negative aspects of the railroad

STOP AT "MIRACLES OF MECHANIZATION"

The West, II

Pay attention to mining, the cattle industry, and farming in the West. And now, some questions, FYC:

1. Describe important features of the mining industry in the West.
2. What was the "Long Drive," and what factors determined if it was successful or not?
3. Define: The Homestead Act
4. What role did railroads play in the development of the "agricultural West"?
5. What is "dry farming"?
6. Why was 1890 a "watershed" date in the history of the American West?
7. Who was Frederick Jackson Turner, and what did he famously argue in his paper "The Significance of the Frontier in American History"

The West, I

Western Iconography

Here are some questions from pages 575-584, on the American West:

1. About how many Native Americans lived in the Great West (which your book describes as the area between the Pacific settlements and, in the east, a jagged North-South axis stretching from Texas to Canada) in 1860?
2. What affect did the horse have on tribes like the Cheyenne and the Sioux?
3. Describe the "fateful cycle" of contact between Indians and whites in the section "The Clash of Cultures on the Plains."
4. Define the reservation system.
5. Describe some of the patterns of the Indian Wars.
6. Define: the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
7. Why were the Apaches so difficult to Subdue?
8. List the factors involved in the "taming" of the Indians.
9. Define: Battle of Wounded Knee
10. Define: the Dawes Severalty Act 

"An Introduction to the WPA Narratives"

Use this article for background on the Slave Narratives in your introduction, if you'd like.

Slave Narratives Assignment

You can access an electronic copy of the assignment (with embedded links), here.

Reconstruction, III

1. On what grounds were impeachment proceedings against Andrew Johnson begun?
2. What was the result of the impeachment trial in the House and Senate?
3. From the section "The Heritage of Reconstruction," what is the legacy of Reconstruction? Sum it up. Success? Failure? Both?

Daniel Inouye, 1924-2012

The second longest-serving Senator in U.S. History and decorated WWII veteran Daniel Inouye has passed away.

Reconstruction, II

For your consideration:

1. What "shocked" and "disgusted" Republicans in Congress in December, 1865?
2. The abolition of slavery through the 13th Amendment put an end to the 3/5 Compromise. Why, then, would many Republicans be concerned about the political consequences of this new reality after the war?
3. What made a clash between Congress and the President inevitable?
4. What does the 14th Amendment do? Why did Republicans push for it even though they had passed a Civil Rights Bill?
5. What happened in the fall of 1866 that really began Congressional Reconstruction? (Politics!)
6. Who was Thaddeus Stevens?
7. What did The Reconstruction Act do?
8. What were the new conditions for readmittance to the Union laid down by Congress?
9. What was the purpose of the Fifteenth Amendment?
10. Who were the Redeemers?
11. Define: The Union League
12. Define carpetbaggers and scalawags

STOP AT "THE KU KLUX KLAN"

Reconstruction, I (465-472)

1. What were the four large questions that faced the nation after the Civil War?
2. What were some other questions? (Apart from the big four.)
3. Summarize the range of reactions to Emancipation across the South, on the part of former slaves and masters, from pages 466-469
4. Define The Freedmen's Bureau. What were its successes and failures?
5. "[Andrew Johnson] was the wrong man in the wrong place and the wrong time." Explain.
6. Define: 10 percent plan, Wade-Davis Bill, Black Codes

The Civil War, III

Some questions:

1. What does Kennedy mean with the lines "...his death could not have been better timed if he had hired the assassin."
2. Why, over time, did many Southerners come to believe that Lincoln's death was a disaster for the South?
3. Reading the section "The Aftermath of the Nightmare," what to you are the most important legacies/consequences of the war? Be specific.
4. When watching films in class, which do you prefer: taking notes on your own, or completing questions that I have prepared in advance (Movie Sheets)? Why? Which is more enjoyable, and, more importantly, which helps you learn best?

The Civil War, II

1. Why were the battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg so important?
2. What was Sherman's March?
3. Who were the Copperheads?
4. Describe the presidential election of 1864. Key issues, players, etc.
5. Describe the fighting between Grant and Lee at the close of the war.

The Civil War, I

Tonight's reading opens right where the film ended, on the eve of the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas). This was the first major battle of the war, and confirmed for many observers that it was going to be a long  and bloody conflict, not the 90 day war that many had hoped for.

Here are some questions from your reading on 435-445:

1. What were the major consequences of the First Battle of Bull Run? (436)
2. Who was George McClellan, and what were his major strengths and weaknesses as a commander? (436-437)
3. What are some of the ironies of Lee's successful Peninsula Campaign (437-438)?
4. What were the six components of the Union's Total War plan? (438, above "The War at Sea")
5. What is "blockade-running"? (438)
6. Describe the historical importance of the battle of Antietam, with a particular focus on its relationship to the Emancipation Proclamation (440).
7. Explain this quote from page 441: "..where he could he would not, and where he would, he could not."
8. What helped convince many Northern soldiers of the necessity of ending slavery? (441)
9. What did the 13th Amendment do?
10. How did the Emancipation Proclamation change the war? (441-443, "public reactions" to "blacks battle bondage")
11. Describe the role of both slaves and freedmen (former slaves) in the war effort, North and South (443-444).

Historiography

Girls,

Instead of a long reading about Civil War historiography, I've decided to assign the Wikipedia entry on historiography. To be more specific, I'm assigning the first paragraph of the Wikipedia entry on historiography. You may read more if you'd like, but not less (the second paragraph begins "The research interests...," so stop there).

I need to be sure you know what historiography is. If you really don't get it, please come see me.

Take a Breather, Girls.

No homework tonight. Take a break and we'll slow down a little next class (Friday and Monday) so we can do some contextual stuff.  I'll change up the Assignment Page accordingly. Do some Yoga or something. Here is an enjoyable video of baby sloths: