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Politics & Society in 20th Century America Series: Progressive Era
Early U.S. Industrialization. . In the latter Part of 19th Century: the railroad builders, the domination of the industrial giants. Amoral free open competition, always striving for monopoly. Not inventors but they understand the market and its future direction. Time of great corruption but also heroes. (5.40.00) = The Labor Force. Immigration from eastern Europe, generally despised but needed. Development of the labor movement due to poor working conditions. The legacy of the Farmer's Movement and the Populist Party (11.34.00) = The Progressive Era (1901 to 1917). The assassination of McKinley in 1901 and Theodore Roosevelt becomes president is the beginning of the era. The U.S. entry into the First World War in 1917 marks the end. (17.28.00) = A strong federal government is seen as remedy against corrupt city political machines and against the evils of laissez faire capitalism. (22.12.00) = Roosevelt reputation as "Trust Buster" is in question. The difference between the rhetoric and the reality. (28.06.00) = His Anthracite Coal Strike intervention credits him as champion of labor. In a larger sense, the issue favored the big business community. Really seen as paternalism. (34.00.00) = Pure Food and Drug Act regulating food production is response to Upton Sinclair's, "The Jungle." The legislation is watered down, actually squeezes out the smaller competing companies. (43.38.00) = The Age of Conservatism. The era is really a partnership between business and government, although big business is wary of President Rooseve. Roosevelt Promotes Conservation , especially in the west. Yet giants can benefit because of lack of enforcement and decreased competition from squeezing out of smaller companies. (46.11.00) = President William H. Taft (1903-1913). Lacks charisma compared to Theodore Roosevelt, but is underappreciated. (49.35.00) = Woodrow Wilson becomes president in 1912 because of split in Republican ticket. Roosevelt, running as an independent, comes in 2nd,and Taft, the incumbent, comes in 3rd. Eugene Debbs gets 1,000,000 votes. The mood of the electorate is reformist . (57.54.00) = Wilson's legislation. Lowers protective tariff, enacts Federal Reserve Act for national banking standards, the Clayton Act to toughen the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. But these are enforced by the Federal Trade Commission whose members are appointed by the president. The Progressive Era (1901 to 1917). (continued). Issue of Race is Ignored. In the late 1890s, the one party South becomes dominated by upper class with no further need to woo black voters. The Jim Crow era of overt and full segregation. Lynching. Fallacy of "separate but equal" education. Federal government fails to intercede. The racist attitudes of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. (11.21.00) = Reform Atmosphere of the Country. Role of the Federal Government is mixed at best. State and municipal governments show more reform efforts. Role of investigative reporters, "muckrakers." Labor movement weak. Exploited immigrant labor. (23.13.00) = Women's Rights. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911. The 15th Amendment refuses voting rights to all women, black or white. Suffrage rights oppose the war but not openly so as to keep President Wilson's support for the voting rights amendment which passes in 1920. (27.43.00) = The Jim Crow Era. The sharply contrasting views for African-Americans advocated by Booker T. Washington, who comes from a rural South background, and W. E. B. Du Bois, who is urban and highly educated. How these views each has its own relevancy. The role and impact of the fighter, Jack Johnson. (40.16.00) = The End of the Progressive Era. U.S. Enters the War, 1917. Wilson is reelected in 1916 on the basis, "He kept us out of war." Events inflame public opinion. Wilson's view that the war requires intolerance at home to win. Opponents of the war are repressed. Criticizing the government becomes a crime. The anti-capitalist nature of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 causes the government to repress all radical elements. (52.26.00) = After the War.There is public disillusionment with the war and its leaders. Wilson's self-righteousness is credited with the U.S. Senate's not ratifying the League of Nations and the Treaty of Versailles. The abrupt end to the Progressive Era.
Eugene Lieber (Author), Eugene Lieber (Narrator)
Audiobook
Politics & Society in 20th Century America Series: Roaring 20s
Changes in The Twenties, Continuity, not sharp contrast. The popular image of bathtub gin and excitement is not the full picture. The immigrants who come by the millions since the late 1800s as cheap labor for the factories are from south and eastern Europe. They are very different from typical Americans, and despised. In 1924 and 1925 the U.S. decides it has enough labor, enacts a quota system that favors north and west Europe and restricts south and east Europe. (5.20.00) = Anti-radical feelings. Immigrants are identified with radicals. After the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, there is a fear of the spread of their ideals, fear of anarchists. The great cause of Sacco & Vanzetti, which turned some people to more radicalism. (15.46.00) = Wilsonian Moralism. President Wilson has a self-righteous sense of absolute certainty which greatly influences events. The Prohibition Amendment (23.48.00) = The Scopes Trial which pits modernism against creationism. Short term victory for modernism, short term defeat for fundamentalism (31.52.00) = Race. Mostly ignored, yet another continuation of the Progressive Era. Revival of the KKK in the 1920s, which becomes a force in the Democratic Party, with national influence. (36.18.00) = Both political parties are equally conservative.. In economics, a partnership between business and political parties, contrary to rhetoric. Tendency toward monopolies increases, as small businesses pushed out. (39.39.00) = Evolution of economic policy. Prominence of advertising. Credit buying. Electrification of homes. Rise of the chemical industry for new products. New industries. Charles Lindbergh's solo Atlantic flight in 1927. Finance capitalists are dependent on banks, but Henry Ford is self financing. Ford's dark side: acts brutally against unions, is a vicious anti-Semite. Changes in The Twenties (continued). Impact of the auto. Transforms the U.S. Spawns other industries. Roads are surfaced. Changes everyday lives: access to work, vacation choices, dating habits. Finance capitalists are dependent on banks, but Henry Ford is self-financing. Ford's dark side: acts brutally against unions, is a vicious anti-Semite. (12.32.00) = Entertainment. Movies and the coming of sound in the 1927 "Jazz Singer," as a great escape. The radio opens national and international connections. (15.09.00) = Sports. Baseball as the national sport. The "dead ball" era in the first 2 decades. Ty Cobb as sports hero but also as psychopath. The notorious "reserve clause" contracts. The Black Sox Scandal of 1919. Revival of baseball by Babe Ruth into a slugger's game where the ball is harder. Babe Ruth's hidden dark side. (16.28.00) = Combination of Heroes. There is Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, but also, Benito Mussolini who thwarts radicals and who represents order. (17.47.00 = Political Leadership. President Warren G. Harding.is weak and a failure, but has capable aides. The Teapot Dome Scandal seems tame in the scope of today's scandals. A nicer guy than President Wilson, he pardons Eugene Debbs from prison where he was sent for opposing the war. He becomes ill and dies in 1923. (28.06.00) = Calvin Coolidge. with limited ability, becomes president after Harding dies. He runs in 1924 in his own right and is elected. He vetoes a farm relief bill twice seemingly uncaring that farmers are in great need. (30.01.000) = Herbert Hoover is elected in 1928. The Stock Market crash in October 1929. It is a decade of enormous monopolistic profits, fueling abundant speculative ventures. The crash does not cause the Depression. At the time 2/3 of the people are living below subsistence level, lacking consumer value (aside from their own plight), and in turn, the market is lacking.
Eugene Lieber (Author), Eugene Lieber (Narrator)
Audiobook
Politics & Society in 20th Century America Series: Depression 30s & World War
Hoover as President. Failing the Depression. Hoover believes in volunteerism-- the role of state, local governments and charities. But the Depression needs the enormous resources of the federal government. The cycle of business contraction, layoffs, and consumers unable to consume. The Hooverville slums. The devastating impact on middle class families. Grinding rural poverty. The psychological impact of people irrationally blaming themselves. (13.29.00) = Hoover's recovery theory. He believes that the best way to help is the "trickle-down" theory. Help those at the top. This is a failure because business lacks confidence and the money is not invested in job-making production. Hoover lacks charisma but makes things worse by his personal insensitivity to the calamity. (17.22.00) = The Bonus Army. Bonuses are promised to war veterans but funds not appropriated. Veterans' protest is smashed by the military. (21.40.00) = Roosevelt as President. FDR's background. He is from landed wealth, believes in service to the people as career. He is charismatic. Returns to politics after suffering polio paralysis. A dangerous drift between election and taking office 4 months later. Bank "holidays." His inspiring inaugural speech, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself.". (26.45.00) = FDR's political philosophy: either pragmatic or opportunistic, depending on whether you approve or disapprove of him. His fireside chats. Passes emergency banking bill. He continues the "trickle-down" approach, but he engenders trust. (31.50.00) = The first 100 days. A spate of legislation-- fixing prices, fixing standards. The NRA (National Recovery Act) fails. Dust storms due to drought causes havoc to farmers. The Agricultural Aid Agency is enacted to aid farmers. It raises prices by producing scarcities, but fails in practice, hurting sharecroppers the most, and is declared to be unconstitutional as well. (44.13.00) = FDR extends the federal role. He creates relief agencies, following John Keynes' theory of under-consumption of the jobless. Therefore, jobs must be created, a "bottom-up approach, the opposite from the "trickle-down" approach. Direct relief is provided by the federal government. The PWA for large public projects for skilled workers, and the WPA for smaller level projects employing unskilled labor. It also aims to help creative people: artists, actors, musicians, photographers. Roosevelt as President (continued) Role of Eleanor Roosevelt. She develops an independent life, becomes adviser to her husband, pushing humane issues, including the racism in the South and the rest of the nation. The Marion Anderson concert. (3.12.00) = The Tennessee Valley Authority. A unique project to help a poverty stricken rural area. It revitalizes the region and is an enormous success of a public government agency. Accordingly, the private sector blocks any attempt to repeat this elsewhere in the future. (6.34.00) = FDR and business. FDR is opposed by business interests which believe he wants to destroy capitalism. Instead, he wants to save it during this economic crisis. Business refuses to address human needs, attempts to deter radical parties. Seeing FDR as the enemy prolongs the Depression. (10.40.00) = Labor's Emancipation Proclamation. In 1935, the Social Security Act and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), known as the Wagner Act, are passed. The CIO union is created for industrial workers, contrary to the economic logic of the time. The auto workers' sit-down strike. The steel workers' strike. The police shooting of pickets and family members in 1937. (14.13.00) = The Communist Party. It increases membership but does not become a mass party. Why the Russian Revolution has no chance of being duplicated here during this time. he highly regimented and disciplined party leaders become labor organizers, a very hazardous endeavor. They have humane commitment, but get misguided advice from Russia. The changing party line eventually erodes its membership ranks. On a positive side, they oppose racial segregation, and are the lone voices of the dangers of fascism. (26.13.00) = FDR's second term.The Wealth Tax Act is delayed by FDR to win over business, but he is unable to, and it passes in 1935. He wins his second term in 1936 by a landslide. FDR proposes to pack the court which blocks his policies, but Congress defeats this. When passed, it is declared unconstitutional. The Fair Labor Standards Act is passed in 1938, setting hours and wages to reach the 8-hour day, 40-hour week. It covers child labor but excludes other groups (34.32.00) = FDR's effect on the Depression. His efforts ameliorate but do not end it. Only World War Two ends it. It gives the business community the security to invest, produce, and hire because it generates a guaranteed market with unmatchable profits. Since the 1930s until the present, a war economy prevents a depression. (37.45.00) = Lessons learned. A better answer to welfare or "the dole" is jobs with a future through government action, which some see as "socialism." Welfare only continues poverty cycles. This is the issue of welfare versus a permanent war economy. There is the issue of a trend to a more powerful government and chief executive, also its inherent danger.
Eugene Lieber (Author), Eugene Lieber (Narrator)
Audiobook
Politics & Society in 20th Century America Series: Hot War, Cold War
World War II Domestic Policies. Although Depression is eased by New Deal efforts, it is not fully ended before the war. Great success of industrial output ends the Depression. Enormous wartime profits. Close relations between the government and the business community. (4.31.002) = Emergence of women in the labor force. Manpower needed, women prove their ability, sweeping aside negative stereotypes of employers. Social impact of the war. Lack of housing. Disruptions of social relationships. (6.43.00) = Death of FDR. Breaking tradition dating to George Washington, FDR runs and wins a fourth term to see the war through, although his health is failing. Great outpouring of public grief upon his death on April 12, 1945, just as the war's end is in sight. (10.54.00) = Truman's Role in the Cold War. Need to maintain war economy to keep U.S. out of Depression. (17.55.00) = Beginnings of anti-communist hysteria. The role of the Cold War and anti-communist hysteria stokes the fear of war. This originates during the Democratic administration of President Truman. (26.12.00) = The Loyalty Oath. Imposed on government employees, this heightened public hysteria without providing any real national protective value. (31.44.00) = Controversial spy cases. The Alger Hiss case examined. Each case adds to public's anti-communist hysteria. (37.12.00) = The power of J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. The view that the whole nation is on trial." (44.04.00) = Other events adding to public hysteria. Russia gets the Bomb, suggesting the work of betrayal of our secrets by spies, although in the past scientist here believe that a Russian bomb is inevitable. China is taken over by the communist in 1949 raising cries of betrayal, ignoring the preceding pattern of events over a number of years. (47.41.00) = Cold War Politician. Richard Nixon Nixon rides the anti-communist hysteria for political gain, becomes vice president under Eisenhower, and later, president. The controversy of the Rosenberg spy case. (53.00.00) = HUAC and Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Impact on the nation's intellectual life. Irresistible pressure to inform on others. McCarthyism becomes a term for the unproven smear. President Eisenhower fails to come to defend George Marshall, accused of being a traitor. Downfall of McCarthy. Fear of loss of jobs or imprisonment drastically stifles all forms of creative expression, and the public access to full information. (1.10.12.00) = Truman's Liberal Side. Taft-Harley Act. Truman vetoes this anti-union legislation, but it is overridden. (1.12.55.00) = Truman desegregates the armed forces. One wartime episode where black American solders were forced off a train in the U.S. to accommodate German prisoners. (1.17.51.00) = The G. I. Bill of Rights. Initiated in the FDR administration, continued by Truman. This significantly advances the lives of veterans. This is questioned as a form of "affirmative action." (1.19.45.00) = Korean War stalemate. This diminishes Truman's esteem. Support is offered for the view that Truman was a mediocre president. (1.24.36.00) = Truman's 1948 upset election victory. . What if Dewey had won? Speculation about impact on future political scene.
Eugene Lieber (Author), Eugene Lieber (Narrator)
Audiobook
Politics & Society in 20th Century America Series: Activist 60s
Echoes of the Fifties. America is the dominant economic power. Red Scare continues. Fears are real real but based on demagoguery. Growth of suburbs, the dream of the middle class. Relative prosperity prompted by Cold War spending. G I. Bill, homes, jobs, baby boom. (4.25.00) = Suburbia & decline of cities. Racial divide as whites leave the cities, leading to riots and upheavals. The Sacco-Venzetti case reflects issues of immigrants and anti-radicalism.. (7.24.00) = Blandness of the 50s. Conformity in appearance, dress, entertainment, avoidance of social issues, as effect of Red Scare.. Birth of rock & roll as undercurrent of rebellion. Prevalence of autos after expansion of highways (14.41.00) = The Eisenhower presidency. A national hero. After election, resolves Korean stalemate. Continues Cold War atmosphere but extreme elements reduced. Moves to restrain military budget, warns in farewell speech the the military-industrial complex is a threat to American democracy. Technology advances. Conquest of polio, TV, relatively prosperous Cold War economy (21.47.00) = Movements of the Sixties. Shock of change. Nixon, epitome of the Cold War warrior loses election to John Kennedy in 1960. The role of TV and the visual image in the political world. Distinguishing image from accomplishment, looking back as far as Teddy Roosevelt. . (33.52.00) = JFK's charisma. Inspires youth to join the Peace Corp and to enter public service. (40.25) = Accomplishments. The missile gap lie. The escalation of the Vietnam War. Domestically, he signs bill to end discrimination in federally subsidized housing in the future, not existing housing. (42.09.0) = Early civil rights movement. Impact of WWII on jobs. Jobs previously not open to millions of blacks who had moved north, are now open to them because of war production boom. After the war they want to keep these jobs gained. (46.51.00) = School desegregation. 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown vs Topeka Board of Education overturns 1896 Plessy vs Ferguson decision of separate but equal education for blacks and whites. Efforts to desegregate against resistance in South. President Eisenhower enforces the court order. (52.49.00) = Sports. Basketball. Basketball. The need for black athletes for athletic success. (54.20.00) = Emmett Till case, 1950. This 14 year old visits relative in Mississippi, is kidnapped and killed after being accused of whistling at a white woman. The nation is shocked, becomes impetus to civil rights movement. (55.04.00) = Full blown civil rights movement in the 1960s. NAACP led by Roy Wilkins, emphasizing court action. Martin Luther King, Jr. The role of the black preacher as overall leader back to time of slavery. Promotes non-violent resistance. Rosa Parks.sparks bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, resulting in integration of bus service. . (59.57.00) = Freedom Summer. Voting registration. Blacks disenfranchised by obstacles to voting registration since the early 20th century. Goodman, Shwerner and Chaney, 2 whites and 1 black, Northern volunteers to promote black voter registration in the South, are found murdered, shocking the nation into further civil rights action. (1.02.57.00) = Political responses. JFK's approach to the civil rights movement contrasts sharply with that of his brother, Robert. Lyndon Johnson becomes president after JFK's assassination, makes major push for civil rights legislation. The role of the church. The great variety of approaches, their accomplishments and failures, but also often their dark sides. How Johnson's' Great Society is set back by Vietnam War. (1.06.09.00) = Public responses Many unarmed, forgotten people, black and white, North and South, at great risk and with great courage, are part of this modern civil rights movement. The role of churches. Mixed results in North and South. Martin Luther King's charisma and moral authority. (1.11.10.00) = Nation of Islam. Founded by Elijah Mohammad. Conversion of blacks to Islam. American slavery condoned by while Christian ministers at the time. Black Nationalism, separation of races preached. Movements of The Sixties (continued). Malcolm X. Evolves from petty gangster, converts to Islam in prison through Nation of Islam. He is aggressive, fiery in contrast to non-violent forms of resistance. Wins much support. Issue of name changes relates to origins of names during slavery times. Breaks with Nation of Islam, becomes a threat to it. Later, modifies his perspective to wider social changes. He is assassinated.. Black Panther Party. Involved in community services. Believes in meeting violence with violence. Women are subordinate, other dark sides to it. Sense of fatalism that their days are numbered. (6.12.00) = Status of Civil Rights Its earlier roots. The groundbreaking Supreme Court decisions. Martin Luther King's non-violent approach. The impact of murders and other violence in the South, but not confined to the South. Turning point moments. JFK's approach to the civil rights movement contrasts sharply with that of his brother, Robert. Lyndon Johnson becomes president after JFK's assassination, makes major push for civil rights legislation. The role of the church. The great variety of approaches, their accomplishments and failures, but also often their dark sides. How Johnson's Great Society is set back by the Vietnam War. (15.07.00) = The Youth Movement. The variety of underlying causes: JFK's charisma, civil rights movement, Vietnam War horrors and their protests. The 60s movement of self-expression, with much naivete. Rock & Roll as its voice. The downside of the movement including health and social consequences of drug use, promiscuity, and unrealistic sense of imminent utopia. Seen as a negative period by Conservatives. (20.33.00) = Modern Women's Rights Movement. Early 20th century roots. Turning points: new job opportunities of World War II, the 1950s book, "Feminine Mystique," by Betty Freidan, consciousness-raising groups. Resulting anger and resistance. Access to political power, enrollment in career programs. The 1970s Supreme Court decision Roe v Wade on abortion rights. The issue of choice reflects the movement's core -- choices are available. Women's movement is a threat to men and many women. Rejection of Equal Rights Amendment. (35.13.00) = Native Americans. People are kept down by denying them their history, culture, heritage. Choices of staying on the Reservation or assimilating into society both have their value and their dark side Other Movements. The Immigration Movement. Recognition of Gays, their emergence and the resulting resistance. (40.24.00) = Vietnam as Turning Point. Expansion of the war. Assassination of charismatic leaders. Shock of 1968 Tet offensive. American public's mistrust of its leaders (45.35.00) = Nixon Presidency. Underlying issues in his election. Nixon is complex, has paranoid side but also accepts the positive uses of government for public welfare. Creates EPA, proposes minimum guaranteed income. Proposes national health care system, opposed by Democrats. Nixon's legacy is mixed. (53.26.00) = Gerald Ford Presidency. Vice President Ford becomes President but hurts his own presidency by pardoning Nixon unconditionally after Nixon resigns during impeachment hearings following the Watergate scandal. (54.51.00) = Jimmy Carter defeats Ford in 1976 election. Hurt by the Iranian hostage crisis. Brings human rights into areas of foreign policy. Not considered a successful president. He is more recognized for Habitat For Humanity and other civic efforts after presidency. (57.3100) = Major economic changes. U. S., single dominant economic power after World War II. Starts in the 1950s, through the 1960s and into the future. Total U.S. dominance diminishes. In the 60s Germany, Japan, and Russia rebuild with newer industrial technologies. The high U.S. military budget is important for prosperity but is capital intensive, while Japan, protected by the U.S., spends heavily on labor intensive civilian projects which impact favorably on employment and has social value. Japan freed to direct research and development to social needs. Total U.S. dominance diminishes. 1.05.003.00) = Major challenges to U.S. economy. These factors lead to multinational corporations, internationalization of production. This leads to rust belt areas and shifts to U.S. regions with lower labor costs, continuing into the 70s. The union movement diminishes. Economy hurt by importation of cheap foreign goods, unfavorable balance of trade, significant unemployment, stagflation. High gas prices in the 70s hurts auto industry. (1.13.058.00) = Significant change in South and country. The "New Right" emerges. The political scandals of LBJ and Nixon. The GOP shift to the right. The erosion of liberalism of Democrats in power a long time. Traditional values versus civil rights, women's rights, etc. The GOP Southern Strategy addresses the resentment of Southern whites to civil rights changes leads to the rebirth of the GOP majority. Republican favoritism toward business.
Eugene Lieber (Author), Eugene Lieber (Narrator)
Audiobook
Politics & Society in 20th Century America Series: The Reagan 80s
The New Right. Reagan's political career. Image vs. substance. Viewed as having great depth or as handled by others. The "Teflon President," but Issue of presidential responsibility for others in his administration. (8.52.00) = 1980s policy revolution. Trickle-down economy, tax cuts for the wealthy. High degree of deficit spending. . (16.44.00) = Cuts social spending, balances budget. Huge increase in military budget. To compete with false image of Soviet threat. Results in huge deficits, sharp increase in national debt interest to be paid. Reduces costs by cutting social and economic programs for middle and lower classes. (19.41.00) = Deregulation. Get government off our backs." Negative impact on banking industry: the savings & loan scandal theft of billions due to gross mismanagement, to be paid for by the taxpayers. Striking air traffic controllers fired by Reagan, their union broken. Air safety diminished. (22.37.00) = Right wing movement tied to religion Constitution is clear about separation of church and state, but not in the view of the religious right. Emergence of AIDS in the 80s and the Reagan administration's lack of response, reflecting hostile attitude toward despised groups. (24.28.00) = Jobs shift overseas. Actual work hours increase. Real wages decline over the past 25 years. Jobs move overseas to cheaper labor, with economic, social and psychological impact on families here. Employment rates are misleading -- the issue of the working poor. Growth of agribusiness spells the decline of the family farm. (32.28.00) = Growing gap between rich and poor. Continues to grow into the 1990s and 2000s. Re-segregation in the cities. The 80s business community portrayed with great greed after deregulation, criminal fraud. (32.45.20) = Deregulation and lawlessness of business community. Get government off our backs." Negative impact on banking industry: the savings & loan scandal theft of billions due to gross mismanagement, to be paid for by the taxpayers. Striking air traffic controllers fired by Reagan, their union broken. Air safety diminished. (34.44.00) = Rightward political turn continues, becomes the norm. Affects policies of future presidents. The continued increase in power of industry, technology, and health management. Rapid rate of change has negative impact on social and psychological life. Changes too rapid as underlying issue. (43.48.00) = 1990s Republican control. Privatization. Extension of "get government off business backs" to health care and education. (45.26.00) = Religion and politics. Culture wars. Emergence of AIDS in the 80s and the Reagan administration's lack of response, reflecting hostile attitude toward despised groups.Abortion, other issues. (48.23.00) = Progressive issue: environment. (49.25.00) = Historical perspective.. Need for time for historical perspective of current issues. (51.52.00) = 2000 election issues. Immigration and U.S. role. (1.02.06.00) = Hostility to science, public education, environment, health care. Competence of leadership. separation of church & state, individual liberty, law vs lawlessness, too powerful government, more. Future of America: Complacency is a threat.
Eugene Lieber (Author), Eugene Lieber (Narrator)
Audiobook
Topics in American History Series: Religion
America was always a Protestant country, expressed in its values. 5.58.00) = Birth of Protestantism. Martin Luther, reformer (11.46.00) = Puritanism. John Calvin, reformer, dynamism aspect, (14.29) = Puritanism in America. (16.14.00) = Ann Hutchinson challenges Puritanism. No need for society. (18.39.00) = Half-Way Covenant. Children are half saved - saved. (20.36.00) = Massachusetts Bay Colony always a capitalist society.measured by materialism. Work not religious becomes central in their lives (23.24.00) = Puritanism and mass hysteria of witches. (27.17.00) = Puritanism and its achievements. : education, sense of religious freedom. (32.13.00) = Religious revival movements. . Women's role (34.52.00) = Other religions in the Colonies. (41.05.00) = Various concepts of Protestantism. (44.48.00) = The Constitution and religion. Bill of Rights. Deism. Separation of church and state. (46.04.00) = Revivalism in perspective. Protestant society is still dominant. The Constitution provides for periodic revolution. Especially in times of economic and social insecurity people tend to turn to the certitude of emotional religious answers (3.24.00) = The new immigration from the 1880s to the 1920s answers the demand for cheap labor due to the rapid industrialization after the Civil War. Originating from south and east Europe, including Catholics, Jews, and Eastern Christian Orthodox, they are greeted with great hostility, endure the city life of poverty. (5.56.00) = Responses of relition. The response to poverty. The social gospel is mostly protest. Moral concern for the poor is expressed in the idea that the ""meek shall inherit the earth."" (8.13.00) = The slavery period. . Slaves, with their animism brought from West Africa, are seen as not worthy of Christianity. A shift in the 1800s to conversion as a way to control the slaves by sermon to obey the master. Black Christianity evolves with Moses as the hero who leads the slaves to the promised land. The slave-preacher is a natural leader, becomes active in revolts. (13.43.00) = 20th Century. The period after the social reforms of the 19th century. The religious revivalism of the 1920s. The millennium and the anticipated 2nd coming of Christ (15.49.00) = The Mormons led by Brigham Young, settle in Utah, are a despised minority having a belief in polygamy. (22.13.00) = The Scopes Monkey Trial. Trial in the 1920s as modernity and technology become threatening to religions which want a literal interpretation of the bible. Evolution is accepted by many religious leaders as God's way. Scopes issue is still with us today. (28.37.00) = Judaism. Many religious Jews immigrate in the new immigration of 1880s to 1920s, holding on to their heritage and religious faith. By the 2nd or 3rd generations this faith is modified into orthodox, conservative and reform denominations. (31.43.00) = Catholicism. . Irish immigration to America starts before the Civil War and continues into the 20th century to escape poverty and seek opportunity. New immigration is from Italy. Catholicism becomes a potent force in the U.S. (33.06.00) = Current American History. Judaism. Divisions of Orthodox, Conservative and Reformed. Issues of maintaining membership, intermarriage, attempts of convert Jews to Christianity. Ultra-Orthodox within the Orthodox. Time of transition or time of crisis? (34.36.00) = Islam in the U.S. Growing significantly. Cloud of prejudice hovering over Muslims since 9/11. The Black Muslims Nation of Islam during the Jim Crow Era in the early 1900s argued for separation of the races, emphasis on purity of the body, and the rise of the charismatic Malcolm X becomes its spokesman until he disavows it because of corruption, and is assassinated. (39.39.00) = American Catholicism. Irish immigration to America starts before the Civil War and continues into the 20th century to escape poverty and seek opportunity. New immigration is from Italy. Catholicism becomes a potent force in the U.S. (43.48.00) = American Protestantism. A degree of social reform movement in old line denominations. Mormons are now thriving despite earlier fears of their theocracy and elements of polygamy. The Evangelical Movement, deeply emotional, ties to early Puritanism and a one-to-one relationship with God, born again, is particularly associated with the Southern Baptists, now spread nationally and more dominant than the old line denominations. Emphasis on individualism, opposing government role in society. An emphasis on rugged individualism as part of the American heritage. Promotes American Exceptionalism. This has increasing influence on Conservative politics, especially Republicans, arguing for America as a Christian country, challenging basic American tenants such as separation of religion and state.
Eugene Lieber (Author), Eugene Lieber (Narrator)
Audiobook
Topics in American History Series: Labor
Pre-Industrial Era. The U.S. is an agricultural country until the industrial era. In Colonial America, the work force consists mainly farm labor including indentured servants who can become independent farmers after they work off their debt. In the coastal cities there are some low level industrial jobs in shipping and businesses. The beginning of worker associations in response to harsh conditions (4.50.00) = After the American Revolution. America is not a classless society. In the North the merchants in urban areas are the Master Class with its underclass workers called Mechanics. In the South planters are the Master Class with poor whites and slaves as its underclass. (8.31.00) = Beginnings of manufacturing. . At the end of the 18th and beginning of 19th centuries mill towns spring up along the rivers. The rivers are a source of power, transportation, source to dump manufacturing wastes, and paradoxically, a source of drinking water. (11.15.00) = Beginnings of labor unrest. Women are recruited to work in the Lowell mills from the age of 15 until 30. Men are working in nearby factories. Labor associations begin to organize for bread-and-butter issues, leaving a history of labor unrest (14.16.00) = Industrial Era. The Civil War is a turning point for major industrialization, with the rise of technology and the birth of the factory system, especially in the last 1/3 of the 19th century. (14.41.00) = New immigration. to fill labor needs, 1880 to early 1900s, mainly from southern and eastern Europe and Irish peasants. Competition for jobs including railroad building and coal mining with earlier immigrants from western and southern Europe. Catholics are despised by earlier Protestant arrivals. The issues behind the draft riots of 1863 by Irish. (18.49.00) = Blossoming of the industrial giants. Now there is a full-fledged industrial labor, including housing for workers. Workers are living in primitive conditions. Working conditions are very harsh. Factory tasks are fragmented, offer no pride in work, in contrast with farming. (31.10.00) = The Labor Movement. Workers respond to conditions with apathetic hopelessness, upward aspirations (although there is little prospect for improvement in the early industrial era), rags-to-riches fantasy reflected in the popularity of the Horatio Alger stories, and also resistance (37.14.00) = Unions organize to provide collective leverage not available to individual workers. Reconstruction ends in the South in 1877 and federal troops are shifted for strike-breaking in the North. . (40.18.00) = The violent episode of the Molly McGuires. (42.27.00) = The AFL is formed in 1880s incorporating skilled workers, and led by Samuel Gompers for 40 years. It accepts the capitalist system, wants a bigger piece of the pie. Gompers is enticed to cooperate with newer more sophisticated business leaders which emerge later in the 19th century. (46.33.00) = Socialist movements from Europe, utopian or individual, believe the capitalist system is inherently unjust, is also homegrown by Eugene Debbs. (48.26.00) = The union defeats in 1886 Chicago Haymarket strike and especially the Carnegie iron and steel plant strike in Homestead, Pennsylvania, set back union efforts until1919 when they are defeated again, not to succeed until 1937. . (58.43.00) = The pattern of repeated strike violence by either side, but always blamed on the workers by upper class-controlled media, turns the public against labor. Pullman Car workers strike in 1894 during a then depression and are joined by railroad workers. Debbs comes out of prison, runs for President and shows surprising strength early in the 20th century. (1.08.54.00) = Family size. The number of children in higher class families decreases. Family size increases in working class families because a child is put out to work at the age of 6 to add family income. (1.15.51.02) = The number of children in higher class families decreases. Family size increases in working class families because a child is put out to work at the age of 6 to add family income. (1.12.14.00) = Family church attendance. Despite the comfort of religion promising an after-life, family church attendance declines. The sermon's messages include: obey the owners, life is suffering, living in sin, accept your fate. (1.15.34.00) = Early 20th century. The 1902 Anthracite Coal Strike is led by John Mitchell against a wage cut and is opposed by a company that believes its property rights are God-given. President Theodore Roosevelt intervenes, forces the owners to negotiate and a settlement is reached. President Roosevelt's motives are questioned. 20th Century - 1st Half. ""Champion of Labor."" President Theodore Roosevelt is erroneously seen as champion of labor for his role in settling the violent and bitter anthracite coal strike of 1902 by forcing company hard liner George Bear to settle with the union. The workers win only the restoration of cut wages. Roosevelt's motivation is the need of coal by industries and for home heating, not the workers' cause. (5.44.00) = Post World War I. The U.S. is very prosperous but unions are very weak. There is large migration from farms in the South to cities in the North, hoping for a better life. Blacks move into white areas, competing for jobs, and sometimes are used as strikebreakers. (8.41.00) = The Depression 30s. Union organizing expected to be better in prosperous times and harder in the Depression, yet the 1930s sees great advances in labor unions. Factors include the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt whose earlier efforts to help business are rebuffed, then in 1935 he turns to the working poor. New legislation include a progressive income tax and social security insurance. (13.20.00) = Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act) establishes workers the right to a union of their own choice, requires companies to bargain in good faith, ushering in a period of successful union growth. (14.43.00) = CIO Union. is formed for industrial workers nationally, headed by John L. Lewis from the Coal Miners' Union (16.07.00) = Auto and steel industry resistance. Henry Ford is fanatically anti-labor union, applies harsh methods to break strike. The union uses tactic of the sit-down strike, occupying factories and preventing production. Auto companies settle and sign contracts with the auto unions. Main motivation is fear of damage to machines in factories. (20.07.00) = Republic Steel strike of 1937. Workers on strike are having peaceful holiday picnic with families when police appear and shoot into the crowd. This is recorded and shown in newsreels across the country causing negative public opinion, and becomes a major labor victory. (24.31.00.00) = Role of Communist Party. in the labor movement in the 1930s. In the excitement of the Russian Revolution some are blind to Stalin's brutal rule in the USSR in the 1930s. Communists are disciplined, dedicated, are effective labor organizers in labor's ranks, and are accepted by non-communist labor leaders. (25.57.003) = First minimum wage law in 1938 shocked the nation because of the huge numbers of workers whose wages more than doubled as a result. Federal agencies are created to promote employment for skilled workers, for unskilled industrial workers, for the creative professions, and for teenagers. (28.38.00) = World War II ends the Depression. John Maynard Keynes' dictum that jobs is the answer because workers become consumers, the bottom-up theory of economics. Full employment follows business' confidence in a war economy. (38.17.00) = World War II advances civil rights. civil rights for blacks and women by opening many new job areas for them. After the war they resist efforts to return them to pre-war status, leading to civil rights movements. (39.37.00) = 20th Century - 2nd Half. Onset of the Cold War. Republican congress under Democrat President Truman passes the Taft-Harley Bill which rolls back some labor gains from the Wagner Act. It especially excludes communists from union leadership, aimed at effective union organizers. War economy continues, with high prosperity in the 1940s and 1950s. AFL and CIO unions merge in mid-1950s under leadership of George Meany. (45.02.00) = Industry moves away from the Northeast and the upper Midwest which have the most successful labor contracts. The shift is to the South and Southwest where unions are less effective. Legislators resist raising minimum wage. (47.10.00) = 21st Century. Real wages. Wages in relation to the cost of living over the last 35 years decline (48.23.00) = Work time. Although industry automation is greatly increased, work time has not decreased but actually increased approximately 1 month per year on the average. (50.13.00) = Gender and race issues. Men resist women in the workforce, possibly lowering the wage scale, still clinging to the idea of the man as the breadwinner, a concept irreversibly changed by the Depression and World War II. From the 1960s on, it is unrealistic to expect a single wage earner to maintain a middle class family life. Also women now expect the right to choose. (54.49.00 = State of labor movement today. Labor is now weak in the U.S. Only 10-20% of workforce is unionized. Anti-union efforts of companies are very effective. Workers' (59.49.00) = Unemployment figures are not realistic. Not counted as unemployed are those whose unemployment benefits have run out, and the part-time employed. (1.04.04.00) = The nature of jobs. In the post-industrial age industrial jobs have moved overseas to areas with low labor costs and weak pollution laws. When the factory moves, no longer is there the tradition of a son moving into his father's job. The son must look elsewhere. Increased service economy but mostly low paying with little expectation of improvement. (1.06.25.00) = Unions. Some are dedicated to the rank & file, others are corrupt, close to management, with potential violence against reformers. Pension plans are insecure. Workers are at considerable risk of losing their jobs, psychologically insecure, with the prospect of becoming destitute close at hand. The struggles for gains in the past come to today's uncertainty for labor's future.
Eugene Lieber (Author), Eugene Lieber (Narrator)
Audiobook
Topics in American History Series: Agriculture
America is agricultural until well into the 20th century. . Traditionally conservative, farmers could be aggressive and even violent when their rights are violated. Availability of land attracts land starved Europeans. The frontier pushes further and further west always at the expense of Native Americans who eventually resist. (5.14.00) = Origins of Sectionalism. Ethnic differences in farm communities, but differences especially north and south because of geography and climate. Slave labor conducive to large flat areas of farmland in the south, but not to the small rocky family farms of the north. Crop differences in North and South are subject to the same factors (8.40.00) = Cotton becomes king in the South. Role of invention of the cotton gin in 1790, and the rise of industrialization in England, especially textiles. Its impact on slavery in the South. (11.16.00) = The family farm in the North. Physical labor is hard and precarious. Greater demands on women than men. (12.19.00) = Transportation revolution. The Erie Canal's great importance to Midwest farmers in early 1800s by linking the Midwest to the Northeast markets, instead of just the South via the Mississippi River. Erie Canal becomes a detriment to the South's food supply in the Civil War. (15.38.00) = Impact of the Civil War on farmers. Federal government as a ready market for farm goods. Later repercussions from farmers' mindset of positive connection between prosperity and newly issued greenbacks. Food supply shortage is major problem for the South. (25.09.00) = Impact of end of Civil War. Farmers are favored by the opening new land to small farmers, and expansion of agricultural and mining education. In the South, the ex-slaves and poor whites are given small parcels of land to farm, but become dependent sharecroppers after the protected 12 year Reconstruction Period ends. (25.09.00) = Farming downturn starting in the 1870s. Demobilization shrinks Federal market. Greenbacks are withdrawn. Farmers' mindset now connects hard times with withdrawal of greenbacks (27.27.00) = Farmers and the railroads. Farmers initially greeted coming of the railroads with open arms. Eventually, with the Federal government aid, the railroads became very powerful, as well as greedy, and corrupt, exploiting the farmers and becoming seen as the enemy of the small farmers (32.49.00) = The Granges in the 1870s. Promoting farm life, farm interests. And political activism. Efforts to get legislature to regulate the railroads, and Grange Laws passed, upheld by the Supreme Court in 1877. In 1886 the Supreme Court, now reconstituted, declare the Grange Laws unconstitutional on questionable legal grounds (37.22.00) = Three Farmers' Alliances in the 1880s. The Northern, The Southern, and the Colored. They continue and advance activities of the Granges. The Northern Alliance advocates a purely farmers' alliance. The Southern Alliance struggles to control the now single party, the Democrats. The Colored Alliance go along with the Southern Alliance, but in 1890 the Alliances combine to form a new Agricultural Party. The Populist Party of the 1890s, a 3rd Party. Its platform includes support of industrial labor, government control of railroads, an end of absentee landlords, coining silver as well as gold to counter inflation, and a series of democratic reforms. (4.25.00) = The election of 1896. William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic candidate from Nebraska, a farm state, and his "Cross of Gold" speech. The Populist Party backs Bryan but the Republican McKinley wins. The Populist Party fades and eventually dies. (11.34.00) = Jim Crow Era begins. With the demise of the Populist Movement, the upper class whites win control of one-party South, and no longer need to vie with the lower class whites for the black vote. "Separate but equal" Supreme Court decision dooms blacks to inferior education in the South. Total segregation of every public facility in the South. A time of terror, including many lynchings. Poverty of sharecroppers continues for the next decade. (15.47.00) = The Legacy of Populism. It was not the regression to the agrarian myth of the noble farmer, nor the socialistic view of the government taking over the railroads. Rather it was an effort to find a way of individualism to fit into the need to organize in an increasing industrialized society. (18.22.00) = Farming at beginning of the 20th century. Progressivism of President Wilson is more structured than the somewhat emotional Populist Movement, and is less sympathetic to small farmers. Farmers experience prosperity during WW I supplying the military, and then sending farm goods to starving Europe after the war. (22.10.00) = Farm depression in the 1920s. A prosperous time in general, the 1920s begin a farm depression. The Army demobilizes. Europe recovers. Markets shrink. Competition from other world markets. Farm prices drop and continue to drop through the 1920s into the 1930s. (24.10.00) = Great Depression of the 1930s. This adds to farmers' already dire situation. The Great Plains Dust Bowl due to lack of rain and misuse of farmland destroys farms, causing a great migration west. In 1900 dire conditions in the South causes migration to northern cities by blacks and whites who are often met with great hostility in the competition for jobs. (29.41.00) = FDR and the New Deal in 1933. Attempts to help farmers. Intentional scarcities to raise prices to farmers. Failure: non-compliance, circumvention, lack of oversight. Sharecroppers not covered, suffer. Law later declared unconstitutional. Concern for the large farmer at the expense to the small farmer. Farmers migrate west or at times resist economic depression during the 1930s. (36.33.00) = New farm prosperity. Coming of WW II and end of drought. Feeding soldiers. Permanent migration to cities for high paying defense jobs, replaced by poor migrant farmers from Mexico living under dire conditions, continuing into the post-war era. Myth of romanticizing farming. (39.15.00) = Post-WW II American agriculture. Some benefit exporting food to war-devastated Europe. Subsidies continue but large farms benefit more than small ones. Future of family farms undermined by children leaving. Competition of large agribusiness. Tragedy of family farms' overwhelming debt burden. Agribusinesses thrive, also compete internationally. Many Mexican small farms cannot survive, forcing migrant workers to the U.S. (44.39.00) = Agriculture attempts to adapt to modernity.. Many approaches, with a mix of successes and failures. Issues will remain for a long time to come
Eugene Lieber (Author), Eugene Lieber (Narrator)
Audiobook
Topics in American History Series: Constitution
In the Beginning. 1776 Articles of Confederation. The federal government is weak. There is a one body Congress. Fear of a strong federal government. Power rests with the states intentionally. Chaos as each state going its own way. 1780s meetings trash Articles of Confederation replace if with the Constitution. (2.56.00) = The Constitution. It creates a powerful federal government with a division of powers using checks and balances: a president executive branch, a 2-segment legislative branch balancing big states and small states, and a judicial branch. The Iroquois Native Americans have the same governmental structure. The view that human nature is negative influences the Constitution, limits popular power. The Electoral College reflects the distrust of the common man. (4.54.00) = Bill of Rights. First 10 amendments added in 1791 to protect individual rights against majority rule. (6.21.00) = Amendment 1. Very broad. Separation of church and state, right to assembly, to peacefully petition the government, freedom of speech, freedom of press. Original context, interpretation, present context. (11.48.00) = Amendment 2. Regulated militia, right to bear arms, volunteer militia to defend country. New technology changes the perspective of this. Original context, present context. (13.47.00) = Amendment 3. Protections against quartering of troops. Original context, present context (14.56.00) = Amendment 4. Secure from search and seizure. This is very specific. Original context (17.38.00) = Amendment 5. Self-incrimination, double jeopardy protection. Not to be deprived of life or liberty without due process, nor property without due compensation. This is relevant today with issue of eminent domain. Role of grand jury, now marginalized, as buffer from powerful federal government. . Original context, present context (23.40.00) = Amendment 6. Right to a speedy and public trial (what is speedy?) by an impartial judge and jury in a local district (not applied in Jim Crow era). Must be informed of charges, can confront witnesses, can call witnesses. Assistance of counsel not guaranteed until the 1960s Supreme Court decision. . Original context, present context. (26.00.00) = Amendment 7. Entitled to a public trial if civil case is over a certain value. . Original context, present context. (26.31.00) = Amendment 8. Protection against excessive fine, excessive bail, against cruel and unusual punishment. The issue of today's debates about treatment of prisoners, and about capital punishment itself. . Original context, present context. (28.51.00) = Amendment 9. Rights that are listed do not deny other rights that are not listed. . Original context, present context. (29.30.00) = Amendment 10. Powers not delegated to the federal government remain with the states and the people. Original context, present context. (30.50.00) = Perspective on the Bill of Rights. One of the great documents in all history. Probably none but the 2nd Amendment would pass today in the U.S. Very few amendments added over 200 (33.26.00) = Supreme Court: The Marshall Court. Justices are appointed by the president, ratified by the Senate. John Marshall is chief justice for 30 years in the early 1800s. The concepts of judicial review, federal law over state law, states cannot tax the federal government, interstate commerce is federal not state, sanctity of the contract. The Cherokee land dispute found in favor the the Cherokees but not enforced by President Andrew Jackson, an Indian hater, ending in the "Trail of Tears." (47.57.00) = The Dred Scott Decision of 1856. nullifies the line of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and opens all land not yet states to slavery. (52.00.00) = The Civil War. The 1863 Emancipation Proclamation frees slaves in the North not in the South. After the war, the 13th Amendment abolishes slavery, the 14th Amendment guarantees due process of law to all citizens (to protect ex-slaves), the 15th Amendment is passed during the period of Reconstruction, gives black males the right to vote but excludes all women. (56.48.00) = Gilded Age Robber Barons thwart efforts of the farmers' Granger Movement for federal regulation of the railroads in 1877 who are exploiting farmers. (1.02.04.00) = The Progressive Era reforms after 1901 are resisted by Supreme Court holdovers. In World War 1, President Wilson predicts intolerance at home. During the war Supreme Court rules that freedom of speech can be limited. The 1920s. The Supreme Court is very conservative and pro-business. (1.13.09.00) = 1930s. The Court blocks New Deal laws as infringement. In 1936 FDR attempts but fails to pack the court. Hugo Black is the first FDR appointee, becomes a great defender of individual rights, as is William O. Douglas. There is diversity in the quality of justices. Cardosa and Brandeis are unexpected appointees. Racial Issues After the Civil War. The end of Reconstruction in 1877. Withdrawal of federal troops from the South. The battle for control of the one-party Democratic South between the upper and lower class whites is won by the upper class whites in 1896. Blacks are still enfranchised. Plessy versus Ferguson decision in 1896 upholds "separate but equal" concept of segregation as constitutional, gives judicial sanction to segregation. Jim Crow, using terror, eventually disenfranchises blacks. It is overturned in 1954, climaxing the conservative era dating back to late19th century. (4.21.00) = The 20th Century. Constitutional Amendments. Legislating morality. 8th Prohibition Amendment is ineffective. Aimed at victimless crime, it trivializes the Constitution. Is repealed by a later amendment. Lowering the voting age to 18. The vice president becomes president when the president is disabled. Limit Presidency to 2 terms. A reaction to FDR's 4 terms, affects Eisenhower. Rule has value because of the power of the executive branch. (7.17.00) = Stature of Justices. They should have a reputation for law, steeped in law not politics. (10.13.00) = Crises of constitutional interpretation. Examples are World War One hysteria, internment of Japanese-American citizens during World War Two carried out although they were known at the time to not be a security threat. The Cold War anti-Communist hysteria sanctioned by the Supreme Court is also a time of great dissent. (16.23.00) = 1960 Eisenhower appointments.
Eugene Lieber (Author), Eugene Lieber (Narrator)
Audiobook
Topics in American History Series: Political Parties
In the Beginning. The Constitution. Creates the division, separation of powers of government. There are no political parties at the first presidential election The first political party. Thomas Jefferson opposes the economic policies of Alexander Hamilton's Federalist Party which advocates a strong central government and presidential power in the 1790s. Jefferson and Madison form the Anti-Federalist Party. Jefferson's party is the Democratic Republicans, wins the 1800 election after which the Federalist Party declines and dies, leaving one party. (8.33.00) = The 19th Century. The second American party system of the 1820s. Andrew Jackson thwarts the election of Quincy Adams. The Democratic Republicans become the Democrats and are opposed by the Whigs. Both are national parties reflecting the growing sectionalism between the anti-slavery North and the pro-slavery South. Confrontation is avoided in the1830s and 1840s (14.12.00) = The Republican Party. The Mexican War leads to great American expansion in the 1850s under President Polk. The Whigs decline and the Republican Party emerges in 1854. It starts as a Northern anti-slavery party supported by Northern capitalists who want Southern cotton now going to English mills, and high tariffs. Other elements include the homestead farmers to the West who oppose slavery expansion for racist motives, wanting to keep the West white, the Unionists headed by Abraham Lincoln, the Nativists who are against foreigners, and the Abolitionists, the only ones with a moral issue. Lincoln is elected in 1860 and the South secedes. (22.50.00) = The Civil War.. Lincoln is reelected 1864, the war ends April 1865, and Lincoln is assassinated. Reconstruction and the moral concern for the ex-slave. The 18th Amendment gives black males the vote. The Republicans dominate and remain in power mostly until the Depression 1930s. (28.53.00) = The 20th Century. The Progressive Era.from 1900 to 1912 is a reform period, but results are less than the rhetoric. Progressive Era ends. President Taft's reelection is challenged by Theodore Roosevelt who forms the "Bull Moose" Progressive Party, and Democrat Woodrow Wilson wins a split vote. The U.S. enters the war, ending the Progressive Era. Eugene Debbs of the Socialist Party is jailed for speaking out against U.S. entry into World War One. The war ends. American disillusionment with the war, Wilson's rigid positions and the Senate's refusal to sign the Treaty of Versailles. (39.07.00) = Republican Warren Harding.is elected president. Both parties are similarly conservative. The KKK becomes nationally strong in the 1920s. Calvin Coolidge becomes president when Harding dies, runs in 1928 and is elected. (42.02.00) = A strong Republican tide elects Herbert Hoover president against Catholic Al Smith in 1928. City voters shifting to Democratic Party. Hoover is ineffective in Depression.. (44.46.00) = The Democrats elect Franklin Roosevelt in a landslide in 1932 after the Great Depression begins. Another landslide victory for FDR in 1936. Republicans remain pro-business, anti-labor. The 20th Century. (continued). World War Two ends the Great Depression. American gunboat diplomacy and control of business interests in Latin America. The Spanish Civil War as a prelude to World War Two. The rise of Nazism in Europe and growing danger of fascist Japan in the Pacific. FDR breaks the 2 term tabu and wins a third term in 1940, is elected a 4th time in 1944 and dies on April 1945 just before the end of the war. (9.45.00) = President Harry Truman and the onset of the Cold War. Revival of the war economy. Revival of the Republican Party which takes Congress in 1946, and passes the anti-labor Taft-Hartley Act. Truman, against odds, is reelected in 1948, desegregates the armed forces. (12.21.00) = The Red Scare. Truman starts the Red Scare which is made the most of by the Republicans. Red hysteria builds during the Korean War of 1950, the Russian atomic bomb, and the loss of China to the Communists. The rise and fall of Sen. Joseph McCarthy. The Dixiecrat Party emerges in the South. Henry Wallace of the Progressive Party tries to stem the Red Scare. (15.30.00) = The 1950s. Birth of the Modern Civil Rights Movement. Brown versus Topeka, Kansas Bd. Of Ed., 1954. Pres. Eisenhower uses troops to enforce desegregation law. Pro-business decade. Republican Party holds (16.46.00) = 1960s decade of great fervor, change and chaos. The Modern Women's Rights Movement. LBJ pushes civil rights movement, resisted by the Republicans, but Vietnam War diverts this effort. Assassination of Democratic candidate Robert Kennedy. Richard Nixon is elected President in 1968 on promise to end Vietnam War. The 1970s. Nixon is reelected in 1972 but quits in disgrace amid the Watergate scandal, is pardoned by Gerald Ford who replaces him. Democrat Jimmy Carter from the South wins in 1976. (28.00.00) = The Reagan 1980s. The Southern Strategy taps into Southern whites' resistance to the civil right movement, makes the Republicans the dominant party of the South. Ronald Reagan is elected in 1980 and reelected in 1984. Conservatives now connect religion to politics. Aggressive foreign policy. (37.28.00) = Contraction in government under Reagan. Reagan wants deregulation and limited government role in general but also wants strong government to intervene in moral issues. He espouses fiscal responsibility but hypes military budget into huge deficits. Republican George Bush is elected President in1988. (41.41.00) = Right turn in Democratic Party is part of rightward turn to Republican extremism. Southerner Bill Clinton is elected President in 1992. He passes moderate welfare reform, pursues other moderate social policies, yet his presidency is violently attacked from day one. He is reelected in 1996. (43.58.004) = Current issues. The rightward turn has shifted all political labels to the right in both parties. The second Iraq War and issues of truth and lies, the costs versus the goals. The future of the two parties and the role of older points of view is not clear.
Eugene Lieber (Author), Eugene Lieber (Narrator)
Audiobook
Topics in American History Series: Business
Capitalist ethic is deeply ingrained in America. No pre-capitalist history such as feudalism and socialism, in contrast to Europe. Navigation Acts of the 1600s define the mercantile economic role of the American colonies to England, mainly for the benefit of England. (4.49.00) = 100 years of relative neglect results in illegal trade by colonies, which becomes to norm. Reasons for neglect include problems of enforcement. English government upheavals, English involvement in European wars mainly with France, problems with English governors managing the colonies. (9.08.00 = Merchant capitalism in the North. The English win the French & Indian War of 1756-63. The Colonies benefit. The English now enforce economic laws to help it cover its war debt, and is met by resistance by the Northern merchants who had been trading freely (13.10.00) = Slave capitalism in the South. Some feudal aspects but mainly concerned with markets and profit, although entwined with a number of ideological issues as well Considerable poverty in much of the South for poor whites (16.04.00) = The North and South in early 18th Century. The North begins manufacturing, including mills run by water power. The South avoids manufacturing, depends on tobacco until invention of the cotton gin makes cotton very profitable, boosting slavery. Thomas Jefferson mistrusts cities and views America's future as agricultural with small farms. Alexander Hamilton's vision is urbanized with a manufacturing type economy. This is beginning of the 2-party system. (20.03.00) = American economy after Independence. Hamilton is George Washington's Secretary of Treasury whose policies help create the new American economy, establishes the value of credit and debt, and boosts the role of the federal government. Taxes and tariffs to encourage American industry. Jefferson opposes these policies. (24.50.00) = The age of canals in early 19th century. The importance of the Erie Canal. It opens the Midwest to the Northeast markets away from the South. NYC becomes the commercial hub of the country The Erie Canal is not an example of laissez faire, requiring substantial government help. . (29.37.00 = The coming of the railroads starting in 1820s..Concept is brought over from England. Construction is expensive, must overcome many natural obstacles, requires the help of government, not laissez-faire. A major impetus to the American economy (34.33.00) = President Jackson's banking policies in 1832. He kills conservative U.S. 2nd Bank in Philadelphia, encouraging the loose credit "pet" banks in NY and western wildcat banks. Substantial short term result: business panic and ultimately economic depression in 1837. Substantial long-tern result: helps start of new business which become huge industries in the post-Civil War era. (47.17.00) = President Jackson's tariff policies. Favored by the North with growth of manufacturing. High tariffs undercut South's economic relationship with England. Becomes more and more a sectional issue between North and South. Role of states' rights to ignore federal law when deemed harmful to a state, and Jackson's harsh response to its use. (53.30.00) = Republican Party emerges in 1854. A Northern party, not a national party. Diverse component interests. Opposition to slavery by Northern capitalists is economic more than moral. Northern homestead farmers want West to be open to them, opposes expansion of slavery to West, not for moral reasons. Unionists want to keep the country together. (57.43.00) = Abolitionists. Abraham Lincoln elected president 1860. The South secedes as the Confederate States of America based on the institution of slavery, and the Civil War begins. Debate about whether the Civil War was inevitable. (59.26.00) = The Civil War. North's advantages include railroad network, banks to finance the war, ample shipping. South is hurt by its dependence on slave labor when blacks flee as war progresses. North's victory in Civil War is a turning point in American history, represented symbolically by Abraham Lincoln (1.03.55.00) = Post-Civil War Era. Significant growth of industrialization. During Reconstruction period, land is confiscated from plantation owners and divided among former slaves and poor whites to become small independent farmers. Effects of moral, economic and political concern for the defeated South to be subservient to the North.. (1.09.30.00) = End of Reconstruction. Election of 1876 and the Compromise of 1877 and the removal of federal troops from the South. Motivation is for troops to be available to break strikes in the North or subdue the Indians in the West. Ku Klux Klan terrorize small independent white and black farmers, driving them off their farms, and who become sharecroppers, guaranteeing a life of poverty. (1.15.41.00) = The North's great push forward for industrialization. Emergence of Robber Barons, the Gilded Age, great corruption. Generalizations about new industrialists: originally lower middle class, do not invent machinery or processes but understand the markets and apply English inventions and processes. Generally amoral, not operating under moral values, and above the law. 19th Century. American business model always toward monopoly. . Buying out competitor, price wars, sabotage, even violence. Also oligopoly, a few companies agreeing to share a market. Sometimes line is blurred between oligopoly and monopoly. Industrialists are dominant forces in the U.S. in last half of the19th century. (4.42.00) = The Horatio Alger image.and the dream of rags to riches. Thanks to the press and Horatio Alger novels, industrialists are positive role models despite corruption. (7.53.00) = The old and the new rich. The excesses and at times craziness of the new rich. (14.26.00) = John D. Rockefeller's image. He brutally crushes the striking miners, called the Ludlow Mine Massacre, and counters this negative image with public relations campaign. (19.38.00) = 20th Century, First Half. Growth of U.S. economic power.at end of 19th & beginning of 20th century. The old period of finance capitalism's reliance on banks. The start of mass production assembly, using applied time and motion studies. Auto industry has enormous impact on U.S. economy in the 1920s The old period of finance capitalism's reliance on banks. (25.48.00) = The Progressive Era.is a reform period but the reality is a partnership between business and the federal government. How the rhetoric is anti-business but the move toward monopoly increases not decreases. Theodore Roosevelt's reputation as a "Trust Buster" but his actions actually favor business. His reputation is champion of labor, but his negotiations in the anthracite coal mine strike of 1902 benefits the business community. (36.18.00) = The 1920s is the first modern decade. Advertising, credit buying, new industries. Impact of Lindberg's flight on the aircraft industry. Enormous profits, unwise real estate speculation. (43.15.00) = The stock market crash of 1929 and the Depression of the 1930s. The government gives money to business to build jobs but business takes the money and runs. 20th Century, First Half (continued). FDR and the New Deal. Business erroneously sees FDR as anti-business, probably prolongs the Depression. The rise of the labor unions challenges business' total control over labor. The income tax, originally progressive, becomes mostly regressive. (14.01.00) = World War II ends the Depression, ends business's hostility toward FDR. The war ends. The need for perpetual war-time economy is seen as a factor in the Cold War. The contrast between economy producing military goods and one producing consumer goods. . (27.53.00) = War-time Economy. (33.07.00) = 20th Century, Second Half. The global economy. The need for overseas markets and raw materials continues through the 1950s. Multi-national corporations use factories overseas with cheap labor. Rivalry increases within the capitalist world. Castro comes to power, threatening business there. U.S. economic needs connect with U.S. foreign policy. (38.53.00) = The Reagan revolution of 1980s. The "trickle-down" supply-side economics, windfall profits, investing overseas, risky loans, huge increase in military budget. Dwight Eisenhower's earlier warning of the military-industrial complex as a threat to American democracy. (45.13.00) = Unionized labor. Significant past gains, but as unions weaken, business demands give-backs under threat to more plants elsewhere. .Increased environmental laws at home are another motive to move overseas. Since 1970 real wages decline despite automation, and workers work longer Unionized labor. Significant past gains, but as unions weaken, business demands give-backs under threat to more plants elsewhere. .Increased environmental laws at home are another motive to move overseas. Since 1970 real wages decline despite automation, and workers work longer hours. International. World trade agreements benefit business elite. World economy becoming a greater reality. (53.52.00) = Future of U.S. capitalism. U.S. capitalism is safe at home. Political contributions pay off. U.S. capitalism is less safe abroad, with the increased rivalry from China and India with their cheaper labor supply. Danger of future conflicts with unpredictable outcomes.
Eugene Lieber (Author), Eugene Lieber (Narrator)
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