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Well, Spring Break is over, but at least spring weather is here! Still, time to soldier on and finish up this course. Can you believe we only have six weeks left? How fast this year has gone by! So, we've delved into WWII. We discussed fascism, dictators, isolationism, and intervention. We also looked at how quickly Germany's progression and takeover happened. It is really astounding! The Lightning warfare tactic allowed the Germans to move in so quickly and with so many devastating weapons operating at once, it's easy to see how difficult it might have been to stop them. We left off with the attack on Pearl Harbor and Roosevelt's call for action and war. This week, you are each to write a 1-2 page (at least 300 words) paper on one of the following topics: The Tuskegee Airmen Native Americans in the Military Women in the War Economic Controls Propaganda (both foreign and domestic) Japanese Internment Camps Dwight D. Eisenhower D-Day The Holocaust ...
I'm sorry this is getting out later than normal, but hopefully, you all wrote down your assignment before you left class. This last week, we reviewed the Reactionary Twenties. This is the time period where immigration is the largest of anywhere in the world, but most folks aren't too happy about it. In response, the KKK grows to 4 million members, including senators, policemen, teachers, doctors, and farmers. 500,000 are women. It wasn't until a scandal involving the "Grand Dragon" in 1925, that caused many members to leave. By 1930, numbers dropped to 100,000 and laws were implemented to ban some of the terror tactics used by the KKK. Fundamentalism continued to grow in response to Darwinism and one of the most infamous court cases arrives: The Scopes Trial. John T. Scopes was a substitute science teacher who taught the theory of evolution in a Dayton, Tennessee classroom, leading to his arrest. The trial ensued, causing a great uproar over states rights and wh...
Again, Social Darwinism, Manifest Destiny, and Racism headlined our events in history (and the literature of the era) this week. I did not give out a pop quiz this last week and I'm not sure if I will give one out this next week, but if I did, I'd really want to make sure you are fully comprehending the definitions of social Darwinism, imperialism, and isolationism. These three ideologies find their way woven throughout much of our modern history. We touched on the annexation of the Philippines, how McKinley thought we should keep the Philippines for our national glory, commerce, racial superiority, and evangelism. That didn't go as well as planned and we found ourselves entangled in another war. We also see a rise in the Anti-Imperialist League, with forerunners like William Jennings Bryan, Carnegie, and former Presidents Cleveland and Harrison calling for the U.S. to withdraw from the Philippines. Overall, the Philippine-American war killed 126,000 U.S. troops, 200,000 ...
We are still in the Gilded Age, but politics and culture are already responding to major shifts in ideology. If you are still confused with the differences between Social Darwinism and Reform Darwinism, go back and review last week's lesson. We aren't done with this. Also, Nativism isn't limited to history. Here's an article from The New Yorker in 2007 referencing nativism in McCain's campaign, although I'd argue nativism never left. We'll get to the Japanese Internment shortly. Here's a more recent article, appearing in Slate in 2017, discussing President Trump and the "Muslim Ban." I realize both of those articles are coming from a liberal-leaning source, but nativism isn't only a liberal term. Here's another, for balance, from Fox News . This article discusses two terms we talked about yesterday, nativism and isolationism. Many issues we face today carry similar themes as the ones we are reading about in history. Let...