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Baby Boom

Posted on June 12, 2010 by Johnny

The Baby Boom appeared when the soldiers came back to their home from the war. The term “Baby Boom” usually refers to the dramatic post world war ll baby boom between 1946 and 1964. According To Wikipedia, there are an estimated 78.3 million Americans who were born at this time period. You can see the graph on the right side of the post how it grew dramatically in that time period.

This event is very important because it changes the market and the society. First, the market has greatly impacted by the baby boom because as more babies born, there will be more baby supplies and more hospitals for babies. And as time passes, the baby boomers will grow and the market will lean more into teenager interests such as bags, club, and so on. Finally, when they get older, and become elderly, there will be more nursing homes.

Second, it also chaged our society. As baby boomers became teenagers and young adults, they wanted the society to be changed. There was a movement to get away from conservative 1950’s and eventually resulted in revolutionary ways of thinking and actually changed the hackneyed American life. Boomers’ new ways of thinking affected education, lifestyle, laws and entertainments. Many of revolutionary ideas which began by Baby Boomers are still continuing to develop these days.

Posted in 1960-1968, Cultural History, Economic History, June 14 assignment, Social History | Tagged american, Baby Boom, movement, post war impact | 1 Comment

1969- Gay Liberation

Posted on June 11, 2010 by Kin

Before the formation of the gay rights organizations, gays and lesbians were viewed as having a mental disorder. In society, gays and lesbians were frowned upon and discriminated through harassment and laws prohibiting homosexual acts. With the formation of the first gay right organization in 1951, the Mattachine Society worked to convince that gays and lesbians were the same as the average Americans, except for their difference in sexual preferences.

In 1969, the “gay liberation” occurred, in which homosexuals resist and revolt against the police raiding a homosexual bar in Greenwich Village, New York City. The riot lasted for five days leading to the start of the movement, in which gays began to fight for their rights. Without the Mattachine Society, homosexuals might not have thought of themselves as normal/equal to everyone else, which in turn lead to their riot for their freedom. If the riot did not occur, we may still discriminate against homosexuals and impose unjust laws against them.

The video below displays the 2009 gay pride parade in New York City. The parade occurs every year and has become an international event. Through the actions of the organization and individuals fighting for what they believe in, it has changed our views on other and made understand/tolerate others differences.

Posted in 1960-1968, 1969-1988, June 14 assignment | Tagged 1969, discriminate, gay liberation, gay pride, homosexual. lesbian, mattachine society, New York City, rights, riot | Comments Off

Email notification of new assignments

Posted on June 11, 2010 by

Starting with this post, you should receive an email notification anytime I make a post in the “(admin only) Assignments” category. Please do not use this category when labeling your own posts. This way you will be notified anytime a new assignment is posted. I may also occasionally use this category to make an announcement related to assignments or exams (such as this one). If at any time you wish to be removed from the email notification list, or if you are not receiving the emails, please let me know.

Also, as you may have noticed, there is now a “Lecture Slides” tab on the blog, and it is password protected. I have posted all lectures through this past week. I will be following up with a separate email from the system giving you the password. If you don’t receive this email, please email me and I’ll send it to you individually.

Posted in (admin only) Assignments | 1 Comment

Assignment due June 16

Posted on June 11, 2010 by

For Wednesday, everyone is required to do the following:
1) Return to the post you made this week and choose a category and at least three tags (similar to last weeks assignment)
2) Add a comment to at least three posts besides your own. In each case, complement the author for what you like about their argument, but also challenge their argument by posing a question or stating an alternative interpretation of history. As you see questions raised about your post, I encourage you to comment back to start discussions.

Posted in (admin only) Assignments | Comments Off

Woodstock

Posted on June 11, 2010 by Olympi

The 1960’s were a decade of change and the beginning of true liberalism and acceptance of the different . It began with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X and their fight for the black rights and anti racism in the United States. Both very influentel leaders who will effect the lives of many Americans and increase equality in the country. The 60’s was also the era of increaing woman rights and with that their expressivness came out in fashion, with decreasing shirt heights and showing more skin. With all that the one most important change that happened that will have far out reached riffles into all parts of American society and the world’s out large is the Hippie movement.

Even though its source is anti war and especially the Vietnam war. This movement revolutionized and far out passed the acceptable. It defied what people accepted normal at the time and brought about the acceptance of the different and the not so typical. This movement encompasses what the 60’s were about , change and difference. Furthermore forcing society to accept the different and respect it regardless of its disbelief or differences in point of view. The movement faded out quickly in the 70’s but it helped American’s cope with the extremism that was to come over the next couple of decades, and thus its the most influential change of the 60’s.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged hippies, peace and love, Woodstock | 1 Comment

Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s

Posted on June 10, 2010 by schen2

The most important change in the 1960s must be the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement started in the early 1940s; however, its important milestone was established in the 1960s. Martin Luther King was one of the major civil rights leaders in the period of 1960s. On August 23, 1963, Martin Luther King addressed a famous speech called “I Have a Dream” which aroused all attentions from the public and the government toward civil rights. “I have a dream that one day [in]this nation… all men are created equal…I have a dream that my children will one day … not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character…”

Martin Luther King was getting closer to his dream after his speech. In July 2, 1964, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law, which prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin in school, employment, institutions……etc. The Civil Rights Act was significant in the 1960s because it overruled the Jim Crow laws, which supported “separate but equal ” status for black Americans since 1876, and set up new equal standards that influence the life of Americans all along.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4AItMg70kg

The pictures below show the difference before and after the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Posted in 1960-1968, Cultural History, June 14 assignment, Political history | Tagged "I Have a Dream", Martin Luther King, the Civil Rights Act | 2 Comments

Assignments due June 14 and 15

Posted on June 10, 2010 by

June 14: Scalawags (last name starts with “Mie” or earlier) should write a 2-3 paragraph argument for the single most important change in the 1960s, and explain who or what was responsible for that change. This may be a single event, or it may be a combination of events. You are encouraged to include an image or video to help make your point.

June 15: Carpetbaggers (last name starts with “Mih” or later) should write a 2-3 paragraph argument for the single most important change between 1953 and 1960, and explain who or what was responsible for that change. This may be a single event, or it may be a combination of events. You are encouraged to include an image or video to help make your point.

Posted in (admin only) Assignments | Comments Off

We need to talk about this oil spill…

Posted on June 9, 2010 by revolutionaryrob

That was clear from class today.

A friend of mine just brought up the oil spill to me again on the phone, and he was too young to remember the Iranian hostage crisis. We are living through a terrible moment in history right now, and this isn’t a moment where you “remember where you were when…” like one day you will tell someone younger than you where you were the day Barack Obama was elected President. That was a great day. Your grandparents remember where they were when they found out that John F. Kennedy had been killed. That was a horrible day.

Every single day during the Iranian hostage crisis, I came home from school hoping upon hope that my mom would tell me the hostages were freed. I remember getting the newspaper and hoping that there would be something happy there to find out about these poor people. The newspaper was Newsday, and it was an “evening” paper – so there was never going to be anything new in that paper that I didn’t already know. This went on for 1 year and almost 100 more days… it was torture to be an American citizen in 1980 because some Iranian college students made fools of us and we had a President who wouldn’t stand up for us. OK it wasn’t really torture, but it was deeply and thoroughly humiliating. I do not use these words lightly. I feel this same sense of humiliation again when I see these corporate executives on TV each morning, and I hear reported the effing jerk CEO of BP say he’d like his life back. Really? Like “Seth and Amy? Really?” really?

What we are living through now is an enduring and sustained horribleness. The world is being polluted – no, destroyed, before our eyes, while we watch – and we are powerless to stop it right this instant. By “we” I mean you, me, the President, scientists: by we, I mean all the people of the planet Earth. And men who make more money in a month than we will make in a lifetime sit on morning TV and act like snotty children who you want to just smack upside the head. If you’re lucky enough to be crazy busy, you can avoid the news. If you’re not, you try to figure out how to expel the sadness from your body because it’s so sad but it’s hard to cry for an oil soaked pelican. We couldn’t see those hostages all that time, but is the sadness different or is it my soul that is so hardened by a country so stupid as to elect the leaders that they do?

So we’re living through this event. People, animals, economies, systems of all types are going to be screwed over by this event. It won’t just end and we look back and see houses built a year later. We’re not going to grow a bunch new fish on the Today show and ship them in a big truck to New Orleans (they built house frames in Rockefeller Center and shipped them to La.) Whether or not you believe in a higher power, how did they ever think they were going to just rebuild biology? How did they think they allow the possibility of this happening and how do they think they can ever, ever possibly make amends to all of the Earth’s creatures for what they have done?

My friend Chris is a video guru of sorts and he made this video because he felt he needed to do something.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-zxJRzQo48

Posted in 2001-present | Tagged BP Oil Spill | 4 Comments

Modern American History