Keating Owen Child Labor Act, 1916

During the 1900’s children as young as four were employed in production factories with dangerous and often fatal working conditions. There were approximately 2 million children working in mills, mines, fields, factories, stores, and on city streets. Many of these children were under the age of 14. As a result it was important to develope the Keating Owen Child Labor Act of 1916 to protect these children. President Woodrow Wilson signed bill into law on February 29, 1916.

This is the link where the picture can be found: http://www.classbrain.com/artteenst/publish/article_109.shtml

Here is an interesting video on scenes of child labor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPw4jTDKYbg&feature=related

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The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair

During the progressive era, Upton Sinclair’s novel had a tremendous impact on history. However, Foner briefly speaks of Sinclair in his book. Sinclair was a journalist for the muckrakers, in which the group of reporters investigate various social issues and publish their findings for the public.

Sinclair, in an effort to discover the issues of the meat packing industry, disguises himself as a worker. He later publishes his findings in “The Jungle,” in which he shows the various dangers of working in the meat packing factory. Some of the dangers people faced in working in the meat industry was the possibility of losing part of their hand eventually. For instance, losing your thumb from cutting meat products for an extended period of time or receiving various cut wounds were various types of common injury. Other dangers include contracting a disease from working in dirty/poorly circulated rooms and mutilations of the hand from various types of contact with toxic chemicals.

Other violations of the meat packing industry include food preparations, in which workers process food to cover up the smell of rotting food and mixing various waste parts of an animal. Due to Sinclair’s book, it has publicized the horrors and violations of working in the meat packing industry. This is important because is creates an awareness of the working conditions, which soon lead to laws regulating work conditions, the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.

The link below is an excerpt from the book “The Jungle.”

http://college.cengage.com/history/us/resources/students/primary/meat.htm

Below is a video giving a better idea of the working conditions Sinclair encountered at his time.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/m1U0kXX0RAM" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

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Prohibition of alcohol

Prohibition of alcohol occurs in the United States. Prohibition in the United States began January 16, 1919 with the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S Constitution and effected on January 16, 1920, and it continued throughout the 1920s. Prohibition was finally repealed in 1933. This picture shows that Beer barrels are destroyed by prohibition agents in an unknown location on Jan. 16, 1920 and was published by Associated Press. While Prohibition was successful in reducing the amount of liquor consumed, it tended to destroy society by other means. Prohibition became increasingly unpopular during the Great Depression, especially in large cities.

The link of this image is http://apimages.ap.org/Search.aspx?st=k&remem=x&kw=Prohibition+of+alcohol&intv=None&shgroup=-10&sh=14

Posted in 1920-1932, Cultural History, Economic History, June 28 assignment, Social History | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

1929 Stock Market Crash

This picture was taken in October 1929 during the Stock Market Crash in New York which was the starting point of the Great Depression. The stock values dropped initially by over 40% and then continued declining for the following months. Companies were producing at  great productivity but supply was substantially more than what people could afford to buy, which partially led to the stock market crash.  This day marked chaos for everyone. As a result of the crash, several banks also closed. People lost their savings and were out of work.

Posted in 1920-1932, June 28 assignment | 2 Comments

14 Points

http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/fourteenpoints.htm

President Woodrow Wilson gave a speech to congress on January 8, 1918. His speech outlined 14 points that if were enacted will lead to lasting peace. LAter this speech was to be dubbed “14 Points”.

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Assignments due June 28 and June 29

June 28, Carpetbaggers: Locate a primary document online, produced between 1916 and 1932.  This should be a unique document that is not covered by Foner and has not been referred to by your classmates at the time of your posting.  This can be an image, song, or document.  Write 3-5 sentences introducing the document and putting it into context (why is it important, who created it, when was it created, etc.)?  Include a link to the web page containing the document.  If you have chosen a song or image, I encourage you to embed the song or image in your post.

June 29, Scalawags: Locate a primary document online, produced between 1900 and 1916.  This should be a unique document that is not covered by Foner and has not been referred to by your classmates at the time of your posting.  This can be an image, song, or document.  Write 3-5 sentences introducing the document and putting it into context (why is it important, who created it, when was it created, etc.).  Include a link to the web page containing the document.  If you have chosen a song or image, I encourage you to embed the song or image in your post.

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Outstanding

These aren’t done yet:

  1. Gulf War
  2. Ella Baker
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Religious Right

Jim & Tammy Faye Baker

Well there’s the textbook version and there’s the bigger picture.  The textbook is not inaccurate by any means but I’d argue it’s not necessarily complete.

Religious fundamentalism sees a surge in the 1970s as a response to the excesses and immorality of the sexual revolution of the 1960’s.  Evangelical Protestantism expanded greatly during this time and sought to overturn Supreme Court decisions banning prayer in schools, protecting pornography as free speech and legalizing abortion.  To be an evangelical christian, one must go through some process of being born again and subscribe to the bible’s teachings.  Jimmy Carter is noted as being the first evangelical President, but there is no explanation about how that affected his Presidency.  It does note that most evangelicals enter politics as conservatives (Republicans) but Carter was a democrat.

[My opinion follows.] The problem with the Religious Right not identified in the text is that there is a refusal to accept the separation of church and state as a fundamental and inalienable part of American society.  This makes America a secular (non-religious) state/country/government.  When I learned about why America was settled, it was in large part due to people wanting to be free to practice their religion of choice.  I thought everyone learned this in school.  Now I find it so mind boggling that it is so important for Americans to impose their religious beliefs on others, and that it doesn’t occur to them that if it’s being preached to them by their Pastor on a Sunday in a church, then it falls under the umbrella of “religious beliefs.”

The other problem with the text regarding the Religious Right is that it doesn’t mention how Jerry Falwell was he would say crazy and bizarre things like blaming 9/11 on pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays, lesbians, the American Civil Liberties Union and People For The American Way.  The text doesn’t mention Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s embezzling money from the nonprofit ministry (with a weekly broadcast for donations) to furnish a lavish lifestyle.  The text doesn’t mention the preacher who says that God came to him and had a detailed discussion with him.  The text also doesn’t discuss how Bush and Karl Rove courted the Religious Right in order to win their elections, and then were made out to be fools when 60 Minutes did interviews of former White House staffers explaining how they laughed at these crazies behind their backs and had no intention of doing most of what they promised them.

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Watergate

Watergate was a political scandal that happened during president Nixon’s Presidency. If it wasn’t because of Wills’ allert action, the scandal wouldn’t never erupted. As a matter of fact, it wouldn’d lead to President Nixon Resignation in July 1974.

This event is when american started not beleiving their politicians. Because of it, many people lost faith and won’t event bother to vote.

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President Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States. In his early carrier, he was an actor. He started his political carrier with the Democratic Party; but he switched to the Republican Party in 1962, got the nomination for presidency in 1980 and win the election in 1980 and 1984.

Reagan spoke of  “economic freedom” and proposed an “economic Bill of Rights.” He thought that economic freedom means “curtailing the power of unions, dismantling regulations, and radically reducing reducing taxes.” All his approaches to get the economic freedom were very supportive for the rich people, and it brings the huge economic inequality in society. In his two years presidency period, “the richest 1 percent of Americans owned 40 percent of the nation’s wealth.” Ronald also was the stronger supporter of supply-side economics, and sometimes his economical decision known as “Reaganomics.”

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