Reading: Read Foner, Chapter 22
Written: Carefully look through the tag cloud (located on right side of home page) on our course site. Click on at least a few tags and read the posts that come up. Leave at least 2 brief comments, either on this post or others, arguing why a certain theme or topic is worthy of appearing on the midterm exam.
The Great Depression is definitely worthy of being on the midterm. The Great Depression was one of the worst disasters in America’s short history, and really shaped a nice portion of the 20th century. In my opinion, history repeats itself, and therefore it is important to know what happened in our past. Recently we had an economic crisis, and although it doesn’t compare to the Great Depression, it is similar in many ways. I think the Great Depression is a good way to connect history with the past, and a good way to help us see how history repeats itself.
Reconstruction is another topic that could be on the midterm. It was a big turning point in history, and helped begin the idea of equality, and fighting for one’s rights. We see the 13th-15th amendments getting passed, and we see major organizations being founded. The slaves have been “freed,” people are getting voting rights, new associations are formed, and we “abolished slavery” all during this period. This led to many other reforms in history, and began a new way of looking at the world.
The theme about immigrants is definitely worthy of being on the midterm. Still in our days a lot of immigrants coming from different countries, but being an immigrant in the early 1900′s and in 2000 and up have a huge difference. In 1900s were more difficult to come and conditions of life were very bad, therefore it is important to know what happened in our past.
Great Depression i think also have to be on midterm.The Great Depression scared everybody, including the rich. The Stock Market crash and other economic struggles forced Americans to stop purchasing. people didn’t have a job,they didn’t have money to buy a food and etc.We are livnig in 21 century and we don’t know how people were living in Great Depression, we have everything,we are spoiled( most of the people don’t care about anything), that’s why it’s will be good to have this theme on a midterm.
I believe the New Deal topic should be on the midterm. The New Deal paved way for the expansion of the role of government. In addition, the New Deal was the start of many governmental programs including the FDIC and Social Security. It was also under FDR’s leadership in the New Deal that America slowly recovered from the depression.
I think the Civil War should be on the midterm. the Civil War is important that indicates the start of U.S. modern history. Also, the war ended the slavery in American. Especially for today, we have the firsr black president and it all due to the Civil war
I think the issue of women’s suffrage is also an important theme and should be on the midterm. From the Reconstruction era to World War I, the journey to gain the right to vote for women was not an easy one. Women formed organizations like the National American Woman Suffrage Association to rally for their rights. However, their voices were ignored but they did not give up. In 1920, under the 19th Amendment, women were finally granted the right to vote.
I also think the New deal should be on the midterm because the new deal tried to help the U.S. to get out of the great depression. and FDR did sucessfully to recovery the economy and increase the employment rate. some of his acts are still worth to use in today, such as FDIC,welfare and social security. those acts let us have a protection to live in America.
I think the Great Depression would be a great topic for the midterm because there’s a lot of information that this topic covers. The Great Depression is also an important event in our history that evidently changed peoples’ lives and certain government regulations.
Following my previous post, I think the New Deal is also a good topic for the midterm because it ties in with the Great Depression. FDR’s New Deal was an attempt to fix the economic crisis during the Great Depression. Many of those programs in the New Deal addressed the country’s industrial, agriculture and employment issues.
New Deal should be on the midterm because it’s was major turning point in American history. It established the important principle that the federal government bears responsibility for the smooth running of the American economy.
Civil War should also be on the midterm because it’s the most divisive war in American history. More American died in this war than in any other. The wounds created by the war took over a century to heal.
Immigration is a topic that definitely should be included in the midterm. Immigration was and still is a huge part of America’s history, and it is the sole reason that we are all here right now. There was a lot of controversy as well as important breakthroughs when it came to immigration and immigrant rights. Not to mention that immigrants made up a large part of the nation’s workforce, which also had its own breakthroughs with Unions and workers’ rights.
The Great Depression is another topic that deserves to be on the midterm. The Great Depression had a huge affect on many aspects of everyone’s everyday life. Everyone suffered from it and had to go through this difficult time together. It’s causes and the efforts put to boost the nation’s economy are all important aspects of the Great Depression as well, and they are also important lessons that our nation has learned since then.
I believe the Gilded Ages should be on the exam because it was an era, after the reconstruction that was important because of the growth of the steel, oil, and railroad industry. Even though there was an unequal distribution of wealth it was still an era that I enjoyed learning about.
I think the Great Depression should be in the mid-term because it was an impressive event that changed most of the American’s life during that period. Also there is a connection with New Deal so I think Great Depression should be in the mid-term.
New Deal also is a topic that should be in the mid-term. As I mention above, New Deal is definitely connected to the Great Depression. It help recovering some of the issues during Great Depression. Therefore I think the Great Depression and New Deal cannot be separated.
I agree with Michael and Annie. The Great Depression is a very important event in the history of United States. It effected every single person in the United States and created a ridiculous unemployment percentage in the nation. New York state had an unemployment rate of over 60% at some point. Something as horrific as the Great Depression should be on the midterm.
Since the Great Depression should be on the midterm, the New Deals should be included there as well. The New Deals have many different features and innovating ideas that influenced the economics and political culture of United States. It is a topic that goes well with the questions on the Great Depression, and it is a topic worth discussing for both politicians and historians.
I think FDR is one of the most important figures of the twentieth century, he is definitely worthy of appearing on the midterm. During the Great Depression, FDR launched the New Deal which was response to the economic crisis and the high unemployment rate. The New Deal not only focused on saving the economy from the Great Depression, but also serves its political purposes, the Democratic Party swept to large majority in Congress well after.
The Gilded Age should be on the midterm as well, because in this post-Reconstruction Era economics and population grew rapidly in the U.S. Labor unions grew strong; the old definition of immigration has been changed, about 10 million immigrates arrived to the country during the Gilded Age.
I believe the great depression should definitely be on the midterm. It was an era in American history that had such a huge impact globally.
FDR should appear because he was someone who changed the american governance and is an important person in the 20th century.
Oh and the civil war because that was an important event that dramatically changed the american way of life. That is most important..or atleast one of the most important events
I believe World War I would should on the midterm because it was the first war that affected the whole world. In addition, during World War I many things such as improved technology, lowering of unemployment and power of propaganda fell under it. It’s a topic in history that must be known because of its importance.
Another topic that I feel should be in the midterm is post civil war. Although the war has already won by the union, there were still many tensions between the north and south. Also people were still finding ways to continue oppressing and enslaving africans even though they were free.
Immigration is most certainly a topic that should appear on the midterm. The migration of immigrants into the United States played a large role in what America is today. The struggles many immigrants endured are also significant. For example the Chinese Exclusion act which did not allow Chinese immigrants to migrate here for nearly 20 years. Immigration is something that should be understood by all students because America is full of immigrants who made this country the way it is today and is still up for discussion in politics in this country.
The great depression should also appear on the midterm because it was an event that affected America as a whole. It is another topic that should be understood by all since once again we are steadily dealing with our own sort of great depression now. The effects of the depression on the American economy was felt across the farmers, men and children.
I believe World War I will be on the midterm. For example, there are many interesting posts on the causes of the war. Its important to know them.
US wanted to make the world safe for democracy. However, the war brought neither stability nor democracy to most of the world, and it undermined freedom in the US.
Also, the topic on the importance of historical memory will most likely appear on the midterm. Some historical evens can be remembered differently. For example, there were two opinions on why the Civil War started. The emancipationists believed that slavery was a cause of the Civil War. The reconciliationists dismissed this thought and claimed that the Civil War happened because of the disagreement in the state rights. Also, remember that winners dont always get to write the history.
Definitely the great depression. It has affected many Americans and became a memorable history. The Great Depression would give us a lot to talk about on the exam.
Other than the Great Depression, the New Deal should be included. We talked a lot about it in class and wrote many blogs about it. I think that it was mostly covered in the past few weeks, this makes us remember it a bit more and can be a bit easier for the midterm.
I believe the Great Depression is worthy of being on the midterm. It is one of the most well known times of american history. The Great Depression was a very sad time but people however say we learn from our mistakes. I truly think the Great Depression will help prevent us from another depression and will show us ways to get out of it, as seen in recent history
Another good topic that deserves to be on the midterm is the Civil War. This was a period of time that helped to abolish slavery and leads to where we are today as a country. If the Civil War never happend, it is very possible that there would still be racism today, and possibly still even slavery
FDR and the New Deal should appear on the Midterm because that era was a turning point in history. We, as a nation were on hard times and FDR stepped up to the plate and got us out of the depression. He created jobs in a time where it was thought jobs were nonexistent. He brought the economy back from the gutter, and through his agencies such as the TVA improved the lived of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people.
I also believe that reconstruction should be on the Midterm, since this is Foner’s specialty. It was also a very important time in American history, due to the tensions between the North and the South, as well as racial tensions. The reconstruction amendments were a huge step in the movement towards civil rights as well. The assassination of President Lincoln also marked a infamous event that changed the way we remember the late president. It was an era of Abolitionists and the a time of change in our country.
Though I find it interesting, I don’t think that tweeting should be on the mid term. The struggle over privacy laws on the other hand is an important part of American history as well as an on going battle today. Considering how much information that we have gone over since the start of the semester I hope to see neither on the exam.
The Great depression should be a topic on the exam. There was so much going on at that time and it impacted everyone. The Depression was one of the darkest time’s in United States history.
Another topic that shold be covered in the exam is immigration. It played a big role in United States history and immigrants made up a large portion of our Urban popullation and their living condtion’s and experiences are worth mentioning on the midterm.
I believe the Progressive era should be one of the topic on the midterm exam,it was a major impact on American society, there were many historical events happend during that time,such as The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in 1911, Women’s suffrage, Federal Reserve System and the improvement of child labor.
The other topic that I believe should be on the midterm exam is The New Deal. It was a turning point of American history. It was introduced by President Roosevelt to response to the Great Depression. There were many programs introduced by it, such as the PWA, NRA, TVA, AAA, CCC and SSA. It made an obivious effort on America’s ecominical condition at that time.
The time period from the 1920’s through the end of the 1930s probably deserves more attention on the midterm than any other – specifically The New Deal. It seems seems like the new deal in particular was covered with more detail than anything else in the textbook, and that overall our blog posts about the 1920’s and Great Depression were more detailed and better written than any other time period we’ve covered during class.
I also really enjoyed learning about the Guilded Age – particularly the beginnings of cutthroat capitalism and big businesses like the steel mill sand railroads that created some of the biggest fortunes the world has ever seen.