...(Sidey). As a young child, Ronald’s father gave him the nickname, “Dutch”, a nickname that stuck with him through his whole life. Reagan’s childhood challenging. His family experienced many moves, due to his father’s inability keep a job as an alcoholic. Dutch coped well with the moves and was always popular in the schools he moved to. When young Ronald reached high school in Nixon Illinois, he discovered a love for three things. The three things that arose to dominate were, “sports, drama, and politics,” (Anderson). He was a member of the football team, swimming team, and was involved in drama club. After high school he attended Eureka College. Throughout school, he never cared much about grades, but “passed courses by using his ‘photographic mind’ to memorize lessons shortly before exams,” (Marsico). Reagan was an outspoken student at Eureka, and gave speeches against the...
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...any legitimate restrictions on gun ownership? Informal Logic / PHI103 The sometimes-explosive topic of an individual’s right to bear arms is a long-standing debate both nationally and internationally. Center fire of such debates is the interpretation, definition, and intention of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, the right to bear arms. Scholars, policy makers, and everyday citizens are faced with answering the question, are there any legitimate restrictions on firearm ownership? The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution states, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” (NARA, n.d) This statement, set forth by society’s Founding Fathers, has created a multitude of debates, beliefs, and restrictions. Congress passed the National Firearms Act In 1934, then later the President of the United States signed a law requiring gun dealers be licensed while recording the purchasers names and addresses. The 1968 Federal Gun Control Act, was enacted by Congress making it law following a turbulent time in history which was marred with the assassinations of several prominent public officials. The deaths, all due to firearms, included President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. This law categorizes people prohibited from owning guns including, those convicted of a felony, a fugitive, those who suffer from...
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...War on Poverty Begun officially in 1964, the War on Poverty was an ambitious governmental effort to address the problem of persistent poverty in the United States. Over the next decade, the federal government—in conjunction with state and local governments, nonprofit organizations, and grassroots groups—created a new institutional base for antipoverty and civil rights action and, in the process, highlighted growing racial and ideological tensions in American politics and society. Marked by moments of controversy and consensus, the War on Poverty defined a new era for American liberalism and added new layers to the American welfare state. Legislatively, the first two years were the most active. Between President Lyndon Johnson’s State of the Union address in 1964 and the liberal setbacks suffered in the congressional elections of 1966, the Johnson administration pushed through an unprecedented amount of antipoverty legislation. The Economic Opportunity Act (1964) provided the basis for the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), the Job Corps, Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), Upward Bound, Head Start, Legal Services, the Neighborhood Youth Corps, the Community Action Program (CAP), the college Work-Study program, Neighborhood Development Centers, small business loan programs, rural programs, migrant worker programs, remedial education projects, local health care centers, and others. The antipoverty effort, however, did not stop there. It encompassed a range of Great Society...
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...Running head: COLD 1 The Cold War Corwin Schneider HIS 104 Professor Patrick Williams June 19, 2012 COLD 2 The Cold War Keep your Finger Off the Button! The Cold War, how did these two countries get to this point in history? While the United States and USSR should have been more grown up and learned to work out their problems, who were the major players in the Cold War and how were the two sides involved in the space race, when did the Cold War start and end, and what were the two sides arguing over. The United States was in an intense war with the USSR for five decades. It started in 1945, shortly after Communist Leader Joseph Stalin learned of the first atomic bomb the U.S. dropped on Japan August 6, 1945. “The Cold War was a strategic struggle that developed after World War II between the United States with its allies and the Soviet Union with its allies” (Bentley, J., Ziegler, H., & Streets, H. 2008 pg. 638). But, this was not an ordinary war between the two, it was a Cold War. It had more attacks of words and propaganda competing which was the better country. One reason these two superpowers never had direct military action against each other was they both possessed Nuclear Weapons. The major powers in the Cold...
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...The Federal Government’s Efforts to Improve the Economy Economic growth and employment are the basis for increased prosperity. Over the course of American history, there has been much debate regarding whether attaining that increased prosperity is (or is not) a direct reflection of imposed federal, state, and local tax policies. These tax policies are imposed for a variety of reasons, such as to reduce budget deficits, support war efforts, and strengthen the economy. It has become increasingly difficult, however, to ascertain which economic effects are true consequences of changes in tax policy. By reviewing the state of the U.S. economy over time and how growth and employment were affected by taxation, we can see how the Fed has engaged in economic policies. The Great Depression (1929 – 1939) The stock market crashed in 1929 and the Great Depression began. The United States economy spiraled downward as the government increased taxes (through the Tax Acts of 1932 and 1936 as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal”) in order to compensate for lost revenue. During this time, public opinion had been that the wealthy were shirking their fiscal responsibilities through aggressive tax avoidance. In response, President Roosevelt’s New Deal tax laws were designed to increase statutory and effective rates on the nation’s wealthiest citizens. The rationale behind the tax increases was that increased government spending without raising taxes would weaken...
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...Justice of Michael Sandel: In 1884 the British ship Mignonette foundered in the South Atlantic. The four crewmen, including the captain, escaped in a lifeboat, with only two cans of turnips for sustenance. One of the survivors was the cabin boy, 17, an orphan, who soon took sick after drinking seawater. On the 19th day at sea, utterly desperate, the captain, Thomas Dudley, suggested drawing lots to determine who would be killed so that the others might survive by eating him. One man objected, and the plan was put off. The next day, however, the captain told the others to look away, offered a prayer, and slit the cabin boy's throat. Four days later, the crew spotted a ship "as we were having our breakfast," the captain later wrote. Back in England, two of the three survivors were charged with murder. By utilitarian logic—the greatest good for the greatest number—it's hard to object to the act. Yet many in the hall do object, and Sandel, stalking the stage, scanning the room, wants to know why. When one student suggests that the act would have been justified had the boy, Richard Parker, consented, Sandel replies, in an amused tone: "What would that scenario look like? Dudley is there, penknife in hand, but instead of the prayer, or before the prayer, he says, 'Parker, would you mind?'" Students seem to think the proposed lottery would have justified the killing. Sandel probes: Can a fair process sanction something so abhorrent? And what if the loser changes his mind after...
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...Labor Management Relations Labor management as a definitive term spans over the centuries. Despite the age and issues presented over the years, labor management and, more pointedly, unions continue to be the subject of great debate in today’s business and government environments. As workers and union representatives remain in the forefront of corporate debates over workers rights and wages, one must question how effective labor management relations are today. Unions present the opportunity for workers to have a representative voice; however, as history proves, unions also present the opportunity for union heads to fulfill self-serving agendas that offer little, if any, respite to workers. As such, this paper examines the history of labor management relations to set the stage for included discussion on current labor and union issues to determine how beneficial unions are and whether they do more harm than good in protecting workers’ rights. History Von Otter defines labor management relations as being related to “the rules and policies which govern and organize employment, how these are established and implemented, and how they affect the needs and interests of employees and employers” (np). Labor management relations involves both industry and economics and often encompasses strategic human resources. However, not all sectors of business, economic and social environments “work” well together as history has proven. The world economy experienced massive growth in the twentieth...
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...Journal of American Studies, 45 (2011), 1, 113–129 f Cambridge University Press 2010 doi:10.1017/S0021875810001271 First published online 19 July 2010 Jazz as a Black American Art Form : Definitions of the Jazz Preservation Act JEFF FARLEY Jazz music and culture have experienced a surge in popularity after the passage of the Jazz Preservation Act (JPA) in 1987. This resolution defined jazz as a black American art form, thus using race, national identity, and cultural value as key aspects in making jazz one of the nation’s most subsidized arts. Led by new cultural institutions and educational programs, millions of Americans have engaged with the history and canon of jazz that represent the values endorsed by the JPA. Record companies, book publishers, archivists, academia, and private foundations have also contributed to the effort to preserve jazz music and history. Such preservation has not always been a simple process, especially in identifying jazz with black culture and with America as a whole. This has required a careful balancing of social and musical aspects of jazz. For instance, many consider two of the most important aspects of jazz to be the blues aesthetic, which inevitably expresses racist oppression in America, and the democratic ethic, wherein each musician’s individual expression equally contributes to the whole. Balanced explanations of race and nationality are useful not only for musicologists, but also for musicians and teachers wishing to use jazz as an example...
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...CHAPTER 2. A HISTORY OF DRUG AND ALCOHOL ABUSE IN AMERICA Written by: Tammy L. Anderson To appear in: Harrison, L., Anderson, T., Martin, S., and Robbins, C. Drug and Alcohol Use in Social Context. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing -1- A HISTORY OF DRUGS AND ALCOHOL IN THE UNITED STATES Introduction The purpose of this chapter is to review the history of drug use and its social control in the United States so that students can gain an improved and thorough understanding of today’s problems and policies. Our approach to this matter is sociological, i.e., exploring how the interconnection between culture, social institutions, groups, and individuals function to create drug-related phenomena. A sociological approach integrates many kinds of social, cultural, political, and economic factors that manifest themselves in everyday life. While pharmacology helps us comprehend how specific drugs impact brain activity, sociology can inform us about the social roots of drugrelated behaviors which ultimately shape beliefs and behavior and motivate social policy. Therefore, a review of drug use in the U.S. and the social response to it must consider many diverse phenomena. This broader framework will move us beyond domestic borders and into the international community, for the history of drug abuse is an international, socio-political marvel. Another idea warrants mentioning before we begin our history lesson. It centers on the idea that drug use and abuse are socially...
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...OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY OUTLINE OF OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY C O N T E N T S CHAPTER 1 Early America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 CHAPTER 2 The Colonial Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 CHAPTER 3 The Road to Independence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 CHAPTER 4 The Formation of a National Government . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 CHAPTER 5 Westward Expansion and Regional Differences . . . . . . . 110 CHAPTER 6 Sectional Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 CHAPTER 7 The Civil War and Reconstruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 CHAPTER 8 Growth and Transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 CHAPTER 9 Discontent and Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 CHAPTER 10 War, Prosperity, and Depression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 CHAPTER 11 The New Deal and World War I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 CHAPTER 12 Postwar America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 CHAPTER 13 Decades of Change: 1960-1980 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 CHAPTER 14 The New Conservatism and a New World Order . . . . . . 304 CHAPTER 15 Bridge to the 21st Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320 PICTURE PROFILES Becoming a Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....
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...is initially determined by the work of local and regional media. Generally, those journalists do a competent job of reporting on the prospect’s record. In the case of Governor George W. Bush, Texas reporters had written numerous stories about his failed businesses in the oil patch, the dubious land grab and questionable funding behind a new stadium for Bush’s baseball team, the Texas Rangers, and his various political contradictions and hypocrisies while serving in Austin. I was one of those Texas journalists. I spent about a decade trying to find accurate information on Bush’s record in the Texas National Guard. My curiosity had been prompted by his failure to adequately answer a question I had asked him as a panelist in a televised debate with Ann Richards during the 1994 gubernatorial campaign. Eventually I published three books on Bush and his political consigliere, Karl Rove. During Bush’s presidency, many other...
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...GAME CHANGE OBAMA AND THE CLINTONS, MCCAIN AND PALIN, AND THE RACE OF A LIFETIME JOHN HEILEMANN AND MARK HALPERIN FOR DIANA AND KAREN Contents Cover Title Page Prologue Part I Chapter One – Her Time Chapter Two – The Alternative Chapter Three – The Ground Beneath Her Feet Chapter Four – Getting to Yes Chapter Five – The Inevitables Chapter Six – Barack in a Box Chapter Seven – “They Looooove Me!” Chapter Eight – The Turning Point Chapter Nine – The Fun Part Chapter Ten – Two For the Price of One Chapter Eleven – Fear and Loathing in the Lizard’s Thicket Chapter Twelve – Pulling Away and Falling Apart Chapter Thirteen – Obama Agonistes Chapter Fourteen – The Bitter End Game Part II Chapter Fifteen – The Maverick and His Meltdown Chapter Sixteen – Running Unopposed Chapter Seventeen – Slipping Nooses, Slaying Demons Part III Chapter Eighteen – Paris and Berlin Chapter Nineteen – The Mile-High Club Chapter Twenty – Sarahcuda Chapter Twenty-One – September Surprise Chapter Twenty-Two – Seconds in Command Chapter Twenty-Three – The Finish Line Epilogue – Together at Last Index Author’s Notes About the Authors Copyright About the Publisher Prologue BARACK OBAMA JERKED BOLT upright in bed at three o’clock in the morning. Darkness enveloped his low-rent room at the Des Moines Hampton Inn; the airport across the street was quiet in the hours before dawn. It was very late December 2007, a few days ahead of the Iowa caucuses. Obama had been sprinting flat out...
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...Social Work and Social Reform: An Arena of Struggle Mimi Abramovitz The profession of social work has the potential both to meet individual needs and to engage in social change. However, the profession’s position between the individual and society often forces practitioners to choose between adjusting people and programs to circumstances or challenging the status quo. The twin pressures of containment and change have made social work an arena of struggle since its origins in the late 19th century. In honor of social work’s centennial, this article examines the sources of the profession’s prochange mandate and the structural factors that limit social work’s ability to pledge itself to this stance permanently and recommends some steps social workers can take to recommit the profession to greater activism. Special attention is given to documenting the long but largely ignored history of social work activism. Key words: activism; history; professionalism; social reform; social work T he twin pressures of containment and change have plagued social work since its origins in the late 19th century. The profession can boast of a long history of progressive activism directed to individual and social change. At the same time, observers within and outside social work have often accused the profession of serving as a handmaiden of the status quo. This contradiction has made the social work profession a site of ongoing struggle. Although often difficult, the battles...
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...Contents Preface to the First Edition Introduction Part 1. Thought Control: The Case of the Middle East Part 2. Middle East Terrorism and the American Ideological System Part 3. Libya in U.S. Demonology Part 4. The U.S. Role in the Middle East Part 5. International Terrorism: Image and Reality Part 6. The World after September 11 Part 7. U.S./Israel-Palestine Notes Preface to the First Edition (1986) St. Augustine tells the story of a pirate captured by Alexander the Great, who asked him "how he dares molest the sea." "How dare you molest the whole world?" the pirate replied: "Because I do it with a little ship only, I am called a thief; you, doing it with a great navy, are called an Emperor." The pirate's answer was "elegant and excellent," St. Augustine relates. It captures with some accuracy the current relations between the United States and various minor actors on the stage of international terrorism: Libya, factions of the PLO, and others. More generally, St. Augustine's tale illuminates the meaning of the concept of international terrorism in contemporary Western usage, and reaches to the heart of the frenzy over selected incidents of terrorism currently being orchestrated, with supreme cynicism, as a cover for Western violence. The term "terrorism" came into use at the end of the eighteenth century, primarily to refer to violent acts of governments designed to ensure popular submission. That concept plainly is of little benefit to the practitioners of state terrorism...
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...Contents Title Page Dedication Prologue CHAPTER ONE: Republicans and Democrats CHAPTER TWO: Values CHAPTER THREE: Our Constitution CHAPTER FOUR: Politics CHAPTER FIVE: Opportunity CHAPTER SIX: Faith CHAPTER SEVEN: Race CHAPTER EIGHT: The World Beyond Our Borders CHAPTER NINE: Family Epilogue Acknowledgments About the Author Also by Barack Obama Copyright Prologue IT’S BEEN ALMOST ten years since I first ran for political office. I was thirty-five at the time, four years out of law school, recently married, and generally impatient with life. A seat in the Illinois legislature had opened up, and several friends suggested that I run, thinking that my work as a civil rights lawyer, and contacts from my days as a community organizer, would make me a viable candidate. After discussing it with my wife, I entered the race and proceeded to do what every first-time candidate does: I talked to anyone who would listen. I went to block club meetings and church socials, beauty shops and barbershops. If two guys were standing on a corner, I would cross the street to hand them campaign literature. And everywhere I went, I’d get some version of the same two questions. “Where’d you get that funny name?” And then: “You seem like a nice enough guy. Why do you want to go into something dirty and nasty like politics?” I was familiar with the question, a variant on the questions asked of me years earlier, when I’d first arrived in Chicago to work in low-income neighborhoods. It signaled a cynicism...
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