...During the sixties Americans saw the rise of the counterculture. The counterculture was a group of movements focused on achieving personal and cultural liberation, was embraced by the decade’s young Americans. It included rejection of conventional social norms, reaction to political conservatism of the Cold War period and to extensive Military intervention in Vietnam, and the rejection of racial segregation (lect.,”Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll”, week 6). Because many Americans were members of the different movements in the counterculture, the counterculture influenced American society. As a result of the achievements the counterculture movements made, the United States in the 1960s became a more open, more tolerant, and a freer country. One of the most powerful counterculture movements in the sixties was the civil rights movement. In 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act to end racial discrimination in employment, institutions like hospitals and schools, and privately owned public accommodations. In 1965, congress returned suffrage to black southerners, by passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Foner 2009). In the case of Loving v. Virginia (1967), the Supreme Court ruled that laws prohibiting interracial marriage were unconstitutional(Foner 2009) . Because of the civil rights movement in the sixties, minorities gained more rights than they had prior to the 1960s. During this time, a group of writers became known for jump-starting the rebellion of the youth culture...
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...Explaining the Women’s Movement was a great chapter because it explained and analyzed the change and causes of the women’s movement. Elaine Tyler May’s essay, Cold War Ideology and the Rise of Feminism and Women’s Liberation and Sixties Radicalism by Alice Echols both gave important but different opinions and ideas about the women’s movement. Also, the primary sources reflect a number of economic, cultural, political, and demographic influences on the women’s movement. This chapter really explains how the Cold War ideologies, other protests and the free speech movements occurring during this time helped spark the rise or the women’s right’s movements. In Cold War Ideology and the Rise of Feminism by Elaine Tyler May, May examines the impact of political changes on American families, specifically the relationship of a Cold War ideology and the ideal of domesticity in the 1960s. May believed that with security as the common thread, the Cold War ideology and the domestic revival reinforced each other. Personal adaption, rather than political resistance, characterized the era. However, postwar domesticity never fully delivered on its promises because the baby-boom children who grew up in suburban homes abandoned the containment ethos when they grew up. They challenged both the imperatives of the cold war and the domestic ideology that came with it. The first to criticize the status quo were postwar parents themselves. In 1963, Betty Friedan published her exposé of...
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...in the workforce has changed as much as it should have over the last eighty eight years and then ask why. The women were given the right to vote in August 1920 after years of protests, but even then it took another fifty years before all fifty states had it written into law and practiced. The Second World War provided another opportunity for women to crush the belief that they could not perform and maintain the work or work load of a man by doing their jobs. Even though they performed the work at a level equal, and sometimes more proficient than a man, the jobs were handed back over to the returning military men with only a fraction of change in making these jobs more available to women. Now knowing they could do a man’s job, bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan to support a family, was now know throughout the country and world. In the 1960’s another spark ignited the women cause for equality with the National Woman’s party and others in congress. The sixties on into the early seventies may be remembered as the era of Love and Peace, but I would have to say it was one of the most violent and productive times of the century. The addition of Sex Discrimination to the Civil Rights Bill at the last minute added another chapter in our history. Early in 1919 the House of Representatives passed the 19th amendment by a vote of 304 to 90, and the Senate approved it 56 to 25. Within the government when a law is to pass it has to go through the House of Representatives and then the...
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...to get raped? Enclosed in a dark bathroom silenced by pride to admit what has happened to me. The corrupt behaviour of men who follow drunk women to the bathroom because they see a sexual opportunity. Was it sloth-like to have been drinking that evening and not stick with my friends; yet all these human behaviours come from our human nature trying to reason with our unfavourable circumstance. Similar circumstances lead to corresponding reactions within individuals due to our human nature: this is demonstrated in Ishmael Beah’s ‘Radiance of Tomorrow` and the realities of sex trafficking within our global community. It proves that actions taken by individuals are affixed with human nature tendencies. It is human nature to have greed manifest within...
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...The Success and Failures of Reconstruction In the aftermath of the Civil War an arduous task of reconstruction lay ahead for the United States. Subsequently, the North and the South faced the many changes that were instituted. Mainly, it was the friction between the North and the South that prohibited success. Furthermore, Andrew Johnson's presidency evoked havoc on the then vulnerable country. Despite all, the addition of amendments resulted in some progress to the era; yet, states showed oppositions and formed groups and acts to disregard the amendments. In all, the Reconstruction era was deemed partly successful and partial failure; yet it did nullify slavery, granted voting rights to all males and ended segregation. After Abraham Lincoln's...
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...Sex and drugs and rock and roll Hypothesis: the 1960’s were the most influential decade when popular culture changed the world Of the many significant events in the 20th century, the two world wars, the cold war and Vietnam, space exploration and the dramatic impacts of automation and technology on everyday life, culminating with the popularity of personal computers and the birth of the internet towards the end of the millennium, arguably no other decade had as significant an impact on popular culture as did the 1960’s. What we witness is a transition from a conformist society at the start of the decade to a counter-culture of anti-war protests, pushes towards racial and sexual equality, free love and drug influences like never before. As...
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...Our American History: Improving Social Justice for Minorities and Women From the End of the Civil War Through the 1970s History 1312 The University of Texas at Arlington December 16, 2011 Improving Social Justice for Minorities and Women From the End of the Civil War Through the 1970s I. At the end of the Civil War in 1865, most African American slaves held a renewed hope that with President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 would come economic opportunity and social mobility. There was the expectation that they would have political representation and the assurance of at least the beginning of attaining equality1. After the end of the war in 1865, there were enough states to ratify the 13th Amendment which outlawed slavery. However, it did not provide any equal rights or citizenship. As time passed and minorities began to assert themselves into American society, social justice movements that were led by blacks and whites alike began to become more commonplace. However, the struggle to become fully recognized as equal members of American society has been a battle that was fought through the 1970s—and in some measure, continues today. Like minorities, women have struggled with inequality and social injustice. However, their decision to fight for equality began before the start of the Civil War. The Seneca Falls Convention in New York was held in July of 1848, and can be referred to as the...
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...1. Discuss when, why and how the Cold War began. Then cite at least one factor that perpetuated the Cold War in each decade from the 1950s-1980s and discuss how the item you selected affected America at home as well. Last, discuss when and why the Cold War ended. 2. Discuss the origins of the Vietnam War, the course of the war over thirty years in the 1940s, and wars' impact on the United States, both at home and in terms of foreign policy. 3. Write an essay on the civil rights movement since 1953 in which you discuss the major factors that have contributed to its success and its major gains. Be sure to discuss more than one group and to cite examples from each decade of the 1950s through the 1990s. 4. Discuss the reasons for America's economic growth or decline in each decade from the 1950s through the 1990s. Then explain how various presidents have dealt with economic problems and why they succeeded or failed. 5. Write an essay about the impact of television on the history of the United States over the past fifty years in which you describe in detail at least one historical event of national importance from each decade of the 1950s - 1990s that was affected by TV. Civil Right: The WWII can be recognized at the origin of the period when United States started it political and economical dominant compare to other nations. WWII reshaped Americans’ understanding of themselves as a people. The struggle against Nazi tyranny and its theory of a master race discredited...
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...1960s helped all these changes come about, through its record number of policies and radical ways. Most women feminists were radicals. They formed groups that researched to find the cause of the problem and put an end to the barriers of segregation and discrimination based on sex. Women feminists were committed to the study the situation of women, instead of just taking action. In this movement women had to see the fight for women as their own, not as something to help and they had to see the truth about their own loves before they could fight in a radical way for anyone else. Women were denied basic rights in most aspects of society from political rights to reproductive rights; women in the U.S fought vigorously for equality. “The women’s rights movement began in the nineteenth century with the demand by some women reformers for the right to vote, known as suffrage, and for the same legal rights as men” (Women’s rights, nd). Before the 1960’s in many jobs, including the entire civil service, married women were not employed. It was difficult for women to get a mortgage or even buy Civil Rights 3 something without a man’s guarantee. During World War II millions of women worked. At the end of the war they were laid off. Women were put back in their homes and...
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...In this essay you will learn about the civil war, reconstruction, the progressive era, the great depression, and the civil rights era. Also the American Anti-Slavery and Civil rights Timeline, 1854-1896 during the civil war era. Identify and describe two examples of the U.S. Authority Expansion between the beginning of the U.S. Civil War and the end of the Civil War Era? (1) The twelve years following the Civil War carried consequences for the nation’s future. Reconstruction helped set the pattern for future race relations and defined the federal government’s role in promoting equality. This section describes President Lincoln’s and Johnson’s plan to readmit the confederate states to the Union as well as the more stringent Congressional plan; it also describes the power struggle between President Andrew Johnson and congress, including the vote over the president’s impeachment. This section also identifies the groups that ruled the southern state governments from 1866-1877 and explains why Reconstruction ended in 1877. (2) Immediately following the war, all-white Southern legislatures passed black code which denied blacks the right purchase or rent land. These efforts to force former slaves to work on plantations led Congressional Republicans to seize control of Reconstruction from President Andrew Johnson, deny representatives from the former Confederate states their Congressional seats, and pass the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and draft the 14th Amendment...
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...The Misrepresentation of Cambodia Sociology 300 Professor: Emmanuel Obi Althea M Pullins 01/18/2010 Abstract The history of Cambodia will be reviewed in this paper. The paper will focus on the history of Cambodia from the time that Pol Pot led the country until present time. The paper will look in detail at the genocide of Cambodia that occurred under the leadership of Pol Pot from 1975 to 1979 where an estimated 2,000,000 Cambodians died. An analysis of the political landscape will be discussed in the paper. Women culture and the treatment of women during this period will be examined. The paper will also evaluate the religious culture, the impact that various ethnicities had on Cambodia, and report on the agrarian reform in Cambodia. An exploration of why Cambodia progress in the areas of economic growth, social development, and political development has been stymied will be investigated. A comprehensive look at the educational system of Cambodia will be reviewed along with urban development. History Cambodia is juxtaposed on mainland Southeast Asia between Thailand and Vietnam (2010). Because of Cambodia’s location, it has long been vulnerable to foreign territorial ambitions. Cambodia has struggled to maintain self-identity and survival as a nation (1993). The name “Cambodia” derives from the French Cambadge, which comes from Khmer word the People’s Republic of Kampuchaea (1979-1989), the country was known internationally as Kampuchea, but more recent...
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...1. In November of 2008, California voters approved Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage, thereby overturning the state Supreme Court decision that gave gay couples the right to wed. 2. The federal government accords 1,138 benefits and responsibilities based on marital status, not on civil union status. A few of those benefits are unpaid leave to care for an ill spouse, social security survivor benefits and spousal benefits, and the right not to testify against one’s spouse, among others. 3. The District of Columbia and 47 states have anti-hate crime laws, however only 24 states and the District of Columbia include sexual orientation in their legislation. 4. As of November 2012, 9 states have made same-sex marriage legal: Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, Maine, Maryland, Connecticut, Iowa, Washington, and New Hampshire, plus Washington D.C. 5. In July 2009, the Senate approved the Matthew Shepard Act, which outlaws hate crimes based on both sexual orientation and gender identity. 6. The Employment Nondiscrimination Act first accepted by congress in 2007 is the act that prohibits discrimination of sexual orientation in the workplace, specifically during hiring. 7. In the U.S., 75 percent of students have no state laws to protect them from harassment and discrimination in school based on their sexual orientation. In public high schools, 97 percent of students report regularly hearing homophobic remarks from their peers. 8. Of the estimated...
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...Women’s rights was also impacted by the counterculture movement of the 1960s. Feminism was a political and social movement conducted by women who felt they did not have the same rights as their male counterparts. Females wanted to be more than just a traditional housewife and to make their mark in history. Young women were required to take home economics courses, were expelled from school if they were to become pregnant, and had to adhere to strict dress codes. Young women were fighting against strict dress codes, sexual segregation and inequality in schools, and a lack of access to sex education and birth control. These were considered sexual discrimination issues and the fight for women’s equality, along with the Civil Rights Movement, helped...
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...Americans today enjoy many civil liberties regardless of race, sex, sexual orientation or ethnic background. The road to earning these civil liberties has been tainted with much pain, tears and suffering. It has not been easy for the different groups represented within the population of Americans to obtain and protect their rights. This essay will recount the bloody paths Americans of all colors had to follow in order to enjoy the civil liberties which so many take for granted today. The origins of civil liberties for the United States dates back to England. The United States has a clean start by including the Bill of Rights in the American Constitution. The Bill of rights at first were the symbolism of American ideals because there was no way of enforcing them until 1803 where in the case of Marbury v. Madison the Supreme Court took action in striking down laws for the first time that were considered unconstitutional. From that point on the Supreme Court established a precedent of wielding the power to strike down any unconstitutional legislation. Marbury v. Madison happened long before the Civil War and before any of the other cases mentioned. However its importance to civil liberties is essential to any civil liberty essays because it was the one case that allowed for the Supreme Court to take action and enforce the bill of rights along with any other law that is deemed unconstitutional. It was this case that brought about the exercise of judicial review in the United States...
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...Development and variations of western feminist ideas Chapter one: Introduction Prior to the 20th century, women in China were regarded essentially different from men. Despite the association of women with yin and men with yang, two qualities considered equally important by Daoism, women were believed to occupy a lower position than men in the hierarchical order of the universe. The I Ching stated that "'Great Righteousness is shown in that man and woman occupy their correct places; the relative positions of Heaven and Earth.'" Women were to be submissive and obedient to men. Women were not allowed to participate in government or community institutions. A number of women, and some men, spoke out against these conditions in the early 20th century, but to little avail. As a result of government approval, women's rights groups became increasingly active in China: "One of the most striking manifestations of social change and awakening which has accompanied the Revolution in China has been the emergence of a vigorous and active Woman's Movement." Beginning in the 70s and continuing in the 80s, however, many Chinese feminists began arguing that the Communist government had been "consistently willing to treat women's liberation as something to be achieved later, after class inequalities had been taken care of."[9] Some feminists claim that part of the problem is a tendency on the government's part to interpret "equality" as sameness, and then to treat women according to an unexamined...
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